Sunrise × Gundam Ace Editorial Department Roundtable Discussion!
The 20-Year Journey of Gundam Ace and Gundam

In June 2001, Gundam Ace was launched as a magazine dedicated to Gundam, featuring numerous Gundam works, starting with the manga Mobile Suit Gundam THE ORIGIN by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko. Let’s look back at the 20-year journey of this magazine with Mr. Arata Sasaki and Mr. Naohiro Ogata from Sunrise.

ON THE EVE OF GUNDAM ACE’S LAUNCH

Zaizen: Can you believe it’s been 20 years since Gundam Ace was first published? I bet even the original editor-in-chief, (Hideaki) Kobayashi, and certainly the readers, never saw this coming. What’s your take on this, Sasaki?

Sasaki: You know, if you’ve been reading this magazine, you’re pretty much up to speed on all things Gundam, right? We’ve got a solid base of die-hard fans. Not just for Gundam, but lately, themes have become so crucial, haven’t they? There’s a sense that specialized magazines, even manga ones, focused on particular genres seem to be doing better than general interest ones. It’s like they’ve cultivated a certain brand power over the years.

Zaizen: That’s the vibe I get after 20 years.

――Actually, Sasaki, you’re the only member of the original team who’s still involved with Gundam Ace.

Ogata: The sole survivor of the opening crew (laughs).

Ishiwaki: I came in around 2007; by then, other original editors had moved to different departments or editorial teams. So, in the editorial office, Zaizen here is the veteran.

Zaisen: I’ve been here since about the second year after launch.

―― So, we’d love to hear about the initial stages of the magazine’s inception from you, Sasaki.

Sasaki: I’ve talked about this here and there, but long story short, back in the summer of 2000, a year before the launch, I was summoned by the then-president of Sunrise, Takayuki Yoshii. He told me, “Yasuhiko is going to do a manga version of Gundam, and there’s a rough draft. Go get them.” I was like, ‘But we’re not an anime company, you know?’ (laughs).

―― And at that point, did you have any experience editing manga?

Sasaki: None whatsoever. But Yasuhiko’s rough drafts were so detailed you could envision the final form, and of course, there were no complaints about the content. That’s why even an amateur like me could handle it. Plus, Yasuhiko wanted to update the mechas to appeal to the kids today, so I suggested we come up with new mechanical designs for THE ORIGIN. When he asked, “What did that one look like again?” I’d dig up the settings and fax them over. So, my job was more like setting production for anime rather than manga editing. The only thing I really pointed out was that Char was wearing a pilot suit the first time he appeared.

Ishiwaki: Probably because Yasuhiko remembered the anime’s latter parts more vividly.

Sasaki: Right. So I said to him, “If Char is in a pilot suit from the start, doesn’t that eliminate the dynamic with Lalah later on? Wouldn’t that be problematic?” That was the extent of my input.

Zaizen: So after all that, you showed the rough storyboards for THE ORIGIN to our guy Inoue, right?

Sasaki: Exactly. Inoue said on the spot, “Let’s create a magazine just to feature this storyboard. Give me all of it.”

Ishiwaki: What was your relationship with Inoue like, Sasaki?

Sasaki: Back then, Inoue was the head of the Anime & Comics division. We had a long-standing relationship with Kadokawa Shoten through ‘Newtype’ and works like ‘Hathaway’s Flash’ and Hasegawa’s ‘Crossbone Gundam.’ So, the first issue of ‘Gundam Ace’ was actually a special edition of ‘Newtype.com.’ It’s quicker to publish a special issue than a new magazine, which would take more time. That was probably around September or October. Looking back, it might seem unconventional for an employee of an anime production company, but I knew I couldn’t make anime as skillfully as Ogata here, so I chose a different path on purpose.

Ogata: That might be one of Sunrise’s strengths, in a good way. They’re flexible, not just in anime but in various endeavors.

THE TWO EDITORS WHO LAID THE FOUNDATION FOR THE MAGAZINE

―― Even though the publication of the magazine was on track, there wasn’t an actual editorial department yet, right?

