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Please note that this is the Gundam Wiki's article on the TV series, Turn A Gundam; if you are looking for the article on the titular mobile suit of this series then you should head to SYSTEM ∀-99 (WD-M01) ∀ Gundam.

∀ Gundam (∀ガンダム Tān'ē Gandamu?, called Turn "A" Gundam) is a 1999 anime television series created by Yoshiyuki Tomino, who returned after leaving Sunrise following Mobile Suit Victory Gundam. It aired on on Japan's FNN networks and the anime satellite television network, Animax, created for the Gundam Big Bang 20th Anniversary celebration. It was also compiled into two feature-length movies titled ∀ Gundam I: Earth Light and ∀ Gundam II: Moonlight Butterfly.

∀ Gundam is also the last of the Gundam metaseries (not counting the compilations and future video game cut scenes) to be hand painted on cels. 2002's Gundam SEED was the first series to use digital coloring.

On July 22, 2010, Bandai Entertainment announced that they had acquired the license to release Turn A Gundam in the United States, but in 2012, Bandai Entertainment announced that they were stopping production, and distribution, of anime thereof, and that included Turn A Gundam. However, following the partnering of Sunrise and RightStuf Inc., it was announced that the series would be released on DVD on June 30, 2015, and it is currently also available for order on Blu-Ray Disc.[1][2]

Synopsis[]

For two thousand years, a separate race of humanity has lived on the moon. Known as "the Moonrace," their technology is leaps and bounds beyond those that stayed behind on the Earth's surface. Now seeking to return to their original home, the Moonrace send three teenagers – Loran, Keith, and Fran – down to Earth on a reconnaissance mission to test the viability of its environment.[3]

After spending a year on Earth, Loran has become good friends with Sochie and Kihel, daughters of the prestigious Heim family, and he looks forward to fully integrating into Earth society. But before Loran gets the chance to make his report, the Moonrace launch a surprise attack. Earth's primitive airplanes are no match for the superior power of the Moonrace's mobile suits. However, in the midst of the initial attack, Loran and Sochie uncover a long-forgotten relic: a white mobile suit. As a Moonrace, Loran is quickly able to grasp the basics of piloting it, but by doing so, he inadvertently places himself in the middle of a war.[3]

Relationship with other Gundam series[]

Turn A Gundam has been cited by Director Tomino and other sources as a show that would unify the stories from the various Gundam series into one. Throughout the show, mobile suits resembling those from the eras depicted in previous Gundam shows and indicated to be preserved by nano machines for thousands of years, including as those of the Universal Century, are excavated by the show's various factions. In Episode 43, this plotline comes to a culmination as the history of the Correct Century timeline is shown in a collection of clips known as the Dark History (黒歴史, Kuro Rekishi), which is revealed to be events that took place in different Gundam series prior to Turn A Gundam, thus making those events part of the Correct Century timeline's history.

The book 2001 Correct Century, A Bibliographical Study of "Dark History," printed in black pages in front of the Universal Century Gundam Officials Encyclopedia, is supposedly uncovered by a fictional Lecturer in Black History named Yokk Wakk Onimott during Correct Century 1993. Onimott spends two years to fix the broken pages, five years to interpret the language, and a year to find a publisher. He states that the book was first printed around 3,000 years ago by the Rhea branch of the Earth Federation Government University.

Included in the book is a picture drawn by Kunio Okawara showing a mobile suit supposed to be MS-04 as a S.U.I.T. project of the Zeon forces in UC0072~0075. It was supposedly found in C.C. 1993 in the mountain cycle Library A-a. The white page introduction by another fictional writer, Minaka Junkers, an economy assistant professor of the Rhea branch of the Earth Federation Government University, states the book was published in U.C. 0100 to celebrate the Centennial anniversary of the Universal Century. Thus, it is officially claimed that the Universal Century is a time before Correct Century, possibly around 3,000 years before the story of Turn A begins.[4]

Cast & Crew[]

Cast[]

Further information: List of Correct Century Characters

Mechanic[]

Moon Race[]

Mobile Weapons[]

Vehicles and Support Units[]

Ghingham Fleet[]

Mobile Weapons[]

Vehicles and Support Units[]

Inglessa Militia[]

Mobile Weapons[]

Vehicles and Support Units[]

Luizianna Militia & Navy[]

Mobile Weapons[]

Vehicles and Support Units[]

Episodes[]

