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• Mobile Suit Gundam fans have been missing the series' anti-war message for nearly 50 years

There is a long-standing joke in the anime community that too many people think that Mobile Suit Gundam is just a bunch of pretty space battles featuring giant robots. And it is certainly that, but that is a bit like saying that Moby Dick is about killing a whale. It misses the point of the exceptionally nuanced and timely political themes in the series. That is something that series creator Yoshiyuki Tomino is increasingly upset about, saying that too many people missed the point of the Gundam series and the world is worse off for it.

During an interview in the May 2026 issue of Animage (first reported via Automaton), Yoshiyuki Tomino had some harsh words for Mobile Suit Gundam fans. “Even among Gundam fans, there are many who make statements that are a far cry from anti-war,” he lamented. “They seem to be stuck in the mindset of mere military geeks, and in the end, perhaps nothing of substance is getting across.”

It is important to remember that Tomino is 84 years old and, like many people his age in Japan, has some memories of World War II and certainly grew up in the aftermath of bombed cities. Interestingly, Tomino doesn’t point to WWII as an example of how evil can take hold in a nation; he can see it happening in his native country already. “You don’t even need to look at the example of Nazi Germany to see that dictatorships are usually established through elections. This is exactly the case in Japan today, and I think the foolish crowd of ignorant people is truly dreadful.”

Mobile Suit Gundam has spent nearly half a century trying to drill into people’s heads that war is terrible and costs us more than we could ever gain. According to series creator and director Yoshiyuki Tomino, it still hasn’t been enough.

Each week, Popverse's resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say "greatest," in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included... 

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