Gunota Headlines
Friday, March 31, 2006
GFF God & Nobel pics
From Gundamer.com and Tamashii Web.
Ohgata Japan, an organization that promotes large-screen film formats, put up an info page on their site for the IMAX screening of 0087 Green Divers.
This time going over unit management.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
The Bandai Hobby site has pics & dates for hobby merchandise coming in April.
EMSiA Freedom Gundam
From Bandai Visual's site:
SEED Destiny Special Edition I: The Broken World
MS IGLOO: Apocalypse 0079 Vol. 2
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Yahoo! Shopping finally put up their last two Gundam Evolve clips: No. 5 and No. 6
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Info from 2ch is that Famitsu announced SD Gundam G Generation Portable for the PSP later this year. The series list is the standard anime lineup (MSG, 0080, 08th MS Team, 0083, Z, ZZ, CCA, F91, V, G, W, X, Turn A, SEED, and SEED Destiny) with appearances at least from Crossbone and Endless Waltz units confirmed. The game contains more than 700 characters, 1100 MS/MA, and 70 stages. Development is 60% complete presently.
Another listing of various film earnings posted on 2ch's General Movie board's Box Office Watch thread has Zeta III making 391 million yen in 23 days.
Monday, March 27, 2006
It 's not much, but still worth mentioning. In the recent Nikkei Characters! issue, Yasuo Miyakawa, a Sunrise board member, commented, "UC fans are probably looking forward to a new series. We can't promise when (it will be released), but we promise to deliver one. Please look forward to it. " Never the less, add one more person from Bandai/Sunrise promising a new UC series.
In a separate note, Harutoshi Fukui's next work will be on Gundam after his recent release of "Operation ROSEDUST" novel this month.
Miasora has a report and pictures from the 2006 Tokyo Anime Fair.
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Winners were announced for the 5th Tokyo Anime Award competition at the Tokyo International Anime Fair. Contenders were separated into two general categories (each with subcategories for awards): The Nomination Entries category for outstanding anime broadcast, screened, or sold in Japan during the past year and the Open Entries category for general animation submitted from new talent all over the world. The results of the Nomination Entries category, selected from 120 submitted works, are listed as follows.
Animation Of The Year
Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shambala
Television category
Eureka 7
Black Jack
Mushishi
Feature Film category
Detective Conan: Strategy Above the Depths
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: Heirs To The Stars
Original Video category
Karas
Yukikaze
Overseas Feature Film category
Mr. Incredible (aka The Incredibles)
Individual category: Best Director
Yoshiyuki Tomino ("Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: Heirs To The Stars")
Individual category: Best Original Story
Hiromu Arakawa ("Fullmetal Alchemist")
Individual category: Best Screenplay
Dai Sato ("Eureka 7")
Individual category: Best Art Direction
Takeshi Waki ("Mushishi")
Individual category: Best Character Design
Kenichi Yoshida ("Eureka Seven")
Individual category: Best Voice Actor
Akio Ohtsuka ("Black Jack")
Individual category: Best Music
Michiru Oshima ("Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shambala")
Friday, March 24, 2006
From Hobbynet & Noda-Ya:
HCM-Pro Jagd Doga (Gyunei custom) - July, 2,100 yen
HCM-Pro Gouf
HCM-Pro Zaku II J Type
1/100 Infinite Justice Gundam
HGUC Zaku I
MG Gyan
EX Model Samson trailer
Cosmic Region Infinite Justice Gundam
EMSiA Freedom Gundam
EMSiA Justice Gundam
MSiA Gouf Ignited (mass-production)
MSiA BuCUE
From the product listing at Bandai Visual's site:
"Moving forward with 'Operation Star One', shifting the frontlines to the opposite side of the moon, Federation battleships advance towards space fortress A Baoa Qu. Orders to gather there are given to the 603rd Technical Evaluation Unit from the commander's office. At the same time, they are transferred in to a combat battalion thanks to a communication from A Baoa Qu's defense HQ. The Jotunheim is assigned a large number of new final battle weaponry and soldiers..."
The official site has QTVR's of more of the Ze'Gok's armaments, a booster-fitted Magellan, and a 15-second promo video (broadband and narrowband) for ep. 1 of Apocalypse 0079.
Now available at Bandai's Videogame Homepage.
