Interest

Gundam's Yoshiyuki Tomino Reminds Us All That Char Definitely Has Sex

Batman made headlines on Monday when Harley Quinn showrunner Justin Halpern revealed that in the adult animated comedy show's third season, a reference to Batman performing cunnilingus on Catwoman was vetoed by DC Comics.

As Halpern explained: “We had a moment where Batman was going down on Catwoman. And DC was like, 'You can't do that. You absolutely cannot do that.' They're like, 'Heroes don't do that.' So, we said, 'Are you saying heroes are just selfish lovers?' They were like, 'No, it's that we sell consumer toys for heroes. It's hard to sell a toy if Batman is also going down on someone.'”

The news has rippled into the anime and manga world, inspiring questions about which anime characters would absolutely "go down" on someone.

One particular suggestion that came up on social media was Gundam's Char Aznable. The source for this claim: an interview with Yoshiyuki Tomino from the Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack fan book, first published in December 1993. In the interview, Tomino is very frank about discussing the sex lives of his characters, saying that it is an important part of conceiving a fleshed-out world and character relationships.

Regarding the character of Char's love interest Nanai, Tomino said, "To a certain degree as you get older, you can really understand a person through that part (sex)... and at those times, you can't detach sex from your thinking. That's why I absolutely have to imagine what Nanai's vagina is like. It's something I particularly think about during the scriptwriting phase."

He went on to say that when drawing the storyboards, he thought, "I don't want her vagina to be all withered out," because he thought "it would reflect poorly on Char, and Nanai isn't a dull woman herself." He wanted to convey the feeling of their relationship in the scene where Nanai sits on Char's lap. "It was a challenge to myself to figure out what this woman would be like when she's sitting there, being made love to. It was no trifling matter."

He also said that he conceived Nanai as the kind of self-confident woman who would be a good match for Char. "There are times when a man wants to embrace a woman, and I thought, 'If he's going to do it, it might as well be with a woman like Nanai.'"

When it comes to matters of oral sex, Tomino was just as frank, stating that he expects voice actresses to be able to portray a level of expectation for sexual reciprocation.

"They start moaning as soon as their character gets touched by a man. There are times I find myself thinking, 'The guy wasn't dexterous enough to warrant that reaction!' Or something like, 'Have some pride when you're being made love to!' I get really exasperated, wondering why on earth they don't think something like, 'If this man doesn't lick my vagina, I'll beat the crap out of him!'"

Incidentally, don't count out Amuro. In the same interview, Tomino said that he really wanted to bring out a "raw/carnal feeling" in the confrontation between Amuro and Char, "to the degree that you might wonder whether the two of them are homosexual."

Update: Added source for scans, retranslated the quote related to voice actresses.

Sources: M.S. Gundam Fan Club Char's Counterattack book (scans via cyzlar), Variety (Joe Otterson) via Daryl Surat