Evangelion World

A 60ft, life-sized Gundam statue, in my opinion, creates a 240ft purple elephant in the room: what about a life-sized Evangelion?

Maybe because of all the giant buildings dispersed in such a way to create gaps in the skyline, it's very easy to picture in Tokyo, amidst those buildings and gaps. Compared to an EVA, the 60ft Gundam is very small, and the size disparity really makes the idea of an Angel attack very frightening, especially from a sheer size standpoint.

A looming, life-sized Evangelion would probably never be made, but amusement park Fuji-Q did the best it could do: a life-sized, 30ft Unit-1 bust in a recreated NERV storage cage, complete with LCL and everything. There was even separate museum pieces, including SEELE monoliths, a life-sized Rei, Asuka and Kaoru, as well as places to take your picture in an entry plug, as Lilith, and seated at a NERV meeting.

Although it was to scale, it wasn't big enough for my tastes. I was hoping for something gigantic, but really, the EVA is more tall than anything else. It's really lanky, especially in the Rebuild movies.

However, it was awesome, and a really cool experience. (ありがとうゆり！） Highly recommended.

Gundam Cafe

The Gundam Cafe in Akihabara... One Japan's many otaku Meccas.

Loaded with Gunpla showcases (and people), the Gundam Cafe offers up Gundam-themed food and drink, as well as a giant LCD flat panel that juxtaposes advertisements for Gunpla with clips from various Gundam series. Trivia segments are also thrown in for good measure.

I ordered up the Char meal, which is very similar to the Amuro meal. The difference is that Char's comes with red sauce; Amuro's comes with white.

Note the use of carrot to create the fin on Char's Zaku head, not to mention the carrot Zeon emblem. Looking at the food, I was fearful of experiencing "Char's Counterattack", however, there were no digestive anomalies.

While I was disappointed that the wait staff did not dress in Federation or Zeon uniforms, and the girl at the counter wasn't very cheerful, it was really cool to go. ありがとう、ひろゆき！

Blackjack

Anime Dads

(I really wanted to post this on Father's Day, but didn't have any time.)

While I’m sure I’m not the first to broach this topic, I have to ask… What is the matter with the fathers in anime/manga?? At this point, it’s probably a cliché by now, but seriously, why are they so horrible? Do Japanese kids hate their dads so much that they better identify with characters that have bad fathers? Is it a story mechanism that makes it easier to put a kid into some kind of fantastic adventure? (I would imagine it’s easier to get a kid into a giant robot when he doesn’t have a normal, sane father figure to question such behavior for a second.)

To support my point, I present to you a handful of bad dads from the annals of Japanese anime, manga, and videogames.

Tem Ray – Mobile Suit Gundam


Tem Ray is one of the first neglectful, over-worked fathers in anime, distancing himself from his wife and son to design the Gundam. While that’s pretty much standard fare for a robot anime, Tem eventually goes crazy, tries to pass of a piece of junk as being a powerful component to the Gundam, and at the very end of the One Year War, falls down the stairs celebrating and probably dies.

Franklin Bidan – Mobile Suit Gundam Zeta


Also a Gundam designer, Franklin Bidan designs the second iteration of the Gundam, the Mk. II. Following in Tem Ray’s footsteps, Fanklin spends all his time involved in his work at the expense of his son and wife. Ol’ Franky here one-ups Tem, though, by taking on a mistress, which his wife and son find out about. Finally, he engages his Gundam-piloting son in a brief space battle, only to die in the cold expanse of space. His last thoughts are of his mistress. A class act!

Gendo Ikari – Neon Genesis Evangelion


Gendo Ikari comes from a proud tradition of giant robot-designing bad dads, BUT he schools them all. Does he neglect his kid? Of course he does!! But he doesn’t just neglect him… he outright hates him! After sending his son away, he calls him back, just to use him to pilot his huge, weird and dangerous robotic monster. Let’s see…he also clones his dead wife into a child and sort of adopts her, but puts her in harms way and gets her killed twice. He’s also quite the pimp, sleeping with his colleague, which results in her suicide. It’s lonely being a terrible dad, isn’t it? That’s why no one can blame Gendo for then moving on to his mistress’ daughter, and eventually killing her. So he’s kind of not just a bad dad, but a bad person overall, I guess. Gendo!

Dr. Tenma – Tetsuwan Atom

Dr. Tenma can barely hang with the gentlemen above because he’s not really a bad natural dad. After his son dies in an accident, Dr. Tenma creates a robot version of his son to take his place (Atom/Astro Boy). After a few years, Dr. Tenma realizes that this robot won’t age and could never be a true replacement for his son. So what does he do? Well, I’ll tell you – he sells him to the robot circus. Bad anime dads don’t have to be just be bad to their flesh-and-blood children; a robot child can suffice.

Jecht – Final Fantasy X


Jecht is our first non-scientist bad dad, and technically not a bad anime dad since he appears in a video game. Since he is a fictional pop culture character from Japan, though, he’s on the list. Jecht is a star athlete who also happens to be a lazy drunk who verbally abuses his son, Tidus. Here’s where it gets tricky… he does indeed love his son, but doesn’t know how to express it or deal with it. It’s a bit of a gray area, but it’s enough to fall under my watch.

Hirukawa Masami– Paranoia Agent


And finally, we have Mr. Hirukawa. He put a spy camera in his daughter’s room to take pictures of her changing and stuff. Yep, he’s the worst.

I realize that 6 characters do not necessarily constitute a social trend (especially since 3 are kind of related in that they are all part of giant robot anime), but what’s up? Any insights? Is this indicative of a larger issue in Japan? I mean, in America, oftentimes dads are depicted as stupid and lazy, but that’s a commentary on working-class Americans in general, I think. And of course, I do not mean to offend anyone with Japanese dads, but I am very curious about this, but I don’t have enough info to really come up with any conclusions.

Please discuss!

Last Supper

A bar in Shinsaibashi that I went to last year had this awesome Last Supper painting on the wall:

Mazinger Z

Help!

Today my father was cleaning the garage, and he found these toys.

I remember playing with them when I was a little kid. They're obviously Japanese robots, but what are they exactly?

Japanese friends, can you help me?

今日、ぼくの父はガレジをそじしました。このおもちゃを見つけりました。ぼくのこども時のおもちゃですけどなんですか。

やっぱり日本のロボトです。日本人の友達、このロボトはなんですか。