18-meter (59-foot) anime robot now in motion in Yokohama.

Last month residents of Yokohama, as well as anime fans around the globe, were thrilled to get their first glimpse of the life-size RX-78 Gundam anime mecha standing in the city’s bayside district, roughly 45 minutes south of Tokyo. But even that was just a precursor to the real excitement.

See, while Japan has had other full-scale Gundam statues, Yokohama’s is the first that will be able to move, and it just so happens that Japanese Twitter user @nansei2 was in the area during a recent test and recorded this amazing video of the mobile suit in motion.

While the movement is slow (being careful is a good thing when moving around a 25-metric ton [55,500-pound] robot), Gundam’s movement is impressively smooth, giving it the proper feel of a high-tech anime mech, not a piece of factory equipment. Other cool things the mobile suit is capable of include moving its arms and fingers…

…turning its head…

…and taking steps.

It’s not currently known how quickly the robot will move more quickly in its finalized operation, but the five-times-speed edit in the tweet directly above, and the ten-times one below from Twitter user @lucky_star3, give an idea of what a more quickly moving version would look like.

Gundam Factory Yokohama, the complex that houses the moving Gundam, was previously scheduled to open to the public in October, but that’s now been delayed indefinitely because of the coronavirus pandemic. With as awesome as the mecha looks in these preview videos, though, we have a hunch that the wait, however long it ends up being, will be worth it.

Source, images: Twitter/nansei2 via Otakomu
Top image: Twitter/nansei2
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