∀ガンダム (Turn A Gundam) aired on NHK from April 1999 to April 2000, 50 episodes, directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino. It was the show Tomino built as a deliberate closing chapter on the entire Gundam metaseries — a work meant to contain and end everything that had come before. The premise is pastoral and strange: far in the future, Earth has regressed to an early-20th-century level of technology, with biplanes, horse-drawn carriages, and early automobiles. When the Moonrace — humanity's descendants who fled to space — begin returning to reclaim the planet, a young man named Loran Cehack finds himself piloting a mysterious mobile suit called the Turn A (∀), a machine from a mythological past era the show calls the Dark History (黒歴史). The characters were designed by Syd Mead, the American industrial designer responsible for Blade Runner's visual language. The result is the least Gundam-like Gundam ever made — gentle, unhurried, interested in farming and festivals and grief rather than military procedure.
Bandai Visual released the complete series concurrent with the NHK broadcast, 13 CLV discs (BELL-1483~1495), four episodes per disc, ¥7,800 each. Every disc jacket was painted by Akira Yasuda — not illustrated, not designed: painted. In 13 canvases, Yasuda photographed the show's emotional register more precisely than any promotional art did. And packed inside each sleeve: the Turn A Journal, a folded newspaper-format insert running 13 volumes, one per disc, arriving with the show as it aired.
Disc 1 jacket — Akira Yasuda. Loran Cehack bows toward the Heim family — the wealthy Earth family he has worked for, the people who became his family — as the Turn A looms in lime green behind them. The machine is barely a machine here. It is a presence in the background while humans occupy the foreground. This is the show.
Thirteen Discs, One Painter
Each disc back carries the same credit line beneath the episode listings: Cover illustrated by Akira Yasuda. Yasuda (安田朗) — known as Bengus in game art circles, the artist behind the Darkstalkers and Street Fighter character paintings — painted all 13 jacket illustrations for a 50-episode TV series in the same oil-on-canvas register. Not a single illustration was reused. Not one jacket repeats the same compositional approach. Bandai Visual, ¥7,800 per disc, CLV, digital stereo. Released volume by volume as the show aired on NHK, four episodes at a time.
Disc 1 back — episodes 1-4, chapter track, and episode summaries. BELL-1483, ¥7,800, CLV, digital stereo, color NTSC. Cover illustrated by Akira Yasuda. The credit sits below the episode grid on every one of the 13 disc backs.
Disc 2 jacket — Akira Yasuda. Fran Doll looks up at Loran from below, faces almost touching, rendered in burnt sienna and warm shadow. A Renaissance portrait composition. The Turn A is not in the frame. The mech isn't the subject of this disc. The people are.
Disc 2 back — episodes 5-8: ディアナ降臨, 忘れられた過去, 貴婦人修行, ローラの牛. BELL-1484, ¥7,800. Episodes 5 and 8 are framed as the arc's poles — Diana's arrival and the appearance of Laura's cow, the pastoral subplot Tomino couldn't resist. Cover illustrated by Akira Yasuda.
Disc 3 jacket — Akira Yasuda. Diana sits beside a sleeping Loran in golden afternoon light, biplanes crossing an amber sky above them, the Turn A barely discernible as a ruin among the trees in the background. The painting is about the quality of a specific time of day.
Disc 3 back — episodes 9-12: コレン、ガンダムと叫ぶ, 墓参り, ノックス崩壊, 地下回廊. BELL-1485, ¥7,800. The tagline: ディアナとキエル…ふたりの乙女が入れかわる / そのとき、美しい風が巻きおこった — Two maidens exchanged. Cover illustrated by Akira Yasuda.
The Turn A Journal
Inside each sleeve: the Turn A Journal, a folded broadsheet insert in 13 volumes. The Journal was not retrospective — it was concurrent, arriving with each disc as the show aired week by week on NHK. Its backbone is a running essay series called 風を求めて (Seeking After Wind), one installment per volume. Volume 1: The Boy Who Came From a Land Without Wind. Volume 13: The Wind Circles, the Wind Rustles. Every KEYNOTE title contains 風. The Journal's whole editorial register is built around that single character — the thing that moves between civilizations without belonging to either.
Turn A Journal Volume 1 — KEYNOTE 風を求めて 第1回: 風のない国から来た少年 (The Boy Who Came From a Land Without Wind). Right column: GUNDAM DATA BASE ①, a map tracking the in-world geography of each story arc. The Journal arrived with Disc 1 as the show began its NHK broadcast run.
Disc 4 jacket — Akira Yasuda. Three figures on a street — a man in an orange scarf, two younger characters — with the Turn A Gundam reduced to grey background architecture, as solid and unremarkable as a building. An Impressionist street scene in blue and brown.
