Opinion: A ‘Zoids’ And ‘Gundam’ Crossover Anime Could Save Both Mecha Franchises
In an era where cultural icons are expected to last forever, it’s jarring to consider that a cultural touchstone like Mobile Suit Gundam wouldn’t be one of the few to last until the heat death of the universe – but according to Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX director Kazuya Tusrumaki, there’s a good chance the franchise may go the way of Zoids‘ dinosaur inspirations.
RELATED: ‘Gundam’ Manga Publisher Kadokawa Now Recruiting Overseas Talent Due To Japan’s Population Crisis
Let’s start with the foundational issue: Japan’s shrinking population.
The ongoing decline of the country’s birth rates is causing a ripple effect across its creative and consumer industries, as a lack of local talent and audiences has led many media companies, including Mobile Suit Gundam publishing house Kadokawa and Kamen Rider production studio Toei turning overseas to fill up the respective gaps.
The problem is the very same Japanese media that is popular worldwide, from anime, to manga, to video games, to music, to film, because it’s influenced specifically by the country’s own culture, and bringing in those new ideas from outside will most definitely end up changing the relevant creative landscapes. There’s just no way around it.
And it is against this harrowing background that Tsurumaki, during a recent interview with Yahoo! Japan, gave his above assessment regarding the mecha genre’s current health.
As machine translated by DeepL:
“When I was a child, motorcycles and cars were objects of admiration. In that vein, I think there was the idea of ‘pilotable robots’, which served as tools that could allow one to surpass adults, as if leaping straight into adulthood. However, I think the current younger generation doesn’t need that.
“Even in today’s manga and anime, the protagonists wield superpowers that surpass adults more intuitively through magic or psychic abilities. In games, you can freely control characters on the screen using a controller. Maybe that’s enough for them.
“I wonder if they even understand what it means to ‘pilot a robot’. The generation that once aspired to motorcycles and cars is still barely active, but in another 10 years, the Gundam series might not survive. While creating the Evangelion [Rebuild] series, I once again felt the need to update the meaning of robots.”
Interestingly, it is from this very sentiment that Mobile Suit Gundam was borne.
Amidst Japan’s 1970s-era ‘Super Robot’ boom, the series presented viewers with a more ‘real’ robot, with limitations and a much more grounded purpose – namely a war machine.
To that end, Mobile Suit Gundam‘s story centers on the exploits of the young men – and two young women in the cases of Witch from Mercury‘s Suletta and GquuuuuuX‘s Machu – behind their controls, who are thrust into a space war and driven to surpass their adult peers and enemies, whether that be in combat, diplomacy, or even colony governance.
However, in the last 20 years or so, the real robot, super robot, and giant robot genres have seen their relevance and popularity fade at an alarming rate, particularly, as Tsurumaki notes, younger audiences are more interested in stories with where characters can chew through enemies with little resistance, more often than not using powers obtained through happenstance or genetics – think Mob Psycho 100 or Dandadan.
And it’s not about audiences turning on and hating the franchise – far from it. To fans, Gundam remains iconic, to such an extent that Japan is filled with an ever-growing amount of physical statues celebrating different series and the concepts that birthed them.
Rather, it seems the franchise itself is running out of gas.
Personally, I’m not a huge fan of the franchise’s Universal Century (UC) timeline, wherein the main story regarding the Earth Federation’s war with the Principality of Zeon (and its numerous splinter movements) takes place.
This is where most of current IP stewards Bandai Namco Filmworks, formerly Sunrise, tend to place their focus, and as a result there exists a very extensive library of tales from that small window of time where the two factions were constantly at war.
Trouble is, the conflict has been thematically explored so many times that not only do the ‘villains’ begin to repeat like Saturday morning cartoon villains or Power Rangers monsters, but gotten to the point where each new story is predictably formulaic: There’s a conflict around a Newtype, that Newtype becomes a pilot of a mobile suit, they go on a spiritual journey through the soul-crushing realities of war, and then the main suit explodes!
…But that’s okay! They have another one in the shop ready to go! Best of all, that one’s even Gundam-ie-er than the original one! What a twist!
Forever locked between honoring series creator Yoshiyuki Tomino’s original vision and trying to dance the line between ‘satisfying old viewers’ and ‘bringing in new ones’, it’s no surprise the youth have grown bored with Gundam.
As a fan of the franchise’s ‘alternate universe’ entries, especially Mobile Fighter G Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, and Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, I have a curve ball to throw at this problem – and it’s not that far of a leap in logic.
I think it’s time to invite Zoids into the Gundam universe.
I know that sounds crazy, but consider for a moment that the two properties aren’t that far apart in concept and execution of that concept.
Created by Transformers manufacturers TOMY, Zoids primarily takes place on the Planet Zi, as located thousands of light-years away, and whose surface is home to the series’ eponymous, biomechanical beast mecha.
Further, both revolve around humanity’s attempts to expand across the stars, though Gundam portrays them having accomplished so much as to begin bickering about politics while Zoids sees them as just starting their colonization of Planet Zi, and feature an ongoing war between two rival factions – The Helic Republic, who seek to work alongside the Zoids to build a more habitable world for human, and the Zenebas Empire, who want to use the Zoids as war machines to achieve world domination. (Sound familiar?)
And thanks to the revelation that GquuuuuuX‘s universe created directly through the will of Lalah Sune, the immensely powerful Newtype from the original Mobile Suit Gundam, in order to save the life of Char Aznable, it’d be pretty easy to see how it could play out.
Imagine if you will a typical Gundam space battle scene: Mobile suits clashing, sparks flying, and political tensions running high.
Then, as the battlefield begins to descend into metal-on-metal chaos, a Newtype pilot experiences a major, potentially lethal neurological injury.
Their mind racing due to the pain and confusion, they end up opening a rift in space that drags the assembled Federation and Zeonic forces across the universe to Planet Zi, where they discover a forgotten but still barely hanging on human colony.
Accepting that they’re stuck on Planet Zi for the foreseeable future, the multiversal visitors would soon find themselves joining the conflict on opposite sides, the Federation teaming up with the Helic Republic to try and build a better world and Zeon offering its help in stomping out any and all resistance to the Guylos Empire.
Cue the robot fights – and maybe an RX-78/Liger Zero or Sazabi/Command Wolf mash-up.
(And to sweeten the pot, the two franchises have met before, with representatives from both having crossed the multiversal void together in Super Robot Wars Operation Extend.)
With Mobile Suit Gundam benefitting from Zoids‘ variable mecha designs and Zoids benefitting from Gundam‘s popularity, the novelty of such a move could be just the spark both franchises need to make a major comeback.
Of course, that’s just my idea; now I want to hand over the mic and ask: What do you think? Is Mobile Suit Gundam long for this world? Or can the franchise be given new life by combining forces with another ‘robot war’ franchise?
Maybe there’s another option I haven’t thought of! Either way, let me know your thoughts, either in the comments below, via our YouTube channel, or our official X account.
