Turn A Gundam

Turn A Gundam
Turn A Gundam title screen
∀ガンダム (Tān Ē Gandamu)
Genre	Mecha, Romance, Steampunk
Anime television series
Directed by	Yoshiyuki Tomino
Written by	Yoshiyuki Tomino
Music by	Yoko Kanno
Studio	Sunrise
Licensed by	Bandai Entertainment (Cancelled)
Network	Animax, Fuji TV
Original run	April 4, 1999 – April 14, 2000
Episodes	50
Manga
Written by	Yoshiyuki Tomino
Illustrated by	Kōichi Tokita
Published by	Kodansha
Demographic	Kodomo
Magazine	Comic Bom Bom
Original run	April 15, 1999 – March 15, 2000
Volumes	2
Manga
Written by	Yoshiyuki Tomino
Illustrated by	Atsushi Soga
Published by	Kodansha
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Magazine Z
Original run	June 26, 1999 – March 2002
Volumes	4
Anime film
Turn A Gundam I: Earth Light
Directed by	Yoshiyuki Tomino
Studio	Sunrise
Released	February 9, 2002
Runtime	120 minutes
Anime film
Turn A Gundam II: Moonlight Butterfly
Directed by	Yoshiyuki Tomino
Studio	Sunrise
Released	February 10, 2002
Runtime	128 minutes
Manga
Turn A Gundam: Tsuki no Kaze
Written by	Akira Yasuda
Published by	Kadokawa Shoten
Magazine	Gundam Ace
Original run	2004 – 2005
Volumes	1

Turn A Gundam, stylized as ∀ Gundam (∀（ターンエー）ガンダム, Tān Ē Gandamu) is a 50 episode anime series that aired between 1999 and 2000 on Japan's FNN networks and on the anime satellite television network, Animax, which was created for the Gundam Big Bang 20th Anniversary celebration. It was also compiled into two feature-length movies entitled Turn A Gundam I: Earth Light and Turn A Gundam II: Moonlight Butterfly.

Turn A Gundam was the last Gundam anime TV series to be directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, who was the main creator of the Gundam franchise and had written and directed many previous Gundam works. This series was made after Tomino had recovered from his depression that had influenced Mobile Suit Victory Gundam, and the general tone and mood of Turn A Gundam is much more hopeful and less dark than his other Gundam series.

Turn A 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. Gundam SEED, created in 2002, was the first series to use digital coloring.

On 22 July 2010, Bandai Entertainment announced that they had acquired the license to release Turn A Gundam in the United States and that they were planning to release the series on Region 1 DVD in 2011.

However, on 2 January 2012, Bandai Entertainment announced that they will stop offering new DVD, Blu-ray disc and manga releases by February. Bandai Entertainment will be restructured to focus on licensing rights to other companies. Many anime and manga titles that were previously licensed for release in North America were cancelled, including Turn A Gundam.

Overview

Turn A Gundam takes place in the year Correct Century 2345 (正暦2345年, Seireki Nisen Sanbyaku Yonjū Go Nen, CC 2345), in a different calendar system than the previous Gundam projects. Seireki is a wordplay on the Japanese term for the Common Era (CE) Western calendar system (西暦; pronounced Seireki). The English acronym CC is Correct Century (コレクトセンチュリー) in the official Japanese Turn A guide book and Correct Century in the English 2001 Correct Century A Bibliographical Study of "Black History" as the black paged introduction of Gundam Officials. The population of the Earth is, at the beginning of the series, limited to simple, steam-driven technology after past cataclysms; the Moon is populated by the Moonrace, humans who left Earth after a great war long ago to reside in technologically advanced lunar colonies until such time as they deemed the Earth suitable to return to.

Plot summary

Further information: List of Turn A Gundam characters

Turn A Gundam follows the character Loran Cehack, a young member of the Moonrace. Selected as part of a reconnaissance mission to determine whether or not the Earth was fit for resettlement, Loran lands on the continent of North America, spends one year living on Earth as the chauffeur to the Heim family, and grows attached to its people. With the expectation of a peaceful resettlement operation from his people, he and a pair of his close friends sent down with him confirm that the Earth is now fit for the Moonrace to make their return. He's taken by surprise when the Moonrace intends to return to Earth via an offensive with mobile suits, and their first attack sparks a violent conflict between Earth and moon.

The night of the first attack, Loran is at the White Doll, an enormous humanoid statue, for a coming-of-age ceremony. When the Moonrace attacks and the battle in town can be seen from a distance the children panic. In the midst of this panic, the White Doll shatters, revealing a metallic figure within, and the shrine collapses around it. During the panic, Loran recognizes the White Doll as a mobile suit, and succeeds in applying his knowledge of the Moonrace's mobile suits to pilot it. The death of the Heim patriarch in the attack pulls the family and Loran into the budding war; Loran becomes the designated pilot of the White Doll, and its discovery prompts the excavation of further mobile suits in the various "mountain cycles" covering the Earth. As the Moonrace's invasion rapidly turns into a full-fledged war against the increasingly-armed Earthrace, it becomes clear that this state of affairs is divisive among both groups; while the Moonrace's queen Dianna Soriel attempts to negotiate with the local leaders for a peaceful solution by which the Moonrace can come to reside on the Earth, the militaristic among both populations interfere with the negotiations again and again, forcing the war to continue as opposed to accepting a compromise.

Media

Anime

Main article: List of Turn A Gundam episodes

Relationship with previous Gundam series

Image showing relationships of different Gundam series' timeline, sourced from SD Gundam G-Generation DS promotional leaflet in 2005, before the merger of Gundam SEED series into the Dark History Timeline.

The 2001 Correct Century, A Bibliographical Study of "Black 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 supposedly was found in 1993 Correct Century 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 UC0100 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.

Theme Songs

Openings:

• "Turn A Turn" (ターンAターン, Tān Ē Tān) 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" (月の繭, Moon's Cocoon) by Yoko Kanno (sung by Aki Okui) (Ep. 41 - 49)
• "Kagirinaki Tabiji" (限りなき旅路, The Endless Journey) by Aki Okui (Ep. 50)
• "After All" by Donna Burke (First compilation movie ending)
• "Tsuki no Mayu" (Moon's Cocoon) by Yoko Kanno (sung by Aki Okui) (Second compilation movie ending ~ In its full version right before the ending credits which are instrumental only)

Inserts:

• "Moon" by Gabriela Robin (a.k.a. Yoko Kanno)
• "Overnight Festival" (宵越しの祭り, Yoigoshi no Matsuri) by White Doll no Matsuri no Kaiichidou
• "Queen of the Night" (月下美人, Gekka Bijin) by Hideki Saijo
• "The Spirit of the Moon" (月の魂, Tsuki no Tama) by RRET Team
• "Black History" by Kaoru Nishino

See also

• WD-M01 Turn A Gundam
• List of Turn A Gundam mobile units
• The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter

External links

• Official Website (Japanese)
• Turn A Gundam (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia

Preceded by Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz

Gundam metaseries (production order) 1999 — 2000

Succeeded by G-Saviour