Turn A Gundam

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Turn A Gundam (∀ Gundam, also called Turn A Gundam) is the 20th anniversary commemorative animated entry in the long-running Japanese Gundam mecha franchise, created by legendary director Yoshiyuki Tomino and produced by Sunrise. Distinct from most earlier Gundam works that focus on near-future space warfare, it adopts a far post-apocalyptic retro-futurist setting, and is famous for its iconic whimsical mechanical design and anti-war, reconciliation-focused narrative.

Key moments

1999Original 50-episode TV series premiered in Japan as the official 20th anniversary Gundam franchise title
2002Two feature-length compiled theatrical films recapping the full TV storyline were released to Japanese theaters
2000s onwardsThe work gradually accumulated a large cult following and was retrospectively recognized as one of Tomino's most thematically gentle, humanistic directorial works

Radical Design Paradigm Break from Traditional Gundam Tropes

The production team deliberately invited renowned American industrial designer Syd Mead to lead parts of the core mechanical design, resulting in the signature Turn A mobile suit with a distinct "mustache" facial profile that breaks decades of established sharp, angular Gundam visual conventions. This choice initially confused and frustrated long-time hardcore Gundam fans, but later became one of the most recognizable and beloved visual markers of the entire franchise.

The Dark History Lore as a One-of-a-Kind Unifying Narrative Device

The series' canonical "Dark History" setting frames all events of every prior Gundam animated work across separate timelines as ancient pre-apocalyptic events buried in Turn A's distant post-apocalyptic past, offering a clever meta narrative framework to tie the sprawling, often inconsistent Gundam multiverse together under a single shared long-term timeline that no other Gundam entry has replicated.

Unexpected Cross-Format Commercial and Cultural Legacy

Despite its initial divisive reception, the Turn A Gundam mobile suit was granted the highly prestigious 100th numbered spot in Bandai's flagship Master Grade plastic model line, and the franchise has made regular high-profile crossover appearances across nearly all major Gundam video game releases for over 25 years, cementing its status as a core canonical part of the broader Gundam intellectual property.

native name	∀ガンダム
genre	Mecha
creator	Hajime Yatate Yoshiyuki Tomino
director	Yoshiyuki Tomino (chief)
producer	Hideyuki Tomioka (Fuji TV) Yoshihiro Suzuki (Sunrise)
music	Yoko Kanno
company	Fuji Television Sunrise
network	Fuji TV, KTV, THK, uhb, TNC, mit, SAY, KSS, FTV, BBT

first aired	April 9, 1999

last aired	April 14, 2000

num episodes	50

list episodes	List of Turn A Gundam episodes

country	Japan

language	Japanese

Turn A Gundam (ガンダム), also stylized as ∀ Gundam, is a 1999 Japanese mecha anime series produced by Sunrise, and aired between 1999 and 2000 on Fuji Television and other channels. It was created for the Gundam Big Bang 20th Anniversary celebration, and is the eighth installment in the Gundam franchise. It was later compiled in 2002 into two feature-length films entitled Turn A Gundam I: Earth Light and Turn A Gundam II: Moonlight Butterfly.

Turn A Gundam was directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, who is the main creator of the Gundam franchise, and who had written and directed many previous Gundam works. Tomino created the series as a means of "affirmatively accepting all of the Gundam series",[1] which is reflected in the series title's use of the Turned A, a mathematical symbol representing universal quantification.

Overview

Turn A Gundam takes place in the year Correct Century 2345 (正暦2345年), in a different calendar era than the previous Gundam projects. The Japanese term for Correct Century, , is a wordplay on the Japanese term for the Common Era (CE) Western calendar system (西暦; pronounced ).[2] The population of the Earth is, at the beginning of the series, limited to simple, steam-driven and gasoline-powered technology after past cataclysms; the Moon is populated by the Moonrace, humans who left Earth after a great war long ago to reside in technologically advanced lunar colonies until such time as they deemed the Earth suitable to return to.

Plot

Turn A Gundam follows the character Loran Cehack, a young member of the Moonrace. Selected as part of a reconnaissance mission to determine whether the Earth was fit for resettlement, Loran lands on the continent of North America, spends two years living on Earth as the chauffeur to the Heim family, and grows attached to its people. With the expectation of a peaceful resettlement operation from his people, he and a pair of his close friends sent down with him confirm that the Earth is now fit for the Moonrace to make their return. He's taken by surprise when the Moonrace intends to return to Earth via an offensive with mobile suits, and their first attack sparks a violent conflict between Earth and moon.

The night of the first attack, Loran is at the White Doll, an enormous humanoid statue, for a coming-of-age ceremony. When the Moonrace attacks and the battle in town can be seen from a distance the children panic. In the midst of this panic, the White Doll shatters, revealing a metallic figure within, and the shrine collapses around it. During the panic, Loran recognizes the White Doll as a mobile suit, and succeeds in applying his knowledge of the Moonrace's mobile suits to pilot it. The death of the Heim patriarch in the attack pulls the family and Loran into the budding war; Loran becomes the designated pilot of the White Doll, and its discovery prompts the excavation of further mobile suits in the various "mountain cycles" covering the Earth. As the Moonrace's invasion rapidly turns into a full-fledged war against the increasingly armed Earthrace, it becomes clear that this state of affairs is divisive among both groups; while the Moonrace's queen Dianna Soreil attempts to negotiate with the local leaders for a peaceful solution by which the Moonrace can come to reside on the Earth, the militaristic among both populations interfere with the negotiations again and again, forcing the war to continue as opposed to accepting a compromise.

