08-05-2025
‘Starwing Paradox' Gets New Anime Movie, Despite 2021 Game Shutdown
The anime movie 'As One' is released theatrically in Japan this August. Square Enix, Sunrise
The admittedly excellent arcade mecha game Starwing Paradox is getting its own anime prequel movie this Summer, despite the game's servers shutting down in 2021.
Starwing Paradox was a fascinating arcade game. Developed by Byking, who also birthed the Gundam Extreme Versus games, it also featured character designs by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and mecha designs by Ippei Gyoubu.
The game itself had an amazing cabinet that moved around, and you also had quite comprehensive controls for your mecha. Naturally, I wrote a bunch of pieces about the game back when it was launched in the Japanese arcades in 2018.
However, it didn't really find its audience and the online servers for the game were shutdown in 2021.
That makes this movie rather strange, as it acts as a prequel to the events in the game, but the game is no longer around for anyone to play.
My guess is that Square Enix planned a big media mix for Starwing Paradox, with the anime movie acting as a big part of its promotion. However, the movie got stuck in production hell, and it's only getting released now.
Like the game, it still features characters by Sadamoto and mecha by Gyoubu, but the fact that the game is long gone means the whole context for this movie, called As One , no longer exists.
The new trailer (shown below) looks promising, although the background art looks a tad basic, but the fact that the game is gone really begs the question of who this new anime movie is really for.
In any case, As One will be released in Japanese theaters on August 22 and will probably get a Western streaming release not long after that.
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