Gundam Unicorn Planned for Simultaneous World Release

[Koby]

The animeanime.jp news website reports on Monday that the Japanese studio Sunrise is planning to release its Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn anime around the world simultaneously. Sunrise had already announced last week that its adaptation of Harutoshi Fukui's light novels was green-lit for release in the winter of 2009. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun paper had reported earlier this month that Sunrise's parent company Bandai NAMCO Holdings is planning to distribute its Gundam franchise in 10 languages — Japanese, English, German, French, and others — within this year.

Sunrise has yet to announce the release format of the new Gundam Unicorn anime project.

Last December, Bandai began streaming anime episodes of its Tamagotchi virtual pet franchise on the YouTube video-sharing site for free in seven languages. In February, the North American anime distributor Bandai Entertainment announced that it is streaming the Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion and Mobile Suit Gundam 00 anime series on YouTube as well. Sunrise animated both titles. In January, Kurokami The Animation premiered on television in Japan, South Korea, and the United States within 24 hours of each other. The American release was handled by Bandai Entertainment.