Gunota Headlines
Friday, January 30, 2004
Plamo news
According to Pam's Homepage, the following are confirmed for April:
1/144 HGUC Gelgoog J type - expected price 1,200 yen
1/144 HG CGUE - expected price 1,200 yen
1/100 Astray Red Frame - expected price 2,000 yen
The official site for the PS2 game finally updates with a promo movie. Streaming Windows media player format only.
Thursday, January 29, 2004
Yahoo! Internet Guide Japan releases the results of its 8th annual "Web Of The Year" poll. In the Entertainment category, the official Gundam Perfect Web ranks 13th. Though it did well enough to beat out prominent sites like Yahoo! Japan Movies, Disney.co.jp, and Famitsu.com, it's actually down from 8th place the year before.
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Gundam SEED on Cartoon Network April 17
According to an Anime News Network news post, they've independently confirmed with Cartoon Network that Gundam SEED will begin airing on the network starting April 17th on the "Saturday Action Block".
B-Club's March releases were revealed at Paratrick Model's site.
1/144 FA Gundam conversion kit for HGUC RX-78-2 13800yen
1/100 Powered GM conversion kit for MG RGM-79C 12800 yen
High Detailed Manipulator-55 DX Pack for 1/100 Perfect Gundam 2200yen
WA-20 1/100 Beam rifle 1800yen
Future releases:
1/100 Mass Produced Guncannon conversion kit
1/100 Crossbone X2
1/100 Crossbone Gundam Option set
High Detailed Manipulator-56 for 1/144 Rick Dom
While the 5 min OVA is already confirmed, Bandai has revealed additional bonus footage will be included with SEED DVD 13. This footage will be the re-edited animation shown at the Dec 27th SEED Festival.
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
Tamashii Web updated with pics of the Zeonography Prototype Dom and Dom Tropical Test Type.
Kids Station, Japanese anime cable channel, will be airing Gundam SEED starting Feb 10th at 5:30pm. SEED will appear 5 times a week (Monday through Friday) at 5:30am with reruns at 10:30pm and 2:30am the same day.
Monday, January 26, 2004
V-Gundam.net now has a UC 0153 world map which includes a glossary and location profiles for areas of space, the moon, and the Earth. Japanese only, but still interesting.
Some noteworthy stuff...
The Origin (64 pages) - Jaburo Section III: EFF sets up a decoy attack to safely bring in White Base. However, remnants of Ral's force, led by Hamon, set up a trap and intercepts them. A fierce battle takes place. As Job John's Guncannon, Amuro's Gundam, Hayato/Danny's Guntank and Kai's Zaku Cannon (Zaku II with Guncannon head) try to push away the Gallop, Hamon prepares for the kill. But the injured Ryu sacrifices himself to save his friends.
TAG Side Story, Day of Rolan : Wind of the Moon (46 pages) - Done by Akiman (Akira Yasuda). Akiman takes you back when Rolan is 13 years old with aspirations to join the Dianna Counter. Here, you see Rolan's full day including an encounter against anti-Dianna terrorists. Rolan's friends, Dona and Hammet, appear as well.
LWC - LWC makes its final appearance to conclude the story of Matt Heley and Ken Bederstadt. Matt and Ken square off for the last time with the end of war approaching quickly.
CDA - CDA finally concludes the battle between the Axis forces and the small EF fleet. Familiar faces from the Zeta/ZZ series like Apolly, Roberto, and Rakan Dakaran make their appearance to protect Axis. At the end, another mysterious woman curiously waits to meet Char Aznable.
Ecole, X Astray, and Ixtac appeared as well.
Toy News:
GFF 19 : AEUG Gundam Mk II / G-Defensor / Super Gundam / FA Gundam Mk II
MSiA Altron Gundam - 1200 yen, mid-Feb
MSiA Gundam Deathscythe Hell - 1200 yen, mid-Feb
MSiA Final Dual Set: Last Shooting - 2800 yen, mid-Feb (comes with 2 sets of Gundam and Zeong along with damaged Core Fighter)
MSiA Final Dual Set: Stardust Memory - 2800 yen, mid-Feb (comes with 2 sets of Fb and GP02)
SEED Mobile Fortunes
Preview for the next Gundam Ace:
The Origin - Jet Stream Attack!