Disc 4 back — episodes 13-16: 年上のひと, 別離、再び, 思い出は消えて, ∀のすべて. BELL-1486, ¥7,800. The tagline: 想い人の面影に乱れるディアナ！ / 再会は、月の女王に悲しきさだめを示す… Diana's image in disarray. Cover illustrated by Akira Yasuda.
Disc 5 jacket — Akira Yasuda. Diana in a white coat and hat stands split between a blue field (left, Earth-side) and a red field (right, Moonrace), a weapon in her hands. The only jacket in the set that is explicitly conceptual rather than painterly. Two civilizations, one body.
Disc 5 back — episodes 17-20: 建国のダストブロー, キエルとディアナ, ソシエの戦争, アニス・パワー. BELL-1487, ¥7,800. The tagline: いのちを分かちあうすべての人々よ！ / キエル渾身の演説。種族の溝は、果たして埋まるか… Cover illustrated by Akira Yasuda.
Disc 6 jacket — Akira Yasuda. Soldiers celebrate or riot under a red moon, arms raised, mouths open, mech forms wheeling above. The brushwork is loose and urgent — closer to Delacroix than to anything else in the set. The series' quietest show occasionally erupts.
Disc 6 back — episodes 21-24: ディアナ奮戦, ハリーの災難, テテスの遺言, ローラの遠吠え. BELL-1488, ¥7,800. The tagline: ディアナさまの御心は、無数にかがやくシャボン玉… / ぼくは生きる希望をそこに見た！ Cover illustrated by Akira Yasuda.
Disc 7 jacket — Akira Yasuda. Loran hauls a rope through a garden in afternoon light while the Turn A Gundam's head emerges from the background, overgrown with flowering vines, integrated into the landscape like a hill or a ruin. Impressionist palette — the garden in full bloom. The machine that Tomino described as the most dangerous weapon in all of Gundam's history has been turned into a trellis.
Disc 7 back — episodes 25-28: ウィルゲム離陸, 悟りの戦い, 夜中の夜明け, 託されたもの. BELL-1489, ¥7,800. The tagline: 核の光が、すべてをのみこんでいく！ / ぼくは、黒歴史の兵器を胸にとしこめた… — Nuclear light swallows everything. The Dark History's weapons interiorized. Cover illustrated by Akira Yasuda.
Turn A Journal Volume 2 interior — FACE to FACE: ローラとロラン、素顔はどっちだ!? (Which is the real face — Laura or Loran?); FOOD SELECTION 第1回 食物百選 (Food in Anime, Episode 1), cataloguing every significant food appearance in the series; SHORT & SHORT sections covering character observations, fashion, and sideline details.
Turn A Journal Volume 3 KEYNOTE — 風を求めて 第3回: 風の流れを感じてみたら… (If You Tried to Feel the Flow of the Wind…). Bottom right: GUNDAM DATA BASE ③, in-world map updated for episodes 9-12. The KEYNOTE essays track Loran and Diana's alternating perspectives through the wind metaphor across all 13 volumes.
Turn A Journal Volume 3 interior — MECHANISM DYNAMISM 第1回: ミンチ・ドリルの魅力 (The Charm of the Minchi Drill); FACE to FACE 第2回: コレン・ナンダー軍曹 (Sergeant Corin Nander); 衣装拝見 第3回: うるわしき乙女の着替え (Beautiful Maiden's Wardrobe); SHORT & SHORT covering Garuda's female officer corps and Kiel-Diana body-swap details.
Turn A Journal Volume 4 interior — FOOD SELECTION 第2回: お弁当をごいっしょに (Let's Share a Bento); MECHANISM DYNAMISM 第2回: イルフートの頭のネーミング (Naming Ilfute's Head); FACE to FACE 第3回: ウィルとテテスのモデル秘話 (The Secret Model Story of Will and Tetes); SHORT & SHORT on hot spring encounters and the question of whether Guin is different from a Zaku.
Disc 8 jacket — Akira Yasuda. A girl in a white dress and a slender figure in a white spacesuit stand side by side on coastal rocks, the grey sea behind them. Still. Quiet. The kind of painting that is entirely about weather and posture.
Disc 8 back — episodes 29-32: ソレイユのふたり, 胸に抱えて, 追撃！泣き虫ボゥ, 神話の王. BELL-1490, ¥7,800. The tagline: とらわれのディアナさま！ / ぼくたちは世界樹の地をめざして南下する — Diana captured. Heading south toward the world-tree's land. Cover illustrated by Akira Yasuda.
