Mobile Suit Gundam 00 in October

[Necromancer]

A new Gundam anime named 00 (pronounced double oh like 007) will start airing in Japan in Ocotober after the end of Toward the Terra. The character designs look very much like they're by the creator of Loveless (still has to be confirmed) and aimed to get more female veiwers like Gundam Wing.

 

[Paul]

Any idea whether or not it's in the UC timeline? Then again, I suppose UC basically finished with Char's Counterattack.

 

[Necromancer]

ANN says it's set in 2307 AD so it's not in the UC timeline and for the 1st time set in our real world timeline which will be interesting.

"Sunrise has also not confirmed the involvement of Fullmetal Alchemist director Seiji Mizushima, Hellsing video series script supervisor Yōsuke Kuroda, Eureka Seven character designer Kenichi Yoshida, or the first Gundam story's lead voice actor Tohru Furuya as the narrator."

I'm guessing some of those will be confirmed at some point.

 

[Ryo Chan]

so we talking Gundam Seed time line?

 

[Necromancer]

Gundam Seed's time line is CE (Cosmic Era) not AD.

Then again, I suppose UC basically finished with Char's Counterattack.

Technically UC ends with Turn A Gundam which is set in the far future of the UC timeline. Turn A is still my fave Gundam, I'm looking forward to 00 trying to knock that off my top spot.

 

[hopeful_monster]

Meh, yet more Gundam. Anime equivalent of Star Wars, a license to print money from fanboy's who would buy a turd if you put the logo on the box. Though from the screen shots looks like there will be less emo whining than from SEED, but at more emotion than Wing. Wonder what the 'other' mecha will look like. The lead will look the same as in all of them, but the others often are far cooler.

 

[Ryo Chan]

hmmmmm does this mean they're scrapping the Gundam Seed movie? or that just taking a side line

 

[Andy]

There's a teaserup that's worth a look. I'm liking some of the staff names being bandied about, and the mecha designs are rather refreshing, but they're aiming for a completely new market now, so it'll probably end up being quite different form any Gundam we've had thus far.

October just got a bit more intresting though.

hmmmmm does this mean they're scrapping the Gundam Seed movie? or that just taking a side line

Nope, they're still going ahead with that. Seems Bandai want to have three seperate Gundam lines going: UC for the veteran fans, with novels like Unicorn keeping the old flame alive; CE for the younger teen audience (ie more SEED); and this new project, which is aimed between the two.

Although their last attempt to get a completely new market ended in tears - SD Gundam Force was horrendous.

 

[Ryo Chan]

hmmmmm now i look at it

the guy from MSG04 pic looks far to much like Shinn for my liking

 

[Ramen89]

Thank GOD this show isn't CE, I'd gotten sick of it by the time Destiny rolled around, I'm not sure I could have handled another one, but this sounds pretty interesting I suppose and fingers crossed for Seiji Mizushima's involvement, If it turns out to be Fukuda again I will probably cry...

Id love for them to make another UC show but I think its too far gone, but hey you never know, maybe after they've milked this new "AD" Century to death for a few series they'll move back, hopefully anyway.

 

[hopeful_monster]

Plumbing the depths of 4chan found some useful/less info

Known details are:
Setting - 2307 AD ("seireki", Japanese for "anno domini")
Characters - 4 Gundam Meisters, who pilot the mobile weapons.
Factions - Solestal Beings (not real sure on the English name right now), a private militia group whose purpose is to eradicate wars.
Tagline at the end of the commercial - "Rebirth begins through destruction"

Rumors about the series have been going around Japanese message boards for some time, especially after Sunrise registered several Gundam00 domains. The proclamation that the setting would neither be in the Universal Century of the original nor the Cosmic Era of Gundam SEED, as stated by Sunrise's Yasuo Miyakawa, seems to have been followed through with. Staff members are yet to be confirmed although the most persistent rumor is that the series will be directed by Fullmetal Alchemist's Seiji Mizushima.

Rumored (most likely true) staff list from 2ch:

Director: Seiji Mizushima
Series Composition/Scenario: Yosuke Kuroda
Original Character Design: Yun Kouga
Character Design/Animation Director: Kenichi Yoshida
Music: Victor Entertainment/Sony Music
Animation Production: Sunrise

 

[Andy]

Thank GOD this show isn't AU, I'd gotten sick of it by the time Destiny rolled around, I'm not sure I could have handled another one, but this sounds pretty interesting I suppose and fingers crossed for Seiji Mizushima's involvement, If it turns out to be Fukuda again I will probably cry...

Id love for them to make another UC show but I think its too far gone, but hey you never know, maybe after they've milked this new "AD" Century to death for a few series they'll move back, hopefully anyway.

Um... It is another AU... at least, from what little we've got to go on, that's the most likely setting. Besides, another AU is never a bad thing. It means they get to play around with the formulae a bit more, and don't have to shoehorn it in to a specific timeframe.

And although it's unlikely to get another full series, UC is far from dead. We'll still see OVAs, mangas and novels, like MS igLoo, Unicorn, and the rumoured ZZ movies - it's just that the likelihood of ever seeing them in the west, fan-translated or otherwise, keeps getting slimmer.

