One of the best Gundam series is getting a high-school romance spin-off that takes place in the mundane setting of near-future Earth. Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Frontier of Youth is bringing back the fan-favorite cast from The Witch from Mercury anime, including Suletta Mercury, Miorine Rembran, Guel Jeturk, Shaddiq Zenelli, and a version of Elan Ceres. Comic Newtype will be publishing the manga spin-off for Bandai and Sunrise, and the publication had previously shared character profile images for Setsuna and Miorine. Comic Newtype has now released Guel’s, Elan’s, and Shaddiq’s redesigns. The original anime was set in a military school in space, where students were allowed to battle each other in school-sanctioned mobile suit duels.
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After initially defeating Guel, Suletta unintentionally became the fiancรฉe of Miorine, the daughter of one of the most powerful businessmen in space. To keep her engagement with Miorine, Suletta needed to beat other school students in mecha duels. Besides Guel, Shaddiq and Elan were other duelists who competed against Suletta to become Miorine’s fiancรฉ. Frontier of Youth puts all the characters in a normal high school setting in a near-future Japan. The first chapter of Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Frontier of Youth is scheduled for May 23rd, and will be published in the Comic Newtype magazine.
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The Background Info for Guel Jeturk, Shaddiq Zenelli, and Elan Ceres
Mobile suits and Gundams still exist in Frontier of Youth, but the cast are now part of a normal school rather than the high-pressure militaristic academy they attended in the original show. Guel, recognizable for his light pink hair, becomes a secondary protagonist in the anime, falling in love with Suletta and helping both main girls in the lead-up to the finale. Shaddiq, known for his dark skin and long blond hair, is a manipulator and secondary antagonist, trying to exploit the ongoing situation. Elan has a more complicated situation in the original anime.
There were actually two different teen boys who went by Elan in The Witch from Mercury’s anime. Both boys were genetically manipulated to look identical and go undercover in the academy as the heirs of one of the companies. The first Elan was “disposed of” after failing to defeat Suletta. Afterwards, the second Elan attempts to seduce Suletta, yet eventually goes on the run before joining the main protagonists in the final conflict. It’s unknown which version of Elan is in Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Frontier of Youth. The first Elan was soft-spoken and introverted, while the second Elan was more cunning and flirtatious.
Japanese writer HISADAKE, who served as the Setting Assistant for the Witch from Mercury anime, is the author of Frontier of Youth. Illustrator Hiro Hato, an artist best known for their work on Misumi-san wa Misukasenai and Inu to Yuusha wa Kazaranai, will be drawing Frontier of Youth. Hato has expressed being a fan of the original anime and is looking forward to working on the spin-off. Witch from Mercury has other spin-off titles, including a side-story manga co-written by HISADAKE called Vanadis Heart, that covers another side of the infamous Vanadis incident from the anime. Cradle Planet, a spin-off novel by Ichiro Okouchi, was published in the Fall of 2022. There’s also a light novel adaptation being released based on the original Witch from Mercury.
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