In spite of what was going on in my life in the late 2010s, I marched on with my mission to spread the gospel of Turn A and proudly display my love for its quirky alien bodyguard (in the appropriate spaces). With the meager amount of merchandise for Harry I owned, I put together an ita bag for him in 2018, making most of the other trinkets contained in its window myself. I even painted gaudy yellow stripes onto an originally black bag to resemble his formal suit from episode 7.
Throughout the year, my art started getting some traction on the site formerly known on Twitter, especially with fans in Japan. It was so much fun to interact with people who liked the same shows, characters and relationships I did, even if there was a language barrier. For the longest time I thought they had no interest in talking to Americans or foreigners in general because truthfully, a lot of us give anime and nerd culture a bad name. Now the gap between Tomino fans on either hemisphere was finally shrinking. Shows like Space Runaway Ideon, Aura Battler Dunbine and Combat Mecha Xabungle all getting official English-language releases in North America around this time was also a big part of this long awaited cross-cultural exchange. More and more people in the West slowly stopped seeing Director Tomino as angry old man who only made Gundam and as a prolific creator of a large body of science fiction anime (who still has some weird ideas!).
Fast forward to the pivotal year of 2019, the 20th anniversary of Turn A and the 40th of the original Mobile Suit Gundam. I finally got a full time job and my mother was financially able to leave my father after a 31 year abusive marriage. Later in the year, I met Yoshiyuki Tomino in New York City. I go into detail about my experiences at AnimeNYC in previous blog posts, so here I will talk more about my decision to cosplay Kihel as Queen Dianna at that convention.
Kihel’s other outfits seemed too elaborate to make and cumbersome for me to wear at a con. I also figured that not only is Dianna’s royal garb more iconic, but everything I learned from making Harry’s Royal Guard uniform could be applied to making this “marshmallow spacesuit.” I also had a bit more money now that I’d started at my new and current job, so I could afford more “futuristic” materials like neoprene, stretch vinyl and heat transfer vinyl. I reused the same wig I used for Kihel’s own look in the previous years by straightening and restyling it. It was still a pain to wear because it contained so many wefts, and it was slightly off in color too, so I replaced it later in the year with a lighter one (in both weight and color).
I debuted Kihel-as-Dianna at Otakon 2019 as part of my efforts to commemorate Turn A’s 20th anniversary. I was also working on a large illustration at the time but was very far behind on it because I’d been so busy with my new job and with making this costume in time for the con that July. At Otakon, I hosted an all-Gundam series cosplay meetup for the second time (the first being 2018). While the turnout was small, there were some incredible costumes and many of the people there were happy to see a Dianna cosplayer.
A few weeks after Otakon, AnimeNYC announced Yoshiyuki Tomino as a guest. Having the fortune of living only 2 hours away from New York City and having enough money to spend a whole weekend in the Big Apple meant my fate was sealed. I was going to meet the creator of the anime that shaped the latter half of my life so far. Only one obstacle stood in the way: a lottery to get Tomino’s autograph, and for once, luck was on my side as I won a ticket. Since all my previous Turn A cosplays were either dismantled or didn’t fit anymore, and Kihel-as-Dianna only needed some touching up after wearing her back in July, I knew what I’d cosplay on the day of the autograph signing. On the evening of November 15, 2019, I had the esteemed anime creator sign a poster I bought off of Mercari just a few months prior to this event.
While things seemed to miraculously turn around in 2019, 2020 came to threaten to take it all away. Thankfully my fears of my mother and I losing our jobs and being forced to return to our abuser did not come true, nor did either of us succumb to COVID itself. I still became quite restless in all my time spent alone in a shabby little apartment, though I tried my best to make the most of this “freedom” from normal responsibilities. The success of my Turn A anniversary illustration online (reaching Akiman himself!) motivated me to continue creating similar works for my other favorite Gundam and Tomino works (such as G-Saviour and Ideon), and since new cosplay seemed pointless with the lack of cons, I transferred the sewing skills I gained from costuming to plushie making instead. Of course, the first plushie I wanted to make was of Harry.
With more income and space, my collection grew exponentially in this new decade. I also became more confident with my art as my audience grew and my silly obsession was repeatedly validated by kind strangers online and overseas. In 2021, I began selling printed goods online. My first products were a sticker sheet of chibi Harrys that I initially used for my ita bag, and later redrew, and a very large print of my 20th anniversary illustration. While the anniversary print is still in stock (in two sizes now!), the stickers have since retired… so that the same designs can be used for keychains instead!
While I found more success in the new decade, life outside my hobbies was still harsh. Chronic pain began to rule my life, especially because much of was in my dominant hand and arm. When I returned to my job in 2021, the conditions became unbearable. I was made to work in person despite the pandemic still raging on. I couldn’t quit or else I’d lose everything I worked for. Eventually, enduring the risk of serious illness, low wage, lack of supervision, and a noisy, filthy environment with inappropriate/disruptive behavior helped me make the first major purchase of my adult life: a car! A really old car but gold, like Harry’s SUMO! I cherished this possession at first but now it is the bane of my existence because of its age. However, it has helped me overcome my driving phobia almost completely for two very funny reasons: imagining my car as my own personal SUMO helped me feel more comfortable behind the wheel, and being alone in the car is the only place I get to sing out loud, so singing various Gundam and other anison also helped a great deal with managing anxiety while driving. I’ve belted out Tsuki no Mayu, Honou to Ame (a unused insert song), and Aura so many times in my old junker.
