Japan's samurai mascot for 30 years

How’s this for an amazing fact?  Bandai released their total figures of Gundam plastic toy models in its 30-year franchise business.

Around 400,000,000 Gundams were sold!  That’s like…. A LOT ZEROS to count!!!

Talk about insane numbers that give local Japanese accountants to stay up all nights and days to reach this final figure!^^

Most of the sales come from 1/144 scale model range, and the first one (in 1980) sold was for US $3.20  or 300¥.

Now.  That same model selling in today’s price is US $28.20.

Nine times the original price.

If Bandai were to sell that many toys at today’s price, they would be about $12 billion richer worth of its merchandise!! Guess there was a lot of public reason why Bandai really took the trouble to make their Gundam statue over in Odaiba last year! Just to commemorate this major special occassion.

When I was browsing the links of the news source, I found a couple of great Gundam plastic model (1/44) pictures on display, such as these ones.

It’s the exact model of the giant statue in the Odaiba park before they dismantled it.  . ^^

It was interesting to gather understanding how everything works behind the scenes of making these robots in the mass production lines.  They said how Gundam sales was ballooning so well towards mid 80s and suddenly it nearly died off completely thanks to the increasing but vast competition of electronic goods and video games swamping the youth market of Japan, from early 90s till now.  It was thanks to new and innovative business ideas by Bandai Namco’s business leaders and renew faith by Gundam fans from elder generation that gets their children to get active in accepting Gundam (and other mecha) toys as part of the mainstream entertainment.  Just as much as latest video gaming console from XBox, Nintendo, PS3, Wii etc.  They’re equally as popular as the rest of today’s youth enterntainment, fun and games.

Good on them for persevering to the very end^^.  And wish them for another great success for another 30 years!!

Source: ANN.com, Asahi.com, GameWatch, Images provided are owned and copyrighted by Gamewatch.

Here’s another comment from one of the anime industry watchdogs that talks about celebrating 40 years of great robot anime shows, by hosting an all-day Gundam movie marathon in Tokyo, just a few days ago.

Here’s the article.

VIZ CINEMA HOSTS A UNIQUE PRESENTATION ON THE HISTORY OF SCI-FI ROBOT ANIME AND PRESENTS GUNDAM TRIPLE FEATURE IN SPECIAL ALL-DAY MOVIE MARATHON

San Francisco, CA, April 2, 2010 – VIZ Cinema is pleased to offer a fun-packed weekend of anime as it welcomes Patrick Macias, Editor-in-Chief of OTAKU USA, on Friday April 9th for the latest in his ongoing series of TokyoScope Talks on Japanese cinema and pop media. On Saturday, April 10th, VIZ Cinema offers a special Gundam Movie Marathon. Three feature films featuring the iconic robot will be screened in the theatre, which features 35mm and digital projection and a THX®-certified sound system.

TokyoScope Talk Vol. 2: MECHA MANIA: Four Decades of Slam-Bang Sci-Fi Robot Anime comes to VIZ Cinema on Friday, April 9th at 7:00pm. Tickets are $8.00. Also co-hosting the event will be author and critic Tomohiro Machiyama, who together with Macias wrote Cruising Anime City, (published by Stone Bridge Press) a highly detailed travel guide about Tokyo otaku culture and the anime phenomenon.

“From Astro Boy and Tetsujin 28 to Gundam and Voltron to Transformers and Gurren Lagann, giant robots and other fantastic machines and technology, or mecha, are instantly recognizable mainstays of anime,” says Macias. “There’s also a lot of cultural iconography intertwined with these machines and their operators, often presented as heroic warriors in the samurai warrior tradition. I look forward to tracing the nearly 50 year history and evolution of mecha along with some often humorous stories and latest examples. And don’t miss an awesome raffle giveaway featuring some tear-jerking treasures for super mecha fans!”

VIZ Cinema’s Weeknight Anime People makes a special weekend stop with an day-long triple feature of Gundam! General ticket price: $10:00; Combo tickets are $25:00. No further discounts will apply.
Gundam Movie Marathon, Saturday, April 10th – One Day Only!
Mobile Suit Gundam Movie I, 11:00am
Mobile Suit Gundam Movie II: Soldiers of Sorrow, 1:35pm
Mobile Suit Gundam Movie III: Encounters in Space, 4:05pm
VIZ Cinema’s Weeknight Anime People makes a special weekend stop with an afternoon of Gundam! In the year 0079 of the Universal Century, the Earth Federation and its space colonies are engaged in an apocalyptic war. The rebellious Duchy of Zeon, using humanoid fighting machines called Mobile Suits, has all but vanquished the Federation. Now the Federation’s last hope is the prototype Mobile Suit, Gundam. When a twist of fate makes young civilian Amuro Ray the sole-pilot of Gundam, Amuro’s own battle begins – a struggle not only for the Federation’s survival, but for his own. General ticket price: $10:00; Combo tickets are $25:00. No further discounts will apply.

