Shopping Guide
**Mobile Suit Gundam: Advocation of Anti-War Sentiments and Taking the Western World into Account**
―What’s your reason behind depicting the war from both sides in the Gundam series? Also, did you ask people who have experience about war for the production?
T: Those who grew up in the 1960s have at least a minimal understanding of the memories retained by Japanese people about the war that happened 20 years ago. Besides that, I was able to observe what could be called military history. Those were my basic resources.
At the time, most war accounts were from the viewpoint of one side. However, when you think about how a battlefield is made up of a few hundred or a few hundred thousand people amassing on each side, if it weren’t for both sides standing up for their justice, such a thing as a battlefield probably wouldn’t even come into existence.
Since most of these stories were written from one standpoint, I felt it would be nice to have a story showing both sides from an overhead angle. And after that it was making the TV series a long one, even though it’s a robot anime. I supposed the war setting would provide a lot of material to depict for both sides, and in Gundam, I aimed to create a story capturing both allies and enemies.
Especially since anime is something people usually watch at a younger age, if you only tell about the principles and the position of one side, you will inevitably end up influencing their thoughts in a sense. This had me concerned, which was the other reason I put great care into looking at the situation—war—from a high angle.
―Are there anti-war sentiments in the first generation Mobile Suit Gundam, where you acted as supervising director?
T: Of course. Absolutely true.
―You depict two personalities in Char and Amuro. When creating them, did you make them together from the start or was it one by one?
T: If you only have one character to establish the play, no dramatic conflicts will occur, so I make it a process of creating the characters together.
―If we compare Char and Amuro, who is more important? Or do you consider them characters of equal weight?
T: Now that’s a hard question. In the process of direction and establishing the play, Char is more interesting. However, since I placed Amuro as the main character of the story, I have to create situations to make him a character I can oppose to Char. In Amuro’s case, finding the balance was really hard since I made him too much of an ordinary person.
Paying Respect to the Predecessors and Sending an Heir to Children of the Future
―In Mobile Suit Gundam, there are so many slap scenes that even a famous line “Even my father didn’t hit me!” was born. Do you consider that an important scene?
T: Yes. I’m very conscious about it and I perceive it as something important. What I want to say is that in a sense, children need you to show them a clear example. Such things also exist in the European cultural sphere, for instance, in college life, relationships with one’s seniors and juniors, and in the past, even whipping and such was accepted. In the impression of modern people, who replaced all similar behavior with the word “violence,” there are instances when such things are considered arbitrary, and although kind, still arbitrary violence.
Which is why I think it’s okay to have such behavior in a play or fiction, because people sometimes encounter situations where they have to overcome their pain.
―About your character Char, if we were to say he was inspired by the Red Baron 1 of World War I, what points did you take as reference?
T: Back in that day, of course, I used him as a reference. The problem is this: Upon researching the career of the Red Baron, you realize that the merits of one pilot, one soldier, no matter how great they are, have basically no influence on the whole aspect of a war.
There is something I learned about that time through WWI. This thing called chivalry still existed during that era, and both Prussia and the Allied Powers deeply respected soldiers. But that respect disappears during the civil war that followed in military history. I wanted to consider this problem when adopting the subject. Wasn’t incorporating something similar to the relationship between Prussia and France and the British Empire with the Red Baron in the center of it in the spirit of people of the past who don’t make war atrocious? This is what I wanted to depict.
This is something I actually wanted to tell people in the Christian cultural sphere more, since Japanese people just don’t see this. They don’t notice at all. They are indifferent to the point it’s almost offensive. It is because of this kind of background that I take it to heart when people treat Gundam as an ordinary robot anime.
―Lastly, the Gundam series has fans all around the world. Please send a message to your new fans and audience out in the world.
T: If there are those among you who started thinking about something because of Gundam, it’s time you broke out of it. And if you can’t find your answer, throw the question at the next generation and try to get an answer from them. That’s the kind of adult we want to be.
I think that the next generation, that is, children, will know why Gundam was depicted in the same way over and over again, that they will see something similar to human boundaries in it. I want you to break through those boundaries. Gundam struggles hard throughout the entire series to break them down. I would be grateful if you looked at it this way.
^1^ An alias of Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, the ace pilot of the German army during the First World War. He got his nickname from painting his fighter red.
This is a Tokyo Otaku Mode original article written by Kohji Sakurai and translated by Barbara Tar. Photos by Tetsuya Hara.
