Thread by @retroanimechris

Gundam Complete Record, volumes 1 - 5. Volume 5 implicitly gives credence to the fanzines and doujinshi made by both fans of all genders, but primarily fujoshi of their day. 0079's importance in Queer JP culture supercedes that of most Western interpretations of that movement.

As an individual who documents these works profusely, one of the first major 0079 data zines pre-Gunsight was ZAKU. I own volumes 2 to 5, and the group was run primarily by young queer women as well as fujos. It's been fully archived.

Sunrise acknowledged and read a variety of queer fanzines that were yaoi based, too. AMA, which was the first fully R18 Charma works to hit Comiket in mid 1979, was acknowledged and deemed important by Sunrise and Studio II.

Yoshiyuki seldom gave interviews but did so with the young female fans who ran ZAKU. While other interviews may exist among this sphere with Tomino, he gave first hand accounts with many young women who bothered to show up to the studios.

There is a unique pessimism I find among Western fans that reduce this very real information that happened before they were even born as a basis to yell about tourists ruining their hobbies, showing that they have no control over the spaces that they hold so dear.

Strangely enough, at the end of the day, no one is forcing you to hold space for or telling you that you have to acknowledge this history or current fans who are into this sort of representation. It did in fact happen, did it "save" the franchise? To some extent, yes.

Ignoring and even comparing the lives of these women and even young men (fudanshi) who set the tone, went to the studio, collected cels from dumpsters, waited in the bitter cold for an autograph and rally together other young people to modern Western fans is interesting.

I am personally not interested in always championing the opinions and foresight, or rather the lack of, of Western Gundam fans who got into the series via Wing, which too had/has a massive fujoshi fandom, as a means to champion their own ideals while not looking at history.

I believe that much of this information is both obfuscated and also not very well known stands for that particular interview, which has often been used in error, be it by accident or otherwise, but there was a lot happening before you were born. Much to think about.