"Gundam Cross War" new booster pack "Wings to the Future" Launch Eve Event, Event Report

▲From left: MC Yuki Ayami, As'Maria, Yuta Otani, Tomotake Kinoshita, and Koma

"Gundam Cross War", the card game that you can play in real life as well as an app, had a commemorative launch event on June 23 (Thursday) for its newest booster pack, "Wings to the Future", the evening before launch, at Gundam Cafe Akihabara.

For the event, the popular and prolific Gundam Cross War illustrators As'Maria, Yuta Otani (PLANETA), Tomotake Kinoshita, and Koma appeared and held a talk show amongst themselves. In the second half, there was the world's fastest Booster Draft tournament using "Wings to the Future" cards, and the whole venue got riled up. Let's check out what happened below!

▲The venue was decorated with Cross War art and took on an entirely different atmosphere.

▲Line goes out the doors, a drawing was held because attendees exceeded capacity.

The event started off with a toast commemorating the launch of the "Wings to the Future" booster pack. The speakers then introduced themselves, chose their favorite mobile suit, and what they would like people to pay attention to in their works.

As'Maria's favorite mobile suit is "Z Gundam", and within the "Wings to the Future" pack, "V2 Buster Gundam". His favorite scenario is a battle scene in space, and wants you to notice things like the Hyaku-shiki's plating texture. He also expressed a desire to draw "Prototype Unit 0 Blossom" into Cross War.

Yuta Otani's favorite mobile suit is the "Build Gundam Mk-II". For his current work, he is responsible for mechs like "Neo Zeong", and drawing severe battle damage and hyper effects. He would also like you to pay close attention to the background as well.

Tomotake Kinoshita likes the mass-produced versions of MS, and tries to draw things with a raw, unrefined look to them. After receiving a commission to draw a battlefield image, he tries to include a human in it when possible.

Koma's favorite MS is "RX-78-2 Gundam". He is responsible for things like "G-3 Gundam" and "Gundam F90" in this current work. For suits that had no prior video, he enlarged many illustrations to draw from. He also left a lot of the nuances of the line drawings in to give it their own special touch.

When asked about what other artists' work they enjoy in Cross War, they mentioned Naochika Morishita, who didn't appear on stage this time, and drew attention to a particular scene Morishita drew. When asked about what their favorite gundam work was, three of the artists selected "Mobile Suit Gundam", but when Otani chose "Gundam Build Fighters", the audience let out a gasp of surprise.

Finally, it was announced that the Cross War World Championships will be held December in Singapore, and with parting words from all the guests the show ended.

After the talk show was over, the venue was converted to hold the world's fastest "Wings to the Future" booster draft tournament. The newest cards were made available to be used, and soon the venue heated up with competition.

After the talk show, there was also a roundtable discussion amongst the four illustrators, so let's cover what was talked about there as well.

First, thinking about why he became an illustrator, As'Maria mentioned that as a child he enjoyed drawing pictures, and that was probably a major factor in his becoming an artist. Next, Yuta Otani and Tomotake Kinoshita both wanted jobs drawing and joined the workforce, but the job wasn't quite what they imagined it to be, and they couldn't draw what they really wanted to, so with determined focus they had a career change and became more independent. Koma quietly drew in his company employee era, and a chance opportunity arose during that time. Each person had their own unique origin story as to why they became an illustrator.

Regarding this fall's upcoming second season broadcast of "Iron-blooded Orphans", the mass-produced MS loving Kinoshita likes the "Graze Custom" above all, while Koma mentioned that "Iron-blooded Orpans" has many different mechanical designers working on the series, so he would like to draw a variety of different mobile suits. Otani has drawn large mobile suits and mobile armors such as "Neo Zeong" or "Alpha Azieru", so for him it's the "Graze Ein". As'Maria said he wanted to try drawing the Mobile Worker.

In the end, the four speakers were asked what they would like to say to people who want to become illustrators in the future. All of them mentioned that the human relationships and networking are very important. Therefore, those who are aiming to be illustrators should meet with other people and create relationships to help achieve their dreams.