Terada anecdotes: Turn A Gundam

The following is a translation of a Twitter thread posted by Super Robot Wars series producer Takanobu Terada here: https://twitter.com/TakanobuTerada/status/1760088511104066020

[Random anecdotes] With spring approaching, I remembered a story from 25 years ago, when I went to an insider sneak preview of Turn A Gundam episode 1 (I can't remember where). Work ran long so I was running late for the screening, and I also went in the wrong entrance. I rushed into an elevator, and just as I was about to close the door since nobody else was there... To my astonishment, Director Tomino and Syd Mead entered the elevator. (It turned out to be a VIP elevator, whoops...!) There I was, a young 30-ish game producer who had nothing to do with the anime production at all. I figured I'd get snapped at, so I just kept my head down and my mouth shut, minimizing my presence as much as possible. Luckily (?) they didn't notice me. But just spending that brief moment with such respected figures was enough to make me feel a rush of excitement. Let me tell you, watching Turn A Gundam episode 1 after that was incredible. I couldn't turn off my SRW brain while watching, though. I thought to myself, "I'm not sure I could make this fit in an SRW game..." but then there was a line in the episode about "savages from the continent", which got me connecting some dots in my head: Savages in the future -> Civilians -> Jiron -> Xabungle! And that led to its subsequent inclusion in SRW Alpha Gaiden.

Incidentally, when we first received documents about the show, the first picture I saw was the SUMO. I got all amazed and was like, "SYD MEEEAD!" (honorifics omitted), and the mustached Gundam went over perfectly well with me when I saw it after that. The SUMO is of course associated mainly with Harry. All I'd seen were character design sheets at that point, so I wondered, "What's up with this guy's glasses? Is this the Char of the show?" Akiman does incredible design work that definitely has an impact. When I watched the rest of the show, he turned out to be a decent guy, pleasantly defying my expectations. I first met the man behind the character (Tetsu Inada) when doing recordings for SRW Alpha Gaiden, and we hit it off fantastically with some animated discussions of SRW. I also loved the heavy sci-fi backdrop that lay behind Turn A Gundam's initial pastoral setting. It reminded me of sci-fi stories I'd read as a kid.