Acclaimed anime studio Bandai Namco Filmworks (formerly Sunrise) has revealed a “50th Anniversary” celebration for their studio, with new projects to mark the occasion over the next 3 years (from 2026 to 2028). First up, there’s a new Armored Trooper VOTOMS project is in the works for this year! It will be titled “Armored Trooper VOTOMS: Die Graue Hexe” (which translates from German to English as “The Gray Witch”). The new series will be directed by none other than the legendary Mamoru Oshii (Director of classics like Uresei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer, Patlabor: The Movie, and the original Ghost in the Shell) with animation production from SUNRISE and production assistance from Production I.G.
The original Armored Troops Votom anime premiered in Japan in 1983, and was a pioneer of the “Real Robot” genre of mecha anime, building off of what Mobile Suit Gundam started in 1979. VOTOM’s success (along with the success of combined episodes of Gundam being edited into films and being released in theaters) lead to the revitalization of Gundam series in Japan, starting with “Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam” in 1985. The original 1983 “VOTOMS” series was never followed up with sequel series, but instead VOTOMS received numerous OVAs over the 80’s and 90′ (either stand-alone OVAs or mini-series).
The studio known as “Sunrise” was originally formed in 1972, but this “50th Anniversary” celebrates goes back to the studios first bit hit: “Invincible Super Man Zambot 3”, which began airing in 1977. At that point, the studio became “Nippon Sunrise”. In 1987, it became simply Sunrise and introduced what would become its well-known logo, a geometric “S” with the bottom representing the sky and the top representing the sun. In 1996, after moving to the famous Kami-Igusa studio, the logo was sightly modified. Sunrise was officially renamed “Bandai Namco Filmworks” in 2022.
Since 1977, the studio has produced over 500 titles to date across a wide range of genres. The three-year-long celebration will involve new commemorative projects (with new anime and merchandise). This will be a Bandai Namco Group-wide event and group companies such as BN Pictures, SOTSU and Bandai Namco Music Live will also lend a hand in this major celebration. So yeah, why just celebrate the 50th in 2027, when you can start the festivities in 2026 and keep going through to 2028?
Aside from that the 50th anniversary campaign has also revealed a celebratory visual brand identity, designed by none other than Uesugi Toshiaki (Mach 55), with a visual illustrated by art director and graphic designer Kosuke Kawamura and a tagline created by Ryosuke Takahashi, reflecting on what will the next 50 years of creation will be like:
More details to come as one of the biggest celebrations in the history of Japanese animation is yet to begin.
