Interest
Yoshiyuki Tomino Aims High: "My Next Work Will Crush Demon Slayer and Evangelion"
posted on by Kim Morrissy
Mobile Suit Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino made a guest appearance on TV Asahi's "Hayashi Osamu no Ima Deshо̄! Kо̄za" program on Tuesday, which discussed influential Japanese anime. Although not one of the anime professionals featured extensively in the two-hour program, Tomino did make a brief appearance when the show's staff visited Sunrise to look at the design archives for the Gundam series.
While Tomino was there, the staff asked him what he thought of modern anime, to which the 79-year-old director grinned and replied: "Giant robot shows are for kids, but while I'm alive and can make new works, I'll crush Demon Slayer and Evangelion. If I didn't think that ambitiously, I wouldn't be making TV anime past the age of 80."
You can watch the relevant clip from the program below:
Tomino's cheeky statement resulted in his name trending on Twitter in Japan.
In an interview from January, Tomino discussed his feelings on Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba more extensively. He professed that he initially felt jealous about Demon Slayer because of how the property was able to attract such a dedicated and talented staff, but ultimately expressed his admiration for the quality of the work behind it.
"... When Demon Slayer came along, I thought, 'Damn! Those guys did it good!' when I discovered the team they had assembled," he said. "The voice actors are great, the composer of the song that everyone knows is great. So many talented people showed up! In that sense, what I felt surpassed envy, and I started thinking, 'Man, those guys sure are something!'" He also stated: "I don't think that Demon Slayer is a calculated or contrived work. I think that its assemblage was quite a coincidence."
[Via @uemuranoel]