Yoshiyuki Tomino at his desk at Sunrise.
In rather wonderful news, Yoshiyuki Tomino will become a Person of Cultural Merit in Japan next week.
In a ceremony on November 4 in Japan, Yoshiyuki Tomino will join the Order of Culture as a Person of Cultural Merit.
Tomino’s career in anime has been a long and fascinating one, having been one of the main creators behind Mobile Suit Gundam as well as creating all manner of other works, with Xabungle, Ideon and Dunbine being notable.
Not only have Tomino’s works been hugely popular over the years but also very influential. In that, series such as Gurren Lagann wouldn’t exist without Xabungle, at least according to its director Hiroyuki Imaishi. So it’s about time that Tomino was officially recognized in this capacity.
Having sat down and interviewed Tomino a few years back, it was very interesting to have him explain his creative process. Not to mention all the other creators he helped out over the years, such as Mamoru Nagano who also spoke very highly of him.
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To give a bit of context to this award, the other people in anime and games that have been awarded it are Hayao Miyazaki and Shigeru Miyamoto. So Tomino is in very good company.
If you are curious about checking out some of Tomino’s anime work, and Gundam’s sprawling mythos feels somewhat daunting, then I can thoroughly recommend watching Dunbine. It’s an amazing series and entirely self contained in terms of the story, it also has amazing mecha design by Kazutaka Miyatake and Yutaka Izubuchi.
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