The first trip that I signed up for when I got to Japan was to the Shizuoka Hobby Fair. I jokingly say that the only reason I came to Japan was to see the Giant Gundam… yeah, jokingly.

After falling asleep on the bus, I woke up the distorted choral sample of Nas’ Nazareth Savage, looked out of my window and saw this. 

I knew it was going to be a good day. 

When I say that the Gundam was the only reason that I came to Japan, its kind of true. I started watching Gundam around the time I was 13. For those who don’t care to do the math, it was around the same time as 9/11. At that time (and even now), there was a lot of talk about war, the enemies of America, and seemingly absolute evil. When people were out buying flag pins and VHS tapes of Pearl Harbor (Irony in the face of tragedy), I can honestly say that I didn’t understand what was going on. Then I started watching a TV series about giant robots destroying each other. I came for the action, but I stayed for something else. Something I can’t accurately put into words.

Growing up as an American male, you develop the mindset that war is cool. A bag a plastic soldiers costs $1 and can give you hours of fun. Your grandfather tells you war stories. Nerf Guns are semi-automatic and have detachable sniper scopes. And in school, all you learn is that America fights and wins because we are the home of the brave. Where’s the downside? There is no downside… right? Its all just a video game to us.

As odd as it sounds, I learned the other side of war from a cartoon.

I watched Gundam at the age of 13 and learned to question the 2 party system, question the figures of authority, question the dominant story. Much of my social-political awakening came from watching this show.

I believe that the difference between a piece of media and a piece of art is what you take away from it. I also believe that the difference between a piece of art and a masterpiece is what else you can take from it.

While the main focus of any gundam series is a commentary on the effects of war, there is usually a hidden message in there about hope for the human condition. In the original Gundam, the main protagonist and antagonist were called newtypes. Newtypes were viewed as the next evolution of humans, as super soldiers with instincts and reactions that bordered super-human levels (think spider-sense). The show does make a point, though, to stress that newtypes are people who are spiritually aware to the point that they can feel and comprehend the intentions and emotions of other people. In the show, newtypes tend to die on the battlefield in a search for understanding. Not an understanding of the war they were in, but an understanding of each other. 

I watched this show again at the age of 15 and began to question some things. What if we weren’t so dismissive? What if we all tried to better understand each other? What would our world look like if people never stopped searching for a deeper understanding than what easily fits into their preconceived world? 

I could wax poetic about gundam all day but yall just came here for the pictures. And maybe this video: Gundam: Char’s Epic Headshot