The second stage greeting to commemorate the huge success of the theatrical advance version of the latest work in the popular anime series "Gundam", "Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning-", was held on March 8th at TOHO Cinemas Hibiya (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo). Appearing were Tsuchiya Shinba, who plays Shuuji Ito, Kawada Shinji, who plays Sharia Bull, Yamashita Seiichiro, who plays Exabe Olive, Fujita Akane, who plays Komori Harcourt, and Yuki Shin, who plays Char Aznable. Shin, who will be playing the popular character Char, revealed the behind-the-scenes of the recording.
During the stage greeting, the results of a popularity poll for Char's lines from the early cinema release were announced. The options were "So, let me see. The performance of this mobile suit," "You can do it. It's my intuition," "Gundam will be out," and "I'll be there to intercept the mobile suit." "So, let me see. The performance of this mobile suit," was chosen as number one, and Shin performed the line live.
Shin said, "It's a famous line. Since I'm playing Char, I had to fine-tune my image of the character. I was thinking about what makes Char unique and the Char I'm playing while recording. The line that personally excited me was, 'Gundam is coming out.'"
When the topic turned to her favorite scenes, she said with a smile, "I like the scene where they're sipping wine. So grown-up!"
Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX is also a hot topic as it is the first collaboration between Sunrise, which produces the Gundam series, and khara, known for the Evangelion series. Ahead of the TV anime series, a pre-release movie version with some episodes reconstructed began screening on January 17th. The TV anime series will be broadcast on 30 Nippon TV affiliates every Tuesday at 12:29am starting from April 8th.
The early theatrical release has been a hit, grossing 3 billion yen and attracting over 1.8 million viewers. This surpasses the 2.3 billion yen gross recorded by Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space, released in 1982, making it the second highest grossing theatrical release in the Gundam series. The highest grossing theatrical release in the series was Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom, which will be released in January 2024, at approximately 5 billion yen.
