Thought of this site after watching an NHK documentary about the 40th anniversary of Gundam.

It's been a while, folks.

In hindsight, I'd say that GundamOfficial didn't satisfy the primary objective of the company: to market Gundam merchandise. Mark and I built it to satisfy the cravings of hardcore Gundam fans for more info (which I guess indirectly fuels desire for more merchandise), whereas my employer was trying ...

I'm very glad I left Bandai 4 years ago. The writing was on the wall around the time of my departure, both for the Gundam franchise and for BEI as a whole. I'm impressed that the latter managed to survive on life support for so long. My only regret is that I didn't leave sooner.

-- Keith

When does Harmony Gold's racket... er, license to Macross expire?

-- Keith

When I wrote fully-realized 3D worlds, I was talking about the wide-open environments one might see in Armored Core or Modern Warfare, not smaller combat rings and stages that happen to be in 3D. *grin* As others have pointed out, Banpresto's line of strategy and tactics games likely wouldn't do wel...

If you need proof that Japanese entertainment companies tend to lack a good understanding of the N. American market, just look at Bandai Visual. They set up Bandai Visual USA with the attitude of "you guys can't market anime for $#!+ - we're going to show you how it's done! We're going to show ...

I'm sure we'll see a flurry of activity when Gundam UC starts.

-- Keith

To say that fans want Gundam to be popular in N. America, is to say that people in Hell want ice water. (Hint: they aren't getting ice water.) Bandai is too accustomed to deriving 70% of its Gundam revenue from merchandise to attempt a Gundam show with international appeal. Doing so would risk losin...

I'd opine that bashing and bullying is borne out of a need for self-validation than a sincere desire to spread one's hobby. I'll be the first to admit that I've done my share of the former in the past, but I'd like to think I've mellowed out a bit since. With official franchise support out the windo...

I sometimes wonder if the desire to see Gundam do well in America is borne out of a need for self-validation, a genuine desire to share one's hobby with others and see it grow, or the hopes of reasonably-priced merchandise instead of expensive imports. For those still holding out hope for a miracle,...

Technically, one is not allowed to freely distribute someone else's copyrighted/trademarked product, even one that has been discontinued and is no longer sold, without the proper owner releasing the discontinued product into the public domain. As far as I'm aware, neither Bandai nor DIMPS (the devel...

If this is indeed a private server - and it sure looks like it, based on the info on the site - one wonders if Bandai Namco's legal department is aware of this. Then again, one wonders how much effort Bandai Namco would put into a cease & desist for a game/service that was shuttered years ago......

When it comes to shows that depend heavily on merchandise sales for profit - essentially, they are merchandise commercials writ large - the profit/loss equation for both the TV network and the company making the show depends on more than just the broadcast ratings. Sometimes, a TV network will pay a...

I will be going. Good luck finding me in a sea of thousands, though.

-- Keith

Jim Raynor in powered marine suit.

-- Keith

Obscure trivia: the very first home for the Gundam Project was a Mac IIcx at my student job at the University of Illinois. No, I'm not kidding. I had to evacuate the site to a different location after my boss noticed that my work machine was receiving a noticeable amount of traffic. ^^; Mark has pro...

I lurk most of the time, but I figure saying hi is the polite thing to do. After six years at a certain Japanese entertainment company, I walked away from the phenomenon vowing to not look back. Still, I can't resist the temptation to check in on the state of the franchise and fandom every now and t...

A belated congratulations on the anniversary. The Gundam Project is but a memory, and GundamOfficial has fallen into a state of neglect, but MAHQ still endures. That counts for a lot.

-- Keith

Yeah. Not to knock an online community where I lurk from time to time, but for the purposes of university admission, asking for recommendations from members of an online forum for anime probably isn't the best approach. Surely there are people in your community, such as a teacher or community leader...

In any day and age, there's always something that acts as a catalyst, and/or serves as the scapegoat, for a tragic incident. Books, movies, parents preventing their child from dating someone, you name it. For better or worse, it is human nature to find something other than themselves to blame for th...