Yoshiyuki Tomino
In 1979, Tomino directed and wrote "Mobile Suit Gundam", which was highly influential in transforming the Super Robot mecha genre into the Real Robot genre. Mark Simmons discusses the impact of "Gundam" in his book, "Gundam Official Guide":
In an interview published in "Animerica" magazine, Tomino discusses what he was trying to accomplish with "Mobile Suit Gundam":
Although the last quarter of the show's original script was canceled and it had to be completed in 43 episodes, its popularity grew after three compilation movies were released in 1981 and 1982. "Mobile Suit Gundam" was followed by numerous sequels, spin-offs and merchandising franchises, becoming one of the longest-running and most influential, popular anime series in history, being chosen as No. 1 on TV Asahi's "Top 100 Anime" listing in 2005.
Kunihisa Sugishima
Sugishima started his career on Sunrise in the 1980s, having worked as the setting producer for "Heavy Metal L-Gaim"s episodes 1 to 18, as well as the director and storyboarder for other episodes. Another major work in his early career was his involvement with the "Gundam" series; he directed some episodes of "Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam" and "Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ". His first work as main director was in 1994 when he directed at Sunrise a single-episode special titled "Shinizokonai Kakarichō". His subsequent works were not at Sunrise; he directed "Gokudo" (1999) at Trans Arts, "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters" (2000–2004) at Gallop, and "Speed Grapher" (2005) at Gonzo. For the latter company he also directed the original video animation "Strike Witches" in 2007. After directing "Nabari no Ou" at J.C.Staff in 2008, he went to direct four "Beyblade"-related television series and one film at Tatsunoko Productions and SynergySP between 2009 and 2012. He returned to work for Sunrise where he was the director for two "Battle Spirits" anime; "Burning Soul" (2015) and "Double Drive" (2016).