Yoshiyuki Tomino

Gear School is opening up new frontiers. Here you have Yoshiyuki Tomino with a copy of the comic in an event that took place some days ago in Tokyo. It is an honor for us to see one of the fathers of modern sci-fi/anime robots posing with our book.

Yoshiyuki Tomino (Odawara, 1941) is one of the top Japanese animation directors and writers. He started his career in 1963, in legendary Mushi Productions, the company of Osamu Tezuka, the “god of manga”. Some years later, he went on and worked for another of the most popular studios in the country, Sunrise.

In 1979, the concept of robots showed by Tomino in Mobile Suit Gundam lifted him to the elite of the industry, a place he’s been occupying for the last 30 years thanks to the many anime series set in the huge world of Gundam and also other creations such as Space Runaway Ideon, Heavy Metal L-Gaim or Brain Powerd.

In the seventies, the model of a super robot such as Mazinger Z prevailed in sci-fi anime. They were gigantic robots that had all kinds of powerful weapons and could withstand any attack from an enemy with just some scratches. However, when he conceived his Gundam, Tomino chose to make a more realistic robot, which could be destroyed by an external attack. In his world, everything the robot could do (such as flying) or use (such as weapons) could be explained by science. His idea captured the audience’s attention, and it’s been used countless times until today.

Tomino even gave a new turn to his concept in one of his latest creations, Overman King Gainer, where he made an enlightening parody of the genre, at the same time respecting the graveness and strength that any combat robot must have.

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