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Part of Yoshiyuki Tomino's 'Ring of Gundam' Previewed (Updated)

The Gundam Big Expo event previewed part of "Ring of Gundam" — the film short created, written, and directed by Gundam franchise creator Yoshiyuki Tomino — in Tokyo on Friday. The Mainichi Shimbun paper's Mantan Web site posted an image from this film which marks the franchise's 30th anniversary.

The Robot anime studio is producing this hybrid work of computer graphics and traditional animation; Robot is the studio that La Maison en Petits Cubes director Kunio Katō famously thanked in his Oscar acceptance speech with a reference to Styx's "Mr. Roboto" song ("Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto") in February. Veteran designer Kunio Okawara (First Gundam, Votoms) is creating the mechanical designs, and acclaimed composer Yoko Kanno (Turn A Gundam, Cowboy Bebop, Macross Plus and Frontier, Escaflowne) is writing the music. The completion date and eventual release format of "Ring of Gundam" have not been determined yet.

The story of "Ring of Gundam" takes place in a new era long after the events of the first Mobile Suit Gundam series' One-Year War. In this world setting, a giant 600-kilometer-wide ring now floats in lunar orbit. An Earth Federation Forces member named Eiji discovers an object called "Beauty Memory" buried in a high-altitude, massive rockbed on Earth. Actor Daijirō Kawaoka plays Eiji, while Yuka Hirata (Cross Game, Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger) plays the heroine Yuria. The keywords of the story are "Amuro's memories." (Amuro Ray is the main protagonist of the First Gundam story.)

Update: The Mainichi Shimbun paper's Mantan Web has posted additional images from "Ring of Gundam."