Gunota Headlines
Monday, November 29, 2004
Mobile Suit Gundam: the Hollywood movie at last?
Ain't It Cool News posted a report claiming to be from an Italian script advisor for localized editions of MS Gundam. According to this report, he met with Yoshiyuki Tomino and was told by him that an unspecified big Hollywood studio, in association with Bandai and Sunrise, is currently developing a movie "strongly based on the first series".
Sunday, November 28, 2004
Crossbone Gundam -Skull Heart-
Kadokawa's site put up a listing for "Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam -Skull Heart-", which looks to be a collection of 6 Crossbone Gundam Gaiden stories from Gundam Ace and Shounen Ace by Yuuichi Hasegawa (Crossbone Gundam, Counterattack Of Gigantis, V Gundam Gaiden). The volume includes "The Last Soldier", depicting a conflict that involves the memories of Amuro Ray, and "The Princess Of The Stars", the story of a mysterious young girl who appears in front of Tobia and company on the asteroid Neverland. Release date is January 26th, price is 588 yen.
A new 15-second commercial was put up on Ranobe (8.67 MB, rar'd .mpg). Password is "zg".
Saturday, November 27, 2004
A Bandai press release announced that the Bandai Museum reached 1 million vistors. Open for a year and four months now, the Bandai Museum passed the milestone on November 20th at 1:25 pm (the same day the Museum observed the birthday of Char Aznable, natch). To commemorate the occasion, a horde of characters from Dekaranger, Kamen Rider Blade, and Futari Wa Precure greeted the 1 millionth guest, a 6-year-old with his family. He was presented with a VIP pass, allowing free access to the entire building for the day, as well as 1 favorite item of merchandise being sold inside the Museum as a gift.
Earlier in the year, Bandai had predicted that they'd surpass the 1 million visitor mark by February 2005, so it'd seem that the Museum is exceeding expectations.
Friday, November 26, 2004
Gundam vs. Z Gundam site
There's now some actual content on the official site.
This month's Gundam Ace featured:
The Origin: Char & Sayla Edition III
Yas introduces a new female character named Roselucia. No clue about her real relationship with Zeon Deikun (perhaps his first wife?). In the past Roselucia participated with Zeon on topics such as evolution of human in space and she apparently has a higher authority than Astriea. She also holds a grudge against her for bearing Zeon's children and puts her in house arrest to keep her away from Casval and Artesia. Meanwhile, Ral has Hamon prepare for Jimba Ral's, Casval's, and Sayla's exile to Earth.
SEED DESTINY Astray
Yun Zefan, a 18yr old Natural, former engineer at Morgenroete, and designer of Raysta, is introduced. She becomes a member of the Junk Guild after failing to escape Orb during the attack by Earth Alliance. Here, she comes to modify Jess' Out Frame by adding a bath tub facility. Meanwhile, Jess continues to cover Ed the Ripper. Edward fights against the woman he loves Jane Houston aka the White Whale.
MS IGLOO
Drawn by MEIMU, the manga version of MS IGLOO kicks off. This episode covers the first half of episode 1.
Gundam Legacy
Gundam Legacy returns after a short hiatus. This episode features Gadem, the Papua class ship captain from MSG TV/Movie and pilot of Zaku I. Before becoming the captain of the Papua supply ship, Gadem was given orders to quel an anti-Zabi coup in one of Side 3's colony.
C.D.A.
CDA returns as Rakan and Char fight against the runaway Feddies, who also happen to have Haman as a hostage.
Z Gundam Best 10 - Favorite MS
1) Zeta
2) Hyaku Shiki
3) Mk-II
4) Qubeley
5) The O
6) Gaplant
7) Psyco Gundam
8) Hambrabi, Marasai, Asshimar
Gundam Best 10 - Favorite Manga Heroine
1) Haman (CDA)
2) Asuna Elmarit (Ecole du Ciel)
3) Sayla (The Origin)
4) Lacus Clyne (SEED)
5) Natarle (CDA)
6) Lalah (Gundam-san)
7) Fraw (The Origin)
8) Kisato (Astray)
9) Cagalli (SEED)
10) Mathilda (The Origin)
Other News
- Dengeki lowered the price of Entertainment Bible UC Box to 10000 yen.