Game Watch's latest guide to 0079 Card Builder goes over modifications to the game found in the new "Ver1.007" update.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Mainichi-MSN Interactive
ITmedia +D Games
Game Watch
A listing of various film earnings posted on 2ch's General Movie board's Box Office Watch thread has Zeta III making 332 million yen in 16 days of release.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Info from 2ch's boards:
MG Gyan (May, 3,675 yen)
HGUC Zaku I (May, 1,050 yen) - w/ machine gun, bazooka, spike shield, & sturm faust
1/100 Infinite Justice Gundam (May, 2,730 yen) - Seemingly the first in a revival of the 1/100 SEED Destiny line
EX Model Samson trailer (May, 3,150 yen)
BB Senshi Destiny Gundam (May, 840 yen)
HCM-Pro Gouf (May, 1,680 yen)
HCM-Pro Zaku II J Type (May, 1,890 yen) - w/ Magella Top, foot missles, & crackers
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Another extensive photo report from the Bandai Hobby Center is up at Gpara.com. In addition to previous details spoken of here and here, the Center will recycle plastic and uses a clean water system that recycles 2,000 tons of rain & underground water yearly. Bandai's goal with all the environmentally-friendly policies is to make the Hobby Center the toy industry's first bona fide "green factory". They also say a mass-production Zaku II-colored fork lift will join the Char custom one.
"Love Is The Pulse Of The Stars" was swept out of the top 10 in its 3rd week out.
Saturday, March 18, 2006
An official site for the upcoming exhibition of Yoshikazu Yasuhiko artwork is open. Illustrations covering as far back as Yuusha Raideen all the way up to Gundam: The Origin will be on display. In addition to the previously announced dates, it's also mentioned that the exhibition will be in Tokyo's Hachioji Yume Art Museum from July 28th to September 18th and in Niigata's Niitsu Art Forum from November 1st to November 30th. 2007 dates will be announced around October. At each location, limited edition merchandise will be available: a picture book for 4,000 yen (3,000 copies) and a set of postcards for 600 yen (3,000 sets).
Animate Web has the cover of infix's "Winners Forever 21st Century" self-cover album.
T.J Grosnet has the cover pic of the upcoming Character Encyclopedia 2006 book. The 504 page long book contains 1500 characters from all TV series, AOZ, and MS IGLOO. The book comes out on March 25.
Meanwhile, MS Illustrated 2006 is slated for April 25 release instead of the earlier reported late March release.
Friday, March 17, 2006
Game Watch's 8th article covers the use of motherships in the game.
kosyu's Box Office Watch site reports the film made 58 million yen in its second weekend for a total of 256 million yen overall.
Thursday, March 16, 2006
ITmedia +D Games have a press review of Bandai Hobby Center. The quick summary of the article.
- Capable of manufacturing 15 million plastic models per year.
- Solar panels on the walls of the building are capable of producing 56,000 kilowatts of electricity.
- The entrance has a display of all plastic models made by Bandai by their year along with Bandai Supra racing car.
- The 2nd floor contains a store selling Gunplas and BAKU-Seed.
- The second page of the article contains pics of design room, prototype models, molds, and a Char custom fork lifter.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
JEC International officially announces that guitarist/vocalist Richie Kotzen, bassist Billy Sheehan, and drummer Pat Torpey (all formerly of the band Mr. Big) will be the opening act for the Rolling Stones during their tour of Japan. Presumably, they will be performing material from the ZxR "Ai Senshi" Gundam cover album.
Monday, March 13, 2006
From Movie.Nifty.com: Zeta III came in at #10 during its second weekend. Meanwhile, Keroro Gunso & Kaiketsu Zorori came in at #7 as it premiered last weekend.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
A promo sheet that can be seen at the Char Custom Blog indicates that the OVA will also be shown in stores, like the Gundam Evolve shorts and Astray/SEED MSV promo anime, and that the general release date will be in June. Expansion of related merchandise into the Gundam Collection and HCM-Pro lines is planned.
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Akiba Blog and MaidBlog.net both have photo coverage of the "Gundam Akiba Landing!! Blitz", a 5-day promotional campaign starting today in Akihabara to advertise the free online distribution of the original Mobile Suit Gundam TV series via Flet's Square. Balloons, large signs hanging from buildings, and women dressed in Federation & Zeon uniforms handing out pamphlets with chances to win Gundam merchandise all can be seen. The campaign continues tomorrow, March 18th, 19th, and the 21st at nine different stores in the area.
