Naohiro Ogata
Executive Officer, IP Production Division
Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc.

Interview
The 45-Year Journey of the Gundam Series and Its Future

The Gundam series has reached its 45th anniversary, with the 50th just around the corner. Where is Gundam headed? We spoke with Naohiro Ogata, the head of the IP Production Division at Bandai Namco Filmworks, about Gundam’s future. Ogata is close in age to our readers, and from his position as a producer on works like Mobile Suit Gundam UC and Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway, how does he think Gundam should be steered?

GUNDAM’S 45th ANNIVERSARY IS THE START TOWARD THE 50th!

――So, for this issue, we’re hoping to get long-time Gundam fans thinking about what the near future might hold for the franchise, seeing as it’s hit the big 4-5. But first, I’m curious – how does Bandai Namco Filmworks, the company behind all this epic content, view the One Year War and the original Mobile Suit Gundam series nowadays?

Ogata: Honestly, we’ve never been big on celebrating Gundam anniversaries every five years. This 45th milestone – it’s more of a stepping stone. What we’ve really got our sights set on is the 50th anniversary coming up in just 5 short years. The 45th is our way of announcing, “Get ready because the 50th is right around the corner!” Though lately, I sometimes catch myself thinking, “Wait, will I even make it another five years?” (laughs)

――Well, they do say men in their 40s and 60s are in their “unlucky years.” And once you hit your 50s, all sorts of health issues start popping up left and right. Drop dead any day, am I right?

Ogata: Exactly! That’s why I’m determined to keep pushing forward ’til 2029. So I’m hoping folks will see this 45th anniversary as the kickoff to a whole “50th-anniversary era,” a time when the entire Bandai Namco family will be rolling out all sorts of wild initiatives. Starting next year with the Osaka Expo, you’ll see the road to the 50th really start to take shape. I mean, how many IPs can say they’ve lasted half a century? It’s all about how we amp up the hype! And that’s the stage we’re at right now – the beginning.

――You know, I sat in on a “Gunpla class” at an elementary school the other day, and get this – they were still using the good ol’ RX-78-2 Gundam as the sample kit! Even the characters in the Gunpla intro video were the RX-78-2 and a Zaku. Kinda threw me for a loop, seeing the RX-78-2 trotted out for little kids. But then I asked some anime-obsessed elementary schoolers, and they told me the original series looks too old and clunky to watch. Funny how the RX-78-2 and Zaku still hold up as icons despite that, huh?

Ogata: BANDAI SPIRITS’ Gundam Educational Program is all about spreading the good word of Japan’s proud tradition of craftsmanship to the next generation, passing the torch, if you will. It’s less about promoting specific series and more of an educational thing, which is why they stick with the RX-78-2 and Zaku – they’re like the basic building blocks. Maybe if there’s enough demand, they’ll switch it up with some other mobile suits down the line. But we sure are lucky – a ton of the young folks who wanna join our company tell us, “I got into Gundam ’cause my mom and dad were huge fans.” It’s amazing to see that love passing from generation to generation.

――These days, it seems like even grandmas and grandpas who’ve never watched a lick of anime still know the name Gundam, even if it’s just as “that robot manga.”

Ogata: Absolutely. The shows and movies themselves definitely played a part in that, but I like to think things like the big Gundam statue in Odaiba and the GFY (GUNDAM FACTORY YOKOHAMA) exhibit helped put Gundam on the map in Japan. And during GFY’s last year, we had boatloads of tourists from overseas coming to check it out. It was quite rewarding to see Gundam become this symbol of Japanese culture out there in the world. But here’s the thing – on a global scale, the number of people who actually know Gundam still isn’t all that high. The silver lining is, nowadays anyone anywhere can stream content in a snap, so it’s the perfect time for Japanese manga and anime to make a splash worldwide. Riding that wave and really getting the Gundam name out there across the globe – that’s gotta be one of our big goals for the 50th anniversary. Series like Mobile Suit Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance are a big part of that push. If you want my two cents, while the original Mobile Suit Gundam isn’t public domain, I’d love for it to feel like an even more familiar, accessible part of people’s lives. At the same time, when it comes to new Gundam animation projects, I want them to have that same edge that cuts across generations. As we head toward the 50th anniversary, in a sense, I think it’s okay for the scope to widen.

