'Mobile Suit Gundam: Twilight Axis': New Mecha Anime's Bite-Sized Episode May Impede Character Development
The year is U.C. 0096, and several months have already passed since the incident involving Laplace's box known as the Universal Century Charter. This is where "Mobile Suit Gundam: Twilight Axis" picks up the side-story to the popular mecha anime franchise.
Following the events of "Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn," the new anime series produced by Sunrise will follow two civilians who are among the research group sent to investigate the remains of the asteroid base, Axis.
According to the official synopsis for the series, these two civilians are Arlette Almage and Danton Highleg, who were formerly an engineer and a test pilot with the Principality of Zeon and Neo Zeon, respectively. But while investigating a supposedly unoccupied facility, they will be confronted by a new model of Gundam that belongs to a private militia known as Birnam.
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The anime is inspired by the light novel written by Kojirou Nakamura and illustrated by ARK Performance. It was released by Sunrise under their Yatate Bunko imprint in 2016. This light novel is also loosely based on the opera "Tristan and Isolde" by Richard Wagner.
The first episode of the anime adaptation has been released exclusively to Gundam Fan Club members in Japan on June 23. Each episode is expected to come every other week, and they will consist of about three minutes of content. The sixth episode, however, will run for an extended eight minutes.
The episodes will also be available to watch on Bandai's official Youtube channel in select countries. The third episode is expected to debut on Friday, July 21.
According to a review by Monkeys Fighting Robots, the limited amount of time allotted for the episodes may impede a deeper exploration of the characters. This may further render the series as more of a supporting content for the light novel than an adaptation.
However, the series does well with the music and the animation, which really sets the mood for each scene. Long-time fans can also expect cameo appearances from old-time favorites, Char Aznable and Lalah Sune.
Those who are interested can check out a promotional video for the anime series below.