Comprehensive Listing of ∀ Gundam Episodes

# Episode Title Japanese Airdate
1 Howl at the Moon 9 April 1999
2 The Coming of Age Ceremony 16 April 1999
3 After the Festival 23 April 1999
4 Soldiers From Home 30 April 1999
5 Diana Descends 7 May 1999
6 The Forgotten Past 14 May 1999
7 Training to Be a Lady 21 May 1999
8 Laura's Cow 28 May 1999
9 Corin Shouts, It's a Gundam! 4 June 1999
10 Grave Visit 11 June 1999
11 The Fall of Nocis 18 June 1999
12 Underground Passageways 25 June 1999
13 An Older Woman 2 July 1999
14 Separated, Again 9 July 1999
15 Fleeting Memories 16 July 1999
16 All About Turn A 23 July 1999
17 Dust Blow at the State's Founding 30 July 1999
18 Kihel and Dianna 6 August 1999
19 Sochie's War 13 August 1999
20 Anise Power 20 August 1999
21 Dianna's Hard Fight August 27 JL
22 Harry's Misfortune 3 September 1999
23 Teteth's Last Words 10 September 1999
24 Laura's Howl 17 September 1999
25 The Willghem Lifts Off 24 September 1999
26 A Battle for Enlightenment 8 October 1999
27 Midnight Sunrise 15 October 1999
28 The Burden 22 October 1999
29 Two Aboard the Soleil 28 October 1999
30 Close to the Heart 29 October 1999
31 Pursuit! Crybaby Poe 5 November 1999
32 The King of Myth 19 November 1999
33 The Taking of Manupichi 25 November 1999
34 Fly! Into the Stratosphere 3 December 1999
35 Sackträger 10 December 1999
36 Militia Space Showdown 17 December 1999
37 Gateway to the Moon 24 December 1999
38 Warrior God Ghingnham 7 January 1999
39 Shattering an Asteroid 14 January 2000
40 Sea Battle on the Moon 21 January 2000
41 The Decision to Fight 28 January 2000
42 The Turn X Activates 4 February 2000
43 Shocking Dark History 11 February 2000
44 The Enemy Starts Anew 18 February 2000
45 Guin's Betrayal 25 February 2000
46 To Earth Once Again 3 March 2000
47 Ghingnham Invades 10 March 2000
48 The Return of Dianna 17 March 2000
49 Moonlight Butterfly 24 March 2000
50 Golden Autumn 14 April 2000


Openings & Endings[]

Openings:

  • Turn A Turn by Hideki Saijo (Ep. 2-38)
  • Century Color by RAY-GUNS (Ep. 39 - 50)

Endings:

  • Aura by Shinji Tanimura (Ep. 1 - 40)
  • Tsuki no Mayu (Moon's Cocoon) by Aki Okui (Ep. 41 - 49)
  • Kagiri naki Tabiji (The Endless Journey) by Aki Okui (Ep. 50)
  • After All by Donna Burke (First compilation movie ending)
  • Tsuki no Mayu (Moon's Cocoon) by Aki Okui (Second compilation movie ending ~ In its full version right before the ending credits which are instrumental only)

Insert Songs:

  • Moon by Gabriela Robin

See also[]

Manga & Novels[]

Production[]

∀ Gundam takes place in the year Correct Century 2345 (正暦2345年, Seireki 2345, or CC 2345), in a different calendar system than the previous Gundam projects. Seireki is a wordplay on the Japanese term for the Common Era (C.E.) Western calendar system (西暦; also pronounced Seireki). The English acronym "CC" is Correct Century (コレクトセンチュリー) in the official Japanese guide book, and Correct Century in English in the 2001 Correct Century: A Bibliographical Study of "Black History" as the black paged introduction of Gundam Officials.[4]

After the end of Mobile Suit Victory Gundam in early 1994, Yoshiyuki Tomino took a five-year hiatus from Gundam anime (although he created the story for the Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam manga during that time). In 1999, he returned to the Gundam franchise with the 50-episode series ∀ Gundam (read as Turn A Gundam) as part of Sunrise's "Gundam Big Bang" 20th Anniversary celebration. Set in Correct Century (CC) 2345, this series tells the story of a war between space colonists calling themselves the Moonrace who wish to colonize Earth, and the Earth Militia forces, which use the ancient ∀ Gundam to retaliate.

∀ Gundam is a dramatic departure from the franchise in many ways. Instead of being set in an era of high technology, it is set in a future that has regressed to the early 20th century. Also, the unorthodox design of the title suit comes courtesy of American designer Syd Mead, best known for his work on the film Blade Runner. The series also features the musical talents of Yoko Kanno, who previously worked on Macross Plus, Cowboy Bebop, and Tomino's own series Brain Powerd. The series finished its run in early 2000, and in 2002 Tomino directed two compilation films, entitled Earth Light and Moonlight Butterfly.

