With Christmas fast approaching, it's now time to get the Christmas presents in order. All the stuff for the family back home has been taken care of, but the other day me and Mrs. Sunshine were out shopping for presents for her niece and nephew. Christmas presents doesn't really carry the same level of importance here in Japan as in the Western world (Japanese kids get money at new year's instead) but it's still normal that something is given.As we were looking around in the Toy's R'us store, looking for stuff to get her 12 year old nephew and Mrs. Sunshine pulling towards the lego, with me convincing her that big mean looking giant robot models with huge swords and guns are more suitable for a 12 year old Japanese kid. We ended up in front of a huge selection of models from the popular Gundam anime and giving a call to her brother to hear what we would think is suitable. To my satisfaction in my estimation on what toys a 12 year old kinda wants, he tells us that the nephew are collecting the models in the series we were standing in front of. Having no idea on what's what of the over 100 different type of models, we asked him if he had any recommendation on which one to buy; "Get one of the Gundam robot suits, he likes those". For a few seconds me and Mrs. Sunshine are completely silent, staring at the huge selection of models in front of us, all saying "Gundam" at some place having no idea which one of these "Gundam" figures actually were "Gundam"...
A few minutes later and one Internet search for a certain model, he could give us a detailed name so we could pick a model that apparently should be a "Gundam". When it comes to the dorky Japanese stuff, I'm lost... I feel much more at home with Superman, Spider-man and all those guys than the Japanese robots...
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5 comments:
One of the disadvantages of living in Japan is that people sometimes expect you to be an anime/manga expert/fan. Unfortunately (for them), while I recognize a Pikachu at forty paces, that's about it, and I still have no idea whether "Gundam" is a name or a collective noun or some kind of robot/tentacle mutant.
Gundams are huge robots who are best piloted by angsty 14 year olds (who just happen to get into the cockpit and be natural genius pilots), who either work for or against a secret organisation with its own giant robots and angsty teenage pilots. I think they are generally humanoid, and often the Bad Persons have animal or such looking robots.
Something like that, anyway!
Penguin and Aimless - I'm basically with Penguin here, but I think that your explanation helped a bit here Aimless.
But is all those huge robots "Gundam" robots or are there subtypes of them?
Err, you'd really have to consult an expert! There are so many robots in Gundam shows, partly so they can sell models of all of them.
I have the same predicament whenever we are going for our Japan trip. Just buy a Gundam, they say. And there I was standing at the Gundam section in Yodobashi completely at loss.
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