Mechapocalypse
Tracing the Global Popularity of Mobile Suit Gundam
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21900/j.jams.v3.926Keywords:
Science Fiction, Japan, Anime, Robot, Fandom, mecha, gundamAbstract
In 1988, Tomino Yoshiyuki released Char’s Counterattack, the filmic conclusion to the nine year saga he had begun with the original anime series, Mobile Suit Gundam (1979). Set in a distant and alternate future where war is fought in giant humanoid robots known as “mobile suits,” Char’s Counterattack centers on the final battle between the Democratic Earth Federation and the fascist Neo Zeon Empire. This essay examines Char’s Counterattack as its own watershed moment for the Gundam franchise wherein Gundam would begin to spin-off into multiple media and other franchises, including more anime and films, but also manga, toys, novels, and later video games, all of which would be exported throughout the world, giving rise to Gundam’s global popularity. In reading the explosion of the Gundam franchise alongside its roots in the genre of “real robot” anime, this essay postulates that the destruction of real robots in Char’s Counterattack allegorizes the concept of C ool Japan. In doing so, this essay traces the production and exportation of Gundam’s media to both East Asia in the 1980s and North America in the early aughts, thereby repositioning the pivotal role Char’s Counterattack plays in the growth of otaku culture alongside other works in the anime canon, such as Akira (1988) and Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995).
References
Agyeiwaah, Wantanee Elizabeth Suntikul, and Li Yee Shan Carmen, “‘Cool Japan’: Anime, soft power and Hong Kong generation Y travel to Japan,” Journal of China Tourism Research, Vol. 15, No. 2: 127 – 148. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/19388160.2018.1540373
Ballus, Andreu, and Alba G. Torrents, “Evangelion as Second Impact: Forever Changing That Which Never Was,” Mechademia, Vol. 9, Origins (2014): 283. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5749/mech.9.2014.0283
Barder, Ollie. “Yutaka Izubuchi On Designing the Most Popular Gundam Ever and His Love of Kaiju.” Forbes, November 5, 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2018/11/05/yutaka-izubuchi-on-designing-the-most-popular-gundam-ever-and-his-love-of-kaiju/#7e110e94b476
Bolton, Christopher. “From Ground Zero to Degree Zero: Akira from Origin to Oblivion,” Mechademia, Vol. 9, Origins (2014): 295 – 315. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/mec.2014.0017
Cazdyn, Eric. The Flash of Capital: Film and Geopolitics in Japan. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11cw0n0
Clements, Jonathan, and Helen McCarthy. The Anime Encyclopedia: A Century of Japanese Animation. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press, 2015.
Condry, Ian. The Soul of Anime: Collaborative Creativity and Japan’s Media Success Story Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822397557
Consalvo, Mia. “Convergence and Globalization in the Japanese Video game Industry,” Cinema Journal, Vol. 48, No. 3 (Spring, 2009): 135 – 141. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/cj.0.0122
D’Anastasio, Cecilia. “There’s Something Super Weird About Netflix Anime.” Wired, November 12, 2020. https://www.wired.com/story/theres-something-super-weird-about-netflix-anime/
Drazen, Patrick. “The Shock of the Newtype: The Mobile Suit Gundam Novels of Tomino Yoshiyuki,” Mechademia, Vol. 1, Emerging Worlds of Anime and Manga (2006): 174 – 177 (Review). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/mec.0.0063
Gilson, Mark. “A Brief History of Japanese Robophilia.” Leonardo, Vol. 31, No. 5 (October 1998): 367 – 369. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1576597
Hornyak, Timothy N. Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots. New York, NY: Kodansha International, 2006.
Iwabuchi, Koichi. “In the Name of National Interest: Globalization and Media Culture in 21st
Century Japan.” The Routledge Handbook of Digital Media and Globalization. Edited by Dal Yong Jin. New York, NY: Routledge, 2021: 89-99.
Jenkins, Henry. “The Cultural Logic of Media Convergence.” International Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol. 7, No. 1 (2004): 33 – 43. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877904040603
Morikawa Kaichiro, and Dennis Washburn. “おたくOtaku/Geek.” Review of Japanese Culture and Society, Vol. 25, Working Words: New Approaches to Japanese Studies (December 2013): 56 – 66. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/roj.2013.0002
Ko, Mika. "The Break-up of the National Body: Cosmetic Multiculturalism and the Films of Miike Takashi." In Theorising National Cinema, edited by Valentina Vitali and Paul Willemen: 129–137. London: British Film Institute, 2006. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781838710392.ch-009
McGray, Douglas. “Japan’s Gross National Cool.” Foreign Policy, no. 130 (2002): 44–54. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3183487
McKevitt, Andrew C. Consuming Japan: Popular Culture and the Globalizing of 1980s America. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2017.
Napier, Susan. Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780312299408
Pellitteri, Marco. “Nippon ex Machina: Japanese Postwar Identity in Robot Anime and the Case of “UFO Robo Grendizer.” Mechademia: Second Arc, Vol. 4, War/Time (2009): 275 -288. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/mec.0.0033
Schodt, Frederik L. Inside the Robot Kingdom: Japan, Mechatronics, and the Coming Robotopia. New York, NY: Kodansha International, 1988.
Stalker, Nancy K. Japan: History and Culture from Classical to Cool. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520962835
Tsang, Alex S. L. “Model Kit World,” Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Vol. 8, No. 3 (2007): 231 – 235. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5367/000000007781698509
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Anthony Dominguez
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