End Of A Flash (the manga with RX-78-4, RX-78-5) - Returning again
GUNDAM SEED IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT! (We at Gunota think this will be about the SEED-MSV being animated)
Sunday, January 25, 2004
GAME Watch has 66 screenshots of the game up on their site. Many of them are old (with most of the new ones being of the first stage of Seed Mode) but they're all high quality.
Bandai announces Gundam Network Operation 2 for Windows in Fall 2004. It goes without saying that the game is an update of the existing One Year War-based online strategy game Gundam Network Operation, released in Japan in 2002. Features mentioned for now include using data from the previous game, customizing your units, and battle graphics in 3D. Price is yet to be decided.
Saturday, January 24, 2004
Bandai's online store (LalaBit Market) has revealed some details regarding Gundam Historica's contents of the first 2 releases.
01 Outbreak of the OYW
- Features of "Gundam Stands Up" and "Start of Operation V"
- Analysis of the One Week War and Amuro Ray.
- CG analysis of Gundam and Corefighter
- Commentary of episode 1-4 with famous lines.
- Includes an ultra secret special feature.
02 Fierce Battle! Battle of Loum
- Features on "Legend of the Red Comet" and "The Glory of Zeon Mobile Fleet"
- Analysis of the Battle of Loum, Antartica Treaty, and Char Aznable.
- CG analysis of Char's Zaku and Musai.
- Commentary of episode 5-8 with famous lines.
- Includes an secret feature as well.
An interesting graph here comparing the TV ratings of Gundam SEED to that of Full Metal Alchemist, the show which now runs in SEED's old timeslot.
Avg. ratings for FMA so far (eps 1-10): 6.05
Avg. ratings for SEED eps 1-10: 6.41
Friday, January 23, 2004
Not really Gundam, but it's sorta related.
The semi-pro baseball team owned by Hideo Nomo, pitcher for the LA Dodgers, revealed their uniforms this past Thursday. Nomo commented that the uniform is modelled after his favorite anime, Gundam. The picture is available at Asahi.com's article. "NOMO Baseball Club" debuts this year in the Japanese semi-pro baseball league.
AV Watch, drawing from info from a Bandai Visual press release, announces that with the 11th volume of Gundam SEED's DVD release, the series has sold over 1 million copies. This is pretty much in line with what Sunrise Managing Director Kenji Uchida mentioned about SEED's estimated DVD sales in Nikkei Characters! magazine last December.
Today marked the release of the R2 Japanese V DVD Memorial Box and individual DVD volumes. The Memorial Box included a special interview with Yoshiyuki Tomino. It was titled, "It's not worth watching, DON'T BUY THIS DVD!!!" This was the same message he included in one of the Zeta DVD booklets. Part of the interview included V's pre-production stories about how V was made during Sunrise's financial problems. Tomino mentioned a deal was apparently made between Bandai and Sunrise. Part of the agreement included a promise by Sunrise to produce a Gundam series if Bandai bought them out. Of course, Tomino didn't know about this until V finished its run.
Thursday, January 22, 2004
Yet more G Gen SEED pics. These have Crossbone X-3 vs. the Big Zam, the Pink Haro attacking, the Gold Astray, etc.
Famitsu: 1 2
The Playstation: 1
Model Kits for March:
1/144 M1 Astray
HG Providence 1500 yen
GFF Alex is coming out on Jan 23rd after being delayed a month due to an error discovered during its mass-producing stage.
This month's Dengeki Hobby Magazine reports 1/100 scale Astray kit will be the first lineup of the SEED MSV gunpla series.
The same article in Dengeki Hobby mentions that SEED MSV might become animated. This report ties in with Koichi Tokita's, the author of Astray & X-Astray manga, post about expecting some kind of big announcement related with SEED/Astray awhile back on his personal BBS. It also makes more sense out of the earlier report of T.M. Revolution doing a SEED-MSV theme song.
Here's the scan of the magazine courtesy of the Mokei.net's BBS.
This week's Weekly Famitsu has confirmed the release month of GameCube's "Path of the Soldiers"
Gundam game as March 2004. And other details of the game was mentioned as well:
- This week's Famitsu has mentioned the general story line of the game from start to finish.
- The story varies depending on how you clear the stages/game.
- Pilot's level up varies depending on the mission results.