Media

Anime

The series aired 50 episodes in Japan from April 9, 1999, to April 14, 2000, on Fuji TV, being the only Gundam anime to air on said channel. It was directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino and produced by Hideyuki Tomioka, Takayuki Yoshii, and Yoshihiro Suzuki. Character designs was by Akira Yasuda and Yoshihito Hishinuma while mecha designs were done by Atsushi Shigeta, Kunio Okawara, Syd Mead, Takumi Sakura. Shigemi Ikeda directed the art and Yota Tsuruoka directed the sound. Toshiaki Ohta and Yoko Kanno composed the music.

The eponymous Turn A Gundam is notable because it is the first Gundam mecha designed entirely by a foreigner, the famous American visual futurist and conceptual artist Syd Mead. The first design of the new Gundam created by Mead was rejected at first by Yoshiyuki due to its extremely exotic appearance, since Tomino decided that he wanted a figure closer to previous Gundam designs. Because of its quality and impressive appearance, the old design was not discarded at all by Tomino, instead renamed and used by him as the antagonist mobile suit design Sumo.[3]

Mead designed the Turn A Gundam using real world industrial design aspects, which were aimed to make it look simple and realistic.[4]

Relationship with other Gundam series

Turn A Gundam has been cited by Director Tomino and other sources as a show that would unify the stories from the various Gundam series into one.[1][9] Throughout the show, mobile suits resembling those from the eras depicted in previous Gundam shows and indicated to be preserved by nano machines for thousands of years, including as those of the Universal Century, are excavated by the show's various factions. In Episode 42, this plotline comes to a culmination as the history of the Correct Century timeline is shown in a collection of clips known as the Dark History (黒歴史), which is revealed to be events that took place in different Gundam series prior to Turn A Gundam, thus making those events part of the Correct Century timeline's history.[10]

The book 2001 Correct Century, A Bibliographical Study of "Dark History", printed in black pages in front of the Universal Century Gundam Officials Encyclopedia, is supposedly uncovered by a fictional Lecturer in Black History named Yokk Wakk Onimott during Correct Century 1993. Onimott spends two years to fix the broken pages, five years to interpret the language, and a year to find a publisher. He states that the book was first printed around 3,000 years ago by the Rhea branch of the Earth Federation Government University. Included in the book is a picture drawn by Kunio Okawara showing a mobile suit supposed to be MS-04 as a S.U.I.T. project of the Zeon

Music

Openings:

Endings:

Inserts:

"Turn A Turn" (ターンAターン) by Hideki Saijo (Ep. 2-38)
"Century Color" by RAY-GUNS (Ep. 39 - 50)

"Aura" by Shinji Tanimura (Ep. 1 - 40)
"Tsuki no Mayu" (月の繭) by Yoko Kanno (sung by Aki Okui) (Ep. 41–49)
"Kagirinaki Tabiji" (限りなき旅路) by Aki Okui (Ep. 50)
"After All" by Donna Burke (First compilation film ending)
"Tsuki no Mayu" (Moon's Cocoon) by Yoko Kanno (sung by Aki Okui) (Second compilation film ending ~ In its full version right before the ending credits which are instrumental only)

"Moon" by Gabriela Robin (a.k.a. Yoko Kanno)
"Overnight Festival" (宵越しの祭り) by White Doll no Matsuri no Kaiichidou

North American release

On July 22, 2010, Bandai Entertainment announced that they had acquired the license to release Turn A Gundam in the United States[14] and that they were planning to release the series on Region 1 DVD in 2011. The release was cancelled in January 2012 when Bandai Entertainment announced it would no longer offer any new products in the North American territory.[15]

On October 11, 2014, at their 2014 New York Comic Con panel, Sunrise announced they will be releasing all of the Gundam franchise, including Turn A Gundam in North America though distribution from Right Stuf Inc., beginning in Spring 2015.[16]

On March 11, 2015, Right Stuf Inc. announced that the first 25 episodes will be released on June 30, 2015.[17] Sunrise and Right Stuf will also release the Turn A Gundam films in addition to the TV series.[18]

Reception

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 designer Yun Kōga cited Turn A when asked about her favorite series within the franchise.[20]

The Turn A Gundam was chosen to be the 100th Master Grade model of Gunpla (abbreviation of Gundam Plastic Model) and at an earlier time, the first release of the Turn A Gundam DVD box set was announced. Two of the three Model Magazine in Japan, Hobby Japan and Dengeki Hobby was informed to build their own Turn A model using the old 1/100 kit for a display in the official announcement of the MS100 Turn A. Hobby Japan modeller Seira Masuo drastically redesigned the unit[21] while Dengeki Hobby modeller went for the original approach of diorama.[22] Both of the models was placed next to the MG100 draft design at the Bandai display forum at the announcement of MG100. Tomino addressed his little disappointment in the design of Turn A Gundam not having good reception, but he commented that it was happy to see that it was not pointless work as Turn A was selected as the 100th Master Grade model.[4]

External links

Official Website

References

Interview: Yoshiyuki Tomino Anime News Network, 2009-10-23, retrieved 2014-07-01^
2001 Correct Century A Bibliographical Study of "Dark History", Gundam Officials 公式百科事典^
「∀ガンダム」全記録集, Kondasha, ISBN 4-06-330088-9.^