Edit: Ascii 24's Akiba2Go! section has a 2-page article with pics of some of the prizes up for grabs through lottery: HCM-Pro original case w/ RX-78, Zaku II, & Char's Zaku II (100 winners), DVD sets of the MSG trilogy movies (50 winners), sets of 12 Gundam Collection figures (250 winners), compact DVD players (50 winners), and Gundam screensavers & desktop pictures (3500 winners).
With 3 releases/events (DESTINY Special Edition, C.E. 73 Stargazer, and Sony Music Festival) already scheduled with more coming, Sunrise is calling this "Xplosion! GUNDAM SEED". And yes, they will have a website dedicated to this. The site will open April 10 (right now it fowards you to Sunrise's official site).
Friday, March 10, 2006
Media Max has a listing for Nami Tamaki's untitled 11th single, a new song that will be the ending theme for the first Gundam SEED Destiny Special Edition. Sale date is April 26th.
Edit: Yomiuri's Web Hochi reports the title of the song will be "Result".
Amazon Japan has a complete listing of what the Toshihiro Kawamoto artbook collection covers.
Book 1: Venus Wars, Gundam 0080, Patlabor, Gundam 0083 (anime), Gundam 0083 (novel), Gundam F91: Formula Wars 0122 (SFC game), Gundam: Return Of Zeon (PC98 game), Gundam: A Year Of War (PC98 game), Orguss 02, The Cockpit, Refrain, Oira Uchu No Tankofu, Wonder Project J, Haruka Naru Tabiji (novel), Toua No Shishi (novel), Elf The Assassin (novel), Golden Boy, Gundam: Cross Dimension 0079 (SFC game), and others. Includes messages from Hiroshi Osaka, Takashi Imanishi, Hirotoshi Sano, Yutaka Izubuchi, Umanosuke Iida, and Yoshikazu Yasuhiko among others.
Book 2: 08th MS Team, Out Live (PS game), Crystania Mercenary Legend Introduction (novel), Falcom's Legend Of Heroes (music CD), Ghost In The Shell (PS game), Space Cruiser Yamato (LD & VHS jackets), Cowboy Bebop, Itsuka Kasanariau Mirai E (PS game), Wild Legend (novel), Shadow Prime (novel), Lost War Chronicles (PS2 game), Lost War Chronicles (novel), Gigantic Drive (PS2 game), Wolf's Rain, Bujingai (PS2 game), and others. Includes messages from Hajime Katoki, Tensai Okamura, and Charles McCarter.
This time focusing on melee tactics.
The official site now hosts a teaser image and a note saying it'll open on April 10th.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
According to Gpara, Climax UC was the top selling video game last week. 157,000 copies were sold which means it did about the same as the PS2 OYW game. Media Create reports pretty much the same number though DengekiOnline.com says 147,000 copies.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
kosyu's Box Office Watch site writes that Love Is The Pulse Of The Stars made 122,067,400 yen on 104 screens its first two days out. More than Lovers, less than Heirs To The Stars. Estimates are that it will take in 500 million yen after 4 weeks.
People with early release of Newtype magazine are reporting the following:
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED C.E.73 Stargazer
- Format: 3 episodes each 15 minutes long. Available through net streams and events. It will first appear at Shizuoka Hobby Show in May. The story takes place immediately after Break The World.
Staff:
- Director: Susumu Nishizawa
- Script: Shigeru Morita
- Character Designer: Kenichi Ohnuki
- Mecha Design: Kunio Okawara, Beecraft
2 main characters:
- Sven Cal Bayan: 19 year old male natural. Strike Noir pilot. Phantom Pain 2nd Lt. A relentless and extreme fighting machine with an intense hatred of Coordinators.
- Selene McGriff: 28 year old female coordinator. One of the researcher of "GSX-401FW Stargazer Project"
Main unit:
- GAT-X105E Strike Noir - Based on Strike Gundam. (Gunpla version will come out)
Website (right now it forwards you to Sunrise's official page)
SEED DESTINY Special Edition
- Format: 4 part series with first one airing this Spring in widescreen format.
