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Gundam NT Anime Debuts at #4 at Japanese Box Office
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative (Kidō Senshi Gundam NT), the new anime project for the Gundam franchise, opened in 91 theaters last Friday, and ranked #4 in both tickets sold and yen earned in its opening weekend. The film had the highest per-screen average over the weekend.
Shunichi Yoshizawa (Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt, Gundam: Reconguista in G episode director) directed the anime at Sunrise Studio #1. Harutoshi Fukui (Mobile Suit Gundam UC) penned the script. Kumiko Takahashi was in charge of the main original character designs, and Se Jun Kim (Mobile Suit Gundam Twilight AXIS) designed the characters for animation. Hajime Katoki and Eiji Komatsu were in charge of mechanical design.
Sunrise is working with NYAV Post to produce an English dub for the anime.
The new project is set in U.C. 0097 of the Universal Century (U.C.) timeline of the original Mobile Suit Gundam series and Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn. The project's tagline is "The Destination of the Newtype Myth."
The live-action film of Yukimo Hoshimori's Uirabu. -Uiuishii Koi no Ohanashi- (Uirabu.: Story of Innocent Love) manga fell from #6 to #8 in its fourth weekend. The film earned 47,907,100 yen (about US$421,700) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 699,425,600 yen (about US$6.15 million).
The film sold 143,000 tickets and earned 170 million yen (about US$1.49 million) in its opening weekend. Uirabu. -Uiuishii Koi no Ohanashi- opened on November 9 in 215 theaters.
King & Prince performed the film's theme song "High On Love!" Yuichi Sato directed the film, with a script by Natsuko Takahashi (My Love Story!!, Norn9, Comic Girls).
Hoshimori launched the manga in Sho-Comi in 2015, and ended it in July 2017. Shogakukan published the manga's 10th and final compiled book volume in November 2017. The series has more than 1 million copies in print as of August 2017.
The Eiga Hugtto! Precure ♡ Futari wa Precure All Stars Memories crossover film dropped to #11 in its sixth weekend, but still earned 29,886,100 yen (about US$263,100) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 1,087,502,900 yen (about US$9.57 million).
The anime adaptation of NisiOisin's Zoku Owarimonogatari ranked at #1 in the mini-theater rankings for the fourth weekend.
The Kaijū Girls (Black): Ultra Kaijū Gijinka Keikaku anime dropped from #3 to #4 in the mini-theater ranking in its second weekend. The anime has a limited theatrical run across Japan that began on November 23.
Sources: Eiga.com, Kōgyō Tsūshin (link 2), Anime! Anime! (umi), comScore via KOFIC
