More Gundam 30th Anniversary news – New Universal Century Series

So some new info has surfaced since I posted the scan of the Rx-78-7 Gundam. Seems it is indeed the MS of a new Universal Century series. Here’s all the info we know abotu at the moment:

(info courtesy of Gundam|News)

Title: Unknown

Mechanic Design: Katoki Hajime
Character Design: Suzuki Tatsuya

Mobile Suit: Phantom Gundam Unit No.7

EARTH FEDERATION PHANTOM SWEEP TEAM

Hughes Curro: Male. Age 32. A veteran officer who leads the Phantom Sweep special forces unit charged with hunting for Zeon remnants. He has a bitter experience in which his unit was annihilated in the past.

Sherry Allison: Female. Age 24. She was serving as a test pilot but was assigned to the special forces unit as a replacement.

ZEON FORCES INVINCIBLE KNIGHTS

Erik Blanque (Blank): Male. Age 20. A young officer whose family is a distinguished family in the Principality of Zeon. He takes command of the “Invincible Knights” in order to execute a counterattack operation against the Earth Federation Forces.

Story: The time is Universal Century 0081. It’s been one year has passed since the war. Although the world was regaining order, small-scale battles continued in various places by the Zeon remnants who still continued to resist. During the situation, an veteran soldier of the Earth Federation Forces is appointed to a cleanup operation of the Zeon remnant forces. Feelings mix on the battlefield as the young Zeon officers promote the top-secret strategy for the revival of Zeon…

Am I excited…damn right I am. Its about time a new UC series started. And it will be interesting because the time period between 0079 and Zeta is a time period not fully explored in depth yet (aside from the Advance of Zeta manga/photobook series)

I’ll bring you more news as it surfaces.

New project for Gundams 30th Anniversary

A big event is coming up soon; the big 30th Anniversary of everyones favorite mecha anime; Gundam. There’s been a lot of speculation on what the new series will be for this big event. One speculation common amongst fans is an animated version of Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn…something I’d personally love to see.

We haven’t gotten much info on what the big project for the anniversary will be, but today, a new scan related to the 30th Ani was revealed today:

Now at first, I thought this was a redesigned RX-78 Gundam, but I’ve come to learn that it in in fact the RX-78 7th Gundam, redone by Hajime Katoki. The original, shown below, was of course designed by Kunio Okawara:

The RX-78-7 also has two variations, a full armor variant and a heavy full armor version:

It will be interesting to see if these two versions get redesigns along with the base model.

So what does this all mean? We don’t know yet. I guess we will have to wait and see if this redesigned RX-78-7 is put into a new series, or if its just a new model or figure or something. Fortunately, we should learn of the new series when Gundam OO ends, which is very soon.

The Slaughter Continues, AKA: It sucks to be a Team A fan right now…and some other thoughts

So if the graduation of 5 of Team A’s original members at once wasn’t bad enough awhile ago, 2 more original A members have announced their graduations as of late; Oshima Mai and Kawasaki Nozomi. Its become quite apparent that if your a big Team A fan right now, then it sucks to be you.

Now, these graduations are big news, but the AKB48 fan community has taken these graduations a lot better than the 5 previous A graduations. One reason? A lot of fans, myself included, saw these 2 coming long ago, even before the 5 previous grads. Both girls are quite busy outside of AKB48, so in reality, graduating from AKB48 is a good thing for them, as they will be able to concentrate more on what they want to do in life, and really isn’t that the point after all?

I for one have to admit something…I’m excited to see them off. Not only to see what they do outside of AKB48, but to see who replaces them in AKB48. Not all the fans would agree with me on that last point, but I for one am always excited about new members being put into the fold. In fact, quite a few of the Research Students are exceptionally talented, and I actually like some of them more than regular AKB48 members. It will be interesting to see who is brought in to replace Mai and Nozomi.

Here’s the other thing, when Mai and Nozomi graduate, there will be 4 open spots over all 3 teams; 3 on A and 1 on B.  It will be interesting to see who gets added. No matter what, I do hope Chikano Rina is among them. Of all the current RS, she’s my fav (especially after watching B4, which she actually has a big part in) so I hope she gets promoted soon…to Team B of course. Though, I just hope she gets promoted to any team really…