Mobile Suit Gundam: The Original Proposal

The place to discuss anything relating to anime or manga.
User avatar
ShadowCell
Moderator
Posts: 4716
Joined: Sun Mar 05, 2006 12:59 pm
Location: California
Contact:

Re: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Original Proposal

Alternatively, maybe he just wanted to change the story. He'd hardly be the first writer to look at his own work and decide to change it if that was the case.
Turn-A Binker
Posts: 53
Joined: Mon Feb 08, 2010 5:42 pm

Re: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Original Proposal

Black Knight wrote:Why does there have to be a bigger reason?



I think the reason is because Tomino needed the money after his job was cut short by a month, but I'm a cynical bastard with low expectations of arrogant directors & "artistic" interpretations.



Maybe the original proposal was what Tomino hoped sponsors would sign on to, MSG is what they actually demanded/agreed to, and the MSG novels are the story Tomino actually wanted to tell, away from corporate meddling? This idea would have Tomino compromising his ideas from the very start (with the original setting notes/original proposal), aligning them to what he thought sponsors would go for rather than approaching them with his concept (the novels) and hoping they'd agree.

But I don't really see a need for there to be some "bigger reason" for the differences, particularly given the Japanese penchant for non-unified continuity where a bunch of alternates can coexist without some being thrown out (like, you know, UC Gundam's continuity....).
It just bugs me. I mean, the MSG novels are VERY different, but the other novels are more or less adaptations? Wouldn't that strike you as odd? Okay, maybe my idea as to why was a bit much, but that's something I would believe to have happened because it makes sense.

There is something else: have you heard of Gundam Sousei? Sure, it's a comedic take on the story of the behind the scenes of Gundam, but there are some things that is correct. But one of them to point out is the then-POV of anime at the time in the late '70s; i.e. not important. Maybe that's the reason? The novels were meant to bring non-anime caring viewers a chance to experience what the series was suppose to be in an accessible way (novel-format) that would hopefully bring them to see the anime. P.S. unless you haven't, check out Gundam Sousei.

Also, what I meant from what I suggested that you shot down was that: the novels was probably what Tomino wanted to do, before the meddling, and the novels were a way to show what could've been. Even Gundamn pointed out that regardless of MSG creating the real robot genre, it couldn't escape the super robot genre it was tied in to such as a teen pilot, three mecha, etc. What's what I saying.

BTW, Mark's post over Gunvoy, and not Gunboy: add Tomino's concepts of the military coming of age feel, and you quickly see the influence for Gundam: Starship Troopers.
2NA Fish
Posts: 256
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2011 11:45 pm

Re: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Original Proposal

I guess one big reason is Yatate Hajime. All of Sunrise's stories are not the work of one person, but a creative team, usually under the pen name Yatate Hajime. Besides that, one look at the episode credits and you'll see various people writing the screenplays for each episode. Tomino may have had last say, but he didn't have full creative control. Even in the last volume of Crossbone, he mentions that if he had full control, the story would have ended very differently.

Also, there are major differences in the other novels besides MSG too. Zeta had lots of changes, and Beltochika's Children was rather different from movie Char's Counterattack. I wouldn't call them simple adaptations. I've heard Turn A novels are very different too.

Think of the novels as Tomino unleashed. :lol:

Back to Gonboy/Voy, Tomino mentions in his family values book released earlier this year that they were originally aiming to make another Space Battleship Yamato. The robots were only added because they could not find a sponsor otherwise. I wouldn't imagine that they had a full story planned out at that point. In the same book, Tomino notes that the sponsors themselves did not give a crap what the story was about, as long as it sold toys. More than likely nothing was set in stone until the very day the script was due. (Coincidentally, Tomino had a reputation for being able to storyboard entire episodes in just a single day. They'd rely on him whenever they needed something really urgently)
Turn-A Binker
Posts: 53
Joined: Mon Feb 08, 2010 5:42 pm

Re: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Original Proposal

2NA Fish wrote:Also, there are major differences in the other novels besides MSG too. Zeta had lots of changes, and Beltochika's Children was rather different from movie Char's Counterattack. I wouldn't call them simple adaptations. I've heard Turn A novels are very different too.
I know about Beltochika's Children, though I may not know anything else about it other than what's on the internet, but what are the differences in Zeta and Turn-A? I know Zeta begins with Char on Earth (am'I wrong on that?) and Turn-A has the Black Doll which happens to be the Psyco Gundam, but what else? And yes, I have considered the novels to be the following: MSG is unique because the other novels to the other animes are adapations with varying differences. But if you say they aren't simple adaptations....