――Huh, now that you mention it, fifty years is around the time copyrights used to expire and stuff would enter the public domain, depending on how you interpret the laws. Of course, that was before they changed it not too long ago.

Ogata: Oh, for sure, Sotsu/Sunrise will always keep an iron grip on the legal rights to Mobile Suit Gundam. But in terms of sheer reach and recognition, I’m all for it feeling as familiar as an old friend. Still, there’s no denying the original series looks its age to kids today – it IS fifty years old, after all. Not that it matters to us old-timers – we could binge that masterpiece ’til the end of time! Funny how that’s both the most fascinating and trickiest thing about Gundam. We get a lot of folks saying, “You guys oughta remake the original Mobile Suit Gundam!” But the way we see it, that’s what we’re doing every time we put out a new title. Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury tackles the struggles of young people and social issues with a modern twist, but its DNA is still pure Mobile Suit Gundam. So, in a way, the creative process is almost half adaptation, if that makes sense. Sure, the original film might look a little long in the tooth to youngsters these days. But that core essence that made the original so special? We pour our hearts into preserving that in every new series we make. So even if someone’s first Gundam experience is our latest and greatest, I’d like to think they’ll still feel that magic.

GUNDAM WORKS ARE BASED ON THE ORIGINAL

――I see what you’re saying. Over the years, we’ve had series like Gundam SEED that very deliberately paid homage to the original Mobile Suit Gundam storyline. But ultimately, between the influence of the era and other factors, they ended up standing on their own as distinct works. I really like this idea of them being “spiritual remakes,” it makes a lot of sense.

Ogata: Whether it’s the Universal Century or a different world, that approach is something we incorporate from the planning stage. Even in our current works, we always credit Yoshiyuki Tomino and Hajime Yatate as the original creators, establishing that “the original is the foundation.” I often hear people say “I don’t know where to start with Gundam,” but I think it’s fine to jump in anywhere. Pick up the latest series, or go with whatever catches your eye. Everyone has their own tastes, so I just hope people can find something that resonates with them. Each work incorporates the ideas of the creators involved at the time and the social trends of the era, so they might seem like different dishes. But even if the ingredients are different, no matter how you flavor it, it’s all Mobile Suit Gundam at its core.

――That food analogy is spot-on. When you say “soba noodles,” that covers everything from high-end specialty shops to quick and casual standup counters. There’s a time and place for each of them, right? In a way, Gundam is just like that. And speaking of the “spirit of Gundam,” works like the original series and the robot anime of the early 2020s – they let middle and high school kids get a taste of the adult world, at least as they imagined it. All that rich sci-fi worldbuilding and larger-than-life robot drama, it gave them a way to vicariously experience adulthood. It’s really wonderful how that essence has been carried on across generations.

Ogata: I think the foundation that Tomino, Yasuhiko, and Okawara created with the original series is truly remarkable. No matter what you pour into that framework, it becomes Gundam. You could weave in commentary on current events or social issues, and it still works beautifully as entertainment. That’s why even when today’s creators make a new Gundam series, it’s still authentically Gundam, and why modern audiences can engage with it so readily.

――On the other hand, when we look at the core fanbase for the original Mobile Suit Gundam, the so-called “First Gundam,” it’s still predominantly that first generation of fans. And as a result, that fan community is getting up there in years. What are your thoughts on that?

