Latest Gundam Series "Gunpla Battle" to Release This October with Support from SKE48's Rena Matsui

ANIME
Jul. 14, 2013 00:00 PDT

On July 2, the latest Gundam product was unveiled in a press conference held at the Gundam Front in Tokyo's Diver City. The new series in the franchise, titled Gundam Build Fighters, will be released in October 2013.

At the press conference, Kazunori Ueno, the CEO of Bandai, Yasuo Miyagawa, the vice-president of Sunrise, as well as Masakazu Ogawa, producer from Sunrise, were all present to announce the start of the new Gundam project.

2014 will mark the 35th year of Gundam animation, will 2015 will mark the 35th anniversary of the sale of Gundam models. The first of the 35th anniversary celebration projects will be the new anime Gundam Build Fighters.

The new anime will feature a world that has not been shown in previous Gundam anime. It is set to take place in a world in the near future with Gunpla Games, in which battles take place on a field of the battle system and Gunpla models are controlled similarly to how they are in games.

A new, special seed called the "Plafsky Seed" has been invented and is said to give life to Gunpla models. These are dispersed on to the "GP Base" which serves as the battleground for the Gunpla models.

There will be two protagonists. First, a Gundam builder named Sei, and a Gunpla Fighter named Reiji. The story will follow the growth of the two characters as they battle through friendship and rivalry. There are also Mobile Suits to be featured in the series, including suits that have been around for more than 30 years.

Along with the press conference, several special talk sessions were also held. One of the guests was Rena Matsui from the popular idol girl group SKE48. As a fan who also builds Gunpla models, Matsui's favorite Gundam series are Gundam Seed and Seed Destiny. Her favorite Mobile Suits are the Strike Rouge and Buster. "Rouge is a pink color and is cute like a girl, while Buster was the Mobile Suit for my favorite character, Dearka," said Matsui, acting just like any other fan. She has been a fan of the series since her middle school days.

Named the official "No. 1 fan" of the new series Gundam Build Fighters, Matsui said, "In a world without war, I am interested to see how the protagonists' characters will develop."

Matsui was also given a "HGI/144 Build Strike Gundam Ver. Rena Matsui Coloring" with a color she picked, as well as a "MG1/100 Special Strike Rouge Ver. Rena Matsui Image" based on concept art that she had drawn as presents from the Gundam master, Katsumi Kawaguchi.

Matsui ended the talk show with the comment, "I will be making lots of Gundam models while waiting for the new show to start!"

At the end of the press conference, it was also announced that between 2014 and 2015, Mobile Suit Gundam UC Episode 7, a new work from director Yoshiyuki Tomino, as well as Gundam: The Origin will be released. In particular, director Tomino has not released any new works since 2006, and the announcement is sure to draw much anticipation from fans.

The new anime Gundam Build Fighters will mark the start of a series of exciting releases in welcoming the 35th year of the Gundam franchise. From old fans to children alike, there will be something exciting for everyone.

Gundam Build Fighters Official Site
Source: AnimeAnime
Source article written by Yohei Hosokawa