  • Director - Yoshiyuki Tomino
  • Character Designer - Akira Yasuda, Yoshihito Hishinuma
  • Art Director - Shigemi Ikeda
  • Mecha Design - Atsushi Shigeta, Kunio Okawara, Syd Mead, Takumi Sakura
  • Sound Director - Yota Tsuruoka
  • Music - Toshiaki Ohta, Yoko Kanno
  • Producers - Hideyuki Tomioka, Yoshihiro Suzuki

Release[]

The anime originally aired on Fuji TV.

The series is available on DVD and Blu-Ray in Japan, but due to the problems with licensing Gundam series, there seemed little hope for a release until RightStuf Inc. partnered with Sunrise in 2014. On March 11, 2015, Right-Stuf & Nozomi Entertainment announced that Part 1 of the series would be available June 30, 2015.[1] In 2016, a high-definition Blu-Ray release of the entire series took place, spurred by incredibly-strong DVD sales.

The second part includes an exclusive interview with Syd Mead which was originally planned to be included in the scrapped Bandai Entertainment release.[5]

Trivia[]

  • "∀" is the universal quantifier used in discrete mathematics, meaning that the title of the series could be interpreted as "For All Gundam." This is proven throughout the series due to the ways ∀ Gundam's story echoes in repetition the stories of series made before it due to Yoshiyuki Tomino's intention at the time for this to be the final Gundam series ever produced.
    • Atop this, it is eventually revealed that the Correct Century's Dark History is a combination of the Universal Century with the timelines of After War Gundam X, New Mobile Report Gundam Wing, New Mobile Report Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, and Mobile Fighter G Gundam. This was due to Tomino not being aware at the time that Gundam series he did not work on were set in their own alternate continuities and instructed the production staff to use recycled footage from older Gundam series for the depiction of this story point, with him not becoming informed until the 2010s of the existence of alternate Gundam continuities not part of the Universal Century timeline.
    • However, due to Gundam's continuance past the conclusion of ∀ Gundam, Sunrise would subsequently clarify during the production of Gundam Seed that the Gundam series included as part of the Dark History in ∀ Gundam were alternate retellings of those stories and their originally depicted continuities did not coincide canonically with ∀ Gundam's events due to their fundamental setting incompatibility, narrative conflicts, and the thematic undermining of their tale such amalgamation would invoke, and no new Gundam series in separate timelines produced after ∀ Gundam would be amalgamated into it retroactively. It remains unknown if series part of previously included timelines (such as Gundam Unicorn or Thunderbolt counting as part of the Universal Century sect of the Dark History) would be an exception to such a rule.
    • Despite this, what is counted as part of ∀ Gundam's continuity and Dark History fluctuates wildly depending on interview and source; for example, the instruction manual for the Master Grade Turn X Gundam in 2014 claimed that Gundam 00, Age, Build Fighters, and Reconguista in G had been made part of the Dark History regardless of the continued incompatibility of all Gundam existing as a singular timeline, and Sunrise's continued stance that only alternate versions of series produced before ∀ Gundam whose footage was used in the series were to be officially counted.
  • Several references are made to previous Gundam series; for example, one of the Turn X's weapons uses the name of the Shining Gundam's trademark attack, the "Shining Finger." The AMX-109 Capule (Kapool) from Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ reappears.
  • is the first series where the name of the main character's Mobile Suit isn't mentioned until halfway through. Most of the characters refer to the Turn A as "the White Doll."
  • In episode 9, Petty Officer Corin Nander calls the White Doll "Gundam." When Loran is in Ades, the Adeskans refer to the White Doll as "the White Devil," a reference to the original Gundam suit, which is also often referred to as the "White Devil." Both of the White Devils belong to Earth (Earth Federation Space Forces and the Earthrace).
  • ∀ Gundam is the second full series in which only one Gundam appears, following the original Mobile Suit Gundam.
  • Unusually, ∀ Gundam's original Japanese logo is rendered entirely with Latin lettering and does not include any Kanji.

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Right-Stuf & Nozomi Entertainment
  2. Crunchyroll
  3. 3.0 3.1 Turn A Gundam DVD
  4. 4.0 4.1 2001 Correct Century A Bibliographical Study of "Black History"
  5. Nozomi Entertaiment

External links[]


Logo Turn A Gundam
This article is part of Project: Turn A

Please read the linked project page before editing this article.

Project Leader: User:Feezyfeez

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