Sasaki: Right, around the end of the year, Inoue brought on board Kobayashi, who would become the first editor-in-chief, and Takashi Watanabe, who later became the editor-in-chief for Newtype and the producer for Mamoru Hosoda’s The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

Zaizen: Both had originally been chief editors for Tokuma Shoten’s voice actor and anime magazines.

Sasaki: To Inoue, they might have seemed like rivals, but he must have had his reasons. In the end, Watanabe didn’t join the Gundam Ace editorial team, but he did collaborate with Haruhiko Mikimoto on developing the plot for Mobile Suit Gundam: École du Ciel.

Ishiwaki: Sasaki, you’re probably the only one who got to see that kind of thing. Mikimoto mentioned in his 20th-anniversary comment for the August issue about finishing École and opening a bottle of wine he received from Kobayashi. It’s fascinating to see these moments and thoughts shared by others and in Yasuhiko’s reflective manga.

Sasaki: Kobayashi was quite a character. He even became Garcia in THE ORIGIN, which is something.

Ogata: I didn’t know Kobayashi as well as you all did, but at the preview of Gundam UC Episode 1, when everyone was quietly gauging the room’s reaction after the screening, it was dead silent, and this incredibly intimidating person loudly exclaimed, “This is amazing, just amazing!” That was Kobayashi, and his enthusiasm was a huge relief.

Zaizen: He looked tough, almost like a thug, but he was surprisingly sensitive.

Ishiwaki: Kobayashi also set the direction for “THE ORIGIN,” bringing in Gundam-related artists like Hiroyuki Kitazume and Umanosuke Iida to create manga.

Sasaki: For us, seeing Gundam through the lenses of creators like Mikimoto and Kitazume was something we longed for. While creating such visions in animation presents various challenges, Gundam Ace allowed these personal interpretations and styles to flourish in manga form. It’s been a haven for creative experimentation.

THE SYNERGISTIC EFFECT OF THE ORIGIN, SEED, AND THE Z MOVIE TRILOGY

Ishiwaki: What was the reaction at Sunrise when Gundam Ace came out?

Sasaki: That was June 2001, right when Gundam SEED was in the works. Ogata, you helped out with episode 7’s production, I recall.

Ogata: While working on Inuyasha, I got a call for help, so I took on episodes 7 and 13. SEED is hitting its 20th anniversary next year.

―― How was THE ORIGIN perceived behind the scenes?

Ogata: Animators were all reading it. It might sound odd, but it felt like the authentic, desired depiction of Gundam, almost a textbook for the industry.

Sasaki: The concurrent run of SEED in 2002 probably synergized well with both Gundam Ace and THE ORIGIN.

―― From 2004 to 2005, alongside Gundam’s 25th broadcasting anniversary, SEED DESTINY aired, and the Z Gundam movie trilogy was released. Ogata, you’ve mentioned that SEED and the Z Gundam films had a significant impact on Gundam’s current popularity.

Ogata: It’s huge. SEED introduced a new generation to Gundam, while Z brought back our generation.

Sasaki: Looking back, during DESTINY’s broadcast, we ran many ads for the Z Gundam movies, which attracted younger fans. This engagement with mobile suits and the charm of the characters led them to games like Extreme Vs. and Gunpla, creating a flow towards Gundam UC. So for Gundam 00, which I was involved with later, we made a point of having a “designers’ renaissance” at the planning stage so we could have a lot of cool mobile suits, and we had a lot of young designers who hadn’t worked much with Sunrise before participate.

THE NOVEL GUNDAM UC AS A TURNING POINT FOR THE MAGAZINE

―― Looking back at the history of Gundam Ace, the start of the novel “Gundam UC” seems to be a pivotal moment, don’t you think?

Sasaki: Fukui had already connected with us through his work on the ∀ Gundam novel for Kodansha. In the January 2003 issue, there was a conversation between Yasuhiko and Fukui, and it was then that Kobayashi decided to have Fukui write a Gundam novel.

Zaizen: With Gundam UC, it wasn’t quite there yet, but he kept saying like a mantra, “I want him to write the next thing after THE ORIGIN.”

Sasaki: In the 2000s, when we started working with Fukui, he seemed incredibly busy. I mean, works he had been involved with like Lorelei, Sengoku Jieitai 1549, and Boukoku no Aegis were being released one after another.

