Ever wondered how you would stack up against an anime robot come to life? The Gundam Factory in the Japanese city of Yokohama will help you find out.
Standing well above crowds of visitors, the 18m-tall cult figure is not simply a massively enlarged model from the local hobby shop or anime convention.
The anime robot truly comes to life every 15 to 20 minutes when it recreates the non-fighting movements from the more than 40-year-old TV series, complete with music and dialogue.
The RX-78-2 mecha, which has been with the franchise since day one, mimics the start-up to a light show, kneels down toward the humans watching below, and points to the stars where it has done battle for so many years.
A basic ticket (1,650 yen/RM51) allows for an up close look on the ground, but a ticket up the nearby tower (3,300 yen/RM103) gives Gundam fans a chance to see the robot make its moves at torso and head level, and see the Gundam look out over the port city.
A marvel of large-scale robotic engineering, the life-like robot has been noted in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest mobile humanoid robot. The Gundam robot show will be on display in Yokohama until the end of March 2024.
The Gundam franchise began in 1979 with Mobile Suit Gundam and has expanded far beyond the animation realm into comics (manga in Japan), novels, video games, plastic models and more.
Gundam revolutionised mecha animation in Japan, depicting what was then seen as more realistic robots that were developed by humans instead of having magical powers, and paved the way for other mecha anime, including Macross and Neon Genesis Evangelion. – dpa
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