An announcement from the Bandai Namco Group has revealed details about several upcoming Mobile Suit Gundam projects. The announcement came from the special Mobile Suit Gundam SEED ProjectIgnited initiative event that opened to a grand ceremony for the life-size Freedom Gundam statue in the middle of Shanghai, China on Friday. The special event commemorates the 20th anniversary of the release of the original Mobile Suit Gundam SEED anime next year. The announced project will consist of several parts, headed by a brand-new film that will serve as a sequel to the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED television series. The film is being directed by returning director Mitsuo Fukuda, and further details about the film’s opening date will be announced in the future.
Furthermore, the project also announced a new game based on the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED anime. More details, such as the release date and the platform it will be available on, will be announced in the future.
Lastly, the project also announced the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Eclipse manga, which will be sold as a side story to the main anime series. The manga is set to launch in Japan, as well as in overseas territories, in July as a part of the larger Mobile Suit Variation project. Kadokawa’s Gundam Ace magazine will start releasing chapters of the manga in its magazine on July 26th.
The premise of the manga is set in the Cosmic Era 72, during a mysterious time known as the “lost two years” between two great wars. It is called by some as the time of “peace on thin ice” and is known to others as the “brief respite before the next turmoil.” The story of the manga follows the young 17-year-old mobile suit pilot named Tatsumi Hori, as well as 19-year-old Gundam commander Miyabi Oto Kiō and 18-year-old coordinator pilot Ken Noland Suse. They, as well as others, make up the unit of “ODR”.
The manga also centers around the MVF-X08 Eclipse Gundam, which is a special custom mobile suit developed in top secret by ODR. Bandai has also pledged that the suit will get its own Master Grade 1/100 model kit, to be released in August.
SOW is credited for the original work on the story, while Atsushi Soga is illustrating the manga. Kgadi Studio is in charge of designing the characters, while Junichi Akutsu of Astray is the lead for designing the manga mecha.
While the original livestream for the event on Friday had to be canceled, the official YouTube channel for Gundam will be streaming the statue’s opening ceremony to Japanese audiences on May 31st at 12:00pm local time. The Gundam will be on display in Shanghai from May 28th to July 11th at Mitsui Shopping Park LaLaport Jinqia. The event is the first of its kind in China, and it has been named “Gundam docks at Shanghai.” It will also feature a plethora of interactive areas devoted to the history of the series (and the various anime series) as well as free workshops for Gundam plastic model demonstrations.
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