So this pic doesn’t have all that much to do with this story except for the fact that when I think unity, I think lurvs, and when I think Gundam lurvs, I think of Amuro and Sayla and the relationship that should have happened if Amuro didn’t have his head up his ass. Anywaaaaaay…
AZM Ally Grandmaster Chu sent over news of Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino’s recent successful talk at Peking University in Beijing. This is pretty significant in light of current tensions between China and Japan over the September incident near the Senkaku where Chinese and Japanese vessels collided with each other. Chinese youth protested the detention of Chinese skipper Zhan Qixiong by Japanese authorities and it seems relations between the two nations have been strained ever since (okay, let’s be honest, they’ve been strained for eeeeever).
But none of that sentiment was present at Tomino’s talk.
If anything, some students felt that anime like Gundam teaches us about unity. 23 year old undergraduate Wang Jing said, “Animation films often carry the message of a united world and they go beyond borders regardless of language.” And 21 year old Jiaotong University student Meng Linglin said, “The first time I watched ‘Gundam’ a year ago, I was awestruck by the setting and the world view. I think it is trying to depict a perfect ideal of people-to-people connection and I was very moved.”
You see? Gundam is that damn awesome! It can stir within people the desire to connect with one another on a new type of global interaction! And it has giant robots with beam sabers. It is nice to see that a giant robot show can inspire such feelings of unity. I hope the students take that message to heart when they become the leaders of China. Actually, we all could use a little Gundam unity, especially here in the U.S.
Source: Japan Times
