To celebrate the release of the 27th and final volume of Yasuo Ohtagaki's manga Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt, a screening of the anime Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky was held at Shinjuku Piccadilly (Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo) on December 19th. Original author Ohtagaki and anime producer Naohiro Ogata of Bandai Namco Filmworks appeared on stage. Ohtagaki smiled and said, "I feel a bit relieved. It's a weight off my shoulders now that it's come to a proper conclusion," as he reflected on the roughly 13-year serialization.
Regarding how it became a long-running series, he explained, "Around the time the third volume was finished, I was told, 'Don't stop,' so I prepared myself for it to get longer. At first, I had planned to end it there. I had to come up with a structure for a long story, so I struggled a lot. My editor at the time came up with the idea of having people fight over an over-technology called the Psycho Zaku, like post-war rocket technology, and I thought, 'We have to go all out!' But then something unexpected happened, and things kept changing. I struggled with how to wrap it up."
"The manga serialization is done on the fly. It's made in a different way to anime or movies, and even the artist doesn't know what will happen. That's what excites me and motivates me," he said, revealing that things sometimes change as he draws. "I hadn't planned to include Perfect Gundam. At first I didn't intend to include Newtypes either. But avoiding them comes across as running away. I've been allowed to continue it for so long, so I wanted to put my own interpretation into it. I wanted to depict how it relates to the future of humanity."
The battle between the South Seas Alliance's Perfect Gundam and the Earth Federation Forces' Perfect Zeong also drew much attention. "Io pilots the Zeong, and Daryl pilots the Gundam. I intentionally wanted to reverse the roles of the main characters. I wanted to avoid the conflict between good and evil. That's the reality of war, I think. I did that consciously. I think the fixed idea that those who pilot Gundams are the ones who are good is dangerous," he said.
It has also been announced that the next original work will begin in the summer of 2026. "I'm currently writing the storyboard for the sequel to 'MOONLIGHT MILE.' My goal is to complete 'MOONLIGHT MILE.' I'm also preparing a new work. I think it will be an original mecha piece. I want to continue taking on challenges," he said.
"Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt" depicts the battle between the Earth Federation Forces and the Principality of Zeon in the Thunderbolt Sector during the One Year War, as well as the battles between the Zeon remnants, the Federation, and the South Seas Alliance after the One Year War. It has been adapted into an anime and a plastic model kit, gaining popularity. The series began serialization in "Big Comic Superior" (Shogakukan) in 2012, and the final episode aired in September of this year, bringing the curtain down on a 13-year run. The series has sold a total of over 6 million copies.
The film screened on this day, "Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt DECEMBER SKY," is a director's cut version that adds new scenes to all four episodes of the first season of the anime, and was screened in theaters and streamed online in 2016.
