Gundam Unicorn: Candid Review of A Popular Anime Series

The extremely popular Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn is an anime series created in Japan. It originally started out as a novel penned by Harutoshi Fukui and has since developed into the seven part anime adaption series. The extremely well respected anime director Kazuhiro Furuhashi created the seven part animal series. Now, while the original video animations have since come to a close, the storyline still lives on in magazine and comic form. So, for fans of the show an novel, it is still possible to get back to favorite characters and to extend knowledge on what takes places inside of the Gundam universe.

Some of the Basics

The book and anime series is part of the Gundam Universal Century timeline. This is where characters, events and other situations continue on through different books and storylines from altering authors. All of the characters and designs for the book have been created by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko and Hajime Katoki. The books and anime series fall in line with this created universe. The anime series flows down the events of the book.

About the Book

The book itself came out in several different parts, spread out over a two year span. The first two parts of the story came out on September 26, 2007. Readers had to wait an additional three months to receive the third installment. That hiatus extended until April, July, October and December of the following year to receive parts four, five, six and seven. The last three parts did not hit book shelves in Japan until the end of April, then the conclusion of the story came out in August.

The Anime Series

The anime series, which includes Gundam Unicorn Full Armor and Watch Gundam Unicorn as individual episodes, first hit airwaves on February 20, 2010. However, it did not receive a traditional release over the television or channels. Instead, the PlayStation Netowwork Japan released it for the PlayStation 3 and for the PSP.

The series is a seven part series with an additional SP. This is a short, additional piece of material that is used to supplement the rest of the story, although it does not go along in the same chronological order as the seven episodes. Fans of the series did have to wait a while from one episode to the next. Each episode is around 50 minutes in length, so not a full length movie, but of substantial length. Following the original release, the next episode came out in November, and then March the following year. Episode four did not come out until November, 2011, with May, 2012 serving as the fifth episode release. March of 2013 saw the release of episode six with the SP hitting the PlayStation Network Japan in August. The final episode did not come out until June of 2014. In total, it took over four years for the seven episodes and SP to come out.

A prequel has also been released by Sony on the PlayStation Network Japan for those who are into the series. It helps explain important details and gives some lead-in material for fans of the series.

Where to Watch it Now

Fans of the book or who are looking to find the Japanese series have a few different options. First, for those people on the PlayStation Network Japan, they can log onto their accounts and gain access to the programming. However, for people outside of Japan or those who are not on the network, there are DVDs of the series available both in Japanese and in English throughout the United States.