The manga is an adaptation of the original Mobile Suit Gundam anime, which debuted in Japan in 1979 and spawned an entire genre of anime and manga featuring teenagers piloting battle suits. Yasuhiko was the character designer and animation director of the original anime; his manga adaptation ran from 2001 to 2011 in Japan. In the early 2000s, Viz published part of the series as perfect-bound magazines that were 100 to 130 pages long, releasing 12 volumes, which corresponded to the first six volumes of the Japanese release. Vertical picked up the license (see “Vertical Gets ‘Gundam: Origin’”) and published the series as 12 double-sized hardcover volumes, with 400+ pages per volume and a 6.35” x 8.3” trim size.
A Gundam live-action movie is in the works (see “Sydney Sweeney Joins ‘Gundam’”), and Bandai will release several Gundam tabletop game products this year (see “‘Gundam Card Game’ and ‘Gundam Assemble’ Combine Forces”). A new anime series, Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX, will begin streaming on Prime Video in April 2025; a theatrical film remixed from the anime series premiered in North America in February.
