We’re live tweeting our 2nd State Machine for 2024! Not able to catch the stream? Not to worry! We're going to run down all the announcements. See below for our April-July schedule!
Director Tomino once told Romi Park that Turn A Gundam would be a hit in 50 years. Although it's still a niche entry compared to the Gundam giants, the show has since had a renaissance in popularity both in Japan and worldwide. It's especially beloved in Tomino fandom.
Fun fact:
@ichirou_o
, the head writer of Witch from Mercury, got his start in the industry as a writer. In the late 90s he penned multiple Martian Successor Nadesico, Utena, and 08th MS Team novels. The latter got him the attention of Sunrise execs—and by extension, Tomino.
Fun fact: Hideaki Anno has a certain affinity for the year 2015. Not only does the first Angel attack take place in 2015 (on June 22, to be exact), kicking off Evangelion, but Noriko's dad died in 2015. So, what's special about 2015?
Fun fact: The decision to animate the final episode of Gunbuster in black-and-white was not a cost-cutting move—it was a creative choice. It’s actually more resource intensive and time consuming compared to traditional methods.
@SilverwingRes
The final two Science Lessons that were produced for the JP Blu-ray in 2012! Unfortunately, they were not included on the Discotek release, but you can find them here:
Fun fact: The epic transformation sequence in ep. 5 of Gunbuster was drawn by Hiroaki Gōda, best known as the director of the Ah! My Goddess! movie, OVA, and TV series.
Fun fact: Mobile Suit Gundam (1979-80) influenced an untold number of creatives, including the artists at
#CLAMP
. In fact, Mokona is such a big fan of
#Gundam
—and by extension, Yoshikazu Yasuhiko—that she was asked to draw Amuro in her own style. Look familiar?
3DCG was first used in Gundam in Char's Counterattack (1989), per Tomino's request. Sunrise didn't have the inhouse talent at the time, so they outsourced the work to a studio called IMAGICA. It wasn't cheap— allegedly, it cost ¥500,000,000 for the five seconds of footage used.
Fun fact: Koichi Ohata, one of several mechanical designers who worked on Gunbuster, modeled the head of the Sizzler (the mass-production Gunbuster unit) after Gyaos, a winged kaiju from the Gamera franchise.
When asked about this, Anno said, “The date is from an old show I liked as a kid, and it was also the year in which Tetsuwan Atom [Astro Boy] took place.” Classic Anno.
Fun fact: The G-Saviour PS2 game hit store shelves on September 14, 2000, more than four months before the film premiered on Japanese TV! Notably, it actually takes place after the movie, making it the "canonical" endpoint of the U.C. timeline (not counting Gaia Gear).