Remember some months ago, around the time of the Shizuoka Hobby Show when leaks of designs and model kits for what’s supposedly the next Gundam series came out? Well, they were true all along as this year’s San Diego Comic-Con opens with the folks over at Sunrise revealing the next mainline Gundam series: Mobile Suit Gundam RG XARX-ZERO. The fact the announcement was done on a western event was a first, and it makes sense when considering another recent Gundam announcement. This brings us to the RG Project.
During Summer Game Fest 2026, a new Gundam game was announced: Gundam Rogue Orbit. At that time, it was thought as just a one-off Gundam game to further expand the reach of the franchise. But with the RG Project, everything makes more sense as the game is sharing the same universe as Gundam RG XARX-ZERO.
Pioneered by Kenji Kamiyama, most known for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and Eden of the East, the RG Project is a multimedia project aimed at providing at multi-faceted immersion to the sci-fi universe he has created. Both the anime and game are full experiences on their own, but the connections provide a grander scale of this world. So far these two entries have been revealed but more should be expected to come.
Many people will bring Gundam AGE when it comes to this anime and game approach, but I would better compare the RG Project to another similar work from the last couple of years. Project SYN was a multimedia project from Bandai-Namco that spawned the anime SYNDUALITY: Noir and game SYNDUALITY: Echo of Ada. Whether the project was a success is debatable, but the RG Project is definitely taking the same approach, albeit with different release orders.
The story takes place in the After Apocalypse (or A.A.) calendar. Years prior, the arrival of an Autonomous Interstellar Object ushed technological advancements to humanity. Gaining technologies for Gravity Control, Faster-Then-Light Communications, and Cognitive Materialization, humanity expanded to the rest of the Solar System.
Yet less than ten years since the Object arrived, it went berserk and spawned a self-replicating ecosystem, which was dubbed as “Apocalypse.” Humanity fought the Apocalypse in orbit and was forced to abandon the planet, marking the first year in the After Apocalypse calendar. Gundam RG XARX-ZERO takes place in A.A. 45 where Ray Azumi, who has never known a world without the Apocalypse pilots the Gundam ZERO to fight for what humanity has lost.
Depending on how the series is presented, I’m inclined to believe it will have a much darker, and borderline depressing tone. Humanity already lost and based on what we saw in that Gundam Rogue Orbit trailer, the fight against the Apocalypse will remain for years to come. There are similarities betwen the premise of this series and the manga Gundam Eight so it’s quite interesting that the franchise is experiementing beyond the usual politially-driven conflicts.
Our main protagonist is Ray Azumi, like Amuro “Ray.” We don’t know much about him besides losing his parents in the fight with the Apocalypse. His hairstyle doesn’t help with the tone I’m getting from this series, but we’ll see how he plays out.
Here’s our new hero machine-slash-titular mobile suit, the XARX-0 Gundam ZERO. And again, this is the exact design that got leaked months ago. It was designed by Eiichi Shimizu, known for the mechanical designs for Linebarrels of Iron and the ULTRAMAN manga/anime. Ever since I saw his works on other properties, I became curious how he’s going to design a Gundam and now we have our answer. Compared to the more unorthodox designs we got previously, especially from Gundam GQuuuuuuX, Gundam ZERO is more on the traditional side, but not Kunio Okawara-traditional and it’s still unique on its own.
I do want to quickly gloss over the leaks we supposedly got. While the profile drawings for Gundam ZERO, and the model kit which we’ll cover later, were true, there’s one that we should take with a grain of salt. If you saw the leaked image of what’s supposedly “Gundam ZERO Full Equipment,” then I’d think twice before believing it. For one, it’s definitely taking a page from the Unicorn Gundam and its Full Armor configuration. Then if you check the text for the equipment list, they’re just names of weapons from other Gundam series. Until we get more information, I suggest not treating that leak as gospel.
The other notable thing we saw in the announcement trailer is this guy. While our main antagonist is the Apocalypse, there still might be politically-driven conflicts with whichever faction this Char Aznable-clone belongs to. He might have ditched the whole masked man gimmick, but he has a red Gundam so we’ll also have to see how this guy plays out.
Towards the end of the trailer, we see this interesting visual.
If you check out the key visual released for the series, the Gundam ZERO seen there isn’t the shiny new mobile suit seen for most of the trailer. It has “bandages,” a cloak, and some parts which are definitely alien-looking. Not to mention the glowing core on its chest and how certain areas of its right arm, and its right optic are glowing in the same color. I’m inclined to think this might be some assimilation with the Apocalypse but that’s pure speculation on my end.
I would love to get a kit of this version of Gundam ZERO though, again, model kits on a separate post.
They also released some of the staff working for this series. Just like Gundam GQuuuuuuX, Gundam RG XARX-ZERO is yet another collaboration production, this time with SOLA Animation. Note that SOLA Animation is not the same company as SOLA Digital Arts. SOLA Animation was recently founded in 2022 and focuses on traditional (i.e., 2D) animation, while SOLA Digital Arts was established in 2009 and leans more on 3D CGI animation, with works like the ULTRAMAN anime where Eiichi Shimizu is also a collaborator.
Mobile Suit Gundam RG XARX-ZERO is slated for a 2027 release. Check out the full reveal video along with the teaser and staff commentary below.
Still on the RG Project, we also have an update regarding Gundam Rogue Orbit, with the full design of the ARK-10 Gundam Helix finally revealed.
Gundam Rogue Orbit takes place a good 90 years after Gundam RG XARX-ZERO at the year A.A. 135. While there are similar visual cues between the Gundam ZERO and Gundam Helix, the overall design is quite different. The much busier design is obviously needed given the difference in medium. How this, and the Gundam ZERO would translate to model kit form is what we’ll check out next.
