Gundam: Ace of Japanese anime, the story behind the popular Gunpla toy kits

In the spring of 2020, the organisers of the Tokyo Olympics announced plans to launch two plastic models to the International Space Station – Mobile Suit Gundam RX100 and Char’s Zaku fulfilled the author’s dream of outer space warfare. It was an example of the influence of characters and stories from the mind of novelist and anime creator Yoshiyuki Tomino. He was behind Mobile Suit Gundam which brought cutting-edge aerospace technology to TV audiences in 1979. It offered a robot sci-fi depiction of conflicts in outer space with hundreds of soon-to-be classic protagonists and antagonists. In this episode of Cultured, we explore the animation, manga, magazines, toy kits and novels established by Sunrise and Bandai, and how they have morphed into the Gundam world, widely considered the most successful robot anime on Earth.