VIZ Cinema is the nation’s first movie theatre devoted exclusively to Japanese film and anime. The 143-seat subterranean theatre is located in the basement of the NEW PEOPLE building and features plush seating, digital as well as 35mm projection, and a THX®-certified sound system.

NEW PEOPLE offers the latest films, art, fashion and retail brands from Japan and is the creative vision of the J-Pop Center Project and VIZ Pictures, a distributor and producer of Japanese live action film. Located at 1746 Post Street, the 20,000 square foot structure features a striking 3-floor transparent glass façade that frames a fun and exotic new environment to engage the imagination into the 21st Century. A dedicated web site is also now available at: www.NewPeopleWorld.com.

Source: Activeanime.com

So if you’re just around the neighborhood over there, don’t forget to check it out!! And let me know what the experience is like after 10th April!

Source: Activeanime.com

Just thought I wanted to share you guys with this.

Recognise some of these characters?

Heihachi Mishima

Robin Mask

Mr Satan

And what do they all have in common?

Well…. One thing. They’ll voiced by this one great Japanese voice actor who’s been with the anime industry as far back one could remember much from the 80s.

Daisuke Gori is his name. He was 57 years just before he died from committing suicide and lay dead on the road. Police do not how it was end-resulted like that but they said they were some visible signs of self-harm before he took his own life.

What a great shame. He’s done so much for the anime industry for a long time especially in DragonBall and Tekken series.

It’s interesting to note that he used to work on a couple of voice casting projects on previous mecha series ie Gundam and Patlabor.

It’s good to know.

But it was tragic for his life to be ended like that…. There’s so much for him to contribute further. So much potential. A lot of anime and gaming industry fans will surely miss him…

Source: MechaMechaMedia, Mainichi Daily, Wikipedia.org

A week so ago, Sunrise made a big announcement that they’re planning to bring Gundam Unicorn into the big screen at the world premiere in Hong Kong on 6th Feb 2010 (in three days time).

Several online (and offline) comic and manga publishers throughout the Asian region are keeping a keen eye on that, especially with helping out the ticket sales. Expecting that it’s going to be massive on the day of its worldwide release.

This is so fantastic! After watching the trailer (short version) below, I feel so looking forward to book a plane ticket to HK and stay there for overnight accommodation to just watch the film.

All that effort for 2 hour+ film! (Yeah I wish)

Crazy. I know.  But at least, I won’t be only one who’s that excited to look into this!!!^^

Source: ANN.com, Youtube.com

Gundam Statue in Odaiba Park before being dismantled in early September this year

Reading a couple of anime feeds from ANN.com, I can see that several bloggers posted a lot on how Gundam won one of the best awards in Japan in the category of art and design.

For the team of Green Tokyo Gundam, they sure certainly deserve a great praise by the public.  A very honourable praise.  Good on them for their outstanding achievement!!   With so many Gundam bloggers online, it’s difficult to see how such a ‘recreational’ figure (why I call it recreational it’s because technically it was part of Odaiba parks’ recreational activities) that’s been crafted to such extraordinary lengths.

And it won’t be long before Tetsujin 28 statue will have its turn to get nabbed for award nominations, since its unveil in early September October.

Not sure about its design potential though.  Maybe more comic potential?

Source: ANN.com, Youtube.com

Just learned a new Japanese phrase over the past week.

Jitsubutsudai gandamu.

Or life-sized gundam in English.  That’s one phrase I’ll definitely want to remember if I ever travel to Japan in the future.

At least it’s a start.  Along with 59 other cool phrases to go, if you read this interesting post by a Japanese online publisher, who annually conducts a survey of best Japanese phrases used in Japan’s mass media.  There will be some judging panel that will nominate the 10 best phrases used in 2009.  Hopefully, they’re in turn will become as catchphrases for masses.

