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A vintage, anime-themed Japanese mahjong tabletop game
2002 BANDAI MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM DONJARA COMPACT TABLE GAME
DETAILS:
Extremely rare, original Gundam-themed donjara game!
Mobile Suit Gundam (Japanese: 機動戦士ガンダム Hepburn: Kidō Senshi Gandamu, also known as First Gundam, Gundam 0079 or simply Gundam '79) is a televised anime series, produced and animated by Sunrise. Created and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, it premiered in Japan on Nagoya Broadcasting Network and its affiliated ANN stations on April 7, 1979, and lasted until January 26, 1980, spanning 43 episodes. It was the very first Gundam series, which has subsequently been adapted into numerous sequels and spin-offs.
Bandai's own version of mahjong!
Ponjan (ポンジャン), also known as Donjara, is a kids version of the table game mahjong played in Japan. Ponjan (also spelled Pom Jong in English) has three types of tiles: cars, boats and airplanes. Donjara is the Bandai registered trademark version of this game. The game is played with 2 to 4 players.
Vinateg Japan exclusive Bandai product!
CONDITION:
In very good, pre-owned condition and complete. Box has some storage wear. Please see photos.
To ensure safe delivery all items are carefully packaged before shipping out.
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"Ponjan (ポンジャン), also known as Donjara, is a kids version of the table game mahjong played in Japan. Ponjan (also spelled Pom Jong in English) has three types of tiles: cars, boats and airplanes. Donjara is the Bandai registered trademark version of this game. The game is played with 2 to 4 players.
As of March 2021, Bandai Namco has sold 3.92 million units since 1984." (wikipedia.)
"Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin (Japanese: 機動戦士ガンダム THE ORIGIN, Hepburn: Kidō Senshi Gandamu Ji Orijin) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko. It is a retelling of the story from the 1979 anime television series Mobile Suit Gundam, of which Yasuhiko was the original character designer.
An original video animation adaptation of the manga, focusing on the stories of Casval Rem Deikun (more famously known as Char Aznable) and his sister Artesia (aka Sayla Mass), produced by Sunrise was released between 2015 and 2018 in six parts. Yasuhiko was the chief director of the adaptation, with Sunrise veteran Takashi Imanishi as director, and Katsuyuki Sumisawa as the scriptwriter.[1] A 13-episode anime television recompilation of the OVAs aired on NHK General TV in 2019.
Plot
See also: Mobile Suit Gundam § Plot
The plot of the manga follows somewhat closely to the plot of the original series. It is the year Universal Century 0079, and the eighth month of a vicious war between the Earth Federation and a breakaway nation of space colonists, the Principality of Zeon. The story follows the crew of the warship White Base, as they fight to ferry the experimental RX-78-02 Gundam mobile suit to the Federation base at Jaburo.
Although for the most part faithful to the original series' plot (all of the major events unfold in mostly the same manner as the TV series, though often in different locales), Yasuhiko has taken the liberty of changing certain elements in the series universe, giving a different character to the series and the struggle that unfolds. Primary among these is the presence of mobile suits in both sides well before the conflict begins—in fact, in the flashback sequences, both the Earth Federation Forces and Zeon use Guntanks in 0068, and they and the Guncannon mobile suit are described as "obsolete" and fit for target practice in the first volume (in the TV series proper, both the RX-75 and the RX-77 were as new as the RX-78 Gundam itself, designed to serve as long- and mid-range fire support units).
Other differences concern the breadth of the Gundam's journey to Jaburo. Where it's implied that the White Base's journey to Jaburo in the series was pretty much a circumnavigation of the globe unconnected to many real-world locations, Yasuhiko's journey places the White Base's landfall near Los Angeles, the headquarters of Garma Zabi (in the series, Garma was based out of a generic "New York" — Origin in fact states the Zeon occupation HQ as Los Angeles City Hall, with Garma residing in Hollywood/Beverly Hills) and moves the craft steadily to the southeast, and down the South American coast—past Caracas, Venezuela and through Machu Picchu and into Brazil, where Jaburo, the headquarters of the Earth Federation, is located. This retelling cuts out some of the more trivial encounters seen in the original series, while keeping and expanding on important characters like Garma, Ramba Ral, and the Black Tri-Stars. As a direct result the events of Operation Odessa which takes place around the Ukrainian city of the same name, occur after the events of Jaburo, as opposed to the anime where they occur before.
