Linkin Park Rock Album to Bundle Gundam Plastic Model

Warner Music Japan has announced on Wednesday that the American rock band Linkin Park is contributing a theme song for Bandai Namco Games' Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs. arcade game. In addition, a deluxe box of the band's newest album, A Thousand Suns, will bundle a limited-edition Gundam plastic model ("Gunpla") in Japan on November 24.

The theme song, "The Catalyst," is the first single from the album. Two editions of the album will ship in Japan on September 15, two months before the "Gunpla 30th Anniversary Edition" will ship. This is the first time that a video game from the Gundam franchise has featured a song from a Western musical artist.

The album's Gunpla 30th Anniversary Edition will include a HGUC 1/144 RX-78GP01Fb Gundam GP01Fb Full Vernian "Linkin Park Edition" plastic model kit. According to their official Japanese website, the members of the band are big fans of the Gundam robot anime franchise, and they designed the custom color scheme of the model. The Gunpla Edition will feature special box art with the band members and the Gundam design.

Update: The music video for Linkin Park's "Somewhere I Belong" song (2003) happened to feature several Gundam models — including the Gundam GP01Fb Full Vernian. Linkin Park DJ Joe Hahn remixed supercell's "Black Rock Shooter" song for a stop-motion video included in the Special Edition of the Black Rock Shooter anime.

Hahn had previously directed an award-winning animated music video for Linkin Park's "Breaking the Habit" song. Hahn worked with animator Kazuto Nakazawa (Kill Bill Chapter 3: The Origin of O-Ren, Samurai Champloo, Genius Party Beyond's "Moondrive") and Tokyo-based G.D.H. International on the music video, and the video inspired a graphic novel by Tokyopop.

Californian singer Andrew W.K. released a cover album of J-pop songs that included the "Ai Senshi" song from the Mobile Suit Gundam II: Soldiers of Sorrow film. He then released Gundam Rock, an album of English-language rock covers of Gundam anime songs, last September in Japan.