Mecha Legend Yoshiyuki Tomino Announces New Exhibition Featuring Gundam, Ideon, Dunbine and More
Image by Charlotte DavisA new exhibition celebrating the career and creative origins of Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino has revealed its key visual, bringing together characters and machines from across some of the director’s most influential anime.
“The Beginning Point of Yoshiyuki Tomino – From Odawara to the Universe –” will explore the relationship between Tomino and his hometown of Odawara, tracing the path from his early creative work to the anime productions that eventually made him one of the industry’s most influential directors.
Born in Odawara in 1941, Tomino entered the anime industry through Mushi Production and worked on Astro Boy before becoming a freelance director and storyboard artist.
His later directing credits include Triton of the Sea, Invincible Super Man Zambot 3, Mobile Suit Gundam, Space Runaway Ideon and G-Reco, with the original Gundam in particular developing into one of Japan’s largest and longest-running science-fiction franchises.
Tomino’s connection to Odawara has remained important throughout his career, with the director becoming an official hometown ambassador in 2021 before entering a comprehensive partnership agreement with the city in 2024.
A newly revealed key visual for the exhibition places Odawara Castle at the center of that connection while surrounding it with recognizable machines including Gundam, Ideon and Dunbine.
Characters including Amuro Ray and Char Aznable also appear among the extensive lineup, visually connecting Tomino’s hometown with the worlds and characters that emerged throughout his career.
The exhibition itself will use materials drawn from two very different periods of Tomino’s life, combining work created while he was still living in Odawara with production material from the anime projects that followed.
Rather than functioning solely as a retrospective of finished anime, the exhibition is intended to examine how Tomino’s experiences in Odawara contributed to the ideas and creative approach behind his later work.
That story will be divided between two locations, beginning with a section titled “From Odawara to the Universe” inside the fourth-floor exhibition space of Odawara Castle.
This portion will explore Tomino’s early life, his relationship with Odawara, his university years, his move into the anime industry, and elements of his hometown that can be identified within his later creations.
The second venue at Odawara Sannomaru Hall will shift its focus toward Tomino’s completed works through a section titled “Invitation to Tomino World”.
Displays there are planned around subjects including the technology portrayed throughout his anime, the different interpretations of “justice” found within his stories, and G-Reco as a culmination of ideas explored across his career.
Several additional experiences are also being developed around the exhibition, including an AR photo feature positioned along the route through the venues.
Odawara Cinema Hall will host screenings of works connected to Tomino, while talk events and a collection of original exhibition merchandise are also planned.
The exhibition follows the earlier “The World of Yoshiyuki Tomino” retrospective, which toured public museums across Japan between 2019 and 2022 and looked back across approximately half a century of his career.
The Odawara Castle portion of “The Beginning Point of Yoshiyuki Tomino – From Odawara to the Universe –” will open first on November 6 and continue through December 6, while the Sannomaru Hall exhibition will run from November 23 through December 6.
Standard tickets will be priced at ¥2,000 for adults (approx. $13 USD / £9 GBP) and ¥1,000 for elementary and junior high school students (approx. $6 USD / £5 GBP), while adult Odawara residents will receive a discounted ¥1,500 rate (approx. $9 USD / £7 GBP).
Additional ticket packages featuring limited-edition merchandise are also being prepared, with further details due to be announced later.
Tickets are expected to go on sale through Ticket Pia and other Japanese ticketing services from mid-September 2026.
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