Gundam: The Witch From Mercury Anime's 12th Episode to Delay Streaming by 1 Day Due to COVID-19

The Gundam.info portal site announced on Friday that the 12th episode of the Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury anime is delaying streaming by one day due to the influence of COVID-19 on production. The 12th episode will still air on Sunday as scheduled, but for services that normally stream the series on Sundays, streaming will be delayed to Monday. The staff did not state how this will affect overseas streaming.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury premiered in Japan on October 2 on MBS and TBS, and it airs on Sundays at 5:00 p.m. The anime's first part is ending with its 12th episode on Sunday. The anime's second part will air in April 2023 in the same Sunday 5:00 p.m. time slot on MBS and TBS as the first part. Crunchyroll is streaming the anime as it airs.

The anime suspended its broadcast on December 18 due to TBS' Hо̄dо̄ no Hi special end-of-year programming. The series then postponed airing again on January 1 due to special New Year's programming. Episodes 10 and 11 aired on December 11 and December 25, respectively.

The series previously aired a compilation special on November 13, delaying the seventh episode's broadcast.

The show is the first main Gundam television anime series with a female protagonist.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury Prologue, the prequel episode for the show, debuted on the Gundam.info YouTube channel outside of Japan on September 1. The prequel anime also debuted on streaming services in Japan on September 4, and later aired on MBS and TBS on September 25.

Hiroshi Kobayashi (Kimi no Iru Machi, Kiznaiver, Spriggan) is directing the anime at Bandai Namco Filmworks/Sunrise, with Ryo Ando (Interviews with Monster Girls, Double Decker! Doug & Kirill) as co-director. Ichiro Okouchi (Code Geass, Princess Principal, Sk8 the Infinity) is credited for series composition and as scriptwriter. Mogumo is credited for the original character designs, and Marie Tagashira, Juro Toida, and Hirotoshi Takaya are drawing those character designs for animation. Takashi Ohmama (Castle Town Dandelion, Mobile Suit Gundam Twilight AXIS) is composing the music. The anime's mechanical designers include JNTHED, Kanetake Ebikawa, Wataru Inada, Ippei Gyōbu, Kenji Teraoka, and Takayuki Yanase.

The anime's official website published an English translation of Ichiro Okouchi's "Cradle Planet" prequel short story for the anime on November 10. The story is told from the point of view of the Gundam Aerial, and is also the basis of the lyrics for YOASOBI's opening theme song "Shukufuku" (The Blessing) for the anime. The anime's Japanese website published the short story on October 2.

The anime will also have an upcoming novel adaptation. The anime's SF Researcher and novelist Yūya Takashima is writing the novel adaptation. The novel will be serialized in the Gundam Ace magazine.

Source: Gundam.info