S6E20 - TOMINO-THON! Garzey’s Wing OVA (1996) – Tomino in the Wilderness of Byston Well

After the difficult production of Mobile Suit Victory Gundam left Tomino Yoshiyuki in a deep depression, he left both Gundam and Sunrise, his creative home of many years, behind. But Tomino being Tomino, he didn’t stop writing, and the serial novel project Garzey’s Wing, a return to the world of Byston Well created for Aura Battler Dunbine, was one of his major creative outlets in this period. Intended as a multimedia project, the story became a 3-episode OVA with the team at J.C. Staff. In Japan, it’s one of Tomino’s most obscure projects, having gone decades without a re-release and being rarely commented upon in evaluations of Tomino’s work. In America, it has a very different legacy, as the series’ legendary English dub led to Garzey’s Wing being the basis of countless toxic ‘angry reviews’ on YouTube since the early 2000s dubbing it the ‘worst anime of all time.’ We find the series isn’t worthy of either descriptor: it’s a pretty minor footnote in Tomino’s career, yes, and is one with myriad imperfections, but it’s also got more on its mind than it’s given credit for, and you can see Tomino working in real time through the issues and ideas swirling in his life. For fans, it’s definitely worth taking the time to discuss, which is exactly what we’re here for. Enjoy, and come back next week as we dive into Tomino’s first major post- Gundam project and reunion with Sunrise: 1998’s Brain Powerd! Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:38 Intro and History: 0:01:38 – 1:13:40 Eyecatch Break: 1:13:40 – 1:14:25 Garzey’s Wing Review: 1:14:25 – 1:49:11 End Theme: 1:49:11 – 1:51:16 Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com Follow Japanimation Station on Instagram and Threads @JapanimationStationPod https://www.instagram.com/japanimationstationpod/ Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK “Tominoson-G Mk. V” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku & KAITO. “The World You See” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com