My Visit with "M" Part 1: On Gunsight's Legacy & More

(While in Hyogo, I was able to visit a collector of rare books who will remain anonymous as requested. We will refer to this individual as "M" for the time being when discussing their perspectives and ideologies surrounding the works that will be discussed. These are a mix of my views, M's accounts, and other historical connotations that give further basis for the conversation at large.)

(the original cover to the first issue of Gunsight, also penned as "Phase 0".)

The nature of doujinshi is nothing new to me; as an illustrator, I've participated and created my own comics, zines and projects surrounding anime since I was an awkward, bustling inner city child. I, for one, found the nature of these fan works to be completely essential in building an understanding for my own head canons and more, though upon my visit with "M", I quickly became aware that I was about to experience texts that would change my perspective. 

I was graciously allowed to visit M after I reached out to them via their Twitter account, which I initially thought was defunct. A friend of a friend that I'm currently working with in archiving a vast estate told me about M and that they lived in Hyogo. I was already planning on visiting the Yoshikazu Yasuhiko exhibition currently on view at the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, so with a bit of gumption, I put my best foot forward and reached out. M is a true collector and one who had personal effects ranging from hand written personal correspondence with Osamu Tezuka to some exceptionally rare pieces of animation art for projects that never made the cut at Sunrise during the 70s. I was allowed to visit, so he said, if I would treat these items with care and reverence, as he doesn't usually contact or speak to foreigners as is. We agreed to a few terms and conditions, and after getting over a muddled mess of sickness brought about from stress, jet lag and excitement, I set my appointment with M and commuted on foot to their home. I was to come by myself and without any company, which was a bit daunting to me initially, but given that this was a chance of a lifetime, I couldn't refuse.

Of all the sights and sounds that took me in, I was on a mission to meet with an elder - an individual who had spent most of their late teens and mid twenties very much involved in the late 70s doujinshi scene. His credentials, however, were far more robust than I initially thought. Once I was greeted, M 's English was crisp and direct, and I felt as if I were talking with an old friend versus a collector who had apparently made a name for himself as an organizer for a variety of events and gatherings where Otaku would convene to immerse themselves in all things anime and manga - drawing, writing, debating and fostering ideals on this media birthed a scene to be reckoned with. M hadn't always lived in Hyogo, however, and spent most of his late teens and the entirety of his 20s elsewhere, though his wife, with M's permission, showed me polaroid photos of him with early Comiket organizers, beaming proudly with a Hideo Azuma t-shirt on. 

M distinctly told me to speak to him in English while we were together, though would interject with phrases that, at times, I didn't understand. He lead me to his upstairs, where he brought out a dusty box with a long faded, hand written scrawl of Japanese across it. It was perched on a low shelf in a deep, dark corner, and once opened, that oh-so familiar scent of age overwhelmed me. Pulling out volume after plastic wrapped volume, he placed them on a low table beside us and nodded towards me, a wide smile on his face. What was presented to me, however, were volumes of a text I had asked him about; Gunsight, a "fan club" book penned by Showa era animation legends such as Haruhiko Mikimoto, Shoji Kawamori and even Yui Nagase, one of which would go on to be a defining force in how we understand the mobile suits, science and more within 0079.

I wasn't allowed to touch these books with my bare hands and was brought gloves typically used for handling sensitive documents and artwork by museum curators. M sat beside me on the floor and thumbed through the pages of volume 1 of Gunsight, or "Phase 0", whereas I showed him a rough translation I had posted on my Twitter account penned by "SG". "M" was extremely surprised at I, as a foreigner, was even remotely interested, and this notion kept cropping up during our conversations. However, as M spoke to me further, his resolute determination in educating me further came forth.

(The last volume of Gunsight, penned by the winter of 1981, nearly two years after the original 0079 had ended it's broadcast on January of 1980. The matureness of the cover illustrations and technicality as seen in the Zanzibar class ship give credence to the complexities of Gunsight's presentation. )

In M's words, "This was not a regular doujin, and I am hesitant to even call it as such. I think many (would) have a misconception of that." M made a point to discuss that at the height of the SF boom in Japan, there were several "camps" of individuals who were interested in either hard or fantasy Sci-Fi. For the team behind Gunsight, the notion of the Real Robot genre had to be established to make sense of a world penned by Yoshiyuki Tomino. There was, as he told me, "good bones" to the series, and many fans who weren't Gundam's initial target demographic knew this to be so. Gundam was notoriously cancelled and served its viewership a somewhat rushed, if not unrealized, ending to a saga that painted not only the horrors of war, but the emotionally grey nature of it. 

To M and many of his generation who viewed Gundam's original broadcast, the muddling of the perceivably "good" and "evil" was tantalizing and sparked intense debates among those he held meetings with. In these salóns, early Otaku he claimed understood the intense cultural phenomena that Gundam truly was in its inception. Gunsight, he claims, was for a more "serious" fan who wanted to hold debate over the reality of a Minovski particle or the eponymous AMBAC system. 

"You have to understand that some felt as if they were left out." M told me as he thumbed through the rather pristine, crisp pages of the 1st volume of Gunsight. By left out, M went on to explain that, in this case, the primarily male demographic who was behind Gunsight didn't feel as if their ideologies would ever be heard without publishing them properly. They couldn't allow Gundam, he claims, to become so utterly forgotten as many mecha series had already done prior in the 1970s (M was quick to mention, much to my surprise, the failure and quick social obscurity of Nippon Animation / Ashi Productions' Ginguiser and even Eiken's UFO Warrior Dai Apolon). 