- Images of the space battles.
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
An interview with Yoshiyuki Tomino was printed in the Oita Press (a local newspaper in Oitaken prefecture). In the last paragraph of the article itself, it mentions "Currently, the TV anime 'Mobile Suit Z Gundam', featuring the Christ-like wartime tragedies of the teenage Kamille Bidan, is being compiled into a theatrical release." While not an official announcement per se, it is the first real public mention of the long-rumored project since last February, when Japanese magazine "Invitation" first gave word of Tomino working on a "Zeta compilation". It's also the first time it has specifically been referred to in public as a theatrical work (there was previous idle speculation about it going direct-to-video).
A scan of the article can be found here. Thanks to Jeremiah Bourque for translation assistance.
As they say in Japan: ｷﾀ━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━ｯ!!
Tuesday, January 20, 2004
If you reserve a copy of PS2 G Generation SEED (priced at 5800 yen) in advance, you will get a SEED poster along with the game.
The Turn A Gundam sidestory by Akiman is 46 pages long in the upcoming Gundam Ace (Jan 26th release).
According to G-Goods, Region 2 Zeta DVD will be available for rent starting April 23rd in Japan.
Monday, January 19, 2004
As promised, Gundamofficial.com has put up its Zeta Gundam section, complete with character & mecha profiles.
Saturday, January 17, 2004
According to the Nikkei.net's article, Sotsu Agency announced their earnings between September & November 2003. Their profit during this period was 582 million yen. Royalty revenues from anime-related merchadises increased during this period as well. Their total sales were 3.289 billion yen with sales from copyrighted material listed at 837 million yen.
Thursday, January 15, 2004
Cocoro Books and Tokyo-based DH Publishing will be releasing "The Gundam Explorer", a new English Gundam reference book covering First, Wing, G, and SEED ("and more"), in March. The book is the first in an ongoing "Mysteries And Secrets Revealed" series of anime guides from Cocoro and DH that also includes "The Dragon Ball Z Legend: The Quest Continues" (release date: May 2004), "Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Unofficial Guide" (June 2004), "The Lupin III File: Secret and Confidential" (July 2004), and a yet-to-be-announced Urusei Yatsura installment. "The Gundam Explorer" is listed as retailing for $11.95 and will be 192 pages.
More scans from Famitsu popping up. Some pics of the opening movie in the 1st one:
1 2
Posted last week, Ginga Publisher has opened their site on "That's V Gundam - Mobile Suit V Gundam Complete Guidebook". The book contains 1) a long interview with Yoshiyuki Tomino, 2) Tomino's story board, original arts, and never before seen materials, 3) episode guides to all 51 ep, mecha & character profiles, and famous lines of V Gundam series.
To celebrate the 25th Anniversary, Kodansha publisher is releasing "Gundam Historica", which will cover the One Year War with new materials and pictures. Kodansha calls it, "graphical version of 'First Gundam'." Kodansha will be releasing total of 10 books with the first one titled "01 The Outbreak of the OYW". Each book is priced at 570 yen with the first one available with a special binder for 2000 yen. Below are future releases and their date:
02 Fierce Battle! Battle of Loum (April 9th)
03 Zeon Earth Invansion Plan (April 23th)
04 Battle of Odessa (May 10th)
05 Mobile Suit Special (May 25th)
06 Battle of Jaburo (June 10th)
07 Reorganization of Earth Federation Fleet (June 25th)
08 Solomon Invasion (July 9th)
09 Proclomation! Operation Star One (July 23rd)
10 Final Battle! A Baoa Qu (Aug 10th)
Tomorrow (Friday Japan Time) is the start of Anime Expo Tokyo 2004.
Wednesday, January 14, 2004
In the results of yet another survey, Char Custom ran a poll regarding their favorite Gundam protagonist. With 520 votes, the final results come out like this:
1) Loran Cehack - 18.8%
2) Domon Kasshu - 14.9%
3) Amuro Ray - 13.0%
4) Kamille Bidan - 12.5%
5) Uso Evin - 11.7%
6) "Others" - 10.2%
7) Garrod Ran - 7.9%
8) Judau Ashta / Heero Yuy (tie) - 3.8%
9) Kira Yamato - 1.5%
10) Athrun Zala - 1.1%
11) No favorite - 0.8%
Japanese Gundam merchandise info site G-Goods.net is running a Gundam goods 2003 popularity poll. The poll is divided by category ("CD/DVD", "Game software/hardware", "Magazine/publication", "Plamo/gareki", "Toy/figure", "Other goods"), theme ("Gundam SEED", "Limited goods", "Package design", "Goods creator", "Promotion", "Strange thing", "Free vote"), and a small questionnaire section.
