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NEWS: Bandai Head: No Plans for 2009 Gundam TV Series

I'd like to see a new Universal Century series (although, I guess thats redundant, since every Gundam series, past present and future is part of the same, big continuity, according to Turn A, which is an idea I like, actually) I think an adaptation of some of the post- Char's Counterattack stories would be pretty interesting, or some of the post F91 stories. Anything after Victory Gundam, I'm not too sure.

Sorry, sarcasm doesn't transfer well over the internet, so I'll have to be blunt: Are you extending a long-running joke of which I am not aware, or do you seriously not merely have the wrong end of the stick in regards to how franchise and trademark licensing works (and the history of the ownership of the Gundam franchise is hardly difficult to look up), but are so far past wrong that you are in an entirely different forest?

Bandai hold distribution rights, Sunrise hold the creative rights. Big whoop.

Bandai became Sunrise's parent company. This hasn't changed in the past 15 years, and so is the ownership on the Gundam franchise.

Sunrise Studio had been deliberately sat up by Bandai Entertainment to take the bulk of the financial failure that's the Gundam anime TV series licensed DVD sales, by making Sunrise Studio the copyright holder of the animated TV advertisement that was the Gundam anime TV series.

And yes, Turn A Gundam felt like a good end for the Gundam continuum. A war that ends all wars without using a universal reset button.

You can't have it both ways: Either you're claiming:

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Bandai became Sunrise's parent company. This hasn't changed in the past 15 years, and so is the ownership on the Gundam franchise.

Or:

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Sunrise Studio had been deliberately sat up by Bandai Entertainment to take the bulk of the financial failure that's the Gundam anime TV series licensed DVD sales, by making Sunrise Studio the copyright holder of the animated TV advertisement that was the Gundam anime TV series.

There is no monolithic THIS IS GUNDAM copyright that only cone company may ever posses. It is fractured and sublicensed.

The way it actually works: Sunrise hold the creative license for the TV sows (that they created) and the overall Gundam trademark (i.e. the rihht to call something 'Gundam'. this is often sublicensed). Bandai hold the distribution rights to the Gundam franchise. This includes the DVD distribution rights, and the obvious toy and kit distribution rights. If you look at almost any DVD release, you will see the distributors logo prominently, and the animation studio will only get a note on the back cover text. That's how licensing works.

And you've still skirted around the actual point of my original post: that the 30th Anniversary Project proper has not yet been announced.

::EDIT:: on an unrelated sidenote:

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And yes, Turn A Gundam felt like a good end for the Gundam continuum. A war that ends all wars without using a universal reset button.

It may not have been a universal reset, but the Moonlight Butterfly spoiler[was essentially a solar-system-wide reset button (it's area of effect spreads out to the orbit of Jupiter), and had occurred several times before, with the each separate gundam timeline in the 'black history' being punctuated and separated by the destruction of advanced civilisation by the Moonlight Butterfly effect.]. Still a nice cap on the franchise though (and somewhat bypassed by Seed and 00 not falling into the same composite timeline). Unless by a surprise twist spoiler[the 'aliens' of Gundam 00 are in fact the return of the Newtypes, whose exodus war created the Turn-series suits in the first place. This would involve a time loop though (or for AD to be subsequent to UC), so is highly unlikely and falls into Epileptic Trees territory.] Assuming that CC is interpreted as a literal composite timeline, rather than symbolic of Tomino's wish to "quit with all the gundam franchises, I'm done already!".

I really don't think you're meant to actually piece together Dark History. It's really more of a representative element of the history of the franchise, and not a literal puzzle of the various continuities.

A story explaining the end of the Black History era, i.e first use of Turn A, would be cool story to see, but I don't think Turn A was popular enough to do something with again. Maybe not, who knows.

And what do you think it's gonna happen, when the distributor(Bandai) of a franchise(Gundam) became the owner of the creator(Sunrise) who produces the franchise's intellectual property(Gundam TV anime series) through corporate ownership and sponsorship? That's right, the distributor then owns the franchise by becoming one of the franchise's own corporate executives and sponsors.

When Bandai made the executive decision on no more future anime project of Gundam for Sunrise by not sponsoring a new Gundam TV production in 2009. Sunrise can't do anything but to listen to Bandai. Get the picture yet?

Reinhard Von Lohengram wrote:

A story explaining the end of the Black History era, i.e first use of Turn A, would be cool story to see, but I don't think Turn A was popular enough to do something with again. Maybe not, who knows.

Turn A not popular? Well of course not, at least not among the current Gundam fandom themselves and therefore, not for Bandai. But that's a lack of foresight on Bandai's part. Because Tomino directed Turn A with so much artistic merits, its quality had surpassed far beyond the superficial view of the general anime fandom, and the analytical view of the hardcore anime fandom alike. I'll even dare to say that Turn A could be what the franchise needed in order to break new grounds and introduce a whole new audiences the real message that the Gundam creator was trying to send with UC Gundam, but couldn't.

DomFortress wrote:

Reinhard Von Lohengram wrote: A story explaining the end of the Black History era, i.e first use of Turn A, would be cool story to see, but I don't think Turn A was popular enough to do something with again. Maybe not, who knows. Turn A not popular? Well of course not, at least not among the current Gundam fandom themselves and therefore, not for Bandai. But that's a lack of foresight on Bandai's part. Because Tomino directed Turn A with so much artistic merits, its quality had surpassed far beyond the superficial view of the general anime fandom, and the analytical view of the hardcore anime fandom alike. I'll even dare to say that Turn A could be what the franchise needed in order to break new grounds and introduce a whole new audiences the real message that the Gundam creator was trying to send with UC Gundam, but couldn't.

Yeah, I personally loved it myself. Its one of my favorite Gundams. Its so much more epic than most of the other installments, and the character designs are unique. I think it was the last series to have any real substance to it. As soon as I saw the first episode of Seed fansubbed, I was like "yeah, this is made for Cartoon Network" and sure enough, barely after it finished its run in Japan, it was on CN.