The Bandai Namco Group recently held their “GUNDAM Conference Summer 2024,” to give updates on the Gundam series. The conference was presided by new Chief Gundam Officer and Bandai Spirits CEO and President, Hiroshi Sakakibara, with a panel of consisting of Bandai Namco Filmworks director and Gundam business general manager Naohiro Ogata, Bandai Spirits deputy general manager Hirotake Taguchi, and famed gunpla builder Kanata Hongo.
As the Gundam series is celebrating its 45th anniversary, the conference mainly focused on announcements and minor updates related to the Gundam NEXT FUTURE Pavilion, Mobile Fighter G Gundam Gaiden project, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom, along with the collaboration projects Silver Phantom and Requiem for Vengeance.
At the end of the show, Producer Ogata gave a small update regarding the highly anticipated Hathaway’s Flash sequel, Sun of Bright. He said, “And of course, Hathaway is being worked on right now, so we ask for a little more patience.”
First in a trilogy of anime films helmed by director Shukou Murase, Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway’s Flash or Hathaway is the official sequel to the 1988 Mobile Suit Gundam Char’s Counterattack movie. The project was announced in November 2018 to celebrate the Gundam 40th anniversary, adapting the Yoshiyuki Tomino-penned novel series of the same name. The novels were originally released from 1989 to 1990, as a follow-up to Tomino’s Char’s Counterattack: Beltorchika’s Children novel.
Ergo Proxy and Genocidal Organ’s Shukou Murase is directing the film project, with scripts by Yasuyuki Mutou. Pablo Uchida, Naoyuki Onda, and Shigeki Kuhara are the character designers for the films, with Onda also serving as the chief animation director. Hiroyuki Sawano returned from Mobile Suit Gundam entries Unicorn and Narrative as music composer, and rock-band [Alexandros] performed its theme song “Senkou”. The films’ mechanical design team consists of Hajime Katoki, Kimitoshi Yamane, Nobuhiko Genba, and Seiichi Nakatani.
Opening to Japanese theaters June 11, 2021, Hathaway’s Flash is the third highest performing Gundam film earning 2.23 billion yen. As of June 2021, producer Naohiro Ogata confirmed the second installment was in production, tentatively titled, Sun of Bright.
Story
The year is U.C. 0105. Twelve years have passed since the end of the second Neo Zeon War (Char’s Rebellion). Even after “the Axis Shock,” which seemed to indicate the future of humanity and the Universal Century, the world is still in a chaotic situation where intermittent military conflicts continue to break out. The Earth Federation government is more corrupt than ever, and its leadership has not only accelerated Earth’s pollution, but also implemented an inhuman “Man Hunting” policy in which civilians are forcibly exiled to outer space.
The anti-Federation government organization “Mafty,” led by someone called “Mafty Navue Erin,” has taken a stand against the corruption of the Earth Sphere. Mafty carries out fierce acts of terrorism, assassinating high officials of the Federation government one after another, but it gains a certain level of support from the populace who are growing more opposed to the Federation government.
The person who calls himself “Mafty” and leads this organization is Hathaway Noa, the son of Bright Noa, an officer of the Earth Federation Forces who once participated in the One Year War. Hathaway himself joined the forces trying to stop Char’s Rebellion. With firsthand knowledge of the ideals and ideologies of Amuro Ray and Char Aznable, he has become a warrior following in their footsteps, and plans to clear a path forward through armed resistance. His destiny, however, is drastically altered as he encounters the Federation Forces officer Kenneth Sleg and a mysterious young beauty named Gigi Andalucia.
Source: Gundam Info
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