{"id":52012,"date":"2025-09-18T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T15:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=52012"},"modified":"2025-09-18T12:55:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T03:55:39","slug":"mobile-suit-gundam-original-creator-on-modeling-the-story-after-the-american-civil-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/mobile-suit-gundam-original-creator-on-modeling-the-story-after-the-american-civil-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Mobile Suit Gundam original creator on\u00a0modeling the story after the American Civil War\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yoshiyuki Tomino, creator of the Mobile Suit Gundam<\/strong> series, recently spoke to Kyodo News<\/a> in an interview commemorating 80 years since the end of World War II. While offering his personal insights on war, Tomino also reflected on how he created the premise of 1979\u2019s first Gundam. The series\u2019 first installment revolves around the One Year War \u2013 a culmination of tensions between Spacenoids \u2013 humans who were forced to immigrate to space colonies, and Earthnoids \u2013 humans who got to remain on Earth. Given his own vivid memories of incendiary bombs being dropped near his hometown during WWII, creating a cause for conflict between humans felt jarring for Tomino. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile working in anime production, I\u2019ve created several science-fiction war stories. I often made aliens the \u2018enemy,\u2019 but when I decided to make humans themselves the enemy in Mobile Suit Gundam, I realized that to introduce heavy fighter machines in the story, the only plausible scenario was a war between nations with developed military weapons industries. That meant I had to invent a \u201ccause\u201d for war, and I was appalled by the realization.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tomino explains that if the enemy were aliens \u2013 like in his previous work Space Runaway Ideon \u2013 a straightforward invasion scenario would explain the conflict. \u201cBut with humans, a single dictator can\u2019t start a war so easily. In Gundam, I set the story up so that people who had emigrated to space colonies launched a war of independence, driven by the humiliation of being treated as outcasts by Earth.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The premise, Tomino explains, was modeled after the American Civil War, which is also why he consciously incorporated the theme of race into the story. \u201cThe result was a story about boys piloting humanoid weapons called Gundam to fight against the people who had migrated to Space.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tomino also expressed concern about the low level of awareness the general public and creators have about war, which has resulted in media portrayal of war being reduced to action flicks. \u201cEven I, who was just three years old during the war, am now 83, and fewer and fewer people remain who actually remember it. Many war movies have been made in the meantime, but unless filmmakers themselves have at least some experience of war, they cannot truly grasp what it is. As a result, all they can do is depict battle scenes as if they were games, and you end up with action films instead.\u201d The problem lies not only in a lack of experience \u2013 Tomino also considers the media responsible for not properly conveying \u201cthe voices of real soldiers and politicians who ordered suicide attacks, so that people could learn the true nature of war.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a related note, Tomino is currently planning a new unannounced project<\/a>, which will not feature any \u201cenemy\u201d in the typical sense. This decision seems to be his answer to how Gundam has, in his opinion, come to be \u201cconsumed\u201d more through plastic model kits and less through critical thinking in recent years.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Original Gundam series director Yoshiyuki Tomino shares personal insights on war and how he created the anime’s original setting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":52014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,65],"tags":[73,17],"class_list":["post-52012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-nongaming-news","tag-anime","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nMobile Suit Gundam original creator on\u00a0modeling the story after the American Civil War\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Original Gundam series director Yoshiyuki Tomino shares personal insights on war and how he created the anime's original setting.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/mobile-suit-gundam-original-creator-on-modeling-the-story-after-the-american-civil-war\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mobile Suit Gundam original creator on\u00a0modeling the story after the American Civil War\u00a0 - 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