The newest entry in the Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans series has found its lead.
Actor and singer Rina Ikoma announced that she will play the role of Wistario Afam, the main character of the new spinoff story, Urdr Hunt. Ikoma is best known internationally for being a former member of the popular Japanese pop groups AKB48 and Nogizaka46. Ikoma left Nogizaka46 in 2018 to pursue an acting career; while Urdr Hunt will be her first major starring role as a voice actor, she previously starred in the live-action adaptation of Corpse Party in 2015 and appeared in Kamen Rider Reiwa: The First Generation in 2019.
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Bandai released an animated trailer for the Iron-Blooded Orphans spinoff on March 25. Urdr Hunt's story will be distributed through the Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans G mobile app. While the original IBO anime focused on a group of child-soldiers from Mars, the spinoff will tell the story of Wistario Afam, an optimistic young boy from Venus, which has been transformed into a massive prison colony. Afam will pilot the ASW-G-35 Gundam Hajiroboshi, a mobile suit that shares many design elements with Mikazuki Augus' Gundam Barbatos from the original series.
Urdr Hunt's premiere in Japan will also be accompanied by the broadcast of a new "Special Edition" of the 2015 anime on Japanese TV. The new version of the show condenses its story from 50 episodes to just nine, but despite the truncated runtime, the show's producers are promising the addition of new "animation cuts." The new release will also feature a new opening sequence and theme song, "Blaze," which is performed by the Japanese rock band Man With a Mission. An international release for the new cut of the series has yet to be announced.
Iron-Blooded Orphans originally premiered in 2015 and is the 14th series in Bandai's long running Mobile Suit Gundam franchise. Set in a new continuity, the show tells the tragic story of the a group of child soldiers who rebel against their former masters and establish a mercenary group known as Tekkadan.
Urdr Hunt is just one of several new Gundam releases planned for 2022: the latest movie in the series, Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island, will be released in Japan on June 3, followed by Gundam: The Witch From Mercury, an all-new anime series, which will premiere next fall.
Source: Twitter
