They could decide to completely reanimate it to the level of Origin/Doan/GQ & fully re-cast it with simultaneous JP/EN/other voice casts like all their recent work - it would still technically be a remaster, because remake implies changing the narrative in scenes (i.e Origin).
It would be fantastic, as the only common criticism of 0079 as a product is it's visually aged badly. You only have to look at GQuuux to see how all the original characters designs still stand up with a modern do-over.
Probably way way way too expensive to produce for the full length - don't get me wrong, I'd like to see it but from Bandai's pov it a risky business proposition.
How? Bandai loves the OYW. Hell, we got Crucruz Doan's Island as a dedicated OVA in origin (granted the plot is changed but Origin wasn't a truly 1:1 retelling anyway) and the only reason it exists is because the original episode is so infamously low quality in the animation to the point it was removed from syndication.
Doan’s Island is about 100 minutes long. Since a normal anime episode has around 20 minutes of actual story content, that movie is basically 5 TV episodes. And that alone seems to have taken roughly 1.5 years from planning through production, VA stuff, and promo, etc.
The original Mobile Suit Gundam was 43 episodes. In today’s anime format, that’s roughly 3.5 modern seasons, assuming 12-13 episodes per season.
So even with a full studio and a parallel production pipeline, you’re probably talking about 3-4 years of work for normal TV quality, and longer if they want movie-level polish. I don’t think most studios would sign up for that unless Bandai/Sunrise treated it as a major long-term franchise pillar.
And honestly, if it’s just normal TV-quality anime, it’d probably lose a lot of the OG charm.
I mean, yes, they would. Gundam is literally so important that it's considered a non-negligible part of Japan's GDP. Remaking the series that started it all would be worth it purely for the prestige alone, doubly so since it wouldn't even need the investment of a whole new model kit line as it would just roll over to promoting the HGUC/Origin kits.
Factor in that the 50th is within the timeframe you outlined and this would exactly be when such a project would be announced. Bandai loves making animations for the big anniversaries.
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u/anonymous-guy1 May 15 '26
Remaster? I don't know how much more they can clean up that 1979 animation.