Mobile Suit: Gundam has wrung in its fortieth anniversary in style, with bigger and bigger announcements coming down the pike with each passing month. As the completion of the Gundam Satellite finalizes plans for launching next year as a part of the 2020 Summer Olympics taking place in Tokyo, New York City even celebrated their very own Gundam Day with the creator of the franchise, Yoshiyuki Tomino. Not one to rest on his laurels, Tomino has also just received a prestigious award from Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs!
Anime News Network shared the info that Yoshiyuki has won the “Commissioner for Cultural Affairs Award” from Japan, with recipients of the honor described as “individuals who have made distinguished accomplishment in artistic and cultural activities.”
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The press release for the receiving of the award by Yoshiyuki read as such:
“Over many years, as [Tomino] released a multitude of great works as an animation director, he has endeavored for the growth of the next generation and made a great contribution to the promotion of Japan’s arts and culture.”
Mobile Suit: Gundam was originally created in 1979 and has spawned not only countless variations of the mech suit, but numerous series that place the weapons and their pilots into different time lines and universes. Gundam Wing finds five young pilots neck deep in a celestial war for example, while G Gundam shows off the legendary mech suits battling each other as representatives for their countries.
Tomino himself has certainly been busy as the franchise isn’t just continuing to create new anime series, but also has a live action Hollywood feature in the works. Legendary Pictures here in the states tapped comic book, and entertainment, writer Brian K Vaughn in putting together the adaptation. Whether the movie will follow a story that was already established in one of the anime series is yet to be seen, but we’ll certainly be keeping our eyes peeled!
What do you think of Yoshiyuki Tomino receiving this prestigious award for his work on Gundam from Japan? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and Gundam!
Mobile Suit Gundam is one of the most popular franchises in the world, and that popularity is only expected to grow as Sunrise continues to release new projects for the franchise. This includes new anime based in the original Universal Century storyline, which will next see a film trilogy based on the Hathaway’s Flash novels, a returning anime for its SD Gundam spin-offs, and even a brand new live-action movie coming to the West co-produced by Legendary, a studio who is currently in the midst of bringing a new take on Toho’s Godzilla franchise to the screen.
