Bandai Namco Holdings introduced that the Gundam franchise made 131 billion JPY in its 2023 fiscal 12 months. This is a a record-breaking quantity of income for the sequence. Masaru Kawaguchi, the president of Bandai Namco Holdings, particularly cited The Witch From Mercury for revitalizing curiosity in the sequence. [Thanks, ANN!]
For reference, 131 billion JPY would equate to round $944 million. Much of those income got here from Gunpla gross sales, which inserts the development that began in FY2020. Of these Gunpla, the Aerial is among the hottest fashions. This matches with the excessive curiosity in The Witch From Mercury. In the earlier fiscal 12 months, Bandai Namco Holdings made 101.7 billion JPY. So there’s a distinction of about 30 billion JPY.
The Witch From Mercury attracted many new followers to the Gundam franchise, based on a March 2023 e-newsletter from Bandai Namco. Most of those new followers are younger folks and girls. Their curiosity in The Witch From Mercury in comparison with different Gundam sequence could possibly be as a result of two principal leads being feminine characters. Many followers have seen the similarities between The Witch From Mercury and Revolutionary Girl Utena. Coincidentally or not, The Witch From Mercury‘s author penned the sunshine novels for Revolutionary Girl Utena as effectively.
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury is offered on streaming providers resembling Crunchyroll. Other IPs which have generated substantial income for Bandai Namco embody Dragon Ball, One Piece, and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime.
