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Video game production mogul Bandai Namco is accused of hurting LGBTQ sentiments by greenlighting unnecessary censorship of a quote that refers to Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury's Suletta and Miorine as a married couple. The word "marriage" was removed from a recently updated version of the Gundam Ace magazine of July 2023 in reference to the two women's relationship.
Enraged fans on X, formerly known as Twitter, have expressed their anger and disappointment over this decision. Many have publicly called out the production house for the pointless censorship and have asked them to apologize for their action.
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury anime.
Bandai Namco's Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury controversy explained
It is a known fact among the fans of the franchise that the main characters of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, Suletta Mercury and Miorine Rembran, are in a romantic relationship. Their marriage was also explicitly referenced by the voice actor of Suletta, Kana Ichinose, in an interview for the July 26, 2023, issue of Kadokawa's Gundam Ace magazine.
"In the epilogue, the scene where Miorine puts her head on Suletta's shoulder is so good. 3 years have passed, I could feel that the space between the two of them had become more intimate; seeing a married couple in that form, once again, my heart was touched," Kana Ichinose said.
Despite not directly animating a marriage sequence, various details had been sprinkled on the screen that suggests that the marriage did happen, sealing their romantic relationship as canon.
Some instances of their relationship are the women wearing wedding rings in the last scene and Suletta's sister Eri addressing herself as Miorine's sister-in-law. Furthermore, the official English-language Twitter account of the series referred to Miorine as Suletta's wife in a tweet soon after the final episode had aired.
The trouble began when an update of the digital edition of the July 2023 issue was released. Fans quickly spotted that the quote referencing the marriage of the two women was starkly omitted. Bandai Namco faced a major backlash after netizens accused the production house of intentionally censoring the LGBTQ relationship.
Tweets quickly started flooding in, demanding Bandai Namco to edit the omitted statements and make a public apology. Here are some tweets that reflect the displeasure of the fandom:
Bandai Namco has since issued an apology and a statement explaining the discrepancies between the print and digital editions. They said they wanted to leave it to viewers' interpretation about whether Suletta and Miorine truly get married.
"As the work publisher, we would like to leave the anime watchers to understand the story in each of their own ways and leave the rights of interpretations to the watchers."
This statement further angered fans as it essentially denied the couple's relationship. LGBTQ themes in Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury were never ambiguous. From the beginning, the series had been unapologetically presenting their relationship as romantic.
The anime series Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury is currently available for streaming on Crunchyroll.
Stay tuned for more anime and manga updates as 2023 progresses.
