G-Reco stuff

Various Reconguista of G related things translated by TE spoiler guy

LATEST UPDATE: 10th June 2015 (Asahi Shinbun Digital, Subculture Commentary by Uno Tsunehiro "It's made to be hard to understand." )

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Thread: /m/ >>11072612

TOYSUP!#03 Tomino Interview
-Capital Tower was built on the first year of RC. They started building the space side first. Mankind moved residence to near to the rail network to wait for the exhausted earth and nature to recover.
-The surviving spacenoids from the UC era, you might call them remnants, build their own place on the far side of the moon and oppose the capital tower.
-There's a colony of water/ocean near Venus. What mankind needs most, psychologically, when away from Earth, is the sea. 100 km diameter 150m wide disc. He envisioned a disc of water just floating in space and decided it'd be a great image. Now there can be submarines in space. Also there's a structure below it holding up the water where battle scenes can take place.
-Reconquista (not guista in here) means the rebirth of Gundam, NOT a retaking.
-The reason for depopulation and environmental degradation is the wars for supremacy that took place during the UC era.

Scenario (script) sample from a book Tomino wrote on the basics of visual media that went on sale in 2011 >>11065526 →
First half of an episode, "When the G's G-Setter activates!"
"Grendodard and Saint Lason Academy" instead of the "Saint Flower academy" mentioned in >>11065526 →'s picture
tl;dr Belry defeated a woman pirate and her robot is being kept in a warehouse in the school; the "Capitator" is afraid because said robot wasn't made in Ameria.

Space Elevator book >>11065533 →
-The UC era used up most of Earth's resources and manking is coming close to extinction
-RC didn't bring back heavy industry but focused it on around the capital tower
-Capital tower's capital means capital as in economic terms
-RC's population is under 1/10th (of UC's?)
-The tower's in the amazon because Tomino thought that'd probably be the only place on Earth where greenery is left at all
-The base of the tower can move between the river and sea. It has moved before in the 1000 years since it was built.
-They messed up the size of the gondola but instead of fixing it just have the MS connect to it.
-Space elevator's speed is 500km/h
-Top of the capital tower is a religious place, holy land
-Story is to ask the children of 10+ years to think about what to do with Earth 50 years from now

Gundam exhibition Tomino interview >>11067663 →
-G-Reco will feature love, romanticism and adventure
-By featuring the problems of modern society he wants children to think about said problems
-The Cuntara are the people who became food when mankind turned to cannibalism at the brink of extinction. They represent the problem of racism, the horrors of the collapse of society, and the depths of human sin
-(Why go so far?) Because children in puberty watch anime. From Triton he learned that there's a strong possibility of anime speaking to children in puberty. Even if it's fantasy, a good story will make the viewer think of how to apply what they have learned to real life. There is a circuit in there that leads to the real world.>>11067677 →
-When creating G-Reco, Tomino made note of how children aren't watching Gundam anymore and is trying his best to make a show for kids.
-If it were his usual thing that viewers' age would rise.
-In order to keep the story to the basics he consulted young staff and sought their opinions on everything.
-G-Reco has a stronger message of co-existence than other previous Gundam series.
-Mankind went as far as to cannibalism but after a thousand years learned to forgive.
-This dark background is to tell the next generation "you don't want that to happen, do you?"
-Tomino doesn't think humanity is THAT stupid



Random Tomino interview
Source: http://archive.foolz.us/m/thread/10945671/


The anime industry is in a transitional phase, and though you can't tell from the outside, the industry is self-aware of this
Frozen became popular only because of the music. A lot of people in visuals think that you need to copy Frozen to be successful, but they're wrong. But the sponsors and such just don't get it. For example the visuals are mostly made with "motion picture" (Translator's note: I'm no expert but I think he means motion capture)- This isn't just in Frozen, Pacific Rim and so on do that too- And this can be said of all movies that use CG and 3D- They start to go in a direction where they start to think this is the only way they can make movies. In animation, using "motion picture" is a lot easier and faster than drawing stuff by hand, and when people realise that they start to head that way. But I have reason to believe this is wrong. Why does CG end up going in a realistic direction? Because the visuals are left to "rika-kei"* operators, and there are no artists art work. Everything is based on technical prowess. Among the bunka-kei there may be artists who are losing to this reality of of how there's no choice but to use CG technology, and they don't realise that they're losing and think they're just using using a convenient tool.

