Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans Announcement and Impressions

New Gundam series announcement and new merchandises to get, this new show has some potential.
Some small info:
Airing October 4th, 2015
– Directed by Tatsuyuki Nagai
– Written by Mari Okada
– The main characters are Mikazuki Augus and Orga Itsuka
– Name of the Gundam is Gundam Barbatos
– This Gundam is a high drama story of a bunch of child soldier orphans who band together to find a place they can call home
– The main Gundam is a relic from the previous war which starts as a wreck, but will evolve and get stronger as they defeat more enemies and upgrade the parts bit by bit
– The Gundam shares the same base frame as all other Mobile Suits, and so can cannibalize parts, weapons, and armor as the story progresses.

Full Staff:
Director: Tatsuyuki Nagai
Series Composition: Mari Okada
Character Concept Design: Yu Ito
Character Design: Michinori Chiba
Mechanical Design: Naohiro Washio, Kanetake Ebikawa, Ippei Gyobu, Kenji Teraoka, Tamotsu Shinohara
Background Art: Kusanagi
Music: Masaru Yokoyama

Impressions after the break

Rough synopsis:

It is a world roughly three hundred years after the end of a great conflict known as the “Calamity War”.
The Earth Sphere lost its previous system of government and a new world was built with a new ruling system. While a transient peace had come, the embers of a new conflict was born on Mars, far removed from Earth.
The main character, a young boy named Mikazuki Augus, belongs to the civilian security company Chryse Guard Security (CGS). He is tasked with guarding Cuderia Aina Bernstein, a young girl who is trying to make the Martian city of Chryse independent from the rule of one of Earth’s powers.
However, the CGS comes under attack from the armed organization Gjallarhorn trying to nip the bud of insurrection, so Mikazuki and the children start withdrawing as a decoy. The leader of the boys, Orga Itsuka, takes advantage of this occasion to rise in revolt against the adults who oppressed them and stages a coup d’etat.
Mikazuki, who was entrusted to fend off the Gjallarhorn by Orga, takes up the fight by using the Gundam Barbatos, a mobile suit from the “Calamity War” that was utilized as a nuclear reactor by the CGS.

This Gundam series is unique in that the main conflict now resides in Mars instead of martians coming to Earth. And I like the fact that the main Gundam starts off incomplete with the base frame still exposed on the lower torso and the legs. The trailer shown above shows some nice scenery and interesting dynamics between the two main characters. I’m overall looking forward to watching this series, but I hope that I don’t get too disappointed like I did with Reconguista in G. By the way, I loved the fact that the mecha action is still done in 2d. It’s pretty disheartening going into mecha anime these days, with every studio (including Sunrise) using CG for their mechas…

And with a new Gundam show, comes more Gunpla kits.

Just a little was shown in terms of upcoming model kits to release along side the anime soon to be airing in fall.

One item that perked my interest was the 1/100 Gundam Barbatos. It’s not a Master Grade judging from the 2700 yen price point. Seeing as how the Gundam of this era has the same base frame as other mobile suits and can use weapons and equipments from other MS, it’s more likely that Bandai is adopting Kotobukiya’s Frame Arms into it’s own thing and this 1/100 Barbatos might be able to swap parts with other mobile suit in this line. For now though, it looks like a standard RE/100 that happens to have an inner frame.

The 1/144 HG Gundam Barbatos also looks really good. Not sure if the giant club weapon and the sword comes with it by default.

The Glaze (which is a weird name) are the main grunts for the CSG (I think). I do like their designs. Reminds me of a Gafran from Gundam AGE if it didn’t had the dragon like transformation. I have a feeling that the blue one to the left is a custom Glaze which I also really like.

One thing I thought was cool was that Bandai will also release option parts similar to the Build Custom lines from Build Fighters. So far, there’s big gun, an arm claw/dagger thingys, and I guess a shield(?).

I find it funny that the series isn’t even out yet, but there are NX Edgesyles of Barbatos and Glaze in production.

And that’s all there to know about Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans. I like everything I’m seeing so far, from the mobile suit designs to the character designs (Mikazuki reminds me of Simon from Gurren Lagann) and the settings so far. Hopefully this is better than Reconguista in G and I can watch it all the way though since, you know, this isn’t Gundam Barbatos’ final form ^^;.

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