Not a Bust After All, New Gundam Series Announced!

Since this year is Gundam’s 30th anniversary many of us have been hoping that Sunrise would announce a new anime addition to the franchise. For a while there were rumors of an OVA in the works but it turned out to be just an upcoming PS3 game. However I have good news, everyone! After following some links on 2chan I found that Gundam Ace magazine released a special issue today in which they announced an upcoming, 50 episode TV series that will air sometime next year. I’m sure I’m not the first to announce this news but I thought I’d translate a portion of the article for you guys. My Japanese is not perfect but I did the best I could:

This new, as yet unnamed series will be unlike anything fans have seen before says Yoshiyuki Tomino, the original creator of Gundam who will be helming this project. “A lot of fans want to see more of the Universal Century, the timeline that the original TV series was set in, but we also have new fans who got into the franchise by watching shows that have nothing at all to do with the UC. So we asked ourselves, how can we appeal to both types of fans at the same time?”

The answer was an unexpected one: bring back the old characters from Mobile Suit Gundam but place them in an entirely new setting, in this case the AF or After Fighting timeline. What does this mean for Amuro, Char and the rest of the cast from Mobile Suit Gundam?

“They’ll be getting a makeover” said Tomino. “In this economy selling model kits to guys just isn’t enough. We have to appeal to girls too and what do they want? Pretty boys that you can easily mistake for women. Amuro is just goofy looking, he has no sex appeal. So we’re bringing in [Gundam 00's character designer] Yun Kouga to make him beautiful.”

It’s a Good Time to Become a Gundam Fan

Once again it’s been a month since I’ve posted anything here. I wish I could say I’ve been too busy doing something incredible to bother with silly Japanese cartoons but no, I’ve been watching just as much as usual. In fact I’m in deeper than ever thanks to ghostlightning (fast becoming the guy I go to for all my recommendations) turning me into a fanatic for anything relating to Gundam, that highly influential and ever popular mainstay of mecha anime.

I never thought I’d get into Gundam. For one thing, I had the idea that it was all merely a marketing ploy by Bandai to sell toys to little boys. I know better now; it’s a ploy to sell to boys and full-grown men (and women if I break down and buy those Dynames and MS-07B3 Gouf kits I’ve had my eye on, but I digress). 

However the real reason I didn’t want to get into Gundam is that the sheer size of the franchise is utterly overwhelming. As if the incredible number of TV series, OVAs, novels, manga, video games and more wasn’t enough to scare off newcomers there’s the alternate timelines to worry about. Universal Century, Future Century, After Colony, After War, Anno Domini… it all sounds more complicated than millions of years of real human history. At least until you realize that each timeline exists in its own bubble and you really don’t need to know about anything except for the timeline that the particular Gundam you’re watching takes place in.

Instead of being turned away by the dizzying number of Gundam shows I now view each one as an exciting possibility. It’s like sitting down at a table piled high with food for a feast. You might try the turkey only to find out that it’s stringy and overcooked or you might end up with a slice of delicious apple pie. That’s all part of the fun. Stay at the table long enough and you could also find yourself engaging in a vicious food fight with the people around you, each side pelting the other with mashed potatoes and insisting that the other has no taste. That’s all part of the fun too… I think.

The one question that remains for newcomers like myself is, where to start? Allow me to recommend Mechafetish and ghostlightning’s Finding Your Gateway Gundam guide. As for me I’ve only just wet my feet with the original Mobile Suit Gundam compilation movies (which are a bit dated but still highly worth it and deserving of a post of their own), Gundam 08th MS Team and the currently airing Gundam 00. My feelings for 00 will depend on how it ends but I can say that I’ve been enjoying the hell out of it and reports of train wrecks have been greatly exaggerated.

I might be looking at this with the rose-tinted glasses of a newborn fan but I don’t think there’s a better time to get into Gundam than right now. As we approach April 7th, 2009 which marks the 30th anniversary of the original Mobile Suit Gundam it means not only that there’s 30 years worth of shows to go back and watch but also at least one new, recently announced addition to look forward to. Not to mention Bandai’s plan to build a life-sized, 59 foot tall Gundam at Tokyo’s Odaiba island. I know I’m really far gone because I don’t think this sounds like a ludicrous endeavor in a failing global economy… it sounds awesome.