‘Mobile Suit Gundam RG XARX-ZERO’ Director Kamiyama Kenji Built His New Series Around a Metaphor for AI Fears: ‘Will We End Up Being Used by It?’

By Naman Ramachandran

Naman Ramachandran

Latest

• Boxing Legend Chris John Joins Silver Media Group for Animated Series ‘Dragon’s Dojo’ (EXCLUSIVE) 6 hours ago
• Rohit Sharma, Ajay Devgn, Madhuri Dixit Nene and A.R. Rahman Lead Sony Pictures Networks India Content Slate 16 hours ago
• HIDIVE, Mainichi Broadcasting System Ink Anime Output Deal, Set ‘Nia Liston: The Merciless Maiden’ Premiere (EXCLUSIVE) 16 hours ago

Kamiyama Kenji says the alien threat driving his new “Gundam” anime is a direct metaphor for humanity’s uneasy relationship with artificial intelligence.

The director, known for “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex” and “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim,” tells Variety he built “Mobile Suit Gundam RG XARX-ZERO” around that anxiety.

The series follows Ray Azumi (voiced by Takeo Otsuka), a war orphan who awakens on the lunar surface as the pilot of the experimental mobile suit Gundam ZERO. The story begins decades after humanity is forced to abandon Earth in the face of a hostile, self-replicating ecosystem born from an alien object’s three revelations: gravity control, faster-than-light communication and cognitive materialization. Humanity marks the years since in a calendar counted from that exile.

Related Stories

'Jumanji: Open World' Trailer: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart and Jack Black Return for Third and Final Movie