Gundam Creator Yoshiyuki Tomino Has Something to Say to Hayao Miyazaki Critics

The creator of Mobile Suit: Gundam will defend his enemy Hayao Miyazaki until his dying day.

By Evan Valentine

Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino has had a massive impact on the anime world, as the mech suit franchise remains at the top of the hill regarding the genre. As the years pass, the Mobile Suit: Gundam franchise releases new stories that place the mechs into wild new scenarios and often revisit the original universe, such as this year's Gundam: Requiem For Vengeance. Recently, Tomino had the opportunity to talk about another major player in the field, Hayao Miyazaki, the legendary director at Studio Ghibli. During the interview, Tomino didn't mince words when it came to both his respect and envy of Miyazaki's work. 

In a new interview with outlet Full Frontal, the Gundam creator was presented with the idea that Hayao Miyazaki was more of a "craftsman" than an artist, allowing Tomino to defend the Ghibli director, "If he were a craftsman, he wouldn't have done something like The Boy and the Heron. If you say he's a craftsman, you don't know anything. He's an auteur. Look, he made an animated film without a happy end. That's impossible if you do things half-heartedly. That's why I don't think I can compare with an auteur like that. Maybe Miyazaki would rather compare with someone like Victor Hugo. But that's just for The Boy and the Heron. I don't really like Miyazaki's other works either way."

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(Photo: Studio Ghibli & Bandai Namco)

Gundam Vs. Ghibli

Yoshiyuki then took the opportunity to confirm that he considered Hayao Miyazaki his "enemy" thanks to the Ghibli director's sheer talent in the anime industry, "I basically don't have what it takes to be an auteur. That's why the director Hayao Miyazaki has always been my enemy: being in the same era as someone I'd never been able to surpass has become my incentive."

Related:

While the upcoming Netflix anime, Mobile Suit Gundam: Requiem For Vengeance, isn't directly creator by Yoshiyuki Tomino, it will take place in the original anime universe that started it all. If you want to learn more, here's how the streaming service describes the series landing on October 17th, "Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance" is an all-new original animation composed of six 30-minute episodes focusing on the European front of the One Year War, which was the setting of the first Gundam series, "Mobile Suit Gundam." Produced in collaboration with SAFEHOUSE using Unreal Engine 5, the series is written by Gavin Hignight, who wrote the animated series "Tekken: Bloodline" and "Transformers: Cyberverse," as well as the video game "Marvel's Spider-Man," and is directed by Erasmus Brosdau, who has also worked on the animated series "Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness" and the video games "Star Citizen," "Ryse: Son of Rome" and the "Crysis" series."

Want to see what the future holds for Gundam and Ghibli? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook for all things mechs and Miyazaki. 

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