Turn A Journal Volume 5 KEYNOTE — 風を求めて 第5回: 風は世界の呼吸 (The Wind Is the World's Breathing). Bottom right: GUNDAM DATA BASE ⑤, the in-world map updated for this arc's geography. Each volume updated the map as the show moved its characters across the landscape.
Turn A Journal Volume 5 interior — 衣装拝見 第4回: 下着と正装 (Underwear and Formal Wear); FOOD SELECTION 第3回: まずいものと旅; MECHANISM DYNAMISM 第3回: ナノスキンの秘密 (The Secret of Nanoskin); FACE to FACE 第4回: ブルーノ、ヤコブの再活躍 (Bruno and Jacop's Return). Disc 5 covered the Kiel/Diana swap — this volume's fashion section covers what each wore as the other.
Disc 9 jacket — Akira Yasuda. Two or three figures falling through water or atmosphere, surrounded by bubbles and droplets, limbs loose, eyes closed. Blue everywhere. The painting operates in the register of Millais' Ophelia — beautiful submission, no urgency.
Disc 9 back — episodes 33-36: マニューピチ攻略, 飛べ！成層圏, ザックトレーガー, ミリシャ宇宙決戦. BELL-1491, ¥7,800. The tagline: 神話の土地から天空へ、高みへと飛翔する… / 王の死は、ぼくたちに宇宙への道を示してくれた！ — From mythological land to sky. A king's death as guidance. Cover illustrated by Akira Yasuda.
Disc 10 jacket — Akira Yasuda. Guin Sard Lineford — the show's elegant, morally flexible political operator — stands with a group of formally dressed figures against a pale ivory ground. A society portrait. No mech, no battle, no action. Yasuda painted the show's antagonist as a subject for Sargent.
Disc 10 back — episodes 37-40: 月世界の門, 戦闘神ギンガナム, 小惑星爆裂, 月面の海戦. BELL-1492, ¥7,800. The tagline: ディアナさまゆかりの小惑星が破壊され、月にせまる / ついにホワイトドールは、天を灼く剣をぬいた！ — The asteroid destroyed, the White Doll draws its sword. Cover illustrated by Akira Yasuda.
What the Journal Tracked
Each issue's interior ran five or six recurring features alongside the KEYNOTE essay. FACE to FACE profiled characters. MECHANISM DYNAMISM メカの鼓動 documented mecha in engineering language. 衣装拝見 Turn A Collection analyzed costume and fashion across the series. ∀教養講座 — the Turn A Cultural Lecture series — covered topics like The Myth of King Adesuka, The Secret of Nanotechnology, and The Stairway to Heaven: Zackträger. FOOD SELECTION 食物百選 tracked every notable food appearance in the show, episode by episode, across all 13 volumes. Because Turn A Gundam is set in an agrarian world where meals are social ritual, and the Journal thought that was worth following.
Turn A Journal Volume 7 KEYNOTE — 風を求めて 第7回: 黒歴史に潜む毒の風 (The Poisoned Wind Lurking in the Dark History). Bottom right: GUNDAM DATA BASE ⑦, in-world map updated for the Willgame arc. Vol.7 is where the KEYNOTE series pivots from pastoral movement to confronting what the Dark History actually contains — the Moonlight Butterfly, the weapons that ended the previous civilization.
Turn A Journal Volume 7 interior — MECHANISM DYNAMISM 第5回: 発現戦艦ウィルゲム発進! (Warship Willgame Launches!); FOOD SELECTION 第3回: メキシコ料理はいかが? (How About Mexican Cuisine?); FACE to FACE 第6回: ギャバンのチョビヒゲ (Gavane's Thin Mustache); 衣装拝見 第6回: 3人娘、衣裳の初仕事 (Three Girls, Their First Fashion Assignment). Five running features, one disc.
Turn A Journal Volume 8 interior — ∀教養講座 第1回: アデスカ王とその神話 (King Adesuka and His Myth); MECHANISM DYNAMISM 第6回: お手玉カプルの本領発揮 (Capule's True Capability); FACE to FACE 第7回: ボゥが泣き虫になるまで (How Boo Became a Crybaby). The cultural lecture series begins here — cross-referencing the show's invented mythology against Earth history.
Disc 11 jacket — Akira Yasuda. Loran and Diana face each other against the circular face of the Turn A, its beam sabers crossed behind them. The mech is finally centered — but as backdrop and halo, not as weapon. The machine as icon.
Disc 11 back — episodes 41-44: 戦いの決断, ターンX起動, 衝撃の黒歴史, 敵、新たなり. BELL-1493, ¥7,800. The tagline: ディアナさまは、黒歴史の封印をついに解放した！ / 復活のターンXは、兄弟の∀ガンダムを執拗にねらう！ — The Dark History unsealed. Turn X targets its sibling. Cover illustrated by Akira Yasuda.
