Saturday, March 13, 2010

Gundam World is Unreal, said Yoshiyuki Tomino

A talk called "Introduction to Gundam Astronomy" was held on March 9th, featuring three guest speakers including the creator of Gundam, Yoshiyuki Tomino, "Gundam UC" author, Harutoshi Fukui and astronomy professor, Jun Fukue (福江純).

The event was held at Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, which is 270 meters above sea level in Tokyo Sky Deck.

The main objective of the talk is the discuss the possibility of space exploration from Gundam universe's point of view, whether space colony is feasible and other related issues.

Unfortunately, Yoshiyuki Tomino somewhat destroys many people dreams by saying that "the world of Gundam is unrealistic" (ガンダムの世界”は非現実的). He remained skeptic of the possibilities of human beings living in space colonies for as long as 30 years as depicted in Gundam anime as he thinks the environment wouldn't permit it.

"Then, you don't like the world of Gundam?" (じゃあ、ガンダムみたいな世界はないわけ!?) Questioned by Harutoshi Fukui who wasn't very happy about Yoshiyuki Tomino's statment.

"It's just an anime" (だってアニメだもん!) said Yoshiyuki Tomino. ^^;

On the various terms, names and development plans he came up with in the Gundam world, "I can't remember, I just followed my feeling at the time when I created them". ^^; He even said that "Gundams are drawn by people with empty wishes, and Gundam anime producers like him are tormented by that" (ものすごい絵空事をこの人はそれっぽく描くから、僕たち(ガンダムの制作者たち)は苦しめられる). This provoked a lot of displeased grumblings from Harutoshi Fukui.

However, Yoshiyuki Tomino did mentioned that the interest he have in the world of Gundam, he studied astronomy a lot since primary school, and gained a lot of knowledge from it.

Well, the father of Gundam is indeed visionary in creating the world of Gundam, which fascinates and inspires many people, but he's being absolutely realistic about it at the same time. ^^; Also, following Google Translate's translation on the article, some phrases in this posting may not be what Yoshiyuki Tomino said exactly at the event.

Image and information is from Walker Plus News.