In an interview with the Japanese magazine Weekly Playboy, Mobile Suit Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino questioned why the works of Makoto Shinkai, the director of your name. and Weathering with You, lack scenes of sexual intimacy between characters.
According to Anime News Network, Tomino was being interviewed in advance of the release of the first Gundam: Reconguista in G compilation film in theaters.
Tomino stated that Reconguista in G was created to remind modern audiences, specifically children, of the style of older anime.
However, as both production studio Kyoto Animation and Shinkai regularly chase that goal in their works, the interviewer for Weekly Playboy asked Tomino about his opinion on the studio and the director, to which Tomino responded that he considers them “rivals.”
“I see them as my rivals. From my generation’s perspective, you don’t have to go out of your way to make an anime that feels like an introspective novel (‘I novel’).”
Tomino then turned to Shinkai’s works, describing them as “stories about a boy and a girl who are always stretching out their hands towards each other” and questioning why “they never go any further” in regards to being physically intimate.
“Why do they never go any further? I want [Shinkai] to make a story where they aren’t just satisfied with no physicality. Well, Shinkai is still a young director, so I suppose he can make films like that.”
Despite his insistence that Shinkai’s works should show a more explicit and intimate displays of physical romance, Tomino stated in a separate interview with Mantan-Web that the Gundam: Reconguista in G film will be “a film I want kids to see,” which appears to indicate that the film will not feature any risqué or adult material.
What do you make of Yoshiyuki Tomino’s comments?