- Story is based on Athrun's point of view. The reason behind this according to Fukuda: if this is done in Kira's POV, Shinn becomes the enemy. If this is done in Shinn's POV, Kira becomes the enemy. Meeting between Kira and Shinn will be brand new animation.
Monday, March 06, 2006
Noda-Ya gives the following info for upcoming merchandise:
The God Gundam & Nobel Gundam GFF will be a 2-figure set. The Nobel Gundam's head can be swapped with a Berserker System version. Comes with beam ribbon and, for the God Gundam, an optional hand.
As reported elsewhere, the EMSiA Freedom Gundam will be able to do the HiMAT Full Burst mode.
SEED After-Phase OVA makes European DVD's
IanC reports at AnimeOnDVD.com's forums that the final volume of Beez Enertainment's DVD release of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED does contain the 5-minute After-Phase OVA, "Hoshi No Hazama De". The epilogue OVA, depicting the main cast shortly after the end of the TV series, was not included in either the Region 1 TV series DVD's or the Region 1 release of the SEED Special Edition (aka The Movies).
Oricon has Gackt's "Love Letter" Zeta III single as #9 for the week, selling 17,000 copies. That makes it Gackt's 25th top 10 hit.
Animate Web lists "Yume Wadachi" ("Dream Rut", "Stuck In A Dream") by Taja as the main theme of the upcoming MS IGLOO: Apocalypse 0079 OVA. The single comes with the theme song of the Hidden One Year War arc plus instrumental & "movie edit" versions of both songs and comes out April 26.
Premiering the same day as Chronicles of Narnia, Doraemon, and One Piece movies, Zeta III came in at #5 last weekend at Japanese box office. All 3 Zeta movies have come within top 5 during its opening weekend. MovieNifty.com has rest of results.
Friday, March 03, 2006
Zeta III opened at theatres across Japan and here's a review of the movie.
Beware of spoilers!
Story - The movie is based on Ep 33, the last part of Ep 34, Ep 43, Ep 44, Ep 45, Ep 46, Ep 47, Ep 49, and Ep 50. Kilimanjaro, Dakar, and all events related to Rosamia (except the end) were elimated from the movie. It did not stray from the overall TV plot and pretty much retconned Gundam ZZ.
The movie picks off where Zeta II concluded with Axis escorting the Argama to the Gwadan. The Argama sends their delegates (Won Lee, Char, Bright, Apolly, Reccoa, and Kamille) to negotiate with Axis, but talks break down as Char becomes furious at Haman. Char and the rest of the Argama members escape and Scirocco's Dogos Gear appears and attacks. The Radish's troops arrive to repel Yazan, but only after Yazan destroys the Methuss and takes Reccoa with him. Afterwards, Scirocco and his followers board the Gwadan to make a pact with Haman. (Ep 33, 34)
Fearing the Gryps 2 colony laser and the Gate of Zedan (formerly known as A Baoa Qu), AEUG and Haman meet once again this time on the Argama. With a letter from Anaheim Electronics' Melanie Hue Carbine, AEUG approves the return of Zabi rule to Side 3 and, in return, Axis has to destroy Gryps 2 and the Gate of Zedan. Haman only agrees to the destruction of the Gate of Zedan. (new scenes like Henken being irritated and talking back to Haman were added while Abu Dabia, one of the characters that never made it into the TV series, was visible in the background as well). (Ep 43)
Haman meets with Jamitov. Talks break off and Haman tells Jamitov that Axis will ram into the Gate of Zedan. AEUG joins to attack the Titans. Apolly is killed, which starts the Kill 'Em All fest.
With the Titans losing the Gate of Zedan, Jamitov meets with Haman onboard Gwadan along with Scirocco. The movie stays 100% true to Ep 46 as Char fails to kill anyone, Scirocco offs Jamitov and duels with Haman. Katz's G-Defensor shoots at The O only to see Sara sacrifice herself to save Scirocco. Yazan's Hambrabi squadron, who already pledged their allegiance to Scirocco and still part of the crew of the Dogos Gear, finishes off Bask and the Dogos Gear.
