Kametsu

The English version of the Gundam.info portal site began streaming the second five-minute promotional video for the Mobile Suit Gundam AGE television anime series on Monday.

The story of the anime spans 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 to automatically evolve. However, the UE has arrived at Nora, and Furitto must fight in the very Gundam he built himself.

Akihiro Hino, president of the game studio Level 5 (Inazuma Eleven, Danbōru Senki), is supervising the story of the anime, which will premiere in October. Susumu Yamaguchi is helming the project after directing most of the Keroro Gunsō (Sgt. Frog) films. Yamaguchi also worked as a key animator on Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, Mobile Suit Gundam F91, Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, and the Mobile Suit Gundam Seed titles. The Gundam AGE plastic models and figures will have an embedded IC chip so they can be scanned by arcade game machines with a system known as the Gage-ing Link.

The Japanese arm of the online retailer Amazon lists a DVD for the previously announced Code Geass Gaiden: Bōkoku no Akito project with a November release date. Amazon’s listings do not necessarily indicate definite release plans or dates, and the DVD entry is not listed by a distributor.

The Megahobby figure website’s listing for a new Lelouch figure noted that “because of a new Code Geass series slated to start this winter, demand for the figure will undoubtedly rise.” Masayuki Ozaki, the General Manager of Overseas Development at the anime studio Sunrise, confirmed at Otakon last month that the studio is “looking forward to releasing” the new Code Geass anime project next year, although its production is behind schedule. Ozaki referred to the new project as the “next season of Code Geass” and noted that its director is Kazuki Akane (The Vision of Escaflowne, Noein – to your other self).

The Code Geass Gaiden: Bōkoku no Akito project was announced in April of last year.

Bandai’s Anime Channel began streaming a trailer for the fourth volume of the Mobile Suit Gundam UC original video anime series this weekend. The trailer features a prominent character from the first Mobile Suit Gundam series. “At the Bottom of the Gravity Well” will be available worldwide this fall on Blu-ray and on-demand streaming.

The episode will first premiere in theatrical screenings in Japan between November 12 and 25. At those screenings, people can buy advance copies of the Blu-ray Disc in a set with the story scenario and a clip of the actual film from the anime. Also on November 12, the anime will be distributed online for a fee. The DVD and Blu-ray Disc of episode 4 will then be put on general sale on December 2.

In honor of the 10th anniversary of the Mobile Suit Gundam Seed television anime, a high-definition “remaster project” is launching. Details of the remastering, including release date and price, have yet to be revealed. Mitsuo Fukuda, director of the original Gundam Seed anime, noted on his Twitter account that an official announcement about the release will come on August 26 — the official release date of the October issue of Kadokawa Shoten’s Monthly Gundam Ace magazine. Fukuda thanked fans for the congratulatory comments on his Twitter page about the release, but he also expressed his disappointment that the news was leaked early.

The latest information about the Gundam franchise will unveiled at the Chara Hobby 2011 event on August 28 in Chiba Prefecture.

The 3D animated .hack//The Movie will ship in Japan on a hybrid Blu-ray Disc that will include a PlayStation 3 game. Bandai Namco Games made the announcement during the Tokyo press conference on Tuesday that also revealed the film itself. Similar hybrid Blu-ray Discs were made for both Macross Frontier films.

Before its Blu-ray Disc release, .hack//The Movie will open in Japanese theaters this January. The gamer.ne.jp website is streaming the film’s teaser video: