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Funimation Licenses Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans Anime

Anime News Network's coverage of Anime Expo 2017 is sponsored by Aniplex and Yen Press.

Funimation announced at its Anime Expo panel on Saturday that it has licensed both seasons of the Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans television anime in partnership with Sunrise. The company will release the first season on home video in two parts in late 2017, and the second season in 2018. A special limited-edition release combining both parts is also planned.

The limited-edition release will bundle an exclusive "HG (High Grade) 1/144 Scale Gundam Barbatos + Smoothbore Gun [Metallic Gloss Injection]" Gundam plastic model kit. The metallic finish variant will be exclusive to this home video release of the anime and will not be available anywhere else, including in Japan. In addition the limited edition will include an artbook and chipboard box with space for the two-part release of the anime's second season.

The 25-episode first season premiered in Japan in 2015, followed by the second season last October. Anime Consortium Japan (ACJ) describes the first season:

There was once a great conflict known as the "Calamity War." Roughly 300 years have passed since the end of this war.

The Earth Sphere had lost its previous governing structure, and a new world was created under new systems of government. While a temporary peace had arrived, the seeds of a new conflict were being sown in the Mars Sphere, far away from Earth.

Our hero, a boy named Mikazuki Augus, belongs to a private security company called Chryse Guard Security (CGS). The company accepts a mission to escort Kudelia Aina Bernstein, a girl who seeks to liberate the Martian city of Chryse from the rule of one of Earth's major powers. However, the military organization Gjallarhorn attacks CGS in order to nip this rebellion in the bud. CGS begins an evacuation, using Mikazuki and the other children as decoys.

Orga Itsuka, the leader of the boys, decides to take this opportunity to rise up in revolt and launch a coup d'état against the adults who have been oppressing them. He gives Mikazuki the task of repulsing Gjallarhorn, and Mikazuki enters battle using the Gundam Barbatos, a mobile suit from the Calamity War era which has been serving as CGS's power source.

Daisuki, Gundam.info, and Hulu streamed the first season as it aired, and Crunchyroll is streaming both seasons.

Tatsuyuki Nagai helmed the show at Sunrise, with Mari Okada handling series composition. Yū Itō (Shut Hell, Imperial Guards) drew the original character designs, while Michinori Chiba (Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Mobile Suit Gundam AGE) designed the characters for animation. Naohiro Washio, Kanetake Ebikawa, Ippei Gyōbu, Kenji Teraoka, and Tamotsu Shinohara designed the mechas for the show. Kusanagi was in charge of art design, and Masaru Yokoyama composed the music.