Mobile Suit Gundam has been busy in recent years, with various anime projects taking us back to the original universe that started it all, while others explored brand new galaxies and alternate realities. While the Gundam franchise has long been considered one of the biggest mech series around, it is so popular that it receives a “Weekly Shonen Jump” style publication devoted only to exploring the many universes. In a wild surprise, Monthly Gundam Ace confirmed earlier this week that there are five new series that are landing in the publication, and some of them might surprise long-time fans of the franchise.
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5.) Gundam: Double Fake Reprise
While the original Gundam universe that focused on the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon has spawned countless television series and movies in its time, there are some stories that even long-time mech fans might not be aware of. One such case is Gundam: Double Fake, which followed protagonist Dariel Guns as he unknowingly finds himself piloting a Gundam of his own. Taking place prior to the now legendary story, Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack, Reprise won’t be a sequel to this story, but rather, a remake of the original chapter that arrived in the 1980s. The series spawned the “D Gundam,” a new suit that has some differences from the traditional mech that Amuro piloted during his tenure. Surprisingly enough, despite all of the many times that manga and light novel Gundam series have been given anime adaptations of their own, Double Fake hasn’t seen an adaptation on the screen. Hopefully, this upcoming remake might help bring attention to this storyline and give it the chance to hit the anime world proper.
4.) Mobile Suit Gundam EXVS: Girls on Extreme
To no one’s surprise, the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise hasn’t only been a part of the anime world, as the various universes have found their way to the realm of video games. Even during this year’s Summer Game Fest, Bandai Namco announced that the mech series would return to PCs and consoles thanks to the upcoming Gundam: Rogue Orbit, putting players in the cockpits of the mech to fight against extraterrestrials. One major Gundam video game has long been Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs, an arcade game that takes the mechs and places them into a fighting game environment. For this upcoming entry, the meta story will involve girls playing the arcade game in an effort to help stop their beloved arcade from closing down. The premise is somewhat similar to Gundam Build Divers, which saw the main characters piloting virtual mechs in a landscape that was quite different from that of Amuro and Char’s war.
3.) SD Gundam G Generation Eternal 4-Panel Comics
Akin to Mobile Suit Gundam EXVS, SD Gundam Generation Eternal is based on a video game, though this won’t involve female protagonists working to save their local arcade. Instead, the more humor-filled comics will focus on the strategy video game that allows players to choose pilots and Gundam mechs throughout the long history of the series. While the anime adaptations have been running since the 1970s, this strategy game also has a decades-long history as the first entry landed in 1998. While many of the digital entries have traversed PCs and video game consoles, SD Gundam has released its latest entries on mobile devices, acting as something of a “gacha system” that allows players to revisit some of the biggest moments and characters of the franchise. Ironically enough, the upcoming issue of Gundam Ace will also give mobile players the chance to use a promotion code to score a new title in the game, as you can see in the social media post below.
2.) Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Problem Solving! Shin & Impulse
Much like the previous entry that focuses on SD Gundam, Gundam SEED’s next entry in Gundam Ace will be a humor-based comic. Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Problem Solving! Shin & Impulse might take place in the universe that spawned the biggest film of the anime franchise, but it will be far different from the story that was laid out as a part of that timeline. Much like Pokemon’s Detective Pikachu, the hilarious comic strip will focus on humans and Gundam co-existing, though not in a way you might expect. Problem Solving! will see mechs that live and breathe, coinciding with humans rather than being piloted by them, while still having some familiar faces from the SEED franchise. With Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom becoming the most popular and profitable film in the long-running franchise, it would make sense that Gundam Ace would return to this well, though this will be quite a different interpretation from what we’ve seen in the past.
1.) Gundam: Tobacco Smoke is Not Affected by Minovsky
Earlier this summer, we reported on this new Gundam manga that acts as a prequel to Gundam Narrative, the 2018 film that was a part of the Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn universe. While plot details surrounding this upcoming series remain a mystery, there are some tidbits that we can gleam from the title alone. For example, Trenov Y. Minovsky was the scientist who discovered “Minovsky Physics,” which helped to create the mech suits that came in fast and furious within this universe. What tobacco smoke has to do with this particular science, or the mech suits that spawned from it, remain a mystery, though we’re sure to learn more once this new story arrives in Gundam Ace. While neither this series nor any of the series that have been mentioned thus far are confirmed to receive anime adaptations, as the Gundam franchise grows, the chances that we will one day see any of these stories hit the anime scene become that much more plausible.
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