This is gonna be good, right guys?

Early this week, the production and animation company behind the titular Gundam franchise, Sunrise, has unveiled that they are now working on a new project for the mecha genre which we all hope to launch later this year. The announcement had a lot of people talking about it especially with its commendable line up talents that are involved from the designers to the lead voice talents. You had Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Ippei Gyobu and  Junya Ishigaki who will be handling the character and mech designs and all 3 of them are not new to the mecha genre for they have already worked in titular series such as Evangelion, Iron Blooded Orphans and Gundam X. Now of course, the project is titled Starwing Paradox, and NOT GUNDAM because apparently Sunrise had other things in mind in regards to the Gundam franchise and the new Gundam show that we will be getting is titled Gundam Build Divers because Gundam Build Fighters is already overused and we need another series about the only thing that matters about Gundam right now that is Gunpla.

The keyword here is “GUNDAM BUILD”

Directed by Shinya Watada who also worked in other Gundam series titles such as GBF, GFB Try, Gundam Age and Gundam IBO, Gundam Build Fighters takes place in near-futuristic setting where Gunpla battles have grown big enough to fill Olympic stadiums in audience attendance and anthropomorphic animals can pilot their own Gunpla and compete in national tournaments. The prologue episode which went live together with the announcement of the series introduces us to the key characters of the show and as well as the mecha designs most of which are derived from Universal, Anno Domini and Advanced Generation timelines. The Gunpla battles also follow the concept of teams which was introduced first in GBF Try and take place in large environments such as outer space battle fortresses and space colonies. The prologue episode, and perhaps all of the upcoming episodes are free to watch over at the official Gundam YouTube page.

Now of course in true present-day Gundam series fashion, the announcement of the show will not be without its showcase of upcoming Gunpla kits and Bandai has unveiled the initial lineup featuring the shows titular kits plus other ones that we are yet to see. The lead kits are derived from the AGE-2 Gundam and the GN-0000 00 Gundam and as well as few Grunt-based kits.

And a new Puchi’guy!

HGBD 1/144 Gundam AGE-II Magnum 
Price: JPY 1,944
Release Date: March 2018

HGBD 1/144 Gundam 00 Diver
Price: JPY 1,080
Release Date: April 2018

HGBD 1/144 GM III Beam Master
Price: JPY 1,944
Release Date: April 2018

HGBD 1/144 Grimoire Red Beret
Price: JPY 1,944
Release Date: April 2018

Gundam Build Divers is produced by TV Tokyo, Sunrise and Sotsu and will air throughout the Spring Anime season.