Historically speaking, the texts that made up Gunsight's volumes eventually became the bedrock for what is now canon information when Yoshiyuki Tomino himself read the publications. Taken away at the breadth of detail and near academic tier criticism of the Universal Century's world overall, Tomino was noted to have asked Sunrise staff to read the books with much zeal (I believe this to be mentioned in Mobile Suit Gundam Complete Records vol. 5). These ideals, fan theories and scientific explorations were soon propelled to be the basis for what became Gundam Century, a text that highlights the ins and outs of 0079's universe. Though, according to M, other magazines prior would copy the information written in Gunsight long before Gundam Century even existed. 

"Many people followed along, and I was one of them. This was really the first, and last time, a director like Tomino ever acknowledged a doujin in such a manner."

I asked M if he meant this on the basis of female doujinshi artists supporting the studio during Gundam's broadcast, a topic that often is brought up in Western debates around queer representation in 0079. M laughed gingerly and explained that Gunsight was the only doujin that Tomino claimed to be on par with his ideals surrounding the technology seen in 0079. There were, as he noted, a large handful of so-called "Official" Gundam Fanclub doujins and essay books written that discussed the machinations of 0079's plot etc., though none as robustly as what Gunsight posed. To M, Gunsight's legacy was stronger than the rest in this regard in that it was, for a lack of better words, argumentative.  

While I didn't and still don't entirely agree, one can't readily read the pages of any Gunsight volume and not note a very strong thread of both nihilism and cynicism held by the authors in several passages. Bracketed among the xeroxed copies of Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's stunning illustrations at times are, quite frankly, men arguing about why aspects of 0079 simply don't make sense. However, is it just arguing for arguing's sake? Or is it more? 

I admit, I initially balked at this personally considering that I inherently knew that these writers had to have understood that Gundam, in its original inception, simply wasn't able to fully be what it could be. However, upon reading a copy I bought in Hyogo of Animec's November 1979 issue, these thoughts changed. Tomino, in his interview with Animec's then senior editor Masanobu Komaki, seemed to skirt around the notion of Gundam's very much hidden "lore". No one who wasn't on the inside or adjacent to Sunrise's studio probably would even understood what his agendas were, though in his issue, there are mentions of Sasro Zabi, ages before Yasuhiko depicted him in The Origin. With that in mind, truly, some aspects simply didn't make sense as they were never readily explained.

(the copy of Animec in question)

These ideas penned by Tomino, however, often times expounded upon and tempered by Yasuhiko, though after his affliction with pleurisy, 0079's narrative quickly seemed to take a variety of confusing spins. Many of these ideas, especially after viewing the museum exhibition, never saw the light of day thanks to studio executives acquiescing to the corporate demands of their toy company sponsors. While Gunsight writers discussed these topics later on, there is still a nod towards criticism about how poorly executed they were. To quote "S-G" from my recent translation of a page from Gunsight, "First of all, let me say that Gundam is a flawed work. When viewed as a singularly, there are too many flaws that stand out." 

(Two pages, as noted, from the original 1st edition of Gunsight, in which the writer/critic "S-G" speak about the lack of a suspension of disbelief in 0079 Gundam's universe. Other criticisms about the presence of Ace pilots, the lack of real world war tactics and the dissatisfaction with the aesthetics surrounding Zeon's MS and MA are discussed.)

"In other words, Gunsight was the origin of most research surrounding MS (Mobile Suits)." M told me. However, it also goes without saying that Tomino has, on several ocassions, been known to hate the very sort of individual who wrote Gunsight. The so called "historical research nerd", or the "uhm,  akschually." individuals as we would call them in this era, are known to not hold any appeal to Tomino's often times fantastical, artistic rhetoric. 

Pointing this out to M, he was quick to explain that Gunsight asked questions that nobody else seemed very brave enough to even pen to the public and fan scene at the time.

One can see that many of these Otaku were simply cut from a different cloth, having had either been animators themselves or so deeply entrenched in hard Sci-Fi that they felt a bit disparaged. From M's point of view, Tomino enjoyed Gunsight for the mere effort in that it's selling point was that it appealed to "Hard SF" fans.

(Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's accounts on The Origin and further passages give insight on Tomino's spontaneous ideas and his creative aspirations for the UC.)

M explained further to me that Tomino, while indignant and somewhat prideful against science fiction creators who, at the time, lacked any real scientific knowledge to back their works, that Gunsight was a rare, refresher for the palate. Tomino realized the lack of effort given in the industry when broaching these topics, and in his mind's eye, Gunsight proved that these ideals could genuinely be had. 

Yasuhiko himself would later go on to discuss this notion some 40 years later when in conversation about The Origin, in that Tomino is a "creatively inspirational type of person." and that "There are a lot of ideas (in Gundam) that seem to come out of nowhere. He may not say it right away, but he's always thinking about them." 

Not one to be held back in his postering of ideas that often times shake most Westerner's understanding of their beloved mecha franchise that he helped build, Gunsight as a publication uplifted the hidden reality of the early UC era that Tomino simply didn't get to initially expound on. 

Many aspects of Gundam's original timeline were, unfortunately, not ultimately decided upon by him directly, and even the aspects of the true beginning of the One Year War, the term "The White Devil" and more were added ad hock, sometimes by magazines. By the time a true, core timeline was aimed to be established by staff, M states that it was simply "too late", so many criticisms found in Gunsight brought great levity to fans as it saw a very wide circulation at the time.

To simply put it, where other doujins and fanclub zines gushed about Sayla's beauty or gave episode synopsis, Gunsight dared to pose questions for a series that many Otaku were truly indebted to. Some simply, if not frankly, did not meet that curve. Gundam truly, in that moment, became "real" to those who saw beyond it's intended exterior.