Well I’ll be damned. Earlier this week we were teased with the silhouette of a Gundam and a pre-announcement about a new Gundam series set to air this fall.

This was the mysterious new Gundam figure teased earlier this week.

Well, as things tend to go in the internet age, the big announcement was leaked thanks to people getting their hands on early copies of magazines and such. So with great excitement mixed with trepidation, I give you guys the next entry in the Gundam anime franchise: Gundam AGE!

The Gundam AGE at the top surrounded by its pilots (from left to right) Furrito Asuno, Kio Asuno, and Asemu Asuno.

Based solely on initial reactions, it’s easy to tell that Gundam AGE is set to skew towards a younger crowd. Of note, Level Five, of game development fame is, is set to be involved with all aspects of the series. Akihiro Hino in particular will be in charge of the story. The story might in fact be the most intriguing part of Gundam AGE. Set in a world where the Earth Federation is fighting an Unknown Enemy, Furrito Asuno designs the Gundam AGE-1 mobile suit. The Gundam AGE-1 is equipped with the AGE System, which is a self learning/adapting computer system (a call back of sorts to the learning computer in the original Gundam series?)

While the Gundam AGE-1 looks somewhat generic in its base form, it can change into the ninja like Sparrow form for added speed or the Titus form for more power. Tentative spelling on those names of course.

With this AGE system the Gundam AGE-1 can change forms to better adapt to battle. While that all sounds interesting, the most interesting thing about Gundam AGE is the fact that the conflict, the 100 Year War, is beyond the scope of anything we’ve seen in a single Gundam series before. While the Universal Century time line covers a similar chunk of time, it’s done over the course of several TV series, OVAs, and movies that each focus on a smaller section of time and conflict. Gundam AGE seems to be more ambitious and as such is set to tell the tale a family connected through several generations by a single Gundam. Furrito Asuno, the guy who designs the Gundam AGE-1 in the first place, is the first main character, with Asemu Asuno (Furrito’s son) being the second. Eventually Kio Asuno (Furrito’s descendant) inherits the Gundam AGE-1. Not much is known about Gundam AGE, but the fact that it will be telling a generational story of war has me very intrigued.

Much like Gundam 00 that had several manga and magazine tie-in sidestories running simultaneously with the series, Gundam AGE is set to be a multi media powerhouse. A manga, games, trading cards, and the standard model kits are already planned.

Not much more information has been gleamed from the leaked images other than some minor side character info barely worth mentioning. It also appears that the enemies for this series might be alien in nature, perhaps picking up on the ground that Gundam 00’s movie broke. So, what do I think of all this? Well…I’m going to watch it of course. It’s Gundam. I’m not a big fan of the character designs, and the Gundam itself appears to be kind of bland at first sight. It is essentially the first Gundam with a weird chest and funky head decoration, but the form changing gimmick makes me think this could be interesting. Regardless, we’ll be getting more information this coming Monday when Sunrise makes the official announcement. Until then, consider my interest piqued.

Props to Anime News Network for the translations from the images: ANN.com