It’s amazing how memory fades over time. Trying to recollect my favorite childhood programs is often a foggy mess. For example, I remember one cartoon where the good guys drove robot cars with arms and the bad guys were these weird plant cars. For the life of me I can’t remember the name of that show in spite of the deep-rooted hatred of trees and vegetables it instilled in me.
Shows like that were great but as they say, the true classics are the ones that stand the test of time. Surely Gundam, arguably the most famous giant robot anime, is among that class, right? Magazine R25 suggests it might not be. Despite Mobile Suit Gundam’s long legacy of series, R25 claims that 51 percent of Japanese men in their twenties who were surveyed said they “do not know Gundam.”
The original intention of the survey was to rank the various mobile suits in terms of which is the coolest, or which one you’d like to pilot. It was a part of the general 35th anniversary of the original broadcast of the original Mobile Suit Gundam series also known as First.
This is where the catch comes in: the survey was dealing only with the original series made 15 years before those in their 20’s were born. So it’s not to say that they’re completely oblivious to Gundam. They’re just not schooled enough on it to have a preference between a MS-05 Zaku and a RX-78-2.
Nevertheless this statistic drew scorn from some anime fans saying, “How could you not know?” and “Gundam and JoJo are compulsory courses.” However, some looked at the glass as half-full and pointed out, “It’s great that half of the people knew about a work that was created 35 years ago.”
That last comment really put things in perspective nicely. The fact that a significant number of younger people are into something from 1979 is a good measure of its true worth. It would be interesting to see how many 20-somethings have seen 1979’s Academy Award Best Picture, Kramer vs. Kramer or know the lyrics to disco group Chic’s two number one songs of 1979 Le Freak and Good Times.
Source: Jcast News (Japanese)
Top Image: RocketNews24