*(Translator's note: In Japan, educations are divided widely into two types, bunka-kei/bunkei and rika-kei/rikei; Bunkei is mostly literature and humanities, while rikei is maths and sciences.)

However, I can say for certain that 3D is not an absolute method of expression. One of the reasons is super realism which surfaced in New York in the 70's. It was popular, but lost steam really fast, and contemporary art after it was closer to hand-drawn anime characters than it. I thought about it and realised that that's because expressing something realistically is in fact not an act of expression.

Also, one more thing. Even though movies and anime are so popular, manga never went into repression. It never died out to be replaced by anime. In fact manga is business-wise a bigger success, and when asked which of movies and manga is a superior form of expression, the market and masses will not necessarily pick movies. It's not just because of how easily you can pick one up: Whether it's a realistic or simplistic art style, regardless of what type of manga, manga art is a bigger business than weird anime or weird movies, and if asked which is more enjoyed as a method of expression, which is more accepted, it may be that manga's power as a medium of expression is higher than that of movies and anime. This is my second piece of evidence.

Interviewer: Is it because the reader is free to interpret static images in their own minds?

That's right. It's by getting used to that that expressions are more easily accepted. From what I've seen, because you have to draw the characters and backgrounds in anime, the expressions are all being forced into realism, and I can't say it's a good thing.

In the end, Frozen is not at all strong, and that's because like you said you need leeway for the receiver's interpretation for there to be diversity. There are many parts where the receiver adds on to or understands something differently inside their own head, and the current trend of all expression heading towards realism is wrong. Also, what I realised through working on hand-drawn anime is that anime is close to symbolism. When you use symbols to tell a story, whether you can convey the story's message depends on how good the anime's potential, and anime may have more potential than movies, and manga may have more potential than anime. I want to create a story that actively uses symbolism, and in my case, G-Reco, the message takes priority over the story, and I'm leaving many things I want the next generation of children to think about.

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World info from random internet image (the one with the map)

STATE OF THE WORLD IN RC1014

AMERIA: Country occupying the continent north of Capital Territory. The president is Zucchini Nicchini, and Gusion Surgan commands the military.
(Red dot is Capital Tower)

CAPITAL TERRITORY: The area to the north of the Elride continent, occupying the area from the Carribean sea to the Amazon river. Because they control the Capital Tower they are able to take a hard stance against other countries. Prime minister is Billguize Shiba.

Text next to line joining Capital Territory and the moon:
-Photon battery
-Schematics for the rose of Hermes?
-Photon batteries from the moon are sent to the Capital Tower

Capital Territory and Gondwan are allied and Ameria is hostile to both of them.

The text on the left is just a synopsis of the first two episodes.

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Talk show with Fukui Harutoshi (Gundam UC's writer) and Ogata Naohiro (UC and G-Reco's producer)
"Is robot anime dead?"

http://togetter.com/li/740436

tl;dr they don't answer that question but 2008/2009-2011 was the third time robot anime went into a recession and it's clearly not in a recession right now. Fukui jokingly says UC saved robot anime.

Evangelion is to blame for expensive DVDs (up till Eva people didn't think of trying to sell the shows themselves but tried to cash in on merchandising)

Raideen is mentioned as the grandfather of "god" robots like Ideon and Evangelion, things that don't necessarily listen to their pilots. Fukui says that a certain recent Gundam became a god too and implies that it was terrible.

Fukui forgot (Tsurugi) Tetsuya's name.

Ogata can't tell the difference between Great Mazinger and Getter 1.

Build Burning kits are selling better than G-Self kits.

Aida was going to be flat but Koyama insisted on making her breasts bigger

Tomino is going around yelling "die!" at animators in the middle of the night when he doesn't think they're doing a good enough job

Fukui says that Youkai Watch is this generation's Gundam. Gundam wasn't an otaku thing (like it is now) to the Gundam generation, it was an all-permeating thing that literally everyone knew about.

