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Gundam 40th Anniversary Promotional Anime Teased for This Winter

Bandai Spirits unveiled more of the Mobile Suit Gundam 40th Anniversary Project at the 59th All Japan Model and Hobby Show on Friday, and teased the "Mobile Suit Gundam G40" promotional anime that will debut this winter.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the first Gundam television anime, and next year marks the 40th anniversary of the first Gundam plastic model kit. To commemorate both milestones, Bandai Spirits is releasing a High Grade 1/144-Scale Gundam G40 (Industrial Design Version) model kit in December. The new model features a revamped design of Kunio Okawara's first RX-78-2 Gundam mobile suit, as reinterpreted by industrial designer Ken Okuyama (Enzo Ferrari car, fourth-generation Chevrolet Camaro, E6 and E7 Series Shinkansen trains).

Bandai Spirits' All Japan Model and Hobby Show booth presented a nine-minute video on the development of the G40 model kit. The presentation ended with a Sunrise anime promotional video for "Mobile Suit Gundam G40," and the video teased that the full version will debut this winter.

The booth's teaser video features a title logo inspired by the first Gundam television anime's logo and Okuyama's Gundam G40 design, rendered in cell-shaded CG. (The above image is a teaser visual for the movie that does not reflect the final cel-shaded rendering.) The teaser video begins with a pan over a mobile suit and the iconic mono-eye activation sequence reminiscent of the Zeon enemy's Zaku II mobile suit — only for the mobile suit's full face to appear, revealing the Gundam G40 design.

The "Mobile Suit Gundam 40th Anniversary Ken Okuyama Design Gunpla Project Special Movie" was originally planned for completion this fall. LDH Japan is contributing the music.

The Gundam 40th Anniversary Project also includes a film trilogy based on Yoshiyuki Tomino's Kidō Senshi Gundam: Senkō no Hathaway (Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash) novel series, a five-part compilation film project of the Gundam: Reconguista in G television anime, a television airing of the Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin anime, the new Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE net anime series, and a new SD Gundam work titled SD Gundam World Sangoku Sōketsuden. Sunrise and Legendary Pictures are also developing a live-action film project.

Source: 59th All Japan Model and Hobby Show coverage

Update: A similar promotional anime video, "All That Gundam," celebrated the 10th anniversary in 1989 with all the Gundam mobile suits in animation to date, including the RX-78NT-1 Gundam Alex from that year's Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. Katsuhiro Ōtomo directed the CG short "Gundam: Mission to the Rise" to celebrate the 20th anniversary at the Gundam Big Bang Project's kickoff event in 1998. The anime studio Robot collaborated with Sunrise, Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino, and musical composer Yoko Kanno on the 30th anniversary short "Ring of Gundam" in 2009. Another 30th anniversary promotional short, "Gundam Perfect Mission," included almost every major Gundam mobile suit in animation to date that year.