SDCC 10: Bandai nabsTurn A Gundam, Tales of the Abyss

1:00 AM on 07.23.2010   |   Jeff Chuang

At San Diego Comic Con today, Bandai set the alternative mecha crowd into an elated buzz with the announcement of Turn A Gundam TV. On top of that, Bandai called dibs on the Tales of the Abyss TV series and the manga for Kannagi. 

If you've been following Gundam for a while, you probably know that 1999's Turn A Gundam is the black sheep of the family. Being a fully Yoshiyuki Tomino product, it is as Gundam as it gets, yet its alternative mecha and character designs are as far away from today's sharp-looking pretty-boys piloting sleek, angular giant humanoid weapons of destruction as you can imagine. Somehow despite all of that, Turn A wormed into my heart like no other Gundam has, and it's my personal favorite from the massive franchise. I blame Sochie.

The Tales of the Abyss TV anime aired back in 2008, which is a much more recent show to be acquired and announced at a 2010 con. This adaptation of the 2005 video game features most of the same voice cast as the game, and even uses the same opening song.

Kannagi manga, on the other hand, is a somewhat different thing than the anime. Besides its reputation as a 2ch joke where angry otaku post pictures of torn Kannagi manga in protest of Nagi's ill-defined virginity, Kannagi's mangaka also had a hard time with some serious illness, and finally resumed drawing manga as of late last year, with no words as to when Kannagi will resume serialization. I highly recommend reading the chapter when they go karaoke, though.

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