Zaizen: I remember we had a meeting at Fukui’s apartment right after the Zeta Gundam movies opened.

Sasaki: In the meeting before that, a lot of ideas had come up, but since this was the first original Gundam Fukui was working on, we figured we might as well make it something grand that sums up the Universal Century. We even had Kawaguchi, who was producing Code Geass around that time, come to that meeting.

―― So you had anime in mind even at the planning stage?

Sasaki: I was still pretty green, but I just assumed it would definitely be animated. Fukui was pretty adamant about it, too. Sunrise was pretty easygoing about it – they signed a contract with anime in mind when the serialization started, and just as the serialization was about to end, Ogata agreed to be the producer.

Ogata: At the time, my boss told me to produce either THE ORIGIN or Gundam UC. But THE ORIGIN was already such a complete work as a manga, you know? More than anything, I thought animating it without compromising Yasuhiko’s art would be a really high hurdle, so I chose Gundam UC. Even though Gundam UC had art by Yasuhiko and Katoki, there wasn’t any real animated footage of it yet.

Sasaki: In the end, I think “Gundam UC” realized the creative challenges we had in mind when Gundam Ace launched in the best possible way. I mean, even if a producer had just gone to Fukui out of the blue and said, “Let’s make a Gundam anime together,” it wouldn’t have turned into such an intricate, rich anime. It’s precisely because there was an original novel that gave an overview of the whole work that the anime staff could devote themselves to figuring out how to adapt it. We could also find a director and staff who could properly bring Fukui’s world to life. So, in a way, Gundam Ace is a place for experiments that can’t be done with anime, where creators can give their individuality free rein, but at the same time, it’s a place where the fruits of that labor have the potential to expand into different media like anime, models, and games. That’s true for THE ORIGIN and for Gundam-san, too.

Ogata: Mankyu, who we asked to direct Gundam-san, has also become quite in demand after the Sumikko Gurashi movie.

THE DECADE FOLLOWING THE END OF THE ORIGIN

―― THE ORIGIN wrapped up a decade ago in 2011, but how did the editorial department view the end of what could be called the core work of the magazine at the time?

Ishiwaki: I was the editor-in-chief at the time, and I thought it might be the end of the magazine (laughs). Ever since Kobayashi was editor-in-chief, he had been saying that the circulation would plummet once THE ORIGIN ended. So around this time, we launched several new magazines and left the actual work on Gundam Ace to Zaizen.

Zaizen: My conclusion at the time was that there was nothing that could replace THE ORIGIN. Series like Gundam UC Bande Dessinee and The Return of Johnny Ridden had already started, so I just focused on doing my best behind the scenes. I figured Ishiwaki would ultimately decide what would happen to the magazine.

Ishiwaki: When I heard (Hideki) Ohwada from Gundam-san say, “I don’t know why I’m continuing when THE ORIGIN has ended,” I realized just how much the magazine had been supported by the pull of THE ORIGIN.

Sasaki: I think while the first 10 years when Yasuhiko was drawing THE ORIGIN were a promised 10 years, you really hung in there for this past 10 years. The cover for the issue right after the final installment of THE ORIGIN was by Kitazume, right?

Zaizen: As THE ORIGIN ended, we announced the anime project and Kitazume’s Zeta Define started.

Ishiwaki: I think the concept was to have Amuro on the cover for the final installment of THE ORIGIN, so the next one would be Char from Zeta as a pair.

Sasaki: It really feels like a fresh start.

Ishiwaki: But the circulation didn’t drop as much as we had feared. After that, we were able to get Yasuhiko to do one-shots every so often, too.

Ogata: I remember during THE ORIGIN project, there were about three one-shots published, right? In any case, I think the Gundam UC anime undoubtedly had an impact on why the magazine has continued for these last 10 years. The purchasing demographic for the magazine got younger, and thanks to that, the range of manga being published, like gag manga, expanded. Honestly, I never expected that. The feature for the July 2014 issue was like a comprehensive wrap-up, including the original work and the anime. I remember distinctly feeling, ah, the Gundam UC project is ending, as I thought up catchphrases together with Fukui.

