Bandai Namco has distanced itself from the ending of the recent anime series Mobile Suit Gundam The Witch from Mercury.

Spoilers ahead for The Witch from Mercury.

Throughout the series run, the relationship between protagonists Suletta and Miorine. After Suletta joins the Asticassia School of Technology, she finds herself involved in a competition among Mobile Suit pilots, with the top prize being Miorine’s hand in marriage.

At first, Suletta simply wants to protect Miorine and the fact that they’re both girls and engaged is played off as incidental. But this doesn’t last long and throughout the series the two grow closer.

This culminates in a final scene showing Miorine and Suletta in the near future with each of them wearing flashy rings conspicuously on the ring finger of their left hand.

In a later interview, Kana Ichinose the voice of Suletta reportedly referenced how the two were married in an interview with Gundam Ace magazine. The digital version of the interview article was allegedly altered later to remove this reference.

The official site for The Witch of Mercury took things a step further and told fans that the relationship between Suletta and Miorine is up for interpretation.

Thank you for your continued support of “Mobile Suit Gundam Witch of Mercury”.

Regarding the interview article published in the September 2023 issue of Monthly Gundam Ace, some of the descriptions differed between the paper magazine and the electronic version, causing confusion to everyone who supports the work. I’m sorry.

In the article, there was a sentence based on the speculation of the Gundam Ace editor, and despite requesting corrections at the time of proofreading, the correction of the relevant part was not reflected, and it was released on July 26th. It has become

On the work side, we would like to leave it up to each and every one of you who have seen the main story to understand and interpret it, and we would like you to enjoy the work. The description has been revised as originally requested and is now being distributed.

Once again, I would like to sincerely apologize for causing a great deal of trouble and worry to everyone who supports the work.

–Official Site, Translation (Google)

This prompted pushback from fans who had taken the ending of the series to assume the two were married due to the wedding rings both Suletta and Miorine were wearing.

You can check out the scene for yourself here. (Obviously spoilers).

Some fans are speculating that the sudden change from Bandai Namco may have to do with the sudden popularity of Gundam (Gunpla) models in China, which may react negatively to a series with two lesbian protagonists.