Interview with the designers of Mobile Suit Gundam the Witch from Mercury.

When I was a kid, I was really into the "SD Gundam" video games and plastic models. I only started watching the anime series after entering my 30's. When Mobile Suit Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans came out, I thought "so this is the new Gundam." That renewed my interest and then I became more familiar with the lore by watching "Turn A Gundam", Mobile Suit Gundam 00, and the "Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn" shows, which brought me to where I am today.

I've been the product designer on the Spriggan series, and because of my connection with Hiroshi Kobayashi, who is one of the directors of "Mobile Suit Gundam the Witch from Mercury", I was invited to enter the MS design competition. Much of my work in the past has been on props and backgrounds, and even when I've been in charge of designing one of the feature mecha for a show, I'm usually asked to make it look closer to real weaponry. This time, the process of designing mobile suits that had such strong character elements was a fresh experience.

I was ordered to remove as many of the "witch-like" elements from the designs as I could, but the designs I submitted to the competition had been ones with lots of those very elements, so my first job was to undo everything I had done to that point (laughs). Specifically, I had always drawn the funnels floating over the Aerial's head so that its silhouette ended in a cone shape like a witch's hat. The remnants of that can still be seen in the rear antennae on Aerial and Lfrith. In the end, all the external elements reminiscent of witches were removed, but the essential form of the MS remain the same as my first submissions. I then shrunk the designs down in a deforme style so that the armor could be hand drawn and those became the official versions. Because of the story, the concept for the Gundams in this series needed to be closer in nuance to powered-up humans than vehicles, so compared to my competition proposals, the final silhouettes have been refined to that of an upside-down triangle and resemble massive humans in shape.

As it has been airing in real time, I've seen not just "Aerial" but a lot of other key words from the show trending on social media. I've been both surprised and impressed at the show's impact.

If the Aerial had a rather unorthodox design, the Aerial Rebuild is closer to a mainstream Gundam. Aerial was already massive, but since the story called for it to be upgraded, I made the shoulder parts bigger and I think the silhouette now resembles a "warrior" who is armed and ready for battle.

When I held the HG model for the first time, I was surprised by how compact it was. The degree to which I could make it a fresh design and the level of detail that could be pursued were new challenges for me.

The conclusion of season 1 featured a real warzone, rather than the school duels, and as a viewer, I too am worried about the direction the story will take for Suletta and the other characters. However, as a designer, I am also excited that there will be more chances to see mobile suits in action. I hope the viewers will enjoy that too.