Does someone have a list of differences in every novel based on each Gundam anime?
doghunter1
Posts: 192
Joined: Mon Jan 06, 2014 8:40 am

Re: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Original Proposal

toysdream wrote:
I can't find the "covoy" explanation in the first couple of issues of Gundam Ace, although that doesn't necessarily mean it's not true. But the "Era of Gundam" feature in the second issue shows some early character designs with preliminary names, ages, and ethnic origins:

Amuro Ray -> 本郷東 (Azuma Hongo, 15)
Bright Noa -> 英進太郎 (Shintaro Hanabusa, 18, German)
Mirai Yashima -> 木樽未来 (Mirai Kitaru, 19, Japanese)
Hayato Kobayashi -> 芙和雷三 (Raizo Fuwa, 15, Japanese)
Ryu Jose -> 鬼堂丸明 (19, Indio)
Kai Shiden -> 水田竜 (Ryu Mizuta, 18, Slavic)
Unknown -> 八丈志麻 (Shima Hachijo, 16, "Yankee")
Gihren Zabi -> ゲルベル (Gerber, 28, alien)

At this point, the story was going to take place on the faraway colony planet of "New Earth," and the enemy Zeon Empire were invading aliens. So Tomino's later "Ideon" is probably a pretty good indication of the original story plan.

According to the article in Gundam Ace, they're using the "Gundam Archive" book as a reference source, so I checked that as well. Gundam Archive indicates that at this point (mid-1978) they'd already settled on the working title "Gunboy" (or possibly "Gunvoy"). The White Base was going by the name "Freedom Fortress," and came with support vehicles like the "Freedom Wing" and "Freedom Cruiser".

-- Mark
Aside from Ideon, would Tomino have conceived Ginga Hyouryuu (Galactic Drifter) Vifam from those ideas and let Takeyuki Kanda (whom we Gundam fans know for 08th MS Team) direct because he was busy with Sentou (Combat) Mecha Xabungle?
Last edited by doghunter1 on Thu Jul 17, 2014 12:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
toysdream
Posts: 3164
Joined: Mon Mar 06, 2006 12:24 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA
Contact:

Re: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Original Proposal

Actually, Vifam seems to be what the Sunrise producers had in mind before Tomino was hired on for Gundam. The original concept for Gundam was apparently a space version of Jules Verne's "Two Years' Vacation" - shipwrecked kids band together to survive and overcome evil adults - and after Gundam ended up going off in a different direction, they ended up taking a second pass at that idea with Vifam. (According to the Japanese Wikipedia, this is the main reason Tomino was given a concept credit on Vifam.)

-- Mark
User avatar
HellCat
Posts: 1491
Joined: Sun Apr 26, 2009 10:24 am

Re: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Original Proposal

As a general note, I find discussions like this interesting for taking a hard look at the illusion that creators of pop culture legends always had what we saw on screen in mind as a perfectly formed idea. Much like how many who worked on what is now 'A New Hope' have commented that alot of things the sequels/prequels would do were never considered by Lucas at the start.

At least with Gundam, Char never kissed Sayla :P
Gundam AGEs Forum- Three destinies will form discussion.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
User avatar
battletech
Posts: 157
Joined: Tue Jan 07, 2014 3:56 am
Location: Orbiting Jupiter

Re: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Original Proposal

I think to get to the root of your question. Why are the novels so different? You have to ask Mr. Tomino himself. It looks like it's not public knowledge. All we have is speculation.
"The souls of Man are weighed down by gravity." - Char Aznable
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.-Clarke
User avatar
AmuroNT1
Posts: 3420
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:41 am
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Original Proposal

Since this thing got bumped, maybe I can ask Mark a question that's been bugging me for a while and he's the most likely to have an answer.

In Gundam Sousei, Tomino gets funding for the movie trilogy by showing his sponsors the 52-episode plan and all the things they missed out on when the show was cancelled. After they leave, he tells his assistant that the "original plan" is some junk he threw together overnight to use as bait, and not actually the intended plotline for Gundam.

Now, I'm fully aware that Sousei is a humorous dramatization of real events. However, some of the things that happen in it really did occur (like the "Seductive Artesia Incident" and, IIUC, Shuichi Ikeda's audition). So obviously my question is, do we know for certain that the 52-episode plan really IS "the way the creator intended it"?
Sakuya: "Whatever. Stop lying and give up your schemes, now."
Yukari: (Which lies and schemes are she talking about? It's hard to keep track of them all...)

-Touhou 07.5 ~ Immaterial and Missing Power
doghunter1
Posts: 192
Joined: Mon Jan 06, 2014 8:40 am

Re: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Original Proposal

toysdream wrote:
Actually, Vifam seems to be what the Sunrise producers had in mind before Tomino was hired on for Gundam. The original concept for Gundam was apparently a space version of Jules Verne's "Two Years' Vacation" - shipwrecked kids band together to survive and overcome evil adults - and after Gundam ended up going off in a different direction, they ended up taking a second pass at that idea with Vifam. (According to the Japanese Wikipedia, this is the main reason Tomino was given a concept credit on Vifam.)

-- Mark
Did not know that. Any source on Two Year's Vacation originally to be the influence for Gundam, but instead became an influence for another show?

Also, can I PM you?
Post Reply