Ogata: As someone from that generation myself, I’ve started wondering things like, “Will Hathaway finish while I’m still at the company?” (laughs) But in all seriousness, as we create new works, we’re not leaving our generation behind. Take Gundam Hathaway for example – sure, we made it engaging for younger viewers, but let’s be honest, there’s a hefty dose of fanservice in there for us older folks too. We’ll keep doing things like that, and you can bet we’ve got some Universal Century surprises in store that you’ve never seen before. But I have to admit, in recent years, with so many complicating factors piling up, the time required to make an anime just keeps ballooning, and it definitely concerns me. I know the creators feel it too, it’s something we’re all much more conscious of these days.

――With Gundam Hathaway, I really felt like director Murase nailed recreating Tomino’s signature style in a way that perfectly resonates with our generation. But even when you’re trying to make something aimed at people in their 40s and 50s, the marketing doesn’t always line up for everyone. After all, you’ve got this diverse fanbase with a wide range of individual tastes and preferences. We sometimes call this “schools” or “styles.”

Ogata: It’s true, anime has become much more segmented over the past decade. There are so many new series, even I can’t keep up with all of them. It’s not like the heyday of TV, where you could get by just watching a handful of key shows and be set for watercooler conversation, you know? But honestly, I think this diversity is a good thing. When it comes to Gundam, we’re essentially working along two axes – content aimed at our generation, and content aimed at younger audiences. The Witch from Mercury ended up appealing to older viewers too, but when we were first planning it, we deliberately set that demographic aside. And now, we’ve added a third axis to the mix – the “global” angle. So it’s almost like we’re juggling three different approaches. The top priority for new TV series is getting the younger crowd into Gundam. Then separately, we’ve got the projects aimed at pleasing us old-timers, like Cucuruz Doan’s Island, Hathaway, and to an extent, maybe even SEED FREEDOM. In addition to those two different directions, we now have a global perspective with works like Requiem for Vengeance.

――With SEED FREEDOM, it really feels like this perfect, almost poetic setup – the generation that came after First Gundam, now coming together to reap what they sowed back when they were in middle and high school themselves. It’s such an inspiring full-circle moment.

Ogata: It’s not something we can just make happen on purpose, though! (laughs)

GLOBAL EXPERIMENT: REQUIEM FOR VENGEANCE

――Let’s talk about the latest One Year War video project, Requiem for Vengeance. The actual production wasn’t handled directly by your company’s studio, correct?

Ogata: That’s right, this time it’s being produced using the Unreal Engine 5 game engine, in collaboration with SAFEHOUSE. The project was originally brought to us by a producer from Netflix. Personally, I was really intrigued by the Netflix platform and the potential of Unreal Engine. Even with Gundam Hathaway, we were practically making a half-3D anime, but as technology keeps advancing, figuring out how to incorporate 3D effectively is always a key challenge. I also wanted to test the limits of what Unreal could bring to anime production, so there was definitely an element of technological exploration. Both Requiem for Vengeance and the VR film Mobile Suit Gundam: Silver Phantom, which was also announced, are quite experimental in terms of visuals. With Requiem for Vengeance, there was the overarching goal of expanding the reach of the Gundam IP through the Netflix medium, but also a pure curiosity to see what we could achieve.

――I’ve heard that for Netflix’s projects in the West, they primarily target men in their 40s and 50s, but in Japan, the top 10 most popular titles paint a completely different picture, right?

Ogata: Japan is almost like its own isolated ecosystem, a truly unique market. I was recently talking with the president of a Korean manga company, and he mentioned that in Korea, there’s this underlying understanding that you can’t sustain a business on the domestic market alone. They’re in a position where “if it doesn’t have global appeal, it’s not viable.” And yeah, that’s absolutely true. Japan has a population of 120 million people, and when you have that many people who speak the same language and share similar tastes to an extent, you can somehow make it work business-wise. I think that’s why the manga and anime culture has evolved in such a distinct way here in Japan. On the flip side, Hollywood is starting to struggle with producing big-budget films due to the impact of COVID and the ongoing strikes, so it’s a fantastic opportunity for Japanese IP to make a splash.