Sasaki: Looking back on these 20 years, there was THE ORIGIN manga, then the anime SEED and 00 started, followed by the novel Gundam UC turning into an anime, then THE ORIGIN got animated… I do feel like the movements of Gundam Ace and Gundam as a whole have been nicely in sync. Within the overall flow of the Gundam series, Gundam Ace has a clear position as a magazine. You wouldn’t get this sense of synchronization with a regular magazine that just happens to have one Gundam manga.

―― Also, in 2013, Gundam Build Fighters started and created a new trend for Gunpla.

Ogata: Not just the Build series, but in recent years, you’ve been developing a lot of manga focused on Gunpla, like Gundam F90FF. Gunpla itself is so popular in the market that there are shortages, so we’re grateful.

Zaizen: The Two in Love with HG is popular, too. And speaking of recent Gundam works, there’s Hathaway’s Flash. The movie was incredibly good.

Sasaki: If I remember correctly, Inoue had been telling us to animate this work about 15 years ago, but having Ogata do it after Gundam UC feels like some kind of fate, like a flow of events.

Ogata: To put the spotlight on the Universal Century again, to summarize it and move forward, I think it’s the optimal original work.

Sasaki: Plus, according to Ogata’s theory from earlier, Hathaway’s Flash has the advantage of not having been animated. We even considered a project starting from F91 to advance the Universal Century, but I feel like bringing in Hathaway was more constructive after all.

EXPECTATIONS FOR THE MAGAZINE BEYOND ITS 20th ANNIVERSARY

――Finally, could you share what Sunrise expects from Gundam Ace moving forward?

Ogata: For myself, I believe it’s crucial to enhance Gundam’s recognition overseas while advancing the generational shift domestically. For that, discovering new talent is just as crucial. Of course, we’ll keep searching, too, but I hope Gundam Ace, as a place for further creative challenges, will discover talent with tastes we haven’t seen before.

―― Even things that aren’t so-called mainstream, like Ral Feasts?

Ogata: Absolutely. We encourage more of those initiatives.

Sasaki: This is a project that could only be done because it’s Gundam Ace. At least from Sunrise’s side, these aren’t proposals we’d typically make. It’s impressive how it all came together.

Ogata: Once we greenlit Ral Feasts, we had no intention of putting the brakes on… I mean, what’s the point in supervising and saying, “Ramba Ral wouldn’t say that”? (laughs)

Ishiwaki: Series like Ral Feasts and the HG Loving Duo seem to attract a different readership from the traditional Gundam Ace audience. Thanks to its 20-year history, the magazine has built a certain brand power, with a reader base that has become more core-focused.

Sasaki: Those series appeal to the typical manga enthusiasts as well.

Ishiwaki: Just as Kobayashi set up the concept of having Gundam-affiliated creators like Yasuhiko, Kitazume, and Mikimoto draw manga, the editorial policy also needs to change with the times. Now, the issue is how to create a wide range of works within Gundam Ace and expand it to not just the core fans but also to more casual readers. That includes things that seem like curve balls at first glance, like Ral Feasts.

Ogata: On top of that, I think we need to look for, and you need to look for, core works and the creators who will produce them to follow in the footsteps of Yasuhiko with THE ORIGIN and Fukui with Gundam UC.

Sasaki: Yeah, Gundam Ace has established a position as a magazine within the Gundam movement, so I want it to create works that influence the movement as a whole.

Ogata: In that sense, I have high hopes for the new work Gundam Eight.

Zaizen: Hajime Kamoshida is writing the script for Gundam Eight. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it has a direction like 00, which brought together a new generation, different from the axis of THE ORIGIN and Gundam UC.

Sasaki: Nice. Please work hard toward the 30th anniversary of Gundam Ace!

Zaizen: Hahaha… it’s tough. Sunrise makes a lot of original Gundam works, don’t they? But… I’m grateful that Sunrise has the generosity to allow it.

Ishiwaki: Trust in a magazine can’t be built overnight, so I want to keep making works that can only be done because it’s Gundam Ace, which has continued for 20 years.

Zaizen: I’m pretty sure Ogata wrote “Let’s aim for the 30th anniversary!” in his 20th anniversary comment, so how about the four of us get together again in 10 years to see if that pans out?

Ogata: No, I just wrote something safe…

Ishiwaki: Sounds good; let’s get together again for the 30th-anniversary issue!