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.
Comic BomBom
"Comic BomBom" was established in 1981. The first issue was published on October 15, 1981. "Mobile Suit Gundam" was extremely popular at that time. Although the "Gundam" boom is centered at the higher age group, the fire slowly spread to the lower age group in the form of gunpla and thus it was decided to mainly publish gunpla content. Many popular series were published in "Comic BomBom" like the "SD Gundam" series, "Rockman" series and "Medarot" series, just to name a few.