 

[ConanThe3rd]

From what I'm figguring, the Double Zero hints at the begining of a new calender.

Also, I hope to hell that's genuinely a femaile in those glasses and not a "Wufei" like "Looks like a she but is realy a he".

 

[Ramen89]

Um... It is another AU

Sorry, twas a typo, I meant to say CE. I've changed my post now.

 

[kupocake]

a more female audience

And thus Anime-uk-news dot net was awarded the kupoartist award for services to gender fluidity.

I wouldn't call the designs 'extremely effeminate'. First of all i'd complement them on not looking like all 2 of Gundam Seed's character designs, then i'd criticise the first guy for looking like he's going to end up as the Jock-flyboy who gets all the ladies and a load of bullets in his back / a anti-matter cannon to the face at the middle / end of the series. Then i'd criticize the second guy for looking like the 'emo badass one'. Then i'd complain that the female looking third character is never going to actually be female (because there hasn't been a female protagonist piloting a gundam from episode one since Victory in 1993, but there have been female looking-pilots male in practically every series).

Only then would I unleash the boy-love hounds upon the fourth, and most likely, main character. My opinion?

Pros: It's not Gundam Seed based. Destiny was Herpes.

Cons: It's not UC Gundam and probably not related to it, Inverted Alphabetical sign-style.

and the rumoured ZZ movies

They'll never happen. Tomino said he didn't want to do them, he even ended the Zeta trilogy in a way that entirely precluded them ever happening. Which is a shame, because ZZ really needs a spit shine. Even a polish with a used piece of toilet paper would improve it.

Edit: The Single Worst thing about Double Oh? No matter how good it is, Beez will release it here. So? They've previously said they only like to release one Gundam series at a time. The more time elapses, the less likely we're ever to see any old, quality Gundam. 00 can be released anytime. Zeta and Victory have long-since expired shelf lives.

 

[Paul]

a more female audience

And thus Anime-uk-news dot net was awarded the kupoartist award for services to gender fluidity.

I wouldn't call the designs 'extremely effeminate'. First of all i'd complement them on not looking like all 2 of Gundam Seed's character designs, then i'd criticise the first guy for looking like he's going to end up as the Jock-flyboy who gets all the ladies and a load of bullets in his back / a anti-matter cannon to the face at the middle / end of the series. Then i'd criticize the second guy for looking like the 'emo badass one'. Then i'd complain that the female looking third character is never going to actually be female (because there hasn't been a female protagonist piloting a gundam from episode one since Victory in 1993, but there have been female looking-pilots male in practically every series).

Only then would I unleash the boy-love hounds upon the fourth, and most likely, main character. My opinion?

Well, lets put it this way, none of them look MANLY. The first character design is border-line male, but the rest are basically female designs without breasts. Furthermore, they all look like they take their hair-styles extremely seriously; the second one apparently sacrificing eye sight for style - always good in a soldier, that. Obviously, there is no point in applying Full Metal Jacket logic to a clearly HARD GAY Gundam series, but I stand by my 'extremely effeminate' tag simply because these are some of the most female looking male character designs I've ever seen! Not that this is a bad thing; knowing the work of the creative staff involved, I'm anticipating this more than another generic installment of SEED.

It's also worth noting that this replaces Towards the Terra in October; another whimsical and homo erotic shojo space opera (that so far has been pretty damn good). This time slot is obviously being built up to attract more female viewers.

 

[hopeful_monster]

What find fascinating is the amount of speculation from a 15 second teaser trailer of which half of which is text. 4chan has over 500 posts some of which have ALREADY claimed it's the best and worst Gundam ever, described the world, and mecha types. Wait at least till the first episode is out before you lambaste or praise the series

 

[Andy]

A press release was put up earlier today, with the main character and his Gundam names announed (Setsuna F. Seiei and the Gundam Excia, respectively), as well as confirmation of pretty much all of the rumoured staff involved.

From what I've seen, the people involved are experienced and competent, which means we should avoid another Destiny fiasco (fingers crossed at least). I can see there being another CE TV series, but not for at least another two years (whether that's enough time to forgive and forget is another matter entirely)

 

[Noratav]

A new Gundam series is always good news. We already knew it wasn't going to be CE and the fact that it's not going to be UC either is expected despite wishful thinking on some parts. We may see a UC series for the 30th Anniversary in two years time, but don't hold your breath.

It's really too early to judge the series, but no doubt the Gundam fans on 4chan, 2chan and elsewhere already have. The fact that they've not bothered to rename the timeline is surprising, no doubt they will later on if the series is popular enough to justify sequels.

Given the screenshots it looks like they're aiming for an older target audience than CE fans, which should be interesting. CE is already popular among girls, so they're obviously trying to keep the elements that attracted them to Seed and to Wing in this new series, whilst getting rid of the angsty elements in Seed that turned off a lot of boys. Getting rid of the old staff and recruiting a director like Seiji Mizushima is a good start. I suspect we may end up with something like Gundam Wing, expect better. I'm somewhat sceptical about their chances of attracting a completely new fanbase to Gundam though, it's really too soon after Seed for them to do so, unless they radically change the formula.