Music and Visuals—when these two realms collided, a new wind was born in the Turn A world. Yoko Kanno and Akira Yasuda. What did they bring to Turn A, and what will the upcoming concert be about?
The Legacies of the Turn A Gundam Sequel(s) That Never Came to Fruition
It’s Turn A Gundam‘s 25th anniversary! What a milestone achievement for such a culturally relevant anime. I want to do something special to celebrate—a deep dive into the sequels that never came to fruition. This article will replace my outdated What do we know about Turn A Space? article, but I’ll leave the link active and redirect readers to this page. Bear in mind that this is a work-in-progress. New details will continue to surface as time goes on, but I figured I had accumulated enough to write an updated article.
On August 10, 1999, while Turn A Gundam was in-between episodes #18 and #19, Director Yoshiyuki Tomino was informed by Sunrise producer Masuo Ueda that Turn A Gundam would NOT be greenlit for a second year of broadcast. A sequel story had never officially been in the cards, but Tomino had hoped that one would be made. He had already been planning scenario ideas, after all, and this news didn’t necessarily stop him from continuing to expand on them. In fact, planning documents and memos for a sequel concept were on display at The World of Yoshiyuki Tomino exhibition (2019-2021). Sadly, due to photography limitations, photos haven’t surfaced on the internet.
An Overview of Turn A Gundam’s Animation Directors
An Animation Director (作画監督, sakuga kantoku) or AD, colloquially known as sakkan (作監) in Japanese, is responsible for maintaining the quality and consistency of the animation of an episode. They may manually revise key frames and layouts to match a certain level of quality, and/or give instructions to key animators to correct their drawings. Animation directors can be broken down into subcategories like Character Animation Director or Mecha Animation Director. In Turn A Gundam, this level of distinction is only made in a handful of episodes.
There’s a trend in the sakuga community to make what’s called an “AD Chart”, basically showcasing characters drawn in each AD’s style in an easily-digestible chart. This highlights the differences in how the characters are drawn throughout the show. It’s a fun little activity, so I’ve created one for Turn A Gundam. I’ve also included a brief introduction of each animation director, along with the episodes that they worked on. Do note that this chart doesn’t include every AD on the show—for instance, Masami Goto was mecha animation director on a few episodes, and Atsushi Shigeta’s overarching involvement is largely uncredited.
Continue reading “An Overview of Turn A Gundam’s Animation Directors”
An Analysis of the Dark History and Correct Century Timeline
My goal with this article is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the Dark History and Correct Century timeline as thematic concepts, and to examine their legacies. The Dark History tends to find itself in never-ending fandom discourse, so I hope this article serves as a useful reference.
The Dark History is a term used to denote the history of wars that were repeatedly fought during the Space Age. These eras had names like the Universal Century, Future Colony, After Colony, and After War, and after countless years of war and destruction they would become memories sealed from human consciousness. Turn A Gundam is set in the “Correct Century”, thousands of years after the last catastrophe of the Dark History, in which nanomachine-powered Gundams devastated the Earth’s surface and annihilated most of the population. During this catastrophe, a nation of people escaped from Earth to settle on the Moon. The remaining humans on Earth have since recovered to the level before the Industrial Revolution, and traces of Dark History technology remain buried underground. This is the basic premise of Turn A Gundam‘s timeline.
Newtype Magazine (05/1999) – Q&A with Akira Yasuda, Kunio Okawara, and Syd Mead
The following is a translation from the May 1999 issue of Newtype Magazine. It has been slightly edited for clarity and readability.
Newtype Magazine (06/2000) – Beyond the Horizon: Yoshiyuki Tomino x Nozomi Omori
The following is a translation from the June 2000 issue of Newtype Magazine. It has been slightly edited for clarity and readability.
Newtype Magazine (05/2000) – Cast Member Reflections
The following is a translation from the May 2000 issue of Newtype Magazine. It has been slightly edited for clarity and readability.
Newtype Magazine (04/2000) – Examining Turn A Gundam’s Main Scriptwriters
The following is a translation from the April 2000 issue of Newtype Magazine. It has been slightly edited for clarity and readability.
THE MIRACLE OF WORDS
Naturally, the appeal of Turn A can’t be described in just a few words.
Turn A Gundam & G-Reco now available to stream as part of the GUNDAM FAN e-FESTIVAL 2023 (limited time)
Good news! As part of the GUNDAM FAN e-FESTIVAL 2023, both Turn A Gundam (TV) and G-Reco (movies) are available to stream via Gundam Info’s YouTube channel. This is only for a limited time (November 23 – December 10), so take advantage of it while you can. Please note that it is region-locked to U.S. audiences only. Gundam Info held an online poll to decide which two Gundam titles would be streamed as part of the event, and Turn A and G-Reco won, for TV series and movies respectively! While this technically isn’t the first time Turn A has been on streaming services (it had a brief stint on Daisuki), it hasn’t been readily accessible for ages. Similarly, G-Reco (TV) was only ever streamed on Australian-service AnimeLab, and some of the movies have appeared on Gundam Info—but this is the first time all five are available to stream for U.S. audiences. Hopefully the demand and positivity from the community will be noticed by Bandai and these two shows will become permanent fixtures on streaming services in the future, in all major regions.
Turn A Gundam (TV) full playlist
Continue reading “Turn A Gundam & G-Reco now available to stream as part of the GUNDAM FAN e-FESTIVAL 2023 (limited time)”Newtype Magazine (09/1999) – Interview with Akira Yasuda
The following is a translation from the September 1999 issue of Newtype Magazine. It has been slightly edited for clarity and readability.