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NEWS: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin Anime's Staff, Key Visual Unveiled

4x 90 minute episodes would be too little time, I think. But 4x 120 minute episodes might be enough--or 180 minutes. (That would be approximate to 24 or 36 televised episodes, respectively--a 90 minute movie would be equivalent to 18, and a Unicorn-style 50 minute runtime 10 episodes, by the way).

Most of the Gundam compilation movies have been terrible, mostly because there was too much content to fit into too few movies--squeezing Turn A, for example, into 2 movies was doomed to fail from the start. The only compilation movies that really worked were the original Mobile Suit Gundam compilation movies and the Zeta Gundam trilogy.

The Zeta Gundam movies were only 90 minutes long, each, so they compressed the story of a 50-episode series into the equivalent of 13.5 episodes--roughly 1/4 the size.

I'm assuming this is going to be a theatrical release of what really should be considered OVA's.

It's only when you have a setup like Yamato 2199, which was produced as 26 separate episodes (with openings, endings, and next episode previews) and then had a few episodes combined and shown theatrically at a time where things get weird.

On the whole runtime issue, movie time and TV time run differently. To work as a film that tells a well paced and coherent story, things must be modified to run within the usual 2 hour allotment, instead of nice concise chunks that TV episodes can dish out. That's why compilations or movie reinterpretations almost never work on their own unless they wildly retool the story, the characters, and the maybe even the world setup.

As long as Gundam: Origin is made like Gundam UC in terms of format, I would watch the show. I watched Gundam UC in a theater in San Francisco and I really like the visuals and was happy that I've got the same experience as Japanese fans.

Also, I like the fact that Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's character designs get used again and staffing is pretty good. I'm a fan of Gundam 0083, so I'm glad that Takashi Imanishi is directing show. Chief Animation director Hiroyuki Nishimura is great animator, so I'm happy with studio's choice.

I'm enough of a fangirl for Char, but Haman Karn better be in there somewhere (I've not even heard of the manga for this, so I don't know).

I hope we also see a Crossbone series in the future too~

I don't mind that it's not a full series as long as it covers previously unanimated events in decent depth.
*coughBritish&Loumcough*