It’s been an important year for Gundam, between the afterglow of the franchise’s 45th anniversary last year, the launch of a brand new series in Gundam GQuuuuuuX, and the alignment of several key anniversaries for major entries in the franchise—including the 30th anniversary of the show that introduced Gundam to America, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. Of course then, Heero and the gang weren’t going to let an opportunity like San Diego Comic-Con come by without being able to celebrate 30 years of mecha goodness with western fans.
Last night Bandai took to SDCC with a slew of celebrations for Wing‘s 30th, including new merch, a new manga to bridge the gap between previous releases, and even a theatrical re-release of the sequel movie Endless Waltz in both Japan and the U.S.. But it was all anchored around a brand new animated short, Gundam Wing: Operation 30th, a celebration of the series’ legacy that was also packed with some tempting glimpses of what could be to come.
Animated by Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End action director Toru Iwasawa and set to the second opening theme of Gundam Wing, “Rhythm Emotion”, Operation 30th starts out as a nostalgic recreation of the opening title sequence of the anime’s back half, re-introducing us to Heero, Duo, Wufei, Trowa, Quatre, and Relena, and re-acquainting us with the villainous Treize Kushreneda, Lady Une, and of course the series’ Char analog, the mysterious Zechs Merquise. There’s even a brief flash of Dorothy!
But what’s really interesting is saved for the fifteen seconds or so: for the first time, officially animated sequences recreating key moments from Frozen Teardrop, the sequel novel set decades after the events of Gundam Wing. We get to see flashbacks to Adin Lowe, the gunman who ultimately trains his young son to take on the mantle of Heero Yuy after assassinating the original colonial politician of the same name. There’s also a fascinating look at Wufei’s wife from the Mission Zero manga, Long Meilan, and tantalizing shots of some of the new mobile suits from Frozen Teardrop. Although the official website describes only one of them as the mysterious “Cloaked Custom,” there are certainly parallels to prior depictions of the Snow White from Frozen Teardrop, among others like the Warlock and Prometheus.
An adaptation of Frozen Teardrop is probably not on the cards beyond the tiny glimpses in this video—Gundam is preparing to move on to more anniversaries soon, like the upcoming 10th anniversary of Iron-Blooded Orphans. But it’s still nice that in looking back across 30 years of Wing‘s influence, we got to see this tease of what could’ve been.
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