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Gundam Creator Yoshiyuki Tomino Offers Thoughts on Ongoing Wars

Mobile Suit Gundam creator and director Yoshiyuki Tomino touched on current world affairs, particularly war, in the May issue of Tokuma Shoten's Animage magazine published on April 10. In the monthly column “Tomino ni Kike” (Ask Tomino), a 41-year-old Tokyo resident under the name "Ray Ray" asked the director about his thoughts on current-day Japan and war, considering he lived through the tail end of World War II.

Tomino opened his response by speaking of his own experiences, “I was about to turn four years old when the [World War II] ended, so I can't say I personally experienced war,” Tomino began. However, the director noted he had college classmates who lived through the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “I think because I learned via 'those who survived and are here now,' that made me think a little more about war in a realistic way,” Tomino continued.

The director then pivoted the conversation briefly to his seminal work, Mobile Suit Gundam. “I've poured those thoughts into my works like Gundam.” Tomino further pointed out some Gundam fans make pro-war comments and “perhaps missed the crux [of the series].”

While Tomino is known for his sharp tongue regarding Gundam and Gundam fans, he connected these sentiments to current military conflicts in Ukraine and Iran. Touching on the Russo-Ukrainian war first, Tomino said, “Russia still claims it is a 'special military operation' despite it being four years since Russia began its military invasion of Ukraine.” He expanded on this thought by saying Russian media is banned from using the term “war.” “[Russian President Valdimir Putin] lacks the capacity to imagine taking responsibility for the war, doesn't he? That's why he's able to so easily begin a war,” Tomino added.

Tomino was just as critical on the war that started in February with the United States and Israel's airstrikes on Iran. He said the political base of U.S. President Donald Trump is built on a white evangelical movement and that as the world becomes diverse, “They are clinging to a strong leader out of fear their privileges will be taken away.” After musing that some in Trump's base may view the president as "god-like," Tomino said, “This is why it's so easy to link religion and the military.”

The Gundam creator then moved to the current politics of Japan. Noting Nazi Germany in the lead-up to World War II, Tomino said authoritarian governments are often established initially through elections. “Modern Japan seems to be going down that path, and I believe a mass of ignorant people is a really dangerous thing,” Tomino added. He said the reader "Ray Ray's" concerns are reasonable regarding the current Japanese administration's reported hopes for amending Japan's pacifist constitution, expanding the Japanese military, and possessing nuclear weapons.

However, Tomino also mused that trusting experts and intellectuals is also not a solution. The director cited the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, and the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia as examples of tyrannic intellectuals leading their countries to tragic outcomes. “I believe you need someone who can handle the day-to-day practical work at the municipal level to be effective in politics,” Tomino said. “Ultimately, there's no convenient person for which we can say, 'I'll just leave it all to this person.' It's up to each one of us to give it serious thought.”

Tomino ends his column hoping Japan will be a leader in world peace.

Tomino has fielded 298 questions so far his “Tomino ni Kike” column in Animage. Tokuma Shoten has compiled his entries into three books, Tomino ni Kike, Tomino ni Kike: Ikari no Aka (Ask Tomino: The Red Anger), and Tomino ni Kike: Satori no Ao (Ask Tomino: The Blue Enlightenment).

Source: Animage May 2026 issue via Hachima Kikō