Bandai Visual Japan has announced that on March 12, Amazon.com will release '
Mobile Suit Gundam UC (Unicorn) Vol.1' on Blu-ray with a two-month exclusive window in North America under the “Honneamise” label. Video will be 1080p with Japanese and English audio tracks, both in 5.1 Dolby TrueHD and 2.0 Dolby Digital, and subtitles in Japanese, English, French, Spanish, and Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin).
Since its inception in 1979, the
Gundam franchise is considered the introduction of the giant robot or “Mecha” genre in the US. 'Mobile Suit Gundam UC' is a series of popular novels by Harutoshi Fukui, which was originally serialized from 2006 to June 2009 in the monthly
Gundam Ace magazine by Kadokawa. Ten volumes of the novel have sold over 2 million copies. The story is set in Universal Century, three years after the events of the film
Char's Counterattack. The series will be comprised of six 50-minute episodes directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi.
To help newer fans to become familiar with the world of
Gundam before watching 'Gundam UC', Bandai Channel will begin streaming classic
Gundam series starting February 1, ahead of the Blu-ray release of ' Gundam UC'. Six TV series of Gundam (
Mobile Suit Gundam, Mobile Suit Z Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, and
Mobile Suit Gundam 00) are planned for free streaming in North America and Europe for limited time only on
AnimeNewsNetwork,
Crunchyroll and
YouTube.