>>23501819
That's not what happened.
In the 1970s, Tomino wrote the story, ideas, and concepts for Gundam in a proposal. Then sold his project proposal for Mobile Suit Gundam to Sunrise for a flat fee of 300,000 yen ($1,200 dollars).
This is Similar to the USA when a Hollywood writer sells a script to the studio. Writers in the USA get a tiny amount of royalties from each book sold, or whenever their movie airs in movie theaters or Television. Which can add up to alot of money (for one person) if it's successful. Just look at Harry Potter.
However unlike the West, Japan does not have such a system for TV or Film writers to get royalties. And Tomino did not even think of the idea to negotiate royalties when he sold the Gundam proposal to Sunrise/Bandai.
Tomino did not expect Gundam to become a multi-billion dollar franchise either. So later...Tomino tried to re-negotiate a way to get royalties, but Sunrise/Bandai absolutely flat out refused. Which is a huge as5hole move, but "legally" they aren't required to do so. Gundam makes so much money that they could give Tomino a small piece of the pie. But they won't do it. Corporations are greedy.
What Sunrise/Bandai WAS willing to do was pay him a large Director salary, and rehire him for future Gundam projects as Director. This was very good money for a Director. But this amount of money is tiny in comparison to the royalties that Tomino COULD have received from Gundam.
Because of this, Tomino has a love/hate relationship with Gundam. He enjoys the fame it brought him and the salary he got from working on Gundam TV shows and movies. But every time he works on Gundam or hears about Gunpla sales...it creats bitter resentment within Tomino as he feels he's owned at least a small portion of royalties. It eats away at him for years. Even thinking about dark thoughts of revenge (which he never carried out). Eventually Tomino had to see a therapist, which has helped a lot and has lessened his rage with time.
