She was looking forward to a reunion with her favorite G-boy, but the new people she met were just as special.

These days you can’t really be plugged into the Japanese pop culture scene without having at least a moderate interest in anime, but our Japanese-language reporter Ikuna Kamezawa doesn’t think of herself as a hard-core anime fan. There was, however, this one series that she used to be really into back in the day. Maybe you’ve heard of it?

It was called Gundam Wing.

Yes, there was a time when the weekly dramatic battles of the five G-boys dominated Ikuna’s imagination, and while her passion for visual kei rock would go on to make that genre of music fandom her biggest personal interest, she’s never forgotten how special Gundam Wing was for her. So with the series celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, Ikuna was excited to go for a little trip down memory lane, courtesy of a collaboration between Gundam Wing, anime specialty shop Animate, and Animate’s affiliated Gratte anime-themed cafes.

In addition to limited-edition merch and drinks, five Animate branches also had standees of the main cast, with one character stationed at each location. So, naturally, Ikuna’s first stop was the Osaka Nipponbashi branch of Animate. Why? Because that was the branch with the standee of her absolute favorite character, Trowa.

Upon arriving, Ikuna first headed to the cafe, which was offering Gundam Wing latte art beverages. Unlike some places where the artwork you get is random, Gratte allowed Ikuna to choose the exact illustration she wanted, though this meant that she still had to make a tough decision between regular Trowa and super-deformed Trowa.

Ultimately, though, she just couldn’t say no to the steamy, and now also foamy, gaze of regular Trowa.

▼ She tried her best to be gentle with him.

Once she’d finished dreamily staring at/drinking Trowa, Ikuna proceeded to the Trowa standee, which was only a short distance away, but she quickly ran into a problem. While Trowa was certainly photogenic as Ikuna snapped pictures of him, what Ikuna really wanted was a shot of her and Trowa together, but since she’d come by herself, she didn’t have anyone to snap the photo for her.

In a quandary, Ikuna wandered back over to the cafe, and while she was standing there trying to figure out a solution, she saw another customer walk up to the order panel and tap to request a Gundam Wing latte of their own, one with he character Dup. And while it’s somewhat unusual for people to strike up conversations with strangers in Japan, Ikuna shyly asked “Are you a Duo fan?”

The woman replied that she sure was, and before she knew it, Ikuna was having a lively, friendly conversation with her as they bonded over their love of Gundam Wing. When Ikuna mentioned that she hadn’t been able to get a picture of herself and Trowa together, her new acquaintance said she’d be happy to help, resulting in the photo below.

This wasn’t the only unexpected connection Ikuna was able to make, either. While she was having her photo taken, another Animate shopper happened to walk by. Given Ikuna’s smile, it was obvious who her favorite character is, and so this passerby reached into their shopping bag and pulled out…

…a Trowa postcard, which she said was Ikuna’s to keep!

These post cards were being given out by Animate to customers who purchased 1,100 yen (US$7.50) worth of related Gundam Wing merch at Animate, such as the clear files and keychains in the image below.

The passerby had gotten multiple postcards, and since they had a spare Trowa, they figured it should go to a Trowa fan.

Feeling all warm and fuzzy from the fun and friendly interactions. Ikuna decided to head over to the Animate branch in Umeda, another neighborhood of Osaka, to snap a photo with its visiting Gundam Wing standee, Quatre.

Ikuna did feel just a little miffed that Quatre had to share space with the cast of Gundam GQuuuuuuX, but she didn’t get too bent out of shape over it. GQuuuuuuX is the most recent part of the Gundam franchise, and with Quatre being the most agreeable member of the Wing cast, it seems like he’d be OK with the arrangement.

Once again, Ikuna was going to need someone’s help taking a picture of herself together with the standee…so imagine her excited joy when she looked around and spotted the same fan who’d taken her photo with Trowa!

It might not be a pure coincidence, seeing as how if you’re enough of a Gundam Wing fan to visit one standee you’re probably enough of a fan to check out a second. Still, with Osaka being a city of more than 2.7 million people, bumping into someone you know like this isn’t something that happens very often, and although they’d just met for the first time an hour or so before, this unexpected reunion had Ikuna and the other fan smiling and chatting like old friends.

Since she’d now visited two of the standees, Ikuna now felt like she may as well keep going and to the remaining three too. That meant her next destination, on a different day, was Animate Nagoya, to say hi to Wufei…

,,,followed by the duo in Tokyo, Duo at Animate Akihabara Annex…

…and, finally, Heero at Animate Shibuya.

And no, she didn’t run into that same fan again in Nagoya and Tokyo, but at each stop she was able to meet other fans who were happy to snap photos for her. Ikuna found it especially endearing how they’d say things like “Lean in closer to him,” instead of “it,” when referring to the standees.

Like we mentioned earlier, Gundam Wing was the peak of Ikuna’s anime fandom, but it says a lot about the emotional power of the medium that 30 years later, it’s still serving as common ground for fans to make new memories from. Comparing it to her experiences as a visual kei fan, as time passes it’s not uncommon for discord and tension to develop between bandmates, causing them to break up or lose the core attitude and sound that once made them so captivating. With anime, though, the appeal of the characters and their stories can be eternal, Ikuna mused.

In a different life, maybe Ikuna would have stayed a hard-core anime fan, picking a new series to be intensely devoted to with each new TV season. Things didn’t turn out that way, but she can see how anime becomes a lifelong hobby for so many people, and she’s glad to have been able to dip her toes back into the fandom waters. Sadly, Animate’s Gundam Wing collaboration wrapped up at the end of August, so the standees are no longer on display, but there’s still more fun to come to celebrate the series’ 30th anniversary.

Merchandise image: Animate
All other photos ©SoraNews24
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[ Read in Japanese ]