Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Art Book Won’t Be Resold

The staff for Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury confirmed that it will not re-sell or accept mail orders for the art book based on the show. According to social media posts on Twitter, this has lead to exceptionally long lines in Japan as people try to purchase it while it’s available.

水星のスタッフお疲れ様本の待機列が異次元
ガンダム島としては過去最長とかありそう pic.twitter.com/YzKHzOMsmT

— 邪道＠C103土曜 東M-11a (@SD_JADOU) August 12, 2023

As a note, this art book is technically unofficial. Bandai Namco did not release it. Instead, the staff who worked on the Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury anime released it independently at Comiket. As such, there are blatant references to SuleMio on the cover, as well as in the book itself.

It’s unclear if the staff planned on releasing the art book beforehand in an official or non-official capacity. However, the release of the book comes at a time when netizens both in and out of Japan are highly critical of Bandai Namco. Bandai Namco currently own the rights to Mobile Suit Gundam. It removed references to SuleMio from an interview with Kana Ichinose, who voices Suletta, and stated that the ship is “open to interpretation.” Many fans pointed out that the show did not leave much room for interpretation. They also suggested that Bandai Namco would not have put out such a statement if SuleMio was a heterosexual pair.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury is available on streaming services like Crunchyroll. The art book is still available to purchase, but you will not be able to directly buy it from the staff afterwards.