Kodansha USA announced today that it will be publishing a premium deluxe hardcover edition of Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s mecha manga series Mobile Suit Gundam: THE ORIGIN in Fall 2025. The first volume is expected to be released later this year and will be distributed to retailers by Penguin Random House.
The company releases several sample pages from the manga and has released a preview of the first chapter on its official website. The preview pages below can be read from right to left.
Mobile Suit Gundam: THE ORIGIN is a retelling of Yoshiyuki Tomino and Hajime Yatate’s main story of the original 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam anime series. Yasuhiko served as the original character designer in the series.
Yasuhiko first launched the manga in Kadokawa Shoten’s Gundam Ace magazine on June 25, 2001 and ended on June 25, 2011. A total of 24 tankobon volumes were released during its publication. The series also received aizoban, or collector’s edition versions, in Japan as well. The manga was first released in English in North America by VIZ Media and by Vertical between 2013 to 2015.
A prequel spinoff manga titled Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin MSD: Cucuruz Doan’s Island, written by Junji Ono, was released between June 25, 2016 to May 25, 2019. It takes places before episode 15 of the 1979 TV anime series.
Mobile Suit Gundam: THE ORIGIN also inspired a 4-episode OVA series between February 2015 to November 2016 and another 2-episode OVA titled Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin – Loum Arc from September 2, 2017 to May 5, 2018. The OVAs were later compiled into the 13-episode TV anime series Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin – Advent of the Red Comet. Sunrise handled the animation production for all the installments.
Kodansha USA describes the main synopsis of Mobile Suit Gundam: THE ORIGIN as:
In the world of Mobile Suit Gundam: THE ORIGIN: It is the year Universal Century 0079, in a space colony the Earth Federation is storing and testing a new piloted robot for use in the battle against the Principality of Zeon. The experimental RX-78 Gundam mobile suit is scheduled to be transported to Federation command in Jaburo, deep within the Brazilian jungles. Unfortunately, before the transporter would arrive, the Federation would come under attack from Zeon. With few resources available against the Zeon’s most mobile mechs, Federation forces strike back using their new weapon, the mobile suit Gundam.
Caught in the crossfire is a young teen named Amuro Ray. Not willing to see innocent people die like this, Amuro crawls into the cockpit of the closest machine around him. Whether it be a tank, jeep or jet, he was going to use it to help stop this slaughter. And what he happened to slide into was another Gundam. Having never operated a machine like this, what are the chances he can do anything to repel an experienced squad of mech-piloting invaders?
Source: press release
