THE JOURNEY & FUTURE OF UNIVERSAL CENTURY GUNDAM ④
Interview and Text by Shino Kokawa

The Protagonists Find Salvation, But the World Remains Unredeemed – That’s What I Sought to Portray in UC, Attempting to Place a Comma in Gundam’s Story

――Mobile Suit Gundam’s One Year War takes place in UC 0079, Char’s Counterattack during the Second Neo Zeon War in UC 0093, and Unicorn kicks off in UC 0096 – did you land on this timeline right off the bat?

Fukui: Yes, the directive was to carve out the entire Gundam world, and while one axis was depicting the first year of the Universal Century, when pondering where to plant the other focal point, I peeked at a Gundam chronology and noticed that in UC 0100, the Republic of Zeon returns its autonomy and the Zeon nation is no more. So I figured, let’s set our sights there. The notion was to span that century and explore it.

――So, was Unicorn’s role or objective to bring the Universal Century Gundam saga to a definitive “THE END”?

Fukui: Well, not so much to conclude the Universal Century Gundam series, but I did have this feeling of wanting to place a comma there, a sort of caesura. I felt we ought to pause there, then take a fresh look at how to carry the torch from F91 onward. Given that ∀ Gundam posits an ending where this whole world meets its demise, it compels you to reflect – did that world hold any meaning? Was there any significance in creating and witnessing Gundam through all this time? I felt from the get-go that we had to craft a work that could respond to those queries with a resounding “yes.” Especially having had the privilege of tackling the ∀ Gundam novelization, I was acutely mindful of that narrative architecture.

――In creating the story for Unicorn, what do you feel the preceding Gundam and Universal Century stories handed down to you as a challenge?

Fukui: First and foremost, to not let it devolve into a mere boys’ sandbox (laughs). That plea rang out loud and clear. And given that my own trade is storytelling, when I examined from that vantage point what set the original Gundam apart from its successors, I surmised there had to be a dash of shōjo manga-esque romanticism in the mix. Step one was to rekindle that. But in doing so, we can’t allow it to veer into a contrived historical piece, so it’s crucial to duly preserve that quintessential Gundam ethos of brusquely confronting you with reality, proclaiming “this is how it is” – that historical through line. Unicorn wraps up on a rather idyllic note, doesn’t it? It instills this inkling that perhaps matters will take a turn for the better… But remember, a scant few years down the line, the Zeon nation is dismantled, and the bleak futures of F91 and Victory await. So, in a sense, it echoes the original Gundam. Within the narrative, the protagonists attain momentary salvation, yet the world remains unredeemed. But I believe the true thrill of the story lies in the notion that those protagonists, having managed to salvage their own souls even fleetingly in that forsaken world, can likely soldier on unbroken until their dying breath.

――That’s true.

Fukui: It’s possible that Tomino himself grew unable to abide by that sort of romanticism in storytelling, pivoting to a stance of “No, that’s not how it goes; this character dies.” Rather than coming from a place of negating what individuals stand to gain and ought to be able to glean from engaging with stories… Anyhow, I aspired to steer the story’s cardinal principles back to where the original Gundam stood.

――In erecting Unicorn as a Gundam that strikes a balance between that romanticism and realism, what did you take pains to do?

Fukui: To not let the world shift in unduly convenient ways. In that regard, even if the collision in Char’s Counterattack wouldn’t have spelled the wholesale annihilation of the Earth and humankind, it verged on rendering our planet uninhabitable, and thwarting that outcome with some inexplicable miraculous force essentially amounts to a sweeping revision of the world and its history. I think that’s a prerogative reserved solely for Tomino, the saga’s architect. In Unicorn, even if the psycho-frame’s might sparks miraculous occurrences, when viewed from a distance, it should be restrained to the magnitude of, say, snuffing out a minor conflagration. And while they did rescue the colony by warping the colony laser, precious few are even privy to that fact. The same goes for the subsequent Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative. Even if wonders come to pass, they go unheralded. I felt we had to tread carefully on that front.

Gundam is a Work Born of the God-Like Tomino, and Even That Deity Himself Cannot Fully Govern It – Therein Lies Gundam’s Allure and Realism

――The romanticism inherited from the original Gundam is unflinchingly dark romanticism, isn’t it?

Fukui: True, it’s not something that redeems anything per se. But that’s… The generation raised on Gundam is now verging on their 50s, and at an age when mortality looms large when you truly start to grapple with your own inevitable demise… “What happens when you die?” Compared to my more youthful self absorbing the original Gundam, it resonates on a more visceral level now. Aging and dying are pressing existential quandaries, aren’t they? I did harbor a bit of an inclination to fold that dimension into the mix. While I’ve never had a Newtype-esque experience of intuitively apprehending something, still, haven’t you encountered coincidences that defy any other explanation? Hence, my desire to take a stab at parsing that structure of the Gundam universe, where spirits appear. It’s not something that becomes the truth of this world and changes the subsequent Gundam world, but rather an account of an individual harboring that suspicion, doggedly pursuing it, orchestrating a grand experiment, faltering, making amends, and fading into the ether. That’s the basic framework underpinning Narrative. Without inflicting lasting wounds on the subsequent chronology, I figured I’d have a go at unraveling it in that form. Thinking ahead, at the close of Narrative, Mineva declares, “Sealing this will be our life’s work,” which is a line that functions as a splendid teaser of sorts (chuckles).

