It’s always cool when two iconic mobile suits throw down, but it’s especially awesome this time.
Cross Shinjuku Vision may not be Tokyo’s biggest video billboard, but it’s a definite contender for the title of coolest. Thanks to its sharp images and unique curvature, Cross Vision Shinjuku has been dazzling passersby with its 3-D like effects since a cute, and giant, kitty cat showed up on the screen shortly after its installation across the street from Shinjuku Station.
Cross Shinjuku Vision’s newest tenants, though, are something that Japan loves just as much as adorable animals: awesome anime robots.
Since the start of this month, Cross Shinjuku Vision has become a periodic Gundam battlefield, and not for just any of the franchise’s mecha either. This duel is between none other than the RX-93 ν (Nu) Gundam and the MSN-04 Sazabi, the mobile suits used by original Gundam protagonist Amuro Ray and his eternal rival Char Aznablein their final fight in the Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack theatrical feature.
While this isn’t the first time we’ve seen Cross Shinjuku Vision showing off its 3-D effect, it’s definitely one of the most impressive, and part of what makes it so convincing is a simple but clever visual trick. In order to make the images visually pop, videos created for Cross Shinjuku Vision usually have a false bezel, where the displayed image itself includes a border that’s meant to look like part of the screen’s frame. On a lot of the videos we’ve seen up until now (like, say, the one with Spy x Family’s Anya), the border has been white, but for the Gundam video it’s black, which does a much better job of blending with the billboard’s actual, physical edges, so when the Gundam and Sazabi slide beyond the borders of the false bezel, it really looks like they’re moving out from the screen itself and into 3-D space.
So why are Amuro and Char going at it, other than because it looks awesome? To promote Gundam Evolution, a team-based first-person shooter that launched for PCs in September but only arrived on PlayStation and Xbox consoles this month. The Cross Shinjuku Vision even ends with Amuro’s vice actor Toru Furuya reminding everyone “Gundam Evolution, it’s not just for PCs!”
The Gundam/Sazabi fight takes place four times an hour, at 6 minutes 15 seconds, 19 minutes, 36 minutes 15 seconds, and 49 minutes after the hour, between 7 a.m. and 1 a.m. (though it plays without sound after midnight). It’ll be going on until December 14, after which you’ll have to head across town to the Odaiba district if you want to be sure of seeing a Gundam in Tokyo.
Location information
Cross Shinjuku Vision / クロス新宿ビジョン
Address: Tokyo-to, Shinjuku-ku, Shinjuku 3-23-18
東京都新宿区新宿3-23-18
Source: YouTube/GUNDAM EVOLUTION JP via IT Media
Images: YouTube/GUNDAM EVOLUTION JP
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