Despite garnering polarizing reactions during its airing, the Gundam series’ brand-new original anime Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX has been a major commercial hit according to Bandai Namco. The theatrical pre-release became the second highest grossing film in Gundam history, and the TV series has established a huge fanbase in Japan through high viewership.
In an interview with Diamond Online, Naohiro Ogata, one of the directors at Bandai Namco Filmworks (BNF), talked about the success the new anime found as a collaboration between BNF’s Studio Sunrise and Studio Khara.
“We got an overwhelming amount of positive feedback. Through working on this project with Studio Khara, we were able to reach a new audience that had never been introduced to Gundam, and we were also able to bring back out main target audience – dormant Gundam fans in their 50s and over.” According to Ogata, the new entry achieved all of the company’s quantitative goals “to the maximum degree,” with exceptionally high TV and streaming platform viewership and strong merchandise revenue.
The whirlwind of Gundam GQuuuuuuX’s success in Japan started with the release of the theatrical version, which grossed 3.58 billion yen (around 24.3 million USD), making it the Gundam series’ second biggest box office hit after Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FREEDOM. Ogata expressed gratitude towards fans for helping them reach such high numbers, especially considering that the GQuuuuuuX movie was only a recompilation of the TV anime’s early episodes, as opposed to SEED FREEDOM, which was an original movie.
Although it’s not without its critics, the Gundam GQuuuuuuX anime has received much praise in Japan for the way it attracted new, younger fans to the series while also reigniting the spark among veteran Gundam fans. This phenomenon was even brought up by Naoki Yoshida, producer of Final Fantasy XIV. He cited Gundam GQuuuuuuX as one of his recent inspirations, especially commending the way it mixes the traditional with the modern.