By 2023, it felt safe to say that I am Harry’s biggest fan, at least in the United States. Not quite sure in the entire world since he has several huge fans in Japan from what I’ve seen, but I have yet to see anyone draw as many pictures of him, cosplay as many outfits of his, or even bother to learn all of his lore. This year would also grant me the opportunity to educate some newcomers to Turn A on their podcast covering each episode of the series.
I made my way onto Giant Robot FM‘s Moonrace Wireless by finding out friend and fellow Turn A scholar Feez was invited (naturally!) to speak on the first episode of this podcast. It felt imposing to ask to be on the show rather than be asked to, but Stephen and pmc were happy to have me on with Feez’s blessing. On my first appearance on MRW episode 5, I told the duo roughly the same story I’ve told in this blog. I only hope that dumping so much info on them and their listeners was more entertaining than alienating! I am extremely grateful that I went on to become a recurring guest for their coverage of the series after proving my “Turn A cred.” Much like cosplay has helped me socialize at conventions, podcasting is helping with me with becoming more confident at public speaking as I’ve had hardly any opportunities to do it in any form. Moonrace Wireless has also given me a voice as something of a minority in a male- and youth-dominated community. While I’ve dreamt of hosting a panel about Turn A at a con, I don’t think it will ever happen at this rate. This is the closest I can get, plus I get to go into further detail about specific topics (Harry!!) than I could in only an hour’s time while also trying to engage the people in the room watching me.
The following year, I committed to a project for the series’ 25th anniversary: a collection of all my Turn A fanart from 2010 to the present. A part of my collection includes doujinshi (for general audiences, mind you!) and for a long time I’ve contemplated making one myself. While I’ve always wanted to write and draw comics, I figured such a project would take me far too long and I wanted to put together a book that can be enjoyed by an international audience, so writing a comic in English may not appeal to overseas fans.
Of all the Turn A doujin I’ve seen over the years, none of them focus on Harry, or Kihel’s relationship with him, though he makes appearances in most of the ones I own. Considering I’ve filled that niche myself through individual illustrations, I figured my zine could compile all these works. It could also be a vehicle for the sequel concepts that I’ve kept to myself for so many years. Unfortunately, I didn’t finish putting together the collection part of my zine along with its cover illustration in time for the 25th anniversary on April 9th. I decided to release it in two versions instead, releasing the digital version in May, and the complete print version at a later date.
As of writing this, I don’t know when I will complete the art and pages I intend to include in the print edition. I can at least elaborate a bit on my sequel without spoiling the end of Turn A:
In the Correct Century year 2365, the Moonrace government has undergone radical changes. Additionally, the nations of Earth have rapidly advanced because of the Earthers' exposure to both Moonrace and ancient technology. Both the Amerian and Galian continents have begun manufacturing their own mobile weapons, based on the research conducted on machines that were excavated over the last 20 years. These manufacturers fiercely compete to build better machines than one another, despite there being no war.
Back on the Moon, an outcasted scientist is sent to Earth to investigate the whereabouts of a mobile weapon she and her twin sister assisted in building... centuries ago. Lumine Yarran is a "rehabilitated" prisoner awakened from cold sleep to clear her family's name with her knowledge in nanotechnology. She binds her very existence to the Gekkabijin, a mobile armor given to (and rejected by) the House of Soreil by the House of Ghingnham. Lumine declares that it belongs to no one unless they understand its purpose: to defend the once-vulnerable Moon from invaders (that never came). She is uninterested in what her wardens want to with her and is instead determined to find a pilot for the mobile suit stored inside the Gekkabijin to finally see it in action.
While in eastern Galia, she spots and secretly follows a young man with silver hair—a unique Moonrace trait—who turns out to be a ballet dancer named Harmand. The disordered partnership of a woman of science who abducts a man of the arts leads to the latter learning he is the heir to something he could never imagine. Heir to three things, in fact. An adventure that spans Europe and United States of the Correct Century, and a Moon on the brink of civil war, explores what happens when systems upheld for nearly 2 millennia collapse. Where do the members of the current generation belong in this turbulent time?
Turn G was something I kept under wraps because I was scared it’d be rejected by others on the count it is darker and angstier than the work that inspired it, although not because it would depict the horrors of war, but more personal struggles. I’m uncertain if I’ll ever tell its full story because the story constantly changes as I come up with better ideas. Nevertheless, I want to commit to the main character and mechanical designs so I may publish them as part of Secrets Behind the Red Glasses. The primary reason I began drawing mecha after nearly a decade of being a Gundam fan was to learn how to design my own for a story like this. Six years later, I’ve become more confident in drawing existing designs (gunpla and figures are a huge help with this) but it is still a struggle to focus on my own creations. I’m praying on my knees that 2025 will be the year I finally and properly develop Turn G!
What does Turn G have to do with my favorite Turn A characters, you ask? Harry and Kihel play extremely important roles in my story, but much like their series of origin, these roles aren’t revealed until much later, and I’ve struggled to keep them from stealing the “show” from the cast of new characters I created. I also want it to be a big surprise to anyone who reads/sees this sequel, in whatever form it ends up taking, to see what they became after 20 years.
After a decade and a half it still shocks me that after these years I have not found a character who enraptured me like Harry Ord. There were a few that came close, and now there is another Gundam character who is stealing me away from Harry! Regardless of where my heart has been taking me lately, the Moonrace bodyguard and the masterpiece he’s from has had an undeniable and largely positive impact on my life. If I am to leave anything behind after I die, I hope it is my passion and unique perspective on Turn A Gundam.