HGAnno Domini

GN-001 Gundam Exia CEREZO OSAKA Ver.

The reliable HG Exia mold dressed in cherry blossom pink and sky blue for a J.League team that never fielded a single mobile suit.

MechaGrade Score

3.3/5

Exia · 1/144 · 2020

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2020

Runnersn/a

Check price on Amazon

Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

The verdict

I like this kit more for what it is than what it does.

It is the same HG00 Exia frame Bandai has sold since 2007, repainted and re-decaled in Cerezo Osaka's pink and light blue as part of Bandai's run of J.League collaboration Gunpla. The engineering underneath is a decade-plus old and it shows in a couple of joints, but the base Exia sculpt still holds up as a clean, sword-heavy silhouette, and the novelty of a football-kit Gundam is genuinely fun on a shelf next to the standard releases.

Best for: Exia completionists and J.League crossover collectors who want a novelty variant, not builders chasing the sharpest HG engineering on the market

The full review

What it is

This is the familiar HG00 GN-001 Gundam Exia, the very first HG kit released for Mobile Suit Gundam 00, given a team-color reskin for Cerezo Osaka as part of Bandai's J.League Gunpla promotion. You get the same GN Sword, GN Beam Saber, GN Shield, and interchangeable GN Long and Short Blade parts as the standard release, now molded or decaled in the club's pink and light blue instead of Exia's usual white, grey, and blue. Setting it next to a normal Exia on the shelf and clocking the swapped palette is a genuinely fun moment, and the plastic itself feels a touch smoother and shinier than typical HG grey.

The catch

This is a promotional recolor of an old mold, not a new engineering pass, so the well-known Exia limitations carry over. Elbow bend tops out around 90 degrees, and the rear skirt armor blocks the thighs from swinging back very far, which caps some dynamic poses. The team colors and Cerezo Osaka branding lean on stickers and marking decals rather than molded color separation, so the finish is only as clean as your sticker application and topcoating. It also does not include a clear or light-up beam saber effect part, and secondhand pricing on these J.League variants runs well above a standard HG Exia because of limited print runs.

Who it's for

Grab this one if you already love Exia and want the novelty of a football-club colorway, or if you collect the J.League Gunpla series and Cerezo Osaka is your team. Skip it if you just want the best version of Exia's engineering or articulation, since a standard HG Exia gets you the same frame for less money and a plain RG or MG Exia will out-articulate and out-detail it by a wide margin. It is a fun conversation piece, not an upgrade.

The build story

What the build is actually like, and the engineering worth knowing about.

The build itself is straightforward HG-level snap-fit, gate placement is unremarkable but workable, and the plastic Bandai used for this run feels a bit shinier and smoother to the touch than the standard grey HG Exia runners. Nothing about assembly will surprise anyone who has built an HG before, which is exactly the point of this kit line.

Where it earns its keep is the accessory set: the GN Sword doubles as a rifle and blade, the GN Long and Short Blades slot onto the forearms for the Seven Swords look, and the GN Shield gives you a defensive option too. Articulation is a mixed bag by modern standards, strong at the neck and waist, weaker at the elbows and rear hip swing, which is squarely typical of a 2007-era HG frame wearing a 2020 paint job.

Lore & trivia

01This is a J.League collaboration release: Bandai Spirits partnered with Japan's professional football association to sell club-colored HG Gundam Exia kits, and Cerezo Osaka, whose name means cherry blossom, got the pink and light blue treatment.
02The base mold is the original HG00 GN-001 Gundam Exia, the first HG kit produced for Mobile Suit Gundam 00, piloted in the anime by Setsuna F. Seiei of Celestial Being.
03Exia carries the nickname Gundam Seven Swords for its full complement of GN Sword, Long Blade, Short Blade, and Beam Saber melee weapons, reflecting its close-combat design focus.
04The name Exia is widely believed to derive from exousia, the Koine Greek word for authority, tying into the angelic-order naming convention Sunrise used across the Gundam 00 mobile suit lineup.