Since you can't have a poll like this without first having a list of all the Gundam-related merchandise released in 2003, they put one up. Be shocked and awed by the sheer magnitude of it.
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
And once again thanks to Gameonline for putting up another 27 screenshots of this.
Gameonline has Ruliweb links to a promo movie for Super Robot Wars MX, one in a very large mpeg and another in a more reasonably-sized WMV. The site seems to be getting hammered by the entire Eastern hemisphere at the moment so you may want to try later...
Monday, January 12, 2004
A report on Hong Kong's Gundam Expo 2003 at Bandai Hobby's Katsumi Kawaguchi's site (Japanese only). Includes an MS-06F edition Daihatsu Copen, Gundam girls, Tomoe Ogoshi (her own report is on her "Ogoshi Taste" official site), and other things.
Sunday, January 11, 2004
The official Astray site has been updated with additional character and mecha profile.
Saturday, January 10, 2004
Toy News International has an interesting pre-Toy Fair report up which, among other things, says that Gundam SEED will air on "the Cartoon Network Action Block in April 2004".
While "the Cartoon Network Action Block" could refer to either Toonami or Adult Swim Action (or even their Saturday night action block), the April 2004 date fits with what was reported earlier by Video Store Magazine. VSM stated that SEED would be available on video sometime during the second and third quarters of the year.
Friday, January 09, 2004
Right Stuf International lists the release dates of the first volume of Del Rey's Gundam SEED manga adaption as April 30 and the first volume of Tokyopop's Gundam SEED Astray as May 11.
Screenshots for this month are up. The Prototype Gundam is added to the Machine Viewer section.
More pics from Famitsu:
1 2
The cover of the game at Rakuten plus a couple more screenshots. Details listed there state that there are about 200 main characters (up from 150 in the previous game), more than 350 kinds of MS and battleship units (up from 250), and 65 stages (up from 32).
Finally, a series listing from "The Playstation" magazine. Basically, all the non-SD anime from MSG through SEED are represented plus Crossbone & Astray and a note that there's more not listed.
Thursday, January 08, 2004
Japanese robot toy fan site Toybox DX posts the results of their annual Toy Of The Year vote.
Magic Box has a list of the top selling games of the past year in Japan. The Gundam-related games that ranked:
7. Meguriai Sora (Encounters In Space) 577,972
12. Zeta Gundam - AEUG vs. Titans 535,115
14. Super Robot Wars Alpha 2 511,517
62. Gundam SEED 219,102
70. SD Gundam G Generation Advance 192,114
The top five game makers of the year were ranked like this:
1. Nintendo 6,399,400 units
2. Square Enix 5,659,500 units
3. Konami 4,874,000 units
4. Bandai 3,640,400 units
5. Capcom 3,000,900 units
Wednesday, January 07, 2004
Bandai Entertainment announces that they're slashing retail DVD prices in March for a number of their popular titles, including Gundam Wing TV, Char's Counterattack, and the entirety of 08th MS Team.
Two scans focusing on original characters and mecha.
Hugo Medio and super robot Galmraid
Aqua Kentolm and real robot Cerberus
On sale the same day (January 23rd) as the tv series DVD boxset is the "That's V Gundam - Mobile Suit V Gundam Complete Guidebook". The author is former Shounen Captain editor-in-chief Sasakibara Go and it includes a long interview with Yoshiyuki Tomino. 216 pages. Price is 2,300 yen.
Tuesday, January 06, 2004
Gameonline has a few new pics up.
Thursday, January 01, 2004
Google's 2003 Year-End Zeitgeist ranking reveals that "Gundam" was the #1 popular query of the past year for Japanese users.
If you haven't yet noticed, Gundamofficial.com updated their Universal Century section's design. The Timeline and Glossary subsections now include references to the Zeta and F91 eras (beware of spoilers for these if you're wary of such things). More on Zeta is promised in a few weeks.