――(laughs).

Fukui: I think that’s a possibility. It gets sealed away, and 10 years later is F91. There’s also Hathaway’s Flash to consider. Maybe at that time, it was still sealed… And then around U.C.0105, 0106, with Zeon gone, something incredible happens around the 100-year mark of the Universal Century. If there were to be a sequel to Unicorn, I feel like that would be the main focus.

――The Universal Century narrative is strikingly singular. For instance, if you regard The Lord of the Rings as another perpetually unspooling saga, Tolkien had a reasonable grasp of the overarching contours of the tale from the outset and meticulously designed the world. But in Gundam’s case, it’s the unbridled brainchild of its creator Tomino, who himself cannot fully rein it in, and it’s a saga that has propagated in a chimerical fashion through the synergistic effect of others interpreting and augmenting it.

Fukui: At the end of the day, I do believe Gundam’s worldview is a mirror held up to Tomino’s own tribulations. If we surmise that this world was wrought by a god, it’s not beyond the pale to construe its tumult as a reflection of that deity’s own inner turmoil. In light of that, Gundam is a world created by the god that is Tomino, and yet it’s far from arbitrary or self-indulgent, even that god himself cannot exert total control over it. That, in my estimation, is the fount of Gundam’s unique charm and realism. So, while I’m involved with it now, I must refrain from assembling it purely to my own liking, and if I deem something I had sketched out to be ill-fitting in the current state of affairs, I need to change it immediately. I have to constantly maintain that kind of agility, or it will rapidly devolve into contrivance. There’s that exhilarating facet to it, wouldn’t you say?

The Taboo of the Universal Century Lies in the Emergence of Extraterrestrials – and Warping, Too, I Daresay

――If there are taboos in portraying Gundam’s Universal Century in that manner, what might they be?

Fukui: For example, the appearance of aliens is strictly off the table. Humans only. And I suspect warping is likewise off-limits. At the end of the day, even though we speak of mankind operating on a cosmic stage, the Universal Century is predicated on the notion that we are creatures who can only vie for supremacy within a space as minuscule as that between the Earth and the moon.

――True, and despite its moniker, there isn’t much impetus in the Universal Century to ceaselessly open up the universe. It’s more Earth-centric, if anything.

Fukui: Exactly. Even with contemporary scientific prowess, it takes a good 3 days to journey from Earth to the moon, and Gundam adheres faithfully to that. Navigation and such also hew closely to present-day norms. And I a story like ∀ Gundam, where the world undergoes such a dramatic shift, likely signify the instant when humanity achieves a quantum leap in evolution. Perhaps they devised warp navigation, affixed warp engines to the colonies, and warped away? As a matter of fact, in Light of Life, there’s a single cut right at the tail end that alludes to that – all the colonies vanishing in a flash. But the moment you venture down that path, I dare say the Universal Century reaches its terminus. On the flip side, in terms of the sci-fi aspect, harnessing the psycho-frame’s potency to halt asteroids and such is fair game (laughs). Since that’s the handiwork of a god, it comes with a free pass.

――Do you have any interest in the era between F91 and ∀ Gundam?

Fukui: Oh, it’s not that I’m devoid of interest. But at that stage, it’s an utterly blank canvas. That said, you can still tap into a modicum of the legacy assets. But, well… We need to think about what format to present that in. TV broadcasting has basically fallen by the wayside. If we were to tackle it in this day and age, we’d either have to take a leap of faith and head straight to the silver screen or forge a partnership with a subscription-based platform. We’re still in the midst of a transitional phase on that front. Including the continuation of Unicorn’s arc that we touched upon earlier, we need to consider how best to develop it.

――You’re currently writing the story for Mobile Suit Moon Gundam, correct?

Fukui: Yes, that’s the Gundam-related project that is currently in progress. I don’t know what will happen going forward, but… I recently realized that I’m getting close to the age Tomino was when he was working on Victory. So, in that sense, I’m at a point where I kind of want to show that I’ve matured as a creator. I want to take a hard look at my weaknesses and strengths and focus on what I know I can deliver, what I’m best at, and what I can pull off with confidence. As has always been the case with visual works, one must constantly rise to new challenges, and there’s an element of a collaborative effort with those around you, but in the case of Moon Gundam, it’s, of course, a collaboration with the illustrator Ippei Gyoubu. He and I go way back and have a real understanding of each other’s style, so I want us to put together something genuinely substantial. And that, as it happens, dovetailed into a work that reexamines the Universal Century world from a different angle, as it were.

Unicorn started from literally the first year of the Universal Century, but there’s a gap between that first year and the One Year War. Moon Gundam touches on the atmosphere around the rise of Zeon, and it’s set in the forgotten colony of Moon Moon that got a brief mention in ZZ. Just tracing the history of that colony ends up giving you a behind-the-scenes look at the Universal Century. The story takes place in the period between ZZ and Char’s Counterattack, so it’s trying to take a fresh look at what things were like leading up to the Axis Shock, that major turning point. So, for anyone who reads this interview, I’d definitely encourage you to check out Moon Gundam, too.