Gundam AGE Anime and RPG Announced [Update]

Last update - Jun 13, 14:27 GMT (09:27 EST, 06:27 PST)

Through a series of reports that began emerging earlier this month, a new Gundam anime project has quickly been revealing itself, as a co-production between the series' traditional studio Sunrise and... game developer Level-5, whose president Akihiro Hino is in charge of the story for this 8th incarnation of the long-running Gundam franchise. The project - titled Mobile Suit Gundam AGE - is being created as a TV anime series that's set to begin airing in Japan from October 2011.



Today's latest novelties about the project are twofold. First, it turns out that Level-5 is not only creating the story for the anime, but also a Gundam AGE RPG of some sort. Not a real shocker, given that they're quite familiar not only with the role-playing genre (Dragon Quest VIII & IX, Rogue Galaxy, White Knight Chronicles, Ni no Kuni), but also with anime tie-ins - such as Inazuma Eleven or Danball Senki, not to mention Ni no Kuni's exquisite cinematics that were animated by Studio Ghibli. The Gundam AGE game will be published by Namco Bandai for a yet-to-be-announced platform(s).

And the second novelty today names Susumu Yamaguchi as director for the upcoming Gundam AGE anime series, after having directed most of the Keroro Gunsou (Sgt. Frog) anime films. ANN's report also includes a complete translation of the project's story as introduced on the official website, and shamelessly reproduced below:

"The story will span a century and three generations of Gundam pilots. In the year A.G. (Advanced Generation) 101 - several hundred years after humans migrated to space colonies - an Unknown Enemy (UE) suddenly attacks the space colony Angel and destroys it. The calamity and the huge loss of life became known afterward as "The Day the Angel Fell From the Skies."

Seven years later, the war with the UE comes to the once peaceful colony where seven-year-old Furitto Asuno lives. When Furitto loses his mother to the war, he is entrusted with the "AGE Device," a memory unit which has been handed down from generation to generation in his family. On the device are the designs for "Gundam," an ancient mobile suit known as a savior. Furitto resolves to build the Gundam.

In the year A.G. 115, 14-year-old Furitto is at the Earth Federation base Arinsuton on the space colony Nora. For seven years, Furitto has continued developing with the base's engineers, and at last the "Gundam" is complete. The Gundam is equipped with the AGE System, which allows the unit automatically evolve. However, the UE has arrived at Nora, and Furitto must fight in the very Gundam he built himself."

Update: Yet another new Gundam project will be announced later this month, on the 25th! Meanwhile, the first Gundam AGE trailer is now also available for streaming outside of Japan. Looks rather childish, indeed, much like that artwork above.