"Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury" 2nd Anniversary Visual
This was released on twitter as part of the 45th anniversary of Gundam as a franchise and to mark the 2-year anniversary of the original broadcast date of Witch From Mercury (October 2nd, 2022). Check out the Crunchyroll article for additional information. Synopsis of the first season from AniList:
A.S. (Ad Stella) 122
An era when a multitude of corporations have entered space and built a huge economic system. A lone girl from the remote planet Mercury transfers to the Asticassia School of Technology, run by the Beneritt Group which dominates the mobile suit industry.
Her name is Suletta Mercury. With a scarlet light burning in her pure heart, this girl walks step by step through a new world.
This show got a lot of hate at launch (as well as attempts at gatekeeping from the chuds bemoaning the influx of normies and "woke"), while I said screw that and enjoyed the excellent world building and storytelling. The pacing did fall apart in the second cour (to the point where I was convinced there was going to be another full season) but I still enjoyed it overall. Hard to believe it's been two years already.
It's not the whole fandom. But WfM (generally) highlighted the split between folks who were fans of the overall themes of Gundam (anti-war, character focused, fast and loose with sci-fi despite the real robot designation, etc) and people who just want "gritty" war anime (stupid space magic, why are there strong female characters in my cartoon, MUH WAR CRIMES, etc). It was a whole big thing on the old site and Twitter.
Oh man, you have no idea. I never fail to get shocked when I interact with colleagues or interview job candidates and realize that they were born in like 2005. Constant reminder of mortality 😢 (and yes, I used an emoji to make myself feel younger, if even just a tiny bit).