Gundam awesomeness comes full circle in photo series that shows full-size real-world statue looking like amazing illustrations.

Ironically, while Gundam is now the biggest franchise in all of anime, when it started, the art didn’t look all that nice. The original Mobile Suit Gundam TV series premiered in 1979 and struggled to find a large audience in its initial airing, so between primitive production techniques and budget restrictions, it’s not the prettiest piece of Japanese animation.

Things are very different now, of course. Gundam is both a pop cultural institution and a monumental commercial success, and when the franchise’s handlers want to commission a nice piece of key art or showpiece animation sequence, the sky’s the limit for the amount of time and talent they can invest in. So when you see these amazing shots of the granddaddy of Gundams, the RX-78, you might think it’s a CG render for an upcoming video game project, or maybe something painstakingly drawn for the cover of a new remastered Blu-ray box set.

But the truth is that this isn’t CG, nor is it extremely detailed hand illustration. It’s real life, as seen through the camera lens of Japanese Twitter user @hiro_cameras.

@hiro_cameras took the amazing photos at Gundam Factory Yokohama, the recently opened complex in the city of Yokohama that serves as the home of the life-size, and moving, RX-78 Gundam. The statue stands 18 meters (59 feet) tall, with the surrounding scaffolding serving as a visual reference for just how huge it is. Thanks to @hiro_cameras’s photography skills, he’s managed to capture the mecha in a way that somehow splits the visual difference between anime and reality right down the middle, for an effect not quite like anything we’ve ever seen before.

▼ Some of @hiro_cameras’s impressive non-Gundam photos

https://twitter.com/hiro_cameras/status/1346441262774112256

From Tokyo, it’s about half an hour south by train to Yokohama, which makes it a popular and easily doable day trip for residents of the capital or travelers staying in hotels there. But as @hiro_cameras’s photos prove, if you’re going down to Yokohama for the day, you might want to save your Gundam visit for after the sun goes down.

Source: Twitter@hiro_cameras via IT Media
Images: Twitter@hiro_cameras
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