Yoshiyuki Tomino is a legend in the anime and manga industry. He is the creator of the Gundam franchise, which commenced in 1979. Since then, there have been countless Gundam anime series and movies, and Tomino has directed most of them. Even though he is the creator of the series, Tomino realized he should have refrained from showcasing a particular thing.
Mobile Suit Gundam featured human-controlled robots that were used to fight intergalactic wars. Yoshiyuki Tomino wanted to relay the message that wars are harmful and cause destruction. Unknowingly, he focused more on wars than the story, even though the anime was directed at children. Later, he regretted taking such a step.
Too Much Emphasis On War Led Yoshiyuki Tomino To Deviate From The Original Plan
Yoshiyuki Tomino created the Gundam franchise so people would learn about the true horrors of war. Instead of focusing on the inner meaning, the fans were fascinated by giant robots and made the anime well-received. As a result, the creator included wars in the following few anime series. Later, he regretted adding multiple war sequences since most of the viewers were children and might be affected by it.
During an interview, Tomino said,
The main audience would have been children. I didn’t want to guide them in a certain direction in terms of ideology. The TV series emphasises scenes of war more than I wanted; the films emphasise the story more.
He mentioned that the series was about fifteen hours long and mainly featured war sequences. It was as if he was over-emphasized on the war factor, even though his initial thought was to discard the dependence on war from the viewers’ minds.
Yoshiyuki Tomino could have focused more on the story instead of over-emphasizing on the deeper meaning. While the anime was directed towards the children, the movies were directed towards the adults. The interesting part was the films had one-fifth of the runtime of the series, yet focused on the story more. The creator could have interchanged the subject matters for the movies and the anime, which might have prevented him from regretting his original plan.
Gundam Was Never Directed To A Particular Age Group
Yoshiyuki Tomino is one of the greatest storytellers ever. Some even consider him to be a better storyteller than the late Akira Toriyama and Eiichiro Oda. One of the best things about Gundam lies in its beauty in capturing audiences from every age group. As the mangaka mentioned, the anime series was for children, and the movies were for adults. The massive robots shooting lasers out of their palms had everyone going wild.
Gundam has created a loyal fanbase over the last four decades. The franchise has been constantly on the rise and is currently worth more than $26 Billion. Tomino worked hard to reach this point, and even though he is 82 years old, he often visits the studio. It is great to see his enthusiasm regarding his work. If only he focused more on the story, he might not have regretted emphasizing too much on the intergalactic wars.
Mobile Suit Gundam is currently available to watch on Crunchyroll.