Favourite robot anime
Ogata: CCA
Fukui: Ideon movie 2

On Tomino
Ogata: Moved when Tomino saw Marnie and said "Those two at Ghibli make stuff about the past. I make stuff about the future."
Fukui: Tomino kicked him after he read the Turn A novelisation (that Fukui wrote). It was apparently a real, proper kick.

At the end Fukui asked if there were to be a UC part 2, if people would prefer a completely new cast or the same one.

Fukui: "So, is robot anime dead?"
Ogata: "If it were than Sunrise would be done for. Good thing we have Lovelive now!"

Ogata: "By the way, are you watching G-Reco?"
Fukui: "No, Tomino said the Gundam generation shouldn't watch it."
Ogata: "He's just tsundere!"
Fukui: "So I CAN watch it? Guess I'll go rent it!"

Fukui on Eva
"I watched Eva because a friend called me up and recommended it to me, saying that since I enjoyed Ideon I would definitely enjoy Eva. The first episode I watched was the blackout one with Gendou with his feet in a bucket and that left me confused. But the next episode I saw was the bloody one (Bardiel) and it impressed me. The one after it (Zeruel) was great too. The stuff after it was confusing and I thought it would take us somewhere special, and it certainly did."

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Also in http://pastebin.com/nndzmTeg

Turn A Gundam Complete Record Collection 2: The Memory of Second Wind
About the Sackträger (ties into G-Reco stuff)

At the end of the Universal Century, it seemed that the countless space wars would finally come to an end, but the unending consumption had reduced Earth's resources close to zero. During this age, Earth was still the center of human civilization, and mankind sought to restore civilization on Earth. To do this they needed massive amounts of materials, which had to be mined from asteroids which were moved near to Earth. The Sackträger's predecessor, the fixed orbital elevator, was built in order to make moving the mined resources down to Earth easier. This megastructure was also supposed to be a symbol of peace, and Earth did in fact have peace for a few hundred years after the construction of the orbital elevator. It seems that there might have been several orbital elevators during this period, and that Manupiti was the Earthside base station for them, and there is (in Turn A's age) a fuctioning mass driver in Manupiti. After several hundred years, however, another space war erupted and the orbital elevators were destroyed. The remains of the orbital elevators falling from space caused massive damage to Earth, and it is said that some of these parts were later used to built the Sackträger in Manupiti's legends of the Branch of Ades. That the parts of the orbital elevators were used to build the Sackträger is not true, however, as they were products of entirely different ages; The elevator collapse was such a huge disaster that as ages passed it continued to be passed down and memories and records of history ended up getting compressed and combining the records of the two completely different megastructures. Also, the helmet worn by the king of Manupiti is based on astronaut helmets from long ago. Either way,the fixed orbital elevator was never rebuilt, and instead the rotation-type Sackträger was built instead. Sackträger is a name in a language of ancient Europe (currently Galia in Turn A), German, which means "bagworm", and was presumably named as such because the elevator climbing up and down looked like a massive bagworm from the ground. There are no records of why the name is in German.

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Gundam Lucifer (rough sketch/setting of G-Self seen in Gundam Ace)
Text is hard to make out, doesn't help that the pictures posted were clearly made for ants. Will update the parts marked "illegible" if I see transcripts or better images.

G-SELF A/GUNDAM LUCIFER
Text on top says "G-Self A: Belri's robot"
Text below says "Gundam Lucifer".
Left side: The six wings light up / When dangerous acceleration is detected the cockpit (illegible)  and inertia is (illegible) protecting the pilot (referring to the airbags?) / Uses the "dragon bullet funnel bits" which are designed to be the ultimate (something; can only make out the 士; 戦士 = warrior? ) as well as the ultimate servant / The dragon funnels use AIs and act independently / They share the same 電子頭脳 (lit. "electric brain"; Usually refers to computers or AI, not sure what it is in this context) as the Gundam Lucifer so can work under Minovsky particle jamming / By (illegible) Gundam (illegible) can educate the Gundam through the viewpoints of (illegible).
Right side: Gundam Lucifer is a tentative name / Armour is made of Invisible Gundarium Photon Battery (illegible) sandwich (illegible) liquid crystal-like effect (illegible) light (illegible) colours (illegible; This is probably about the colour-changing mechanism) / Main energy is supercompressed photon batteries that (illegible). When this class of battery is damaged a mini black hole emerges and the gamma ray burst would kill a quarter of the humans on Earth.

