Bandai Asks Japanese Politicians to Not Gown Up as ‘Gundam’ Characters to Marketing campaign

Certain, America often has a “The White Home is photoshopping the president’s head onto Superman posters” downside, nevertheless it seems loads of different international locations even have a little bit of a difficulty with politicians leveraging popular culture cosplaying for political acquire. It’s simply that these different international locations could have studios telling them to stop it.

Earlier this week, Japanese politician Taro Yamamoto, the founding father of the left-populist political social gathering Reiwa Shinsengumi, went viral on social media for recording a political marketing campaign video outdoors of the life-sized Unicorn Gundam statue in Odaiba, Tokyo. Dressed as Quattro Bajeena from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, Yamamoto campaigned for the then-upcoming elections for the Home of Councillors, the higher chamber of the Nationwide Eating regimen, earlier than introducing fellow Reiwa Shinsengumi candidate Maya Okamoto—an actress greatest recognized to Gundam followers because the voice of Zeta supporting character Emma Sheen.

れいわ新選組代表、山本太郎です。

れいわ新選組は今回の参議院選挙で、
声優の岡本麻弥を擁立しています。

皆さんご存知の通り、声優の岡本麻弥は、
日本を代表する数々のアニメ作品に、
出演した者です。

そんな立場でありながら、
なぜ、参院選に出馬を？

岡本麻弥：… pic.twitter.com/kO8kRoRaJr

— れいわ 山本太郎 消費税廃止！住まいは権利！ (@yamamototaro0) July 18, 2025

The seemingly harmless skit drew a variety of criticisms from rival political figures and Japanese netizens alike for leveraging Gundam and Okamoto’s connection to the sequence for political acquire, and even just a little mockery contemplating Char Aznable’s personal political trajectory throughout early Gundam, culminating in his makes an attempt to forcefully migrate the remnants of humanity into area by dropping an asteroid on Earth.

It ought to be famous, after all, that Yamamoto was dressed as Quattro Bajeena, who’s definitely not Char Aznable, a person who loves taking up other identities and guises—and has positively never betrayed anyone in his life. However key distinction or in any other case, no matter what taste of Char Yamamoto was cosplaying, it seems it wasn’t simply Japanese social media customers who have been miffed: Gundam homeowners Dawn have been, too.

“Within the 2025 Home of Councillors election, some candidates have been campaigning utilizing cosplay-style costumes and movies and SNS posts in conditions that strongly evoked the picture or picture of characters from the Gundam sequence,” an official assertion posted to Sunrise’s company website yesterday learn partially. “Nevertheless, this was not authorized by Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc. (Dawn Studios), and our firm doesn’t help any specific candidate.”

Sure, we definitely wouldn’t need anybody making any connections between political messaging and the themes of Gundam now, would we?

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