2nd season based on spinoff manga debuts on March 24

The official website for the anime based on Yasuo Ohtagaki's Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt manga began streaming a promotional video for the second season on Friday. The video previews the fifth episode of the net anime series and new characters. (Note: the linked video is region-locked to Japan.)

The website also announced three new characters and cast members and posted a key visual.

The new characters and cast are (note: romanizations of new character names are not official):

Yurina Furukawa as Bianca Carlisle



Tomokazu Sugita as Vincent Pike



Ryota Ohsaka as Billy Hickham



Returning characters and their mobile suits include:

Yūichi Nakamura as Io Fleming



Atlas Gundam RX-78AL



Ryohei Kimura as Daryl Lorenz



Acguy MSM-04



The second season of the net anime will debut with the fifth episode on March 24. The sixth, seventh, and eighth episodes will premiere on April 28, May 31, and June 30, respectively. Episodes will again be available via an EST (Electronic Sell Through) service that allows purchasers to download the episode or through a TVOD (Transactional Video on Demand) service that allows rental viewing for a set period.

The story of the fifth episode begins on Earth seven months after the One Year War ended. The remnants of the Principality of Zeon reform as the Republic of Zeon and continue to battle. Daryl had piloted the mobile suit Psycho Zaku in the end of the war at the "Thunderbolt Sector," where the Moore Brotherhood's fleet was annihilated. After losing the Psycho Zaku, Daryl descends to Earth and takes up an intelligence position to gain information about the South Seas Alliance, a military group within the Earth Federation. Io, who faced off against Daryl, is selected to pilot the prototype mobile suit Atlas Gundam and heads toward Earth.

Bandai Visual began streaming a teaser trailer for the new season in November with the tagline, "The war is not over yet…" The first season of the net anime began streaming in December 2015, and the fourth and final episode began streaming in April.

The first season received a director's cut edition titled Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt December Sky , which includes additional scenes. Right Stuf released an import edition Blu-Ray Disc of the director's cut with both English and Japanese audio tracks on July 2.

Ohtagaki launched the manga in Shogakukan's Big Comic Superior magazine in March 2012, and Shogakukan published the eighth compiled book volume on June 24, and the ninth will ship on January 30. Viz Media publishes the manga in English, and shipped the manga's first volume in November.

Thanks to Dennis R. for the embedded video.

Source: Animate Times