Giant robots part of the Japanese landscape?

by Chris MaGee

Earlier this week we posted the news of the completion of the 18-metre high Tetsujin-28 statue in Kobe's Wakamatsu Park. The giant robot, better known to North American fans as Gigantor, will of course be a permanent fixture in Kobe unlike the life-sized RX-78-2 Gundam robot that drew huge crowds on Tokyo's Odaiba Island this past summer. According to an article posted at Matt Alt's blog Alt Japan the phenomena of life-sized statues of giant anime and manga robots isn't a new one, in fact it looks like these giant robots may be as ubiquitous as Canada's own giant roadside scupltures of beaver, moose and of course the giant nickel near Sudbury, Ontario.

Alt gives four examples of these giant robot statues in his post, but my favorite one has to be the "totem pole Gundam" located in an unspecified Japanese schoolyard. Strangely enough there's no crowd taking pictures of this Gundam like the one on Odaiba Island. I wonder why...