Commemorating 80 years since the end of World War II, The Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) interviewed Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino about how the War impacted his life and work, the ideas behind Gundam and his future creative endeavors. A new Gundam story by Tomino may also be in the works soon, and he teased what kind of direction said story could take – this time, there will be no “enemies” in the classic sense of the word.
“I desperately want to make it into a story about battle,” Tomino says. “However, there will be no enemies in my next story. Perhaps humankind, who uses the Earth to live on it, is the enemy. I want to create such a story, and I’m certain I’ll be able to start it off as an anime.”
The reason why his next work may not be a story featuring “classic enemies” is fueled by Tomino’s own perception of the contemporary human, and could possibly be due to how the Gundam franchise had been treated over the years.
The Gundam series debuted with Mobile Suit Gundam in 1979 and has garnered huge popularity ever since – however, almost 50 years have passed from its creation, and many of its original intentions and core messages seemingly got lost in time. We must not forget, though, that Mobile Suit Gundam is a work created as a result of war trauma – it is very upfront about depicting the horrors of war and does not want to leave the viewer indifferent about it. One of Tomino’s main goals writing the story was in fact to make his audience face the realities of war and most importantly – think about it. However, he doesn’t seem quite satisfied with how his stories are being ‘consumed.’ While keeping a vague attitude, Tomino remarks that in recent days, people have “stopped thinking about things.”
“People find it surprisingly easy to detach themselves from thinking. They fidget with Gundam models and say, ‘Oh how cool.’ That’s how it is in this day and age. But this isn’t just a present-day problem, I believe. In the industrial revolution, the moment people saw a steam locomotive, they started admiring its power, and thus stopped ‘thinking about things.’”
Tomino continues: “But if you asked me if I were able to just teach this to young children, I’d say no, as I’m no teacher. For the past 20 years, I’ve been determined to find someone who would, despite my tendency to only talk about vague things, take my words and convey them to the world a bit more clearly. However, I deeply feel like that kind of person just hasn’t appeared yet.”
