Gundam Producer Naohiro Ogata Discusses Franchise's Huge Workload

With the legendary Sunrise mech franchise, it's no surprise that bringing any aspect of Mobile Suit: Gundam to life via its numerous anime series is going to take some serious elbow grease. Recently, Anime Herald managed to sit down with the producer of several Gundam series and films, Naohiro Ogata, and chat with him about how difficult it is producing the franchise when the future of Gundam includes a new movie trilogy, five new projects, and the current project for the franchise in "Beyond".

Anime Herald questioned Ogata about the amount of work it takes to juggle these various projects as a producer, with Naohiro explaining the hard work that is required to be a part of the franchise and how it could potentially lead to Gundam once again heading overseas:

"Worried? Yes, but perhaps not in the way you think we are. I am sure you are familiar with the battleground the anime industry is, with the schedules the way they are. We are undergoing a revolution with new workplace rules. You cannot work the long hours the way you used to. It's a good thing, preventing people from committing suicide or dying from overwork. Back in the day, we used to have to do multiple all-nighters to make sure we got something up onto the screen, small or big. That's not an option anymore.

We're now more outward facing with the international market. This definitely means we need to put more out more quickly. That's going to increase the workload, not just with Gundam Beyond, but overall. One of the possible solutions is like with this Hollywood collaboration, where we'll have to start producing more Gundam overseas."

What do you think of the workload it takes to bring Gundam to life? What new Gundam project are you most looking forward to? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and Gundam!

Mobile Suit Gundam is one of the most popular franchises in the world, and that popularity is only expected to grow as Sunrise continues to release new projects for the franchise. This includes new anime based in the original Universal Century storyline, which will next see a film trilogy based on the Hathaway's Flash novels, a returning anime for its SD Gundam spin-offs, and even a brand new live-action movie coming to the West co-produced by Legendary, a studio who is currently in the midst of bringing a new take on Toho's Godzilla franchise to the screen.