Tokyo Ward Is Too Emotionally Invested in New Gundam Statue
At some point over the weekend, Japan unveiled a three-meter-tall Gundam statue, set outside Kami-Igusa Station on the Seibu Shinjuku Line in Tokyo’s Suginami-ku, near perennial Gundam animator studio Sunrise. Suginami actually houses a load of anime studios (it’s often called “anime town,” actually) but obviously, Gundam holds a special place in the Japanese heart; Mainichi says 2400 residents signed a petition to get the statue built. My favorite part is this quote from the mayor:
“We want the area to develop through this, just like a youth riding on Gundam,” Suginami-ku Mayor Hiroshi Yamada said at the unveiling ceremony.
I assume that means Suginami-ku will first be a sniveling, irksome teenage boy who cries and whines a lot, but who will eventually become a fine pilot after learning about the realities of war. Good for Suginami.
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.