- Year 2005 Gundam Heroine Calendar - by Animate priced at 2100 yen
- Gundam plushies part 4 - Haro, Gyan, Zeong, Gelgoog, Big Zam
Something we held off on mentioning because we weren't sure about it before but HobbyShop Kasare lists a 1/100 Chaos Gundam (2,415 yen) and a 1/144 HG Gaia Gundam (1,575 yen) for January.
Thursday, November 25, 2004
The official site updated with an interview with mecha designer Kenki Fujioka and a QTVR 360 degree view of the Ball. The front page also formally announces episodes 4-6 of the series, with detailed information to come later.
It's also announced that a special MS IGLOO compilation trailer will be shown in 700 stores nationwide and on Kids Station (schedule at the site).
A 1 1/2 minute ZZ-oriented promo for the game can be downloaded from Jeuinfo (9.92 MB, .avi file).
DESTINY Web updated with character profiles for Kira Yamato and someone who resembles Lacus Clyne. In Kira's profile, it mentions he's been staying with Lacus (using the correct kana, "Rakusu") but note the intentional difference in the kana on the profile of the "Lacus character" ("Rasuku"). Based on the way Lacus' name is written, I suppose this character's name could be spelled something like "Lascu Clyne".
Edit: The site now uses the proper katakana for "Lacus" on her name listing, so I guess that settles that.
There's also mecha profiles for the GINN High Maneuver II and the Windam. The Windam's profile reads: "The Earth forces' new mass production model GAT series. The successor to the Dagger L, its characteristic of common-use can be seen with things like the AQM/E-A4E1 Jet Striker. It's abilities are considerably high."
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
The official site added two more pics in their G-Photo section: one of the Albion from Gundam 0083 and another of the Sumo from Turn A Gundam.
Kadokawa plans to release The Origin Collector's Edition I in late April. The hard cover book will be priced at 2625 yen in A5 size format covering volume 1 and 2 of The Origin. It will contain 58 color pages and 390 black & white pages with analysis focusing on the difference between Yas' Origin and MSG TV version.
Chadran Club has confirmed that Bandai will not include (actually it was never planned) a special DVD for the PS2 version of MSG Gundam vs Zeta Gundam. Either version of this game will not have any special prizes for customers who have preordered the game.
Animate Web lists the 2nd ending theme for SEED DESTINY as Mika Arisaka's "Life Goes On". The release date for the single was pushed back from January 19th to February 2nd. In addition, some unconfirmed info posted on 2ch states that the song will be composed and arranged by Yuki Kajiura.
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
As pointed out by Grand Cannon at Gundam Watch, Hobbynet posted some brand new pics of upcoming MSiA:
Freedom Gundam
Blaze Zaku Phantom
Slash Zaku Phantom
Dagger L
GuAIZ R
Lunamaria's Gunner Zaku Warrior
Standard Gunner Zaku Warrior
Marasai
Extended MSiA Gouf
Monday, November 22, 2004
From this month's hobby mags and Gundam Ace, the Windam, the Earth Alliance's next main forces MS (appears starting from episode 9). Like the Dagger L, Windam has the option to be equipped with various Striker packs.
Also revealed is the first official DESTINY MSV, the ZGMF-X999A Zaku Mass-Production Trial Type.
Finally, from DESTINY ASTRAY, the custom Raysta of the new character, Yun Zefan.
A Hobby Japan scan reveals the next HGUC as the Marasai. Release is on January 22nd for 1,260 yen.
Sunday, November 21, 2004
Pics of the following turned up on Japanese imageboards:
GFF Hyaku Shiki/Full Armor Hyaku Shiki Kai
GFF Zeta Gundam
Zinc Panic also managed to get new pics of various GFF, Zeonography, and MSiA figures.
Edit: More pics of the Shiki (including the Shiki Kai configuration) at Mokei.net: 1, 2
Friday, November 19, 2004
HobbyLink Japan lists the MSiA Deactive Phase ZAFT set as consisting of the Impulse and Saviour Gundams and the MSIA Deactive Phase 3G as having the Chaos, Gaia, and Abyss.
Right over here.
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Battle Assault 3 goes gold
According to a press release on Gundam Official, Gundam Battle Assault 3 has gone gold.
Gundam-Evolve.net has a clip of Gundam Evolve 8 (not yet linked to the front page), featuring the Strike Gundam. Background music is by Chino, presumably "Soldier -Kanashimi No Shi-". Just drop this link into your Windows Media Player.