Disc 12 jacket — Akira Yasuda. A single figure hunched in a field of swirling red — chaotic, hot, compressed. The most psychologically intense jacket in the set, and the one that most directly engages the show's final-arc weight. A figure inside something that might be fire or might be war.
Disc 12 back — episodes 45-48: 裏切りのクエン, 再び、地球へ, ギンガナム襲来, ディアナ帰還. BELL-1494, ¥7,800. The tagline: ホワイトドールが敵の手に落ちてしまった！ / 地球の危機に、ディアナさまはソレイユへと向かう… Cover illustrated by Akira Yasuda.
Disc 13 jacket — Akira Yasuda. A figure stands alone in an autumn field, back to the viewer, looking up at a full moon. Blue-violet night. Trees in colour at the left edge. A briefcase in hand. No mech. No enemy. The series ends here, and the jacket for the final disc is a painting about standing outside at night and looking up.
Turn A Journal Volume 9 interior — ∀教養講座 第2回: 天の階段ザックトレーガー (The Stairway to Heaven: Zackträger); 衣装拝見 第7回: スペーススーツの美醜論 (The Aesthetics of Spacesuits); MECHANISM DYNAMISM 第7回: スモーのスカート (Sumo's Skirt). By vol.9 the show has moved to space, and the Journal's fashion column pivots from earth couture to EVA design.
Turn A Journal Volume 11 interior — ∀教養講座 第4回: ナノテクノロジーの秘密 (The Secret of Nanotechnology); MECHANISM DYNAMISM 第8回: マヒロー秘話 and 第9回: ターンX誕生秘話 (The Secret Birth of Turn X). Two consecutive MECHANISM DYNAMISM installments — the journal accelerates its mecha coverage in the final arc as Turn X finally becomes the subject.
Turn A Journal SPECIAL — 富野由悠季監督インタビュー【前編】 (Director Yoshiyuki Tomino Interview, First Part). Headline: 「本当に良かったな、と思える作品になりました。」 — It became a work I can truly say was good. Topics: the approach to finishing (放映終了の感想), the necessity of saying goodbye (文言…「お別れ」の重要性), and the nature of sound in the series. Runs concurrent with Disc 12.
Turn A Journal SPECIAL — 富野由悠季監督インタビュー【後編】 (Director Yoshiyuki Tomino Interview, Final Part). Headline: 「ひとりじゃこれはできない、とわかって欲しい」 — I want people to understand that this couldn't be done alone. Topics: working with Syd Mead, the secret of Loran and Lastcut, the show's relationship to sound, and a message to fans. The interview concludes with the final disc.
Turn A Journal Volume 13 KEYNOTE — 風を求めて 第13回: 風はめぐり、風はそよぐ (The Wind Circles, the Wind Rustles). Final GUNDAM DATA BASE ⑬, the completed in-world map. The KEYNOTE title that closes the series uses the same character — 風 — that opened it in Volume 1. The wind that moved between civilizations through 13 discs arrives back where it started.
The Last Disc
Disc 13 (BELL-1495) carries episodes 49 and 50 — the final two episodes of the series. Four episodes per disc was the set's standard. The last disc breaks that. The price dropped from ¥7,800 to ¥5,000. The disc back lists two episodes. The Journal SPECIAL that accompanied it ran the conclusion of the Tomino interview: 本当に良かったな、と思える作品になりました。 It became a work I can truly say was good.
Disc 13 back — episodes 49-50, 月光蝶 (Moonlight Butterfly) and 黄金の秋 (Golden Autumn). ¥5,000. BELL-1495. Catalog note: ノンクリプトアニメのエンディング — non-Crypt anime ending. Chapter & Tracks for two episodes where every other disc tracked four. Cover illustrated by Akira Yasuda.
Akira Yasuda painted 13 disc jackets for a 50-episode TV series and did not show the Turn A Gundam fighting in a single one. It appears as a ruin, a landmark, a garden ornament, a background halo, a circular face. Once, flowers grow on its head. The machine that Tomino described as the most powerful and destructive weapon in the entire Gundam universe — capable of resetting civilizations — is shown, across 13 canvases, as something the landscape has already absorbed.
The Turn A Journal tracked food appearances across 50 episodes of television because the show cared about what people ate, and someone at Bandai Visual thought that was worth following in print. The Tomino interview that closes the final volume is headlined with a sentence about gratitude. The last disc has two episodes and costs ¥2,800 less than every other disc.
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