At the recent Tokyo International Anime Fair a rather interesting new anime series, called Kihei Senki Legacies, was announced. Now, we know this is primarily a mecha gaming website – so why cover an anime series announcement?
Well, the first reason is that the mecha design is being helmed by Kunio Okawara. The granddady of real robot mecha design and a designer that has worked on numerous mecha games over the years. The second reason is down to the narrative premise of Legacies; as the series’ protagonist is an ardent gamer and as such is ideally equipped to pilot the Omega 99 pictured above (which looks like an interesting fusion of Gundam and Patlabor design sensibilities, with a dash of Mr. T thrown in for good measure).
Now this is not the first time a mecha gaming nerd has fronted an anime like this, as Overman King Gainer did it not that long ago. What’s interesting about all this is that gaming is entering more into the world of mecha anime, as it’s normally the other way around – with games referencing anime based functionality to form the base rulesets for the mecha.
The TV series is planned to have a 52 episode run and there’s no word on a release date as yet.
Granted, this is just an announcement, but I’m interested. As a fan of Okawara’s work, I’m also curious to see more of the designs he’s doing for the show.
And yeah, the Omega 99 does have a superficial resemblance to the Gundam…but I’m not going to hold Okawara’s feet to the fire. It’s just great to see a master doing what he does best (and besides, how many of us could cook up a mecha design on our own?).
Will be following this with interest….
Davvero buona questa news!!
I look at the body, and all I see is Haro.
Gigazine…
http://gigazine.net/index.php?/news/comments/20100327_taf2010_legacies/
Note from Francia…( ANime Days)
http://www.mata-web.com/japon/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=989:kihei-senki-legacies-la-robot-factory-danime-innovation-tokyo&catid=20:actualite-des-series-televisees&Itemid=4
et Italy ( forum)
http://www.gundamuniverse.it/forum/index.php?topic=2277.0