{"id":65657,"date":"2026-04-23T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=65657"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:49:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T06:49:03","slug":"mobile-suit-gundam-creator-yoshiyuki-tomino-thinks-many-of-his-fans-are-just-military-geeks-who-didnt-get-the-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/mobile-suit-gundam-creator-yoshiyuki-tomino-thinks-many-of-his-fans-are-just-military-geeks-who-didnt-get-the-message\/","title":{"rendered":"Mobile Suit Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino\u00a0thinks\u00a0many\u00a0of his fans are just military geeks\u00a0who\u00a0\u201cdidn\u2019t get the\u00a0message\u201d\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As highlighted by Japanese literary researcher&nbsp;Kajipon&nbsp;Marco&nbsp;Zangetsu&nbsp;on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/kajiponmz\/status\/2046921503665705180?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">X<\/a>&nbsp;yesterday, the&nbsp;<strong>Mobile Suit Gundam<\/strong>&nbsp;series\u2019&nbsp;original creator&nbsp;Yoshiyuki Tomino recently had some things to say about the state of&nbsp;today\u2019s politics&nbsp;and the way Gundam is consumed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a creator who&nbsp;held memories&nbsp;of incendiary bombs being dropped nearby his own hometown during WWII,&nbsp;it\u2019s&nbsp;no secret that Tomino&nbsp;conceptualized the Gundam series with a strong anti-war&nbsp;sentiment, with the&nbsp;first anime series\u2019&nbsp;One Year War&nbsp;specifically being&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/mobile-suit-gundam-original-creator-on-modeling-the-story-after-the-american-civil-war\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">modelled after the American Civil War<\/a>.&nbsp;While Tomino has on several occasions hinted that&nbsp;he\u2019s&nbsp;not happy with&nbsp;how uncritically Gundam has come to be interacted with (and produced)&nbsp;in recent years,&nbsp;he\u2019s&nbsp;quite outspoken&nbsp;on the topic&nbsp;in the May 2026 issue of&nbsp;Animage.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1014\" height=\"759\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1014px) 100vw, 1014px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260423-65657-001.jpg\" alt=\"Mobile Suit Gundam I\" class=\"wp-image-65660\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260423-65657-001.jpg 1014w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260423-65657-001-380x284.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260423-65657-001-768x575.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEven among Gundam fans, there are many who make statements that are\u00a0a far\u00a0cry\u00a0from\u00a0anti-war. They\u00a0seem to be\u00a0stuck in the mindset of mere military geeks, and in the end,\u00a0perhaps nothing\u00a0of substance is getting across,\u201d he said.\u00a0Kajipon\u00a0links this to a 2025 comment from Tomino\u00a0saying,\u00a0\u201cThe words that come out of\u00a0[Gundam\u00a0fans\u2019]\u00a0mouths are,\u00a0<em>Mobile Suit battles are so cool<\/em>. Nowadays, younger creators are making Gundam, but\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0no hint of war experience in\u00a0what they\u00a0make,\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0just picture stories.\u00a0That is my responsibility for not having taught them.\u201d\u00a0On a similar note, Tomino told\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.47news.jp\/13153044.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kyodo News<\/a>\u00a0last year that he also considers the media responsible for the lack of awareness about\u00a0the true nature of\u00a0war among the\u00a0general public,\u00a0for\u00a0failing to convey\u00a0\u201cthe voices of real soldiers and\u00a0the\u00a0politicians who order suicide attacks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tomino\u2019s new statements seem to come from his disappointment in the state of today\u2019s politics, particularly in Japan, as he comments, \u201cYou&nbsp;don\u2019t&nbsp;even need to look at the example of Nazi Germany to see that dictatorships are usually&nbsp;established&nbsp;through elections. This is exactly the case in Japan today, and&nbsp;I think that&nbsp;the&nbsp;foolish&nbsp;crowd of ignorant people&nbsp;is&nbsp;truly dreadful.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/mobile-suit-gundam-original-creator-on-modeling-the-story-after-the-american-civil-war\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Gundam series original creator teases new work with unexpected twist, because \u201cpeople don\u2019t think anymore\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/gundam-series-original-creator-says-humans-will-never-be-able-to-live-in-space-after-exploring-the-idea-of-space-colonies-for-20-years\/\"><strong>Gundam creator says \u201chumans will never be able to live in space\u201d after exploring the idea of space colonies for 20 years<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the May 2026 issue of Animage, Mobile Suit Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino expressed disappointment in how some fans interact with the series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":65659,"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-65657","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":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mobile Suit Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino\u00a0thinks\u00a0many\u00a0of his fans are just military geeks\u00a0who\u00a0\u201cdidn\u2019t get the\u00a0message\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the May 2026 issue of Animage, Mobile Suit Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino expressed disappointment in how some fans interact with the series.\" \/>\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-creator-yoshiyuki-tomino-thinks-many-of-his-fans-are-just-military-geeks-who-didnt-get-the-message\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mobile Suit Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino\u00a0thinks\u00a0many\u00a0of his fans are just military geeks\u00a0who\u00a0\u201cdidn\u2019t get the\u00a0message\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 - 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