Bandai Asks Japanese Politicians to Not Costume 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 may have studios telling them to give up it.

Earlier this week, Japanese politician Taro Yamamoto, the founding father of the left-populist political celebration Reiwa Shinsengumi, went viral on social media for recording a political marketing campaign video exterior 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 Food plan, earlier than introducing fellow Reiwa Shinsengumi candidate Maya Okamoto—an actress greatest identified 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 collection for political acquire, and even slightly 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 house by dropping an asteroid on Earth.

It needs to be famous, in fact, that Yamamoto was dressed as Quattro Bajeena, who’s actually not Char Aznable, a person who loves taking over other identities and guises—and has undoubtedly 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 had been miffed: Gundam homeowners Dawn had been, too.

“Within the 2025 Home of Councillors election, some candidates had 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 collection,” an official assertion posted to Sunrise’s company website yesterday learn partly. “Nevertheless, this was not accepted by Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc. (Dawn Studios), and our firm doesn’t assist any specific candidate.”

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

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