AEUG commences Operation Maelstrom to take control of the colony laser. Like in the series, Haman and Kamille have their semi-Newtype bond with Kamille only partially damaging her Qubeley. AEUG takes control of the laser. While AEUG readies it, Char grabs the Mega Bazooka Launcher and fires at squadrons of Gaza C's. A three-way battle between Char, Haman, and Scirocco starts while Katz and Emma goes off to help the Radish. Katz crashes into an asteroid and dies like the TV series, Emma's Mk-II is trapped by Yazan. The Radish comes in to help only to be finished off by Yazan. Kamille takes out Jerid's Bound Doc, which blows up along with the Radish. After doing emergency repairs on Mk-II, Emma and Reccoa duel with Reccoa dying (unlike the TV series, Emma understands why Reccoa betrayed them). Emma receives fatal injuries from the Palace Athene debris. The fight between Char, Haman, and Scirocco continues inside the laser and in the theatre. Kamille joins in at the theatre as in the series. Everyone escapes right before AEUG fires the laser, destroying much of the Titans' fleet. Char vs Haman and Kamille vs Scirocco. Both battles are the same as the TV series as they used the most of TV animations. Kamille rams the Zeta (in waverider mode) into The O which kills Scirocco. Unlike the TV series, Scirocco does not cripple Kamille via mad-Newtype powers. (Ep 47, 49, 50)
The ending that no one has seen features Kamille replacing his helmet with a new one. Fa and Kamille hug each other in space with Saegusa (one of the Argama's bridge crew) broadcasting what they're saying. Amuro and Beltorchika look at the night sky at Fraw's place where Letz and Kikka watch the events going on in space on their tv/laptop(?). Mirai drives with the kids in the backseat sleeping, looking for an Earth Federation base. Kai is at Sayla's place as he wanted to interview her about Quattro (yes, Sayla speaks one line using previously recorded audio by the late You Inoue). Haman tells Mineva that she prepared a place on Earth for her. Haman tells her men to drop off Mineva at Side 3 and pulls the Axis Fleet from the Earth sphere. The end credits are the reverse of the Zeta I opening, starting at Earth and going beyond Saturn. Along the way, the Axis Fleet is seen.
Animation - Like the previous 2 movies, it was a mixture of TV and new animation. However, this time around, the new and old animation seemed to blend well, which sorta made it hard to gauge how much of it was new. What I noticed the most was the mixture of new and old images on the same frame (the character would be old animation while much of the background or MS would be new). The new animation made Axis more fearsome as they featured more fleets like in ZZ with appearance of multiple Endora class ships. Those with quick eyes might see what looked like a single GM Cannon II (from 0083 series) catapulting off the Argama.
Voice acting - With the same people returning, no complaints here. However, Sarah Zabiarov got a new make over as Kaori Shimamura replaced Chizuru Ikewaki. Watching Zeta III, Shimamura's peformance sounded better. However, fans might still prefer the original voice of Sara by Mizutani.
Overall impressions - Promising a happier Kamille and an ending no one knows, Tomino delivered it. However, the purists might say it came at a greater cost with the Kamille/Four tragedy at Kilimanjaro and Char's biggest speech in his life at Dakar being completely left out. Those events significantly impacted Kamille and turned the tide for AEUG as it gained the much needed public support. The next question is what was the point of Axis' coming and then leaving? As the movie pretty much retcons the events of ZZ (unless Haman decides to come back because she left something behind), they surely sacrificed a lot just to drop off Mineva and say "Hey, we missed you!" to Char. But who cares because when you are watching the movie, you don't think about it. The film had a great flow as things were not going at Mach 3 like Zeta II. Even those with little knowledge of Zeta should able to understand what's going on. Whether this Zeta Trilogy bridges the story between the MSG Trilogy and CCA is up to the fans though.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
An announcement at E-Field's site says that 0087 Green Divers is to be shown in a giant screen, 70mm film version at the Mercian Karuizawa IMAX Theater from April 1st through September 30th.
Contrary to the belief of some, this will apparently be the first time Green Divers has actually been screened in IMAX format. The film was originally shown in a digitally-projected, 3-screen version in Shibuya, Tokyo's large, dome-shaped E-Field theater.
Tamashii Web has two Dancing Zaku commercials made to promote the EMSiA line: a 15-second version shown on TV and a 1-minute long version created for the site & hobby stores.
A flash promo with the cover of Z x R's "Ai Senshi" album is up on JEC International's site. The "Z" in the name of the project is shown to stand for "Zeta".
