Gundam anime series creator has said humans will never live in space after decades of imagining it.
Yoshiyuki Tomino, the creator behind Mobile Suit Gundam, has cast doubt on the very concept that defined his most famous work, space colonization. After decades of developing stories set in sprawling orbital habitats, Tomino now believes humanity simply isn’t capable of living beyond Earth.
The comments came during Spacetide 2025, a commercial space conference held this week in Tokyo. Tomino joined JAXA professor Yoshifumi Inatani for a panel discussion on space travel and colonization.
According to The Sankei Shimbun and translated by Automaton, the Gundam creator didn’t hold back in expressing skepticism about the future of human life in space.
Gundam creator slams space colonization ideas
“Humans will never be able to live in space,” Tomino said during the talk. He then specifically took aim at the idea of colonizing Mars, criticizing the lack of realistic planning behind the popular idea.
“All the simpletons saying ‘Let’s immigrate to Mars’ have no idea how cruel outer space actually is… What are you gonna do about fuel when the time comes to return [to Earth]?” he asked.
“All of the people who say, ‘Let’s send humans to Mars’ without considering the fact that there are no supply bases there are a bunch of amateurs.”
Although Gundam is known for its depiction of Earth’s population relocating to vast space colonies, Tomino revealed he never fully bought into the concept. For over two decades, he wrestled with how such a future could work in practice and ultimately decided it couldn’t.
“I never had a chance to openly say this when I was working on Gundam,” he said, reflecting on the franchise. “But even after 20 years of thinking about it, I couldn’t find a way for people to actually live in space.”
Instead of chasing deep-space colonization, Tomino suggested Japan should focus on short-term goals like low Earth orbit travel, especially for leaders, scientists, and younger generations.
Who even needs to colonize Mars when you can stay here on Earth and get your hands on your very own KFC Gundam anime bucket?
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