I’m pinning high hopes that jitsubutsudai gandamu will be amongst the nominations! It’s paramount for the people wanting to appreciate the true life of an otaku, should they ever learn a lot of things in Japan.  Otherwise, how would they know such a real-life 18 metre Gundam actually exists (before Gundam Projects Team decided to remove them from premises) so they set foot in Japan to travel or live?

Source: PinkTentacle.com

After reading this headline from MyAnimelist,  there will be some drastic changes going on with the way anime business is conducted in Japan with the recent announcement of Bandai’s dropped plans to broadcast Unicorn Gundam on TV.

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn

Instead, they  decided to do two things.  One, having its theatrical release,   Two, having its online streaming.  With these approaches, they claim that they can combat with the industry-wide issue of declining DVD sales in the current market, hoping that things will turn around for the anime industry.  One of the arguments also suggests (and supports) past outstanding performances by Kara no Kyoukai would prove to be the solid indicator on how much more other anime firms can benefit from this so-called new-found business model of online media marketing.

Yet, in the forum, people were not wholesomely enthused with Bandai’s ‘enthusiasm’ to conduct such business practices as they believed the reason Kara no Kyoukai fares so much the better just because of its one-hit wonder of success so it would be very hard for Bandai to emulate that level of success.

Read more from the forum.

Source:  MyAnimelist.net

Koei’s  proud to present you a whole new gaming experience of their signature game classic series, Dynasty Warriors.  JapanVideoGames.com released the latest video game development news from the hack-’n-slash-action gaming vendor, that their new game title Shin Sangoku Musou Multi Raid (or Dynasty Warriors Multi Raid in English) might proved something like a eye-opener for the video game enthusiasts or dynasty warriors hardcore fans alike. It’s said for the first time, it’s got multiplayer capabilities so players can play co-op online. It’s available for PSP, PS3 and Xbox 360 versions so any players from different gaming systems can join a co-op game or fight against each other.

As you would expect for any multiplayer-typed games, it comes with text and voice chat functions as well.

After watching the trailer, (and speaking from a former avid fan of Dynasty game series myself) I must admit this is one of the coolest gaming from the series Koei has ever come up with. I used to love spending hours hacking and slashing away huge hordes of enemies in what-appears-to-be limitless boundary on all Dynasty Warriors series from Dynasty Warriors 3 to 5. (Haven’t tried the 6 cause I don’t have my own PS3). And they’re incredibly fun thanks to this ridiculously simple formula of hack/slash pattern we never so get tired from. I notice plenty of familiar characters get plenty of ‘facelift’ when they transform into demi-gods if you perform certain special moves to attack your opponents.

Hmm. Very exciting!

I wonder what will their plans be for  Gundam Musou 2 (see below) counterpart? I wonder what special demi-god’s powers would they be imbued to take on hundreds or thousands of enemy Zakus?

One would wonder…..

Currently, it’s on sale for a retail price of USD $79.99.

Source: JapanVideoGames.com

After receiving Bandai’s Twitter updates last night, Bandai just released a new poll on what items do the online people normally get from the Bandai website.  Looking at the vote results of 504 people voted so far, they show

• 54.1% voted for  Imported Japanese Bandai toys
• 31.2% voted for Previous Bandai toys not available in stores
• 9.7% voted for Exclusive and collectible Bandai toys
• 5.0% voted for North American Bandai toys

It’s not difficult to see why Japanese Bandai toys are the obvious favourites as compared to the Northern American counterparts.  Japanese reserved more exclusive rights of their product range to their own local consumers more and they get more  special requirements than the USA citizens do!  Not to mention some of the really unusual toys that only Japanese consumers are better off catered with it like ettchi dolls and classic robot anime figurines etc etc.

For more info about the poll, check out at the Bandai Website.

Source: Bandai.com

I know this one’s out for some time now. Hope they’re still selling them…

Gundam sure has its way of celebrating its 30th anniversary in the business so they decided to have this promotional noodle cup featuring Gundam!

Gundam Noodle Cup

And if you check with CartoonLeap’s ‘unpackaging‘ of the noodlle cup, you will see the wonderful colours of yummy noodle treat this cup comes with! All yellow and filled with low-MSG goodness! (I think) :)

Also, I ran into another Youtube video on Japanese ad that’s trying to sell their noodle bowls featuring one of the Gundam Mobile Suit’s original character, Amuro Ray.

See below! The expression on Amuro Ray’s face (after he’s got ‘overwhelmed’ by the sheer presence of the ominous Gundam Noodle bowl) looks priceless! :D

Source: CartoonLeap.com, HobbyBlog