Mobile Suit Gundam has been around for 35 years since its launch in 1979, and its popularity continues to grow. Yuki Tomino, the "Father of Gundam", is also the chief director again this year, taking on the challenge of a new Gundam anime. This is "Gundam G: The Restoration Movement", which began broadcasting in October this year.

Since Yuki Tomino hadn't participated in the TV series since the end of "Inverted A Gundam" 15 years ago, his reappearance has sparked a lot of buzz. This month, director Yuki Tomino celebrated his 73rd birthday, and a Japanese media also interviewed him again.

Q: Mobile Suit Gundam G has been on the air for a while now. From "Inverted A Gundam" to "Emperor Wars" and "Wings of the Light", it feels like the pace is getting faster and faster. I also felt the change in director Tomino.

Tomino: I didn't think anything was going to change. When I was thinking about how to create the G Restoration Movement, I realized that I could pursue this kind of speed, and that's it.

Q: During the period of Inverted A Gundam, the key word of the work was "full affirmation", and the concept of "Gundam" was included in it. Why did you take such a stance at the time?

Tomino: At the time of "Inverted A", I was bound by the concept of "total affirmation", and I didn't reach the point of "breaking away from Gundam". And "full certainty" is an idea that only arises because of the existence of "Gundam". Now, after 15 years, when I was thinking about breaking away from Gundam, the result was the creation of the G Restoration Movement.

Q: From "total certainty" to "detachment from Gundam", you can also feel Director Tomino's strong attack.

Tomino: I don't want to die like this. …… Look at this world, there are many office workers who retire according to their age, and they are just abandoned as a matter of course. There are countless examples of this. But if you think well at work, this will not happen. Why did it lead to two different endings? Because those who retire on the right track also give up their studies when they leave the company, and then just leave their jobs.

Of course, there is also a kind of helplessness behind this phenomenon: some people have been overused in the era of office workers, and the director zhì is too tired to do anything. But for those who are not engaged in the primary industry, if they want to continue working before they die, then they can only continue to think about work, right? And I think the only way to do that is to work with young people after the age of 60.

And this kind of feeling, when I saw "The Wind Rises" directed by Hayao Miyazaki last year, I feel that I can say it even more. …… Today, Mr. Miyazaki received the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. At that time, my wife said something to me.

Q: What did your wife say?

Tomino: She asked very dryly, "Don't you feel jealous?" "Well, I don't have that idea at all. Rather, it would be a good thing if the work of Japanese animation could be evaluated in this way.

However, after she asked, I also realized a problem: for me, Mr. Miyazaki and director Takahata are both overwhelming seniors. Although I was only one year away from Mr. Miyazaki, when I joined the company and first started working in acting, he was already producing "The Great Adventure of the Sun Prince Halls". Therefore, I felt that I was "one step late", and although I was able to participate in the production of "Girl in the Alps" after 10 years, in my heart, I still felt that this peer still had an overwhelming advantage.

When I was making Mobile Suit Gundam, I also felt a little unwilling: although I always felt that I could catch up with him if I worked a little harder, he was still the one who was absolutely untouchable. A person who knows how to learn can reach that state, and a person like me, who can't learn things, can only memorize by rote stupidly. The reason why I can say such things now is because people like me, who can't learn things, have studied in the past 15 years, so that I can make "G Restoration Movement".

Q: In other words, it was because of these 15 years of study that I was able to get out of Gundam.

Tomino: If you count from the time when the project began, the G-Restoration Movement has gone through quite a long period of time. And I threw away everything that I had thought of in the first three years. Because it can't achieve "Breaking Out of Gundam". In any case, even if you make a story like the end of the world in Gundam, it doesn't make sense. Children don't read. Moreover, the things of this kind of great battle can be easily embodied in the previous "Gundam" works. Now, if you still make those old-fashioned machine qì animations, to use a popular phrase, it is "no innovation". Then I thought about adding concepts such as the space elevator to the world of my new work, and I was able to find a way to "break away from Gundam."

Q: When we first heard that there would be a space elevator in this work, we couldn't understand why it could be associated with Detachment from Gundam, but after looking at the footage, I thought it would be clear. Machine qì animation often pulls the picture left and right, and the cosmic elevator displays the picture vertically, which really gives people a great impact.

Tomino: It's also called a "rocket train".

Q: It's like a bell when the train leaves, just like a train.

Tomino: It's rare to see something like this, right? It was because I got this new feeling of portrait that I was able to continue doing it.

Q: How did you progress from the space elevator to the establishment of the worldview of the "G Restoration Movement"?

Tomino: If it was an ordinary machine work, it would have evolved into a doomsday war. In order to avoid this feeling, it is necessary to bring the work to an era 1000 or 2000 years later. And in the face of this feeling of spanning 1,000 years or 2,000 years, there are two theories: technology theory and fashion theory.

For example, let's start with the theory of fashion. If 1,000 years have passed, then all kinds of people will be mixed together, and in this way, there should be all kinds of fashion factors in society. In SF works, there are often images of people wearing uniform-like clothes, but I don't think that's possible.

From a technical point of view, it is ultimately an energy theory. In order to avoid the complicated controversy that may be encountered in reality, I have set up the energy concept of PhotonBattery. In this way, the worldview is established, and this kind of plot structure allows me to finally face children around 10 years old and say, "Cheer up." "Thinking of this, I had an idea: I could put the plot in a situation where "animation is a stupid thing".

Q: In the final analysis, fashion theory and technology theory are the background of this work.

Tomino: It's a "seed", and although this work seems to be in line with the silly plot of the anime on the surface, it should still leave some traces in everyone's hearts. For example, when you see a cosmic elevator, you may think, "Is it possible to achieve such a design?" "If it does, in what form?" And soon, there will be children who will have such thoughts, right? BOTH THE CORE OF CAPITALTERRITORY · SUKODO is still a term like Kuntara, as long as it can attract everyone's attention. These elements will definitely become the "seeds" for the audience to think about things in the future. That said, this is not the subject of the G-Restoration Movement. And since it's not a topic, I don't intend for people to see something more in-depth. These elements are not meant to be enjoyed by everyone, but only to serve as inspiration.

Q: This also includes one aspect of Director Tomino's hope that children will be able to watch "G Restoration Movement".

Tomino: Yes. There is a philosophy of life called "Having spirit is an important thing". And it's very important that we have that mindset. If we were able to raise such healthy children, they would not get involved in the stupid world of today's adults and might have come up with a sound way to cope with the future. At worst, the state of the world; To put it mildly, the people who are pushing for the development of the Gundam industry, even if the fools, including me, can realize the problem, but it will not help. Fools like us don't suddenly open up. That's how people are. After 35 years of working on Gundam, I can conclude that the NewType theory is impossible. So all we can do is make up our minds and sow the seeds for a better future.