I’m falling back on Unicorn again, but when we first were brainstorming of how to distribute it, we thought of going the traditional OVA route like its UC predecessors 0080 War in the Pocket, 0083 Stardust Memory, and 8th MS Team.
Ogata: By going for the movie format we created yet another way to enjoy UC Gundam. Why was it that you chose for Gundam NT to be a theatrical release as opposed to an OVA like Unicorn or Gundam Thunderbolt? Fukui brought together all the Universal Century storylines up until that point and arranged them into Gundam NT. Ogata: You’re right, the pieces will overlap at times, but Fukui intends for NTto be the punctuation point between Unicorn and the rest of the UC timeline. Gundam NT has the potential to be a very influential film as the starting point of this ambitious project.
If we were delving into further UC territory, why not keep going? Only once the production for NT was underway, did we decide to follow up with projects that were attached to games, novels, and manga. Ogata: “UC NexT 0100 Project” at its core is a way to fill in the gap between the events following the conclusion of Unicorn and the start of Gundam F91. This is the series that will start the “UC NexT 0100 Project,” correct? We thought about naming it Unicorn 2 or Unicorn 1.5-to connect it to Unicorn-but we went with Gundam NT because it is a new narrative added to the Universal Century timeline. Ogata: During our meeting, we agreed on using Phoenix Hunting as a motif, or starting point, but ultimately rewriting to bring in a new main character and what not. The movie changes quite a lot from Phoenix Hunting. Continuing an already drawn-out series with even more story would take time, though, so Fukui decided to start with bringing in the Unicorn Gundam 03 Phenex from Phoenix Hunting. A story that takes place around the same timeline as Unicorn seemed to be a given, so we dabbled in the idea of a Gundam Unicorn 2. The series was such a success that we talked about where we might be able to take it next. Ogata: In 2014 the final Unicorn Gundam OVA release, then in 2016, the TV version Gundam Unicorn RE: 0096 aired, and finally in 2017, the life-sized Unicorn Gundam was erected in Odaiba. Quote: - First off, how did production for Gundam NT get rolling?