The official site updated with a few more entries:
Hyper Captain Gundam Option Z
Cobra Ningun
Customers purchasing the GameCube version of MSG Gundam vs Zeta Gundam are eligible to enter a contest to win Char Custom Wave Bird GC controller. Nintendo will be giving out 1000 of these.
On a related note, it is still unknown if the PS2 version will come with a special DVD. Bandai has not made an official announcement as of yet.
MediaWorks finally put up a website for the republished MSG Encyclopedia UC Box. The page includes the new covers for EB 1 and 2, drawn by A's Maria, along with sample pages of the 08th MS Team EB book. Other important note, MediaWorks is treating this product as BTO (built to order aka # of reservations received equals # of copies printed).
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
From November 15th through the 30th, Bandai Museum's Gundam Cafe is holding the Red Comet Fair to celebrate the birthday of Char Aznable. The party room and bar are decorated with Char Custom goods while everything from a Char Custom course to an original Char cocktail are being served. It's expected that on the day they celebrate Char's birth (Nov. 20th), it'll be very crowded so customers are reminded that admission is limited if the Cafe exceeds its capacity. Not incidentally, the actual birthday of the man known as Char Aznable, Casval Rem Deikun, is November 17th.
One notes that Char is the only character popular enough to get his own birthday observance as the respective birthdays of other well-known figures like Amuro Ray (November 4th), Kamille Bidan (November 11th), and Judau Ashta (October 10th) all passed by without their own parties.
More units revealed in Famitsu:
L-Gaim Mk-II
Novel D.Sserd
Gundam Heavyarms
Hime Brain
Psyco Gundam
Dragonar-1 Cabarrier
Auge
Dummy balloons & I-field barriers
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Chris Beveridge at Animeondvd.com put up his positive review of Gundam F91's Special Edition Region 1 DVD.
Victor Entertainment Anime Network put up a track listing for Gundam SEED Original Soundtrack IV. In addition to BGM, it includes TV-sized and "Gundam SEED" versions of all the opening and ending themes.
While sites like Rakuten and AmiAmi are confirming a new product called Cosmic Region with Force Impulse Gundam as the first ever figure, fans are speculating whether this is a GFF spinoff based on AmiAmi's site. Whether it is a GFF spinoff or not, it is scheduled to come out March 2005 priced at 4725 yen.
Green Divers returns for limited time at Fujikyu Highland theme park, home of the "Gundam the Ride" attraction. Fans will able to catch it starting Dec 23rd priced at 500 yen. Green Divers was previously shown at E-Field during the summer of 2001.
Thanks to an article from this month's Weekly The Television magazine, there's now some solid ratings data for the initial runs of each of the earlier Gundam TV series' Japanese broadcasts. The ratings shown for later Gundam series match the ones previously cited from TV Anime Data Hall almost perfectly (though they fit more roughly with the Greater Tokyo/Kantou TV ratings data from the publication "Adult's Gundam"). So, to collect The Television's data with that from TV Anime Data Hall in one place, here's the first-run info for each to date:
Mobile Suit Gundam
Highest rating: 9.9%
Average rating: 5.3%
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
Highest rating: 11.7%
Average rating: 6.6%
Mobile Suit Gundam Double Zeta
Highest rating: 8.6%
Average rating: 6.1%
Mobile Suit V Gundam
Highest rating: 5.3%
Lowest rating: 2.4%
Average rating: 3.9%
Mobile Fighter G Gundam
Highest rating: 7.3%
Lowest rating: 1.7%
Average rating: 4.1%
New Mobile Report Gundam Wing
Highest rating: 6.8%
Lowest rating: 1.8%
Average rating: 4.3%
After War Gundam X (Note: Gundam X episodes 1 - 26 aired Fridays at 5 pm while the remainder of the series aired on Saturdays at 6 am)
Highest rating: (all eps) 6.2% (eps 1 - 26) 6.2% (eps 27 - 39) 1.7%
Lowest rating: (all eps) 0.6% (eps 1 - 26) 1.8% (eps 27 - 39) 0.6%
Average rating: (all eps) 2.8% (eps 1 - 26) 3.5% (eps 27 - 39) 1.2%
Turn A Gundam
Highest rating: 4.1%
Lowest rating: 1.7%
Average rating: 3.0%
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
Highest rating: 8.0%
Lowest rating: 4.6%
Average rating: 6.1%
