Turn A Gundam
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∀ Gundam (called Turn 'A' Gundam in the English subtitle of the television series and Turn A Gundam the Movie in the later compilation films' English subtitle) was a 50 episode series that aired in 1999, created for the Gundam Big Bang 20th Anniversary celebration.
It was directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, who had written and directed a number of previous Gundam works, being for all intents and purposes the main creator of the franchise. Having the creator back in the Gundam franchise served to give more prestige to the anniversary, so to speak.
∀ Gundam takes place in the year Seireki 2345 (正暦2345年 or CC 2345), in a different calendar system than the previous Gundam projects. Seireki is a wordplay on the Japanese term for the Anno Domini (A.D.) Western calendar system (西暦; also pronounced Seireki). Its kanji literally means "Correct Calendar" and is unofficially interpreted as "Correct Century" by English-speaking fans.
∀ Gundam 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 Turn A Gundam to retaliate. ∀ Gundam is a dramatic depature 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 Mobile Suit comes courtesy of American Syd Mead, best known for his work on Blade Runner. The series also features the musical talents of Yoko Kanno. The series finished its run in early 2000, and in 2002 Tomino directed two compilation films, entitled "Earth Light" and "Moonlight Butterfly."
It is important to note that the "Turn A" (∀) in the title of the series is the universal quantifier used in discrete mathematics, which means that the title can be translated as ""For all Gundams"". This is neither an oversight, nor just a symbol used to "look cool" - Gundam creator Tomino clearly intended the series to be a sort of "unification" of the Universal Century and the myriad "alternate universes" into a coherent whole. Some examples:
- Several of the mobile suits in the series are clearly from earlier series - the MS-06 Borjarnon is either a MS-05 Zaku I or a MS-06 Zaku II (depending on the unit using it), the AMX-109 Kapool appeared initially in Gundam Double Zeta, and the G-M2F (AMX-102) Zssan appears to be an altered version of the AMX-102 Zssa, also from the aforementioned show.
- The "Gallop" from the original Gundam.
- One of the moon palaces is a Squid battleship from Victory Gundam, and there are similar references to almost all of the Gundam series.
- Episode 43 presents a montage of scenes from previous series as being part of the "Dark History" preceding the events in the series
- One character, Lily, describes the Universal Century calendar system as taking place several thousands years before the events in ∀ Gundam (10,000 years ago in the television series version or 5,000 years ago in the compilation movie version)
The acceptance of Tomino's grand vision has been mixed, with a significant number of fans treating ∀ Gundam as another alternate universe.
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Mobile Units
Earth Militia
- AMX-109 Kapool
- AMX-109 Kapool Corin Nander Custom
- FLAT-L06D FLAT
- MR-Spi05 Rib
- MRC-U11D Walking Dumpling "WaD"
- MS-05 Borjarnon Gavane Goonny Custom
- MS-06 Borjarnon
- NRS-P701R Godwin
Moonrace
- SYSTEM ∀-99 (WD-M01) ∀ Gundam
- CONCEPT-X 6-1-2 Turn X
- FLAT-L06D FLAT
- G-838 Mahiroo
- G-M2F (AMX-102) Zssan
- GMIF (XM-0754) Bandit
- JMA-0530 Walking Dome "WaDom"
- MR-Spi05 Rib
- MRC-C03 Verona
- MRC-F20 SUMO
- MRC-F31 (J-2126) Mutto
- MRC-U11D Walking Dumpling "WaD"
- NRS-P701 Gozzo
- NRS-P701R Godwin
- SPA-51 Cannon Illefuto
- TAF-M9 Eagel
See also
Preceded by: After War Gundam X
Followed by: (In series order) G Saviour, (In universe) None to date.