Forum - View topicINTEREST: Gundam Creator Yoshiyuki Tomino Elaborates on His Criticisms of Makoto Shinkai's Weatherin
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Zeino
Posts: 1098 |
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And most of your Gundam works end with the protagonist's actions not meaning much in the long run as the world of the Universal Century keeps on being terrible. So, hypocrisy in what you are preaching here much, Mr. Tomino?
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4595 Location: New York |
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Tomino and Martin Scorsese would get along swimmingly. There’s this disdain for escapism, this desire to shove people’s faces in the dirt and grime of reality and go “this is here. It’s not going away. Do something.” A more cynical person would call the approach foreboding or nihilism.
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12skippy21
 Posts: 785 Location: York, England |
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Jealousy towards more popular directors aside, I do agree with the point he is making. This is not just an issue in anime though, the over abundance of superhero movies can be a similar argument. We seek collective agreement in shared emotions rather than acting on them.
Do not agree with his preference towards Disney characters though, Mulan and Esmeralda are more my pace. 
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Kirigea
Posts: 11 |
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That Shinkai's movies are like I novels is unbeknownst to him, a massive compliment. Focusing on introspection and looking within to tell a story with actual authentic characterisation and personal development is extremely rare in anime.
Gundam like most anime fall into the category of employing the "big event happens and character changes as a direct response to their conditions" when in reality people aren't like that. Shinkai is successful despite exploring the same themes because no one else is exploring human relationships, time, perseverance and growth in a way that all humans can deeply connect with. Anime in general could look to Shinkai characters for a bit more realism rather than the caricature of a human being that most characters are. |
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Romuska
 Subscriber Posts: 810 |
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This is most definitely an “okay Boomer” moment.
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Zeino
Posts: 1098 |
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Scorsese's snobbery about what constitutes as cinema aside, I think there is a difference between pointing out that Disney/Marvel's seemingly never-ending strangle-hold on popular culture is having a harmful effect on other art and telling people that they shouldn't waste their time on fantasies at all and should just get out and do something, anything.
Except Tomino here believes that it's not really possible to really change the world with said emotions and people should just muddle through their lives as best they can while doing small helpful acts. That is a defeatist attitude exactly as the interview called it. |
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Commander Cluck
 Posts: 123 |
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He's talking about real people though, not just fictional characters. Hence why he points to elementary school students actually going out to clean litter and garbage on the beach while a lot of modern self described young activists just post on social media and don't actually do anything but thinking getting hashtags trending and patting themselves on the back. As far as Weathering With You is concerned, I don't consider it a defeatist view on climate change, I consider it more of a realistic view on the topic Although I can see why people would conflate the two. |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2665 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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Tomino has no control over what other people do with UC Gundam following the stories he made, so calling him a hypocrite over that is pushing it. In fact, Tomino even admitted at Anime NYC just last weekend that he created G-Reco's Reguild Century in response to the fact that the people of the Universal Century never learn their lesson. |
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Panino Manino
 Posts: 751 |
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"He's not wrong, you know..."
I talked about this immediately when I watched "Weathering With You". I liked the movie, it was fun, entertaining, but the "messages", whatever they were bothered me deeply. It felt "irresponsible", even. |
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Cardcaptor Takato
 Posts: 5163 |
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If I'm entirely honest, I'm not sure I understand why there is this current trend in journalist interviews of asking older directors what they think of modern directors and pop culture trends.
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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No "sexy animated character" in any Gundam francise. Un-ah, not a one. Nope.
Shinkai started his anime career doing stories of unrequited love starting with "Voices of a Distant Star" right up to "Garden of Words".The usual moral of his earlier movies seems to "yeah life sucks , it's too short and there's no happiness."After watching it makes you feel like, what's it all worth? Might as well step onto the tracks of a speeding train. Though at least there was finally a sort of winning couple in GOW.
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Marzan
 Posts: 518 |
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That’s uncalled for. |
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fathomlessblue
 Posts: 384 Location: Manchester, UK |
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I'm not exactly sure how you jumped to that rather extreme interpretation. The very fact the majority of his UC works involve fighting, to little or no success very against the crushing weight of an unfair universe seems pretty relatable to how change often occurs in the real world. I mean you could call it nihilistic, but has long as people have the motivation to try and change things there's always a ray of hope. In that regard his approach to Gundamm and his view of people, as described by the interview, seem to match up pretty well. Now whether Tomino, or indeed the Gundam franchise, is the best spokesmen for that cause is another matter entirely, but as someone who tends to appreciate non-defeatist works of nihilist-themed fiction (Oh hey there, Yoko Taro), I'll take a flawed work in that vein over another of Shinkai's comforting, bittersweet dreams (although maybe Weathering with You will surprise me).
You're clearly misinterpreting the article. The interviewer called Tomino accusation of people looking inward as defeatist, which as a blank statement would hold an element of truth. However, he then offers examples of how people can break out of that cycle, which most definitely isn't rebuked in such a manner. Look, most people can't save the world on their own. They can't halt climate change, nor can they solve socio-political injustices, whether it be corporate greed/corruption or the subjugation of people's personal rights. Nor to do most people have the appetite or follow-up solutions to enact a true revolution. What we can do is promote smaller changes, either as individuals or groups, which might be small on their own, but if people share that attitude among others, cultural shifts can be achieved. As Tomino himself states, "...passing that attitude on to children is a way of confronting the world's problems. By doing that, the world can be changed without looking inward or through sparking revolution". Those aren't the words of someone with a defeatist attitude Last edited by fathomlessblue on Fri Nov 22, 2019 7:16 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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fathomlessblue
Posts: 384 Location: Manchester, UK |
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Considering the absurdity for which Tomino is often known for, his thoughts here come across as surprisingly lucid and articulate. I suspect he heard the backlash against his initial comments and actually gave some thought in wording his opinions more carefully this time around.
Honestly, I can't really find much fault with his views. As someone who often enjoys iyashikei and romantic shows, it would be disingenuous to pretend the the sheer volume or popularity of such tropes doesn't hint at some less than flattering interpretations. I mean Tomino singles out Shinkai, but consider the amount of shows every season about a stand-in self-insert becoming the top dog of a literal 16bit JRPG stand-in. You really can't look at their unparalleled domination in the current anime climate and then claim his point about people looking inwards is pure nonsense. But wow, he sound's so childishly jealous over Your Name's success. It's almost charming. Last edited by fathomlessblue on Fri Nov 22, 2019 7:20 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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fathomlessblue
Posts: 384 Location: Manchester, UK |
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Otaku have been shouting variations of "shut the hell up, old man!" at Miyazaki & Anno for years, despite their prominence and lasting effects on the industry, whenever they say something that might encourage self-examination. With Miyazaki in particular, people have always used the fact that he's grumpy & tactless to avoid actually engaging with his opinions, so when someone comes along with more delicacy (I can't believe I'm actually saying that about Tomino!), those folks have nothing else to fall back on but memes. Thank goodness, ANN doesn't promote pic-spam. |
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