SD Gundam Force
Highest rating: 3.2%
Lowest rating: 1.0%
Average rating: 2.1%
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY
Highest rating: 8.2%
Lowest rating: 3.9%
Average rating: 5.4%
(This average doesn't count the interrupted 10/23/04 broadcast of episode 3, the 1/29/05 EDITED compilation episode, or the late night airing of SEED Destiny Final Plus on 12/25/05, which reports from 2ch say received a 1.6%)
Mobile Suit Gundam 00
Highest rating: 6.1% (eps 1 - 25)
Lowest rating: 3.8% (eps 1 - 25)
Average rating: 4.85% (eps 1 - 25)
As an addendum, Nagoya TV (the station that broadcasted the original Mobile Suit Gundam) has had it's own regional average ratings info for First Gundam for awhile now. For the sake of being completist, we'll include that below. Note the data for the Kantou region's original broadcast matches that shown in The Television so it might be assumed that those numbers are more accurate for comparison purposes:
Nagoya region
Average rating (original 4/7/79 ~ 1/26/80 run): 9.1%
Average rating (3/5/80 ~ 5/2/80 rerun): 17.1%
Average rating (1/7/81 ~ 3/9/81 rerun): 14%
Average rating (7/20/81 ~ 9/15/81 rerun): 15.4%
Average rating (2/1/82 ~ 4/2/82 rerun): 25.7% (highest in this period was 29.1%)
Kantou region
Average rating (original 4/7/79 ~ 1/26/80 run): 5.3%
Average rating (2/16/80 ~ 4/17/81 rerun): 13.1%
Average rating (11/3/81 ~ 1/18/82 rerun): 17.9%
Nonetheless, Oricon says with "Reason", her 6th single, Nami Tamaki managed to rank #2 on the Japanese singles charts. "Reason" sold 96,000 copies and beat her previous personal best, which was when "Realize" hit #3 last year.
Monday, November 15, 2004
Sony Music Shop announces T.M. Revolution's 8th album, "vertical infinity", for release on January 26th. The album will include "ignited" and his theme song for the Japanese version of Spider-Man 2, "Web Of Night", among other tunes.
Pam's Homepage mentions a BBS report from a Patlabor event where Yutaka Izubuchi is said to have made an appearance and stated that MS IGLOO will be a total of 6 episodes.
The official site for the PS/GC game is up. As usual, not much to see for now. But they mention that starting from the beginning of December through the 24th of that month, people who send in official postcards can win a set of 16 DVD's (the MSG movie trilogy + all 13 volumes of Zeta Gundam) and a set of 20 MSiA from the Z Gundam DX arcade game (ver. 2.0 figures of both MSG and Zeta MS).
And from the game's release date through January 5th, people who enter a ranking contest on the site can win Hori joysticks, Gundam bicycles, postcards and, through a raffle, one of 10 real-size Haro PC cases.
Courtesy of Fukkan.com, details regarding the republished Gundam Entertainment Bible series have finally come out. Dubbed the "Mobile Suit Gundam MS Encyclopedia Universal Century Box", Mediaworks will be releasing total of 16 EB books (14 old ones + 2 new ones) in a Limited Edition Boxset. One of the new books, "MSG Encyclopedia - OYW Gaiden", will be on 08th MS Team while the other one will be titled "EB Bible Making of EB", which will contain staff interviews. Priced at 10500 yen, the Limited Edition boxset will also come with MS-06FS Garma Zabi custom Zaku II Gachapon HG figure and a matching bookcase illustrated by A's Maria. It is scheduled to come out on Feb 28th.
The republished 14 original EBs are:
EB1 MS Encyclopedia Part 1 - One Year War Edition
EB2 MS Encyclopedia Part 2- Gryps War Edition
EB3 MS Encyclopedia Part 3- Axis War Edition
EB25 MS Encyclopedia Part 4 - MS Development Editon
EB29 MS Character Encyclopedia Part 1
EB33 MS Character Encyclopedia Part 2
EB35 MS Encycloopedia Part 5 - Founding of Cosmo Babylonia War Edition
EB37 Mechanic Encyclopedia
EB39 Strategy & Tactic Encyclopedia - OYW Complete Record
EB42 MS Encyclopedia Part 6 - Delaz War Edition (part 1)
EB46 MS Encyclopedia Part 7 - Delaz War Edition (part 2)
EB52 MS Encyclopedia Part 8 - Special Gundam
Dengeki EB Zanscare War Edition Part 1
Dengeki EB Zanscare War Edition Part 2
Friday, November 12, 2004
MS IGLOO's official site updated with a new, 5-minute promo trailer. Also put up were QTVR 360 degree views for Martin Prochnow and the RGM-79. Finally, it was announced that a 4th episode of MS IGLOO is planned. Details will be forthcoming on the site later.