――With Requiem for Vengeance, did the project originate with Netflix deciding they wanted to do something with the Gundam franchise and then approaching your company?

Ogata: Yes, that’s exactly how it played out. It all started with a Netflix producer coming to us and saying, “This is what we’d like to do.”

――Was targeting the overseas market part of your original intention?

Ogata: For us, that was definitely half of the equation. We were also genuinely curious to see what a Gundam project created by overseas talent would look like.

――For example, I think one reason Godzilla Minus One was well-received overseas is that global culture has become somewhat more homogenized through the internet. On the other hand, while we’ve seen it to an extent with Gundam as well, there have been mixed reactions in the past when Japanese IP was adapted for overseas markets.

Ogata: The language barrier is something I’ve really come to appreciate, even among fans of the same Gundam series. Godzilla Minus One performed well in America, but not every American-made Godzilla film has been a hit. It’s through that process of trial and error that Godzilla is finally becoming a staple in the overseas market. In addition to consistent film output, you need to cultivate an environment that encourages people to seek out and watch Godzilla content, whether it’s a streaming series on Apple TV or what have you. Short of an absolutely groundbreaking work, it’s incredibly difficult to change everything overnight with a single success.

――With Netflix, if a title manages to impress international viewers, there’s the added benefit of being able to immediately dive into the original series.

Ogata: Netflix currently boasts 270 million subscribers, and they provide subtitles in over 30 languages. In certain cases, having the ability to reach that many people simultaneously can be a huge boon for an IP. However, we can’t assume that all 270 million users are our target demographic. When it comes to the overall strategy for Gundam, I believe we need to venture beyond Netflix alone and pursue various avenues to make a global impact, or else we won’t see the desired results.

SILVER PHANTOM AND THE NEW BLUE OCEAN THAT IS VR

――Silver Phantom is a VR-exclusive project set in the Universal Century, marking yet another foray into a new medium. How did this particular venture come about?

Ogata: With Silver Phantom, despite the fact that there are over 20 million VR devices in circulation worldwide, there’s a noticeable lack of software, making it a veritable blue ocean from a market perspective. On the technological front, we had been eager to further develop the immersive experiential video techniques we had been experimenting with at venues like DOME-G in Odaiba and Fuji-Q Highland. Full-length VR films are still a rarity, so I sincerely hope people will take the opportunity to experience it for themselves. The visual style is quite compelling. I do get a bit of VR sickness though (laughs). We’re approaching it as a co-production, with the base footage being created on the Japanese side and then a French team handling the VR integration.

――Do you foresee an increase in these types of collaborations with external creators moving forward?

Ogata: Naturally, we will continue to produce works entirely within Sunrise Studio, such as Gundam Hathaway and The Witch from Mercury. However, as we transition from the 45th to the 50th anniversary, I anticipate a rise in co-productions with outside partners.

――The first generation will be entering their golden years soon. Twenty years ago, we used to joke, “It’s not like we’ll be reminiscing about Zeon in a nursing home.” But now, it’s starting to feel like a world where people very well might be discussing Gundam over tea in their retirement.

Ogata: Honestly, I think a “Gundam nursing home” wouldn’t be the worst idea (laughs). I have a sneaking suspicion that our generation may never truly outgrow Gundam. Though regrettably, I’ve recently started to encounter some vision troubles that make reading small text a challenge. Back in the day, I would try to be stylish by using tiny fonts in theater programs and such. Tomino would often chastise me, saying, “Do you actually expect people to be able to read this?!” Now, I’ve reached the age where I find myself echoing those same sentiments to others (laughs). As we approach the 50th anniversary, we’re acutely aware of our own advancing years and the unpredictability of life. That’s why we’re committed to initiating a wide range of projects and campaigns well in advance. My sincerest hope is that we can all come together to celebrate a truly spectacular Gundam 50th anniversary. As always, thank you for your unwavering support!