New post-apocalyptic Gundam anime announced at Comic-Con

The next installment in the ever-expansive Gundam universe is on the way. At San Diego Comic-Con, Bandai Namco Filmworks announced Mobile Suit Gundam RG XARX-ZERO, a new anime set for release in 2027. The show takes place in a fresh Gundam continuity called After Apocalypse, which ties into the recently announced video game Gundam Rogue Orbit. This new universe was created by sci-fi director and writer Kenji Kamiyama, who is best known for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Kamiyama also directed Eden of the East, Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, and The Ninth Jedi short from Star Wars: Visions. Novelist Toh EnJoe (Self-Reference Engine, Harlequin Butterfly) also contributed to the RG universe’s worldbuilding. Sola Animation will handle production for Mobile Suit Gundam RG XARX-ZERO. As for how the anime and game tie together, they “share a narrative spanning generations within one continuous world,” with “each depicting the shared universe from a different perspective.” The anime series takes place first chronologically and is set 100 years before the game Gundam Rogue Orbit. “When I was approached with the idea of creating ‘a Gundam set in an entirely new timeline, one that is neither the Universal Century nor the Common Era,’ I found myself wrestling with all sorts of questions,” said Kamiyama in a press release. “What would replace the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon? What would become of the Newtype concept? What about Minovsky particles?” “I stepped back and reminded myself: I had been given the chance to create my own Gundam from the ground up for a series I’ve loved for years. What could be more exciting than that? Once I found my way back to that excitement, a fresh and unexpected Gundam began to take shape. That Gundam is Mobile Suit Gundam RG XARX-ZERO,” he said. For those unfamiliar with Gundam, the series contains multiple alternate timelines. The most frequently utilized continuity is the Universal Century (UC) timeline from 1979’s Mobile Suit Gundam. Beyond the UC, there are other timelines like Iron-Blooded Orphans’ Post Disaster universe or The Witch from Mercury’s Ad Stella continuity, each of which can be viewed without previous knowledge of the series. The anime will center on Gundam Zero pilot Ray Azumi (Takeo Otsuka), a war orphan whose parents died during an apocalyptic event. The full setup for the new After Apocalypse continuity is as follows: The three revelations delivered by the Autonomous Interstellar Object from another galaxy ushered in an age of unprecedented prosperity, allowing humanity to expand across the entire solar system. Gravity Control. FTL Communication. Cognitive Materialization. Yet less than ten years after its discovery, the Object that had delivered these three revelations suddenly ran rampant, spawning an aggressive, self-proliferating ecosystem. Humanity came to see this unknown ecosystem as the Apocalypse. For three months, humanity fought the Apocalypse to a standstill in orbit above Earth. Forced to abandon the planet, humanity marked that year as A.A. 1—the first year After Apocalypse. By A.A. 45, children born on the Moon and in space colonies have never known life without the Apocalypse. And on the lunar surface, a boy named Ray Azumi awakens— As for the upcoming game Rogue Orbit, it was announced at Summer Game Fest in June. Its Steam page describes it as “a high-mobility action game,” and the brief snippet of gameplay in the trailer shows fast-paced mecha battles that are quite reminiscent of FromSoftware’s Armored Core series. Composer Mick Gordon — who did the score for Doom (2016) — is writing Rogue Orbit's music, which is evident in the sick guitar riff that plays before a Mobile Suit cuts a big monster in half. Like the anime, the game is also set for a 2027 release. While new Gundam projects are a universal constant, both this upcoming anime and the game seem to be going in a new direction.