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Asu Ni Egao De Te O Futte lists Hitomi Shimatani's "Gypsy Moon" (tentative title) as the opening and ending theme for the PS2 game Another Century's Episode. Release date is January 26th in 3 different formats (standard CD, DVD audio, super audio CD).
Rakuten also has info on Voice I-Dolls, 150-millimeter tall, fixed pose figures that come with stands with voice chips that emit 2 kinds of phrases. 3 versions (Shinn Asuka, Stellar Loussier, Athrun Zala) come out in February and each retails for 1,890 yen.
Further update on upcoming figure merchandise, thanks to Rakuten's Atmart:
MSiA Marasai (March, 1,575 yen)
MSiA Deactive Set: Phase ZAFT (March, 2,625 yen)
MSiA Deactive Set: 3G (March, 4,725 yen)
MSiA Gunner Zaku Warrior (presumably standard colors, March, 1,575)
And pics for the following:
MSiA Gunner Zaku Warrior (Lunamaria Hawke Custom)
MSiA GuAIZ R
MSiA Dagger L
EMIA Gundam Mk II (AEUG colors)
And lineart for:
Zeonography #3006a/b Johnny Ridden's High Mobility Gelgoog/Gelgoog Cannon
The Japan Times has an article elaborating a bit more on Bandai's current financial troubles in the US.
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Amiami's Yahoo Shop updated with listings for the following:
MSiA Dagger L (February, 1,575 yen)
MSiA GuAIZ R (February, 1,575 yen)
MSiA Gunner Zaku Warrior (Lunamaria Custom, February, 1,575 yen)
EMIA Gundam Mk II (AEUG colors, End of Feb., 1,890 yen)
Pam's Homepage also lists the following:
GQ Model Blast Impulse Gundam (February, 5,500 yen)
The official SEED DESTINY site updated its mechanics and story (for episode 3 and 4) sections.
Some scans turned up from Famitsu showing off the Operation V and J9 Attack combos as well as the new Skill Ace system: 1, 2
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
For people who might not have heard yet, from TW Comics, Gifts And Souvenirs:
GFF #0025 Xi Gundam (convertible to Penelope, March, 5,500 yen)
UPDATED
Confirmed, indeed the Taiwan site had the incorrect info for Zeonography.
Zeonography #3006a MS-14B Johnny Ridden custom High Mobility Gelgoog convertible to MS-14A
Zeonography #3006b MS-14C Gelgoog Cannon convertible to MS-14A
Both are priced at 3,680 yen coming out in Feb 2005.
Gundam X Web updated with pics of the rest of the inner jacket artwork.
According to Oricon, while Gundam has had many hit songs associated with it over the years (cited are Daisuke Inoue's "Ai Senshi", Hiroko Moriguchi's "Eternal Wind", Mika Nakashima's "Find The Way", and nobodyknows+'s "Kokoro Odoru" among others), the #1 ranking of "ignited" is a first for the franchise. Up until now, the highest ranking Gundam song was T.M. Revolution's own "Invoke", which had made it to #2. Initial sales data has "ignited" as having sold 108,000 copies. T.M. Revolution had last hit #1 with "Hot Limit" six years ago in 1998.
Takanori Nishikawa comments that this will encourage him to get back to work on an album planned for release early next year.
Sunrise's official site for Gundam Photography is now up. More pics can be seen at Kodansha Book Club.
The latest issue of Newtype contained some info about the Plant Council's make-up in the current series. In C.E. 70, the Plant Council's radical faction, who were the driving force for war, and the moderate faction, who advocated peace, clashed. In C.E. 73, the council is made up of eight new members and four old ones. Of the old members, three are from the moderate or neutral factions and one from the radical. It's unknown whether Ezalia Joule, Yuri Amalfi, and Tad Elsman didn't run for election again or if they all lost a re-election bid but they're absent.
New members:
Gilbert Dullindal
Alan Clarzec
Ricardo Orff
Eduardo Lee
George Adaman
Crister Oberge
Neu Kazaefsky
Takao Schreiber
Returning members:
Louise Leitner
Ali Kasim
Orson White
Parnell Jesek