SUPPORT MECHA (no name, sketch only)
Gundam Lucifer's support mecha. (Illegible) when it eats five of the Hi-Gundam's photon batteries it creates a photon hyperion within its body, and when you put the photon hyperion in the Gundam Lucifer it evolves into Gundam Soleil. When the Gundam Soleil is complete its dragon funnels (illegible; Possibly ほうかい = crumble away so the Soleil doesn't have the Dragon Funnels?). The Hi-Gundam's photon batteries sometimes (illegible) mini black holes. Dragon funnels (illegible) dangerous (illegible) beta Higgs bosons (illegible) materials for the photon hyperion.
(Arrow points to a) new weapon

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Towasanga people
http://www.gundam.info/topic/12176

Going down from tinted glasses guy

>Noto Dret ("noto" rhymes with "go to")
The head of a respected family on Towasanga and commander-in-chief of the Dret fleet. Commands from the capital ship Giniabizav.

>Turbo Brockin
Dret fleet commander. Rank is captain.

>Mashner Hume
Dret fleet commander. Lieutenant colonel.

>Rockpie Gatey
Dret fleet MS pilot. Eager to fight, uses a Moran.

>Ringo Ron Jamanotta
Dret fleet MS pilot, uses a Moran.

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Seemingly relevant Turn A stuff (possible spoilers for G-Reco, except source is from 2000)
http://pastebin.com/nndzmTeg

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http://www.asahi.com/articles/DA3S11795546.html

Asahi Shinbun Digital, Subculture Commentary by Uno Tsunehiro
"It's made to be hard to understand." (6th June 2015)

Tomino Yoshiyuki's latest work, Gundam: The Reconguista of G, which ended in March, continues to draw controversy even months after its conclusion.

The far future of Mobile Suit Gundam's Universal Century. After numerous space wars, civilisation on Earth regressed, and only by using the technology of the Universal Century to a limited degree are people living on. The story follows a boy and girl on Earth as they're thrown into a war surrounding remnants of UC technology, but it's nearly impossible to understand the entire story at one glance.

Conversations between characters don't seem to fit together, and the most basic of explanations about the situation have to be deducted from the most nonchalant of lines. A massive amount of information that you can only begin to understand after rewatching recordings several times while taking notes, and a miniscule amount of explanation lead to many viewers saying that they don't understand it. It is in my opinion however that it's made to be hard to understand.

The real world we live in doesn't have a narrative with an all-seeing point of view to organise and record all events. Every single person has their own separate, detached experiences. Fictional worlds, however, are organised; Seen and put together through the eyes of their creator.

In other words, the 20th century was an age where we found out that while localised contexts have to be understood for three-dimensional real experiences to be shared, organised two-dimensional realities (images) could be shared widely through society easily without a need for this. It is a result of this that the media expanded, and it became an age where massive societies of unprecedented scale could be managed. Animation is basically an organised, unified reality where nothing exists on the screen that the creator(s) didn't intend to put there. It is no coincidence that animation and SFX dominate Hollywood's charts. Animation is the ultimate form of two-dimensional expression, with the widest and furthest reach.
So why did Tomino Yoshiyuki chose to create, in such a medium, separate, detached spaces?

What we have here is a strong untimely message. In the present day, information and visuals flood the networks, and anything that you don't know can be searched for and understood instantly, and it is starting to be that the complicated detached realities mankind faced in the 20th century can only be found in media with high amounts of freedom to fabricate, such as anime. It may be that due to a dependence on information technology, humans are starting to let go of the intelligence used to connect, organise, and understand detached realities.

This theme, critical of civilisation, can be seen in many other works by Tomino, but in Reconguista of G this is found not just in the story but also in the execution. At the same time this is also an act that questions again the power of anime as a form of expression to provide criticism in this modern age. If you think of it this way, it's rash to simply treat Reconguista of G as a failure that didn't manage to explain it story.

In the end, the Newtypes Tomino once showed us may have been people with intellects able to understand detached realities without relying on networks.