28 Facts About Yoshiyuki Tomino

Yoshiyuki Tomino is a Japanese anime director, screenwriter, songwriter and novelist best known for creating the Gundam anime franchise.

Yoshiyuki Tomino's father Kihei Tomino was an employee at Japan Processed Fabrics, and his mother Sachiko was the daughter of town councillor and celluloid toy manufacturer Sakichi Tanaka.

Yoshiyuki Tomino's uncle Kiheiji Tomino was a member of the Tokyo Prefectural Council.

Yoshiyuki Tomino spent his senior year of high school studying the basics of story writing and practiced writing novels.

Yoshiyuki Tomino joined Osamu Tezuka's company, Mushi Productions, on March 2,1964, where he was originally a part of the production department and worked as a production assistant.

One of Yoshiyuki Tomino's seniors was Hiroshi Wakao, who had joined the company three months earlier; and it was Wakao who taught Yoshiyuki Tomino how to do jobs like collecting cut bags, filling out progress charts, and how to speak with the animators.

Yoshiyuki Tomino later became one of the most important members of the anime studio Sunrise, going on to direct numerous anime through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

Yoshiyuki Tomino is perhaps best known for his transformation of the "Super Robot" mecha anime genre into the "Real Robot" genre with 1979's Mobile Suit Gundam, the first in the Gundam franchise.

Yoshiyuki Tomino has won numerous awards, including the "Best Director" award at the 2006 Tokyo International Anime Fair.

Two anime series directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino won the Animage Anime Grand Prix award.

Yoshiyuki Tomino is known for using numerous pseudonyms for miscellaneous staffing roles that he performs in his works, including Minami Asa and Minoru Yokitani, which are used to credit himself for screenplays and storyboards he creates, Rin Iogi, which he uses to credit himself for theme song lyrics he writes.

Yoshiyuki Tomino has collaborated with artists such as Yoko Kanno, Asei Kobayashi, MIO and Neil Sedaka.

Yoshiyuki Tomino is noted for directing several well-known anime series throughout his career, such as his most notable work, the Mobile Suit Gundam series, beginning in 1979, and which was later followed onto numerous sequels, spinoffs and merchandising franchises, Aura Battler Dunbine, Brave Raideen, and numerous others.

Yoshiyuki Tomino made his directorial debut with 1972's Triton of the Sea.

In 1975, Yoshiyuki Tomino worked on Brave Raideen, his first mecha work, in which he directed the first 26 episodes.

In 1978, Yoshiyuki Tomino conceived, wrote and directed the successful Super Robot series Daitarn 3, which featured an unusual mix of spy adventure, drama, sci-fi and irony.

In 1979, Yoshiyuki Tomino directed and wrote Mobile Suit Gundam, which was highly influential in transforming the Super Robot mecha genre into the Real Robot genre.

In 1980, Yoshiyuki Tomino directed Space Runaway Ideon, a series which like Mobile Suit Gundam was cancelled on its initial run, but featured movie versions later on.

Yoshiyuki Tomino followed up with a more light-hearted series called Xabungle, but the darker nature of Ideon continued with 1983's Aura Battler Dunbine.

In 1988, Yoshiyuki Tomino concluded the saga begun in Mobile Suit Gundam with the Gundam motion picture Char's Counterattack.

Yoshiyuki Tomino directed an additional Gundam motion picture, Mobile Suit Gundam F91 in 1991.

In 1993, Yoshiyuki Tomino directed his next Gundam series, Victory Gundam, which attempted to relaunch the Gundam saga with a completely new cast.

In 1996, Yoshiyuki Tomino wrote and directed Garzey's Wing, and in 1998 wrote and directed Brain Powerd.

Also in 2002, he directed Overman King Gainer, and in 2005, Yoshiyuki Tomino directed 3 compilation movies summarizing the events of 1985's Zeta Gundam.

Also in 2006, Yoshiyuki Tomino made a special cameo appearance in Shinji Higuchi's tokusatsu film Sinking of Japan.

At the 2009 CESA Developers Conference, Yoshiyuki Tomino used his keynote speech to criticize the gaming industry, citing that video games "bringing no productivity at all" and that "consoles are just consuming electricity", while stressing that game developers need to focus more on quality content rather than advanced technology, comparing it to the modern animation industry.

The Anime Tourism Association, founded in 2016, has Yoshiyuki Tomino serving as its president.

Yoshiyuki Tomino was present at Gundam Factory Yokohama for the opening ceremony of the 18-meter "life-size" moving statue of Gundam in Yokohama.