The official website for the anime of Yasuo Ohtagaki's Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt manga posted a key visual for the first episode on Wednesday. The visual features Ensign Io Fleming of the Earth Federation and Sergeant Daryl Lorentz of the Principality of Zeon, along with their respective mobile suits, the Full Armor Gundam and the red Psyco Zaku. The accompanying tagline reads, "The two are fated to kill each other."

The story is set in the same One Year War in UC 0079 as the first Mobile Suit Gundam anime series. It follows the battles between two ace pilots at the "Thunderbolt Sector," a shoal zone with numerous wrecks of space colonies and warships.

This year's 23rd issue of Shogakukan's Big Comic Superior magazine published on Wednesday the mechanical design of the Full Armor Gundam, as well as the character designs of Io Fleming, Daryl Lorentz, the Federation's Claudia, the Zeons' Carla, and the Zeons' "Living Dead Division."