Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin

The series was first serialized in the magazine Gundam Ace in Japan from 2001 to 2011 and has been collected in 24 tankōbon volumes, with the last volume containing extra side stories. Both are published by Kadokawa Shoten under their Kadokawa Comics A imprint. Viz Comics attempted to translate the series and publish it in America in a quarterly, perfect-bound magazine-sized format, although low sales very quickly ended the American run.

Although Viz released 12 volumes of its English translation, they do not correspond with the Japanese volumes. The English volumes, with an average length between 100-130 pages were about half of that of the equivalent Japanese tankōbon, which ran anywhere between 200-270. The length varied as some contained just four chapters, some contained an additional "special" shorter side story, and others contained a full five chapters. The reason for this could be that the Japanese serialization focused on keeping distinct chapters. As a result, the English serialization ended up having a higher price point than its Japanese equivalent with only roughly half of the content. The Viz release stopped near the end of volume six in the Japanese version.

The popularity of the manga in Japan has led to the release of aizōban or Collector's Edition versions. Each collector's edition combines two tankōbon volumes (combining the beginning and end sections into one), creating large, leather bound, hardback editions with dozens of pages printed in full color, as opposed to about 5 pages per tankōbon.

At Otakon 2012, North American publisher Vertical announced that it will publish an English language adaptation of the series in hardcover format similar to the Aizoban editions.[2] The first volume was released on the March 26, 2013 and the series was completed with the publishing of the 12th volume on December 17, 2015.

A spinoff of the manga, titled Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin MSD: Cucuruz Doan's Island (Japanese: 機動戦士ガンダム THE ORIGIN MSD ククルス·ドアンの島, Hepburn: Kidō Senshi Gandamu THE ORIGIN MSD Kukurusu Doan no Shima), was written by Junji Ōno and serialized in Gundam Ace from June 25, 2016 to May 25, 2019, 10 years after the original manga's serialization and collected into five tankobon volumes. The manga serves as a prequel to episode 15 of the original TV series.[3]

Sunrise announced in June 2011 that an anime adaptation of Gundam: The Origin was in production.[21] In March 2014, it was announced it will be a four-episode OVA series with event screenings at Japanese theaters, in celebration of the 35th anniversary of Gundam, and centering on the stories of Casval Deikun and his sister Artesia. The first episode, titled The Blue-Eyed Casval (青い瞳のキャスバル, Aoi Hitomi no Kyasubaru), premiered in limited Japanese theaters on February 28, 2015.[22][23] Sunrise produced an English dub recorded at NYAV Post for the first time since Bandai retired their Gundam license.[24] Another two-episode OVA series, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin: Loum Arc, was released in 2017 and 2018.[25]

A 13-episode anime television recompilation of the OVA series aired from April 29 to August 12, 2019 under the title Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin – Advent of the Red Comet (機動戦士ガンダム THE ORIGIN 前夜 赤い彗星, Kidō Senshi Gundam: The Origin Zenya Akai Suisei).[26] Sugizo produced the theme songs.[27] His band Luna Sea performed the three opening themes, the first being "Sora no Uta ~Higher and Higher~" (宇宙の詩 ～Higher and Higher～),[28] the second "Hisōbi" (悲壮美),[28] and the third a cover of TM Network's "Beyond the Time (Moebius no Sora wo Koete)" (BEYOND THE TIME（メビウスの宇宙を越えて）), the ending theme of 1988's Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack.[29] For the ending themes he decided to collaborate with female singers. The first ending theme is a cover of Daisuke Inoue's "Meguriai" (めぐりあい), the theme song of 1982's Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space, by Sugizo feat. Glim Spanky.[27] The second ending theme is a cover of Hiroko Moriguchi's "Mizu no Hoshi e Ai wo Komete" (水の星へ愛をこめて), the second opening theme song of 1985's Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, by Sugizo feat. KOM_I (Wednesday Campanella).[29] The third ending theme is the new song "A Red Ray" by Sugizo feat. miwa.[29] The last is a cover of his and Morrie's co-composition "Hikari no Hate" (光の涯) by Sugizo feat. Aina the End (BiSH).[30] The English dub for the Advent of the Red Comet TV recompilation series was broadcast in the United States on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block from July 7 to October 6, 2019.[31][lower-alpha 1]