THE REASONING BEHIND A FEMALE PROTAGONIST AND BEING SET AT A SCHOOL ARE THE CHALLENGES OF A “NEW GUNDAM”

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury is the latest tv anime in the popular Gundam anime series. It will be the first Gundam series tv anime broadcast in almost seven years since Iron-Blooded Orphans started its first season in October 2015. The first tv series to feature a female protagonist, it’s also making waves for being set at a school, making it a “new Gundam” that’s never been seen before. So what’s the big idea behind either of these two concepts? We asked producer Takuya Okamoto of Bandai Namco Filmworks.

◇ STRIVING TO CREATE FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF YOUTH

The catchphrase for “The Witch from Mercury” is “This witch rides a Gundam.” The story takes place in Ad Stella 122 in an era when a multitude of corporations entered space and built a huge economic system. The story begins with the main character, Suletta Mercury, from the remote planet Mercury transfers to the Asticassia School of Technology, run by the Benerit Group, which dominates the mobile suit industry. Directed by Hiroshi Kobayashi of “Hizune and Mastotan” and “Kiznaver,” with series composition and screenplay by Ichirou Ohkouchi of “Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion.”

Kana Ichinose voices the main character, Suletta Mercury, while Lynn voices Miorine Rembran, the good-looking, high-achieving sophomore in the Business Strategy Department at Asticassia School of Technology. The show is currently being broadcast Sundays at 5 p.m. in the Nichigo Anime Block on MBS & TBS networks.

The “Witch from Mercury” project kicked off around 2018, with producer Okamoto signing on in the early spring of 2020. However, it’s been said that by the time he joined, it was already decided that there would be a female protagonist.

“When I signed on for this project, there was talk of having a Gundam with a female main character. We had already been working toward Gundam’s 50th and 60th anniversaries and wanted to create something for the next generation of boys and girls. There was a point where I heard teenagers saying, ‘It’s not our Gundam. It’s not something geared toward us.’ What they were saying stuck with me. I’d thought that Iron-Blooded Orphans and Gundam 00 had increased the number of young fans, but it’s been 20 years since Gundam SEED, and that’s already history, so it’s like a wall. That may be what is making it harder for them to get into Gundam.”

Mobile Suit Gundam, the first series, started back in 1979, more than forty years ago. It wasn’t until 2002, almost twenty years ago, that Gundam SEED (“First Gundam of the 21st Century”) started attracting/pioneering new fans. While many works have been created with different approaches after SEED that have all changed their course, Gundam as a series is recognized as “legendary,” so some teens may feel that “it’s not for us.”

“We felt it would be best to start the show in an environment familiar to teenagers, which led to the idea of using a school for the setting. Truth be told, there have been older series where the story begins at a school. The same goes for Gundam Wing, Gundam UC, and even SEED. The threshold for that wasn’t very high, but there were a lot of serious considerations from the beginning.”

The PROLOGUE, released prior to the main series, is also “serious.” But, the previews of the main series seem to have alleviated this “seriousness.”

The show is broadcast on Sundays at 5:00 p.m., so rather than making its debut all too heavy-handed, we were more aware of making it easier to get into and easier to watch. Putting aside whether a story similar to conflicts between Earth and space would be depicted, we felt that a war between Earth and space or nations pitted against nations, as with past series, might be too difficult for young people to connect with. Some people just don’t watch it because of its serious nature and because people die. So we were keen on making the show easy to get into and connect with today’s teenagers. But, the show also has its turning point and depicts an unsettling story, like with the PROLOGUE. It IS Gundam, after all.”

◇ IT WASN’T PORTRAYED LIKE THAT JUST BECAUSE SHE’S A FEMALE PROTAGONIST

Because this is the first female protagonist for a Gundam television series, and it’s generating a lot of talks, are there certain aspects that can be depicted because of this?

“Up til now, the main characters have all been male, so of course, there are things that can be depicted with a female protagonist. But, from the creative side, I don’t consciously make decisions to portray something a certain way solely because she’s female or taking into consideration gender issues. This is, after all, a story in the future, so I feel this is a world where diversity is the norm. Rather than wanting to portray a female protagonist, I wanted to create a story between characters, so I’m not concerned with whether they’re male or female. But by making the protagonist a female, I feel how the story is presented, and points of interest will change, though the texture of friendship and romance in Gundam until now may be just a little different. Still, I haven’t put anything intentionally into the story just because, ‘oh, it’s a female protagonist, so let’s do this!'”

When talking about diversity, characters of varying skin colors appear. However, this is something that has remained unchanged since First Gundam. By saying, “This is a story about the future, and we started from the idea that it would be inevitable that a wide multitude of characters would appear. The director desired that all kinds of different types of characters would be present,” it was made clear that no particular emphasis was made to underscore the diversity element.

◇ GUND FORMAT & WITCH ARE THE KEY WORDS

The Gundam Lfrith that appeared in the PROLOGUE was a prototype mobile suit developed by Ochs-Earth Corporation and one of the GUND-ARM mobile suits that adopt the revolutionary GUND Format technology. It’s equipped with a shield comprised of a swarm weapon system known as the GUND-BIT. In fact, he says it contains “a setting needed to depict what Gundam is in this work.”

“There is something known as the ‘GUND Format,’ and its very nature has led to the question of ‘how is a Gundam perceived in this world?’ After all these years since the PROLOGUE, how does the world feel about it? Our story expands from this point. If you follow along with the story, I think you’ll get what I mean by this. It’s hard to talk about it since it’s connected with the overall theme, but it’s definitely part of the setting that is connected to just one of the themes we’re trying to portray in this series.

The PROLOGUE also serves to explain that the GUND Format is related to body extension and medical technology.

“The idea is the expansion of the body and consciousness. Ever since the original series, I recall that the original idea behind mobile suits was based on this idea. However, I’m not sure to just what extent Director Kobayashi was aware of this. While robots as weapons may be difficult to envision, the fact that it’s medical technology makes them feel familiar. These types of technology are needed for humans to adapt to life in space, and some people used this in the PROLOGUE, but the technology itself has had a stop put to it. So who knows whether the Gundam Aerial is really a safe mobile suit or not? How all that will play out is connected with one of the main stories.

Another interesting point to bring up is what “witch” in the title refers to. “Witches can refer to witches who use magic, medieval European witches, or even witch hunts, etc. I think the final answer will be interpreted differently depending on who sees the series.” Okamoto avoids stating it explicitly, though he says “witch” is likely going to be one of the keywords.

◇ A WORK THAT CAN EVEN BE ENJOYED BY FANS OF PAST WORKS

Okamoto suggests that the series is an attempt to create a “new Gundam” with free and flexible ideas.

“There is a multitude of difficulties in working in the Universal Century because so many things are already established, but I realize that works set outside this timeline have a certain degree of freedom afforded to them. It’s difficult to pinpoint what makes them so “Gundam-like” because each has its own history and image of “this is what Gundam is!” Despite this, we’re trying to create something that deviates from how fans perceive it in a good way. Still, we also have to satisfy the desires of fans of past Gundam works as well.

Just because it’s a “new Gundam” doesn’t mean older fans are going to be cut out. This is a difficult point to bring up, but…

“I feel like that illustrates the depth of Gundam. People who watched SEED in junior high are now in their thirties, so we want to make sure to depict a drama that will be enjoyed by everyone who has grown up. We hope that it will be something that everyone will enjoy.”