Turn A Gundam

Turn A Gundam is set thousands of years after a technological golden age, when the people of Earth have long since forgotten the space wars of their ancestors and live in quiet, pre-industrial communities. That peace is broken by the return of the Moonrace, descendants of humans who fled to the Moon and preserved their advanced technology. Convinced that Earth is rightfully theirs, the Moonrace begin a campaign to reclaim the planet, setting the two branches of humanity on a collision course.

The story follows Loran Cehack, a young Moonrace citizen who was sent to Earth as an advance scout and settles into life in a rural town, where he becomes close to the Heim family and their daughters Sochie and Kihel. When hostilities erupt, Loran discovers a buried relic of an older era, the Turn A Gundam, and becomes its pilot. Though he is a Moonrace by birth, his years among the people of Earth leave him caught between the world he came from and the world he has come to call home.

The central conflict grows out of that divide, as Loran tries to prevent the escalating war between the Moonrace and Earth's scattered militias. Around him stand figures with competing visions for the future, including the ambitious Earth politician Guin Sard Lineford, the loyal Moonrace officer Harry Ord, and the Moonrace queen Dianna Soreil, whose plans for the planet carry their own weight. Loran's efforts to bridge the two sides shape a story about understanding, responsibility, and the possibility of reconciliation.

Turn A Gundam was produced by Sunrise and broadcast in Japan starting in 1999, airing through 2000 on Fuji Television and other channels. It was created to mark the Gundam Big Bang 20th Anniversary and stands as the eighth installment in the franchise. The series was directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, the principal creator of the Gundam franchise, who had already written and directed many earlier Gundam productions.

Tomino conceived this entry as a way of affirmatively accepting all of the Gundam series that came before it, an intent reflected in the title's turned A, a mathematical symbol representing universal quantification. Alongside the broadcast, a prose version of the story was published as a five-volume novel, running from October 1999 to March 2000. This print edition follows the same far-future setting in which Earth's inhabitants have reverted to a pre-industrial existence while the technologically advanced lunar settlers known as the Moonrace plan to reclaim their homeworld.

The television series was later compiled in 2002 into two feature-length films, Turn A Gundam I: Earth Light and Turn A Gundam II: Moonlight Butterfly, giving the production a second life in theaters after its original run.