Ore Wa Gundam!

One morning two months ago, my sister asked me if I knew about the life-size Gundam statue’s retirement, which was due yesterday (March 5, 2017).

No, I didn’t, and the news hit me like a ghost had just walked through me.

I managed to put together a four-day (obviously impulsive) trip to Tokyo. It was a miracle, really, since the round trip ticket was surprisingly cheap. No one was travelling then because the weather in the northern hemisphere had reached its frozen peak, and I assume that people were still financially exhausted from the holidays. It was also far too early for the cherry blossom crowd to go to Japan.

I asked my brother, a fellow Gundam fan, if he would like to join the pilgrimage. It's a good that he was not heartless enough to leave his pregnant wife. On February 17, I flew solo across the Pacific Ocean.

If at this point you are still wondering, “Hold on. What is a Gundam?” then I'm just going to let Wikipedia explain.

The temperature and wind condition on the first two days were not suitable to visit the Gundam statue, so I had to put off visiting the site until the next day. Sure enough, that was the right decision. The sun was out and the sky was clear blue, setting up the perfect ambiance to adore the mechanical giant.

There it was. The Gundam statue stood handsomely in front of a mall complex called Diver City Tokyo in Odaiba. Several times during the day, it lit up and moved around while music from the anime played in the background. Fans in the area, including me, would rush to prove which one of us are the one true fan by point out which series the songs came from.

Words cannot express how much I relished being there. When I heard that they were going to erect a Gundam statue in Tokyo several years ago, I was ecstatic. Not only that fans get to celebrate what they love, but strangers can finally understand how massive (pun slightly unintended) the Gundam franchise is.

On the seventh floor of Diver City Tokyo, Gundam Front Tokyo or GFT, a museum dedicated to all-things Gundam, offers various entertainment and informational services.This included a short film presentation in a dome-like theatre, a curated display of model kits and their history, and promotional slides of the current on-going series. Visitors can also learn about the process of making model kits and purchase various merchandises at the store. There was even a Gundam Cafe! Even though they might seem to be gimmicky, the snacks and beverages sold here were quite tasty.

I was riding high on catharsis and fandom that six hours went by without me realizing it. It was a dream come to come to Tokyo, but it was the recognition in a grand scale to my love for this piece of fiction that made this entire trip all the more worthwhile. Gundam Front Tokyo to me was like Disneyland to most people. The statue might have gone down, but the passion lives on. (Update: they recently announced that a new statue will be erected later this year, and it would be the marvelously designed Unicorn Gundam!)

I wanted to make a timelapse video of the Gundam statue in the style of Casey Neistat, so I stood in front of the statue for two hours, waiting for the sun to set, and fought against the freezing cold with the warmth of my own enthusiasm. I hope my attempt proved to be fruitful.

One more thing. There were countless arcades scattered throughout Tokyo, and some of them had the Gundam pod arcades. It was thrilling to sit in a mobile suit "cockpit," and the experience felt quite real! You can watch some mobile suit action down below.