I’ve been doing a little bit of research into some of the production backstory to Gundam 0080 lately and found some interesting nuggets of information in several staff interviews I thought I’d share here:

Interview with Fumihiko Takayama (Director)

• He doesn’t (or didn’t at the time) own a telephone. Sunrise producer Uchida had to go knock on his door to pitch 0080 to him

• Original idea was something like The Guns of Navarone

• Fumihiko barely saw any Gundam. “My awareness of the series was close to zero”

• Tomino apparently saw the first episode and told him that kids would know school is out if there’s urban warfare, so it’s strange that they rejoiced at the unexpected news. He acknowledged this.

• Takayama’s daring ideas for 0080 followed a sort of European cinematic thinking.

• The helplessness at the end of the series may have been influenced by Italo Calvino’s The Cloven Viscount and Sergio Corbucci’s The Great Silence

• Bernie’s video letter takes inspiration and some lines from Giovanni Pirelli’s A Falling-Down World (man, the Japanese title was way different!)

• Mikimoto was given references to actors for their designs. They include interesting depictions such as:

  • Steiner is Spencer Tracy

  • Garcia is Willem Defoe

  • Misha is Ernest Borgnine

  • Andy is Andy Robinson

  • Professor (Richard) Lumumba is Morgan Freeman

• Izubuchi had control over mecha designs. The only thing he asked him to do was to make Alex as ugly as possible when wearing the reactive armor.

• Morgan Freeman wasn’t that well known in Japan at the time

• The series was a sales success and highly acclaimed, the only downside was the lack of battles (which it was criticized for)

• Ironically, for someone that didn’t really like robots, he would go on to direct other robot shows (Patlabor WXIII and Orguss 02)

Interview with Kenji Uchida (Sunrise Producer)

• The plan was to have Tomino produce 0080, but since he did three consecutive works, it would’ve been far too exhausting.

• Not just for him, but the entire staff (Z into ZZ illustrated this!)

• Izubuchi was the first choice for mecha design. Uchida wanted to create an animated version of WW2 or the Vietnam War for core fans who would pay money to buy it as an OVA

• This is also why Izubuch played the role of more than one designer.

• Direction went with a newcomer for a reason: veteran director would have better sales advantage, but he wanted to take Gundam in a new direction

• Mamoru Oshii was also approached to direct

• Fumihiko Takayama was suggested despite not being well known. Cue jokes about how to get ahold of him since he didn’t have a phone!

• Uchida actively approached those he considered “talented,” both inside and outside of the animation industry.

• They looked for people who could work on entertainment war action films and science fiction wars

• Yoshiki Tanaka was the first person they asked, but they didn’t want to dive too far into the military aspect.

• That was before LOGH was animated as an OVA

• Izubuchi and Kondoh apparently had major military ideas in their image boards

• Novelist Shoji Yuki was asked to join to help with drafting

• Hiroyuki Yamaga was tapped, but because GAINAX was a rival company, they weren’t sure if he could write a screenplay.

Today’s quick mini segment deals with a question and answer page in the Gundam ZZ Part.2 book published by Animedia. This doesn’t really add anything, but it’s neat nonetheless to see what people wrote in and asked about:

Q: Why does Judau leave with Roux instead of Elle in the last episode?
A: In the beginning, Judau was supposed to leave alone, but it was General Director Tomino’s idea to have him leave with Roux, likely because he is mature enough to live without his sister, but needed Roux more than Elle.

Q: Why are the people of Moon Moon so weird?
A: The colony of Moon Moon is a prototype colony that was built for the people who constructed Side 1. For that reason, it’s much smaller than a normal colony. People tend to become weird when they live in a small space for a long time.

Q: Why did Ple die?
A: There is no answer to this question. Everyone has their own destiny.

Q: Why is the colony that fell on Dublin still standing? Wouldn’t it normally collapse under its own weight?
A: In reality, this would be the case. However, anime is different from reality, as we know. In this scene, the General Director wanted to depict a standing colony, so he probably decided not to have it collapse.

Q: Why did Iino dress up as a woman too when Judau did on Tigerbaum?
A: Because there was a risk that if the other characters dressed up as a women, they’d immediately be recognized as men. Iino, on the other hand, has been dressing up as a woman since his Shangri-La days, so he’s pretty good at it. (That’s a lie!” Iino said).

機動戦士ガンダムZZ PART.2 完結編雑誌

MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM ZZ PART.2

PUBLICATION INFORMATION

Publisher: Animedia
Released: 1987.03.01
Price: 580
Size: —

The book contains character and mechanical information as well as a story digest. There’s also a special story about Sayla and Leina called “Sensitive Eyes of Sisters,” the original draft proposal of Gundam ZZ along with staff interviews and some random behind-the-scenes information that hasn’t been parroted around much, including the source of Elpeo Ple’s name!