Anime becomes reality with help from the creator of the original Gundam, and it even has a strange, hard-to-pronounce anime mecha-style name!

Kunio Okawara is one of the anime industry’s most respected mecha designers, as you’d expect of the man who designed the original Gundam as well as the mobile suits for much of the franchise. So when word came that he’d designed an all-new robot, called the J-deite RIDE, we were pretty excited.

And hey, check it out, Okawara’s design isn’t for an anime, but something that exists in the real world. That’s not a scaled-down model kit, either, but a full-sized, roughly four-meter (13.1-foot) tall, actual transforming robot that two full-sized adults can ride inside!

A joint effort between three Japanese tech firms, Brave Robotics, Asratec, and Sansei Technologies, J-deite RIDE (with the first half of “J-deite” pronounced “jay” and the second half rhyming with “light”), sometimes is an awesome robot with glowing eyes. But at other times, it’s a sporty two-seat car, because Brave Robotics believes that a robot that doesn’t transform isn’t really a robot at all.

▼ The car-to-robot transformation

In a display of well-thought-out user friendliness, the J-deite RIDE’s reconfiguration mechanics don’t require the driver/pilot and passenger to exit the vehicle while it’s transforming. As the video shows, the two occupants can remain in their seats as machine changes from car to humanoid form, or vice-versa.

▼ Speaking of the humans inside, the two men appear to be wearing business suits, as opposed to sleek futuristic pilot outfits.

▼ That said, this looks like a much cooler way to get to your office in downtown Tokyo than packing yourself in with other commuters on the Yamanote Line rail loop.

▼ A separate video shows the robot-to-car transformation sequence.

This isn’t a still model, either. The J-deite RIDE can take steps in biped mode, and the car can operate as, well, a car, putting power to its drive wheels and turning.

▼ Step test

▼ Drive test

Before you go selling your current car (or giant robot), be aware that the J-deite RIDE isn’t quite ready for mass production or private-use sales just yet. Right now, its creators are looking into focusing on displaying it at exhibitions, as well as looking into installing the model as an amusement park attraction. The first such display is coming up on May 5 at the Golden Week Doki Doki Festa at Tochigi Prefecture’s Twin Ring Motegi motorsports circuit, where it’ll be stealing the spotlight from the boring, non-transforming cars.

Source: J-deite RIDE official website
Top image: YouTube/BRAVE ROBOTICS Inc
Insert images: YouTube/BRAVE ROBOTICS Inc (1, 2), J-deite RIDE official website
[ Read in Japanese ]