Life-size Gundam? WTF!

Epyon vs. Wing Zero. Norris vs. the 08th MS Team. Amuro Ray vs. Char Aznable. These are just some of the epic moments that stick in the memory of dedicated Gundam fans. Well, upcoming fights might join the list, as Bandai recently announced a new Gundam series and short movie to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Gundam franchise. But I'll get to all that in a minute. Did you see this?

That's not CGI, by the way; that's a real picture of an 18-meter steel RX-78-2 with working warning lights. I'm not the only one who immediately suspected that Japan is in fact constructing the prototype for an army of unstoppable giant robotic warriors out in plain sight, right? Of course, it is Japan. It's entirely possible that on the anniversary date, they suddenly turn the RX-78-2 on, but instead of crazy weapons and flight capabilities, a bunch of tentacles come flying out of either hand and the whole thing turns into a hentai free-for-all. To quote Yorick Brown, the place is "like the fever dream of a Kryptonian."

Anyway, back to Gundam. Here's a press release description of the new series:

Hugues Couraud is a 32-year-old officer in command of the Earth Federation’s Phantom Sweep Team. The special operations unit is ordered to hunt down the remnants of the losing Zeon forces after the end of the One Year War of the first Gundam series. When he was young, he once had his entire unit wiped out.

The other main character from the Phantom Sweep Team is a 24-year-old woman named Sherry Allison. She was a test pilot for prototype units, but she has been assigned to the special operations team to fill its ranks. On the opposing Zeon side is Eric Blanke, a 20-year-old male officer born to a prominent family in the Principality of Zeon. He is leading the counteroffensive unit named Invincible Knights to avenge the Zeons’ loss to the Earth Federation.

The story is set in 0081 of the Universal Calendar, one year after end of the One Year War. While peace and order are being restored to the world, small-scale battles still crop up here and there due to Zeon remnants continuing to offer resistance. A veteran Earth Federation officer assigned to mopping up the remaining Zeon forces, and a young officer executing a top secret operation to revive the Zeons, cross paths on this new battlefield.

I've been an on-and-off Gundam fan, but I still can't wait for these new episodes. And for those of you who read that plot description and thought to yourselves, "that sounds like every other Gundam series ever," at the end of the day, it's not really about the plot. You know that, right? Yes, at some point Hughes and Sherry will meet, and they'll probably hate each other at first, but end up getting together, and Hughes and Eric will fight at some point, declare each other to be their ultimate nemesis, eventually become respected rivals before one of them kills the other one on the last episode. That's not the point. The point of Gundam are the insanely cool robots and the epic fights! So as long as you focus on that, everything else about the show just falls into place…