The Ministry of Agriculture is not in charge of Gundam….

…the Ministry of Defense is! From Anime News Network:

The Technical Research and Development Institute in Japan’s Ministry of Defense has posted on its website the program for its Heisei 19 Research Paper Presentation: Defense Technology Symposium 2007 on October 29, and the November 7-8 symposium’s schedule includes a ground equipment exhibit titled: “Towards the Realization of Gundam (Advanced Personal Equipment System).” The exhibit runs alongside another one for a “Miniature Robot (for Reconnaissance and Data Gathering).”

Mike’s take: LOLOLOLOL so life really does imitate art sometimes! My guess though that this is the Japanese equivalent of DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) in the US, the Pentagon subagency that gave us the Internet, Total Information Awareness complete with a creepy Illuminati logo, and is currently looking into autonomous robots themselves right now (they have a robotics competition every year). They even once had a head who was literally called Poindexter! The US army is also working on personal exoskeletons for soldiers too. But this is robot-mad Japan. If anyone can do it, or think it, it would be them first. They have so many models, plamos, and garage kits to work from after all. And a very willing population in Akihabara to help them.

To the Japanese Ministry of Defense I wish them a successful Gundam ikimasu! May you recruit dozens of angsty young teenage boys to work for their researcher fathers soon and reconsider the meaning of war and violence.

Author: gendomike

Michael lives in the Los Angeles area, and has been into anime since he saw Neon Genesis Evangelion in 1999. Some of his favorite shows include Full Metal Alchemist, Honey and Clover, and Welcome to the NHK!. Since 2003 he has gone to at least one anime convention every year. A public radio junkie, which naturally led to podcasting, he now holds a seminary degree and is looking to become Dr. Rev. Otaku Bible Man any day now. Michael can be reached at mike.huang@animediet.net. You can also find his Twitter account at @gendomike.

1 thought on “The Ministry of Agriculture is not in charge of Gundam….

  1. Good, you’ve got the Zeta Gundam reference down, except Camille doesn’t work for his dad – he goes with AEUG and in effect, goes against the Federation, which his dad kind of works for.

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