Yasuhiko further finally tells the entire back story of the Gundam universe in the manga. After the successful defense of Jaburo, the story diverts into a very in-depth flashback, told primarily from the viewpoints of Sayla and Char (with a secondary thread being told from Amuro's POV) recounting the downfall of Zeon Zum Deikun, the rise of the Zabi family, the construction of Side 7 and the research into mobile suits, and leading up through a decade until the launching of the One Year War. It also goes into detail answering many previously unanswered questions such as the appearance of heretofore unseen Zeon mobile suits prior to the MS-05 Zaku I, how Dozle Zabi received his trademark scars and even the origin of Casval Deikun/Edward Mass' "Char Aznable" identity. Volume fourteen, deals with the Battle of Loum at the beginning of the One Year War, and is the last piece of the in-depth flashback.
The story shifted back on track to the original anime's storyline, featuring the White Base's involvement in the Federation's Operation Odessa, as well as including Kai Shiden's encounter with Miharu. Afterwards, the manga deals with the end of the Odessa campaign and, in another departure from the series, takes M'Quve and his Gyan out of the picture before he has a chance to confront the Gundam.
Media
Manga
The series was first serialized in the magazine Gundam Ace in Japan from 2001 to 2011 and has been collected in 24 tankōbon volumes, with the last volume, published in 2015, containing extra side stories. It was published by Kadokawa Shoten under their Kadokawa Comics A imprint. Viz Comics attempted to translate the series and publish it in America in a quarterly, perfect-bound magazine-sized format, although low sales very quickly ended the American run.
Although Viz released 12 volumes of its English translation, they do not correspond with the Japanese volumes. The English volumes, with an average length between 100-130 pages were about half of that of the equivalent Japanese tankōbon, which ran anywhere between 200-270. The length varied as some contained just four chapters, some contained an additional "special" shorter side story, and others contained a full five chapters. The reason for this could be that the Japanese serialization focused on keeping distinct chapters. As a result, the English serialization ended up having a higher price point than its Japanese equivalent with only roughly half of the content. The Viz release stopped near the end of volume six in the Japanese version.
The popularity of the manga in Japan has led to the release of aizōban or Collector's Edition versions. Each collector's edition combines two tankōbon volumes (combining the beginning and end sections into one), creating large, leather bound, hardback editions with dozens of pages printed in full color, as opposed to about 5 pages per tankōbon.
At Otakon 2012, North American publisher Vertical announced that it will publish an English language adaptation of the series in hardcover format similar to the aizoban editions.[2] The first volume was released on the March 26, 2013 and the series was completed with the publishing of the 12th volume on December 17, 2015.
A spinoff of the manga, titled Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin MSD: Cucuruz Doan's Island (Japanese: 機動戦士ガンダム THE ORIGIN MSD ククルス·ドアンの島, Hepburn: Kidō Senshi Gandamu THE ORIGIN MSD Kukurusu Doan no Shima), was written by Junji Ōno and serialized in Gundam Ace from June 25, 2016 to May 25, 2019, 10 years after the original manga's serialization and collected into five tankobon volumes. The manga serves as a prequel to episode 15 of the original TV series.[3] Kodansha USA announced in March 2024 that they licensed the manga for North American release under the name Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island.[4]
Tankōbon volume list
No. Title Japanese release date Japanese ISBN
1 Activation
Shidō-hen (始動編) June 1, 2002 4-04-713453-8
2 Fierce Fighting
Gekitō-hen (激闘編) July 26, 2002 4-04-713503-8
3 Garma (Beginning)
Garuma-hen (Zen) (ガルマ編・前) November 19, 2002 (SE)
November 26, 2002 (RE) 4-04-713519-4 (SE)
4-04-713518-6 (RE)
4 Garma (End)
Garuma-hen (Go) (ガルマ編・後) March 20, 2003 4-04-713545-3
5 Ramba Ral (Beginning)
Ranba Raru-hen (Zen) (ランバ・ラル編・前) July 20, 2003 (LE)
July 25, 2003 (RE) 4-04-713557-7
6 Ramba Ral (End)
Ranba Raru-hen (Go) (ランバ・ラル編・後) March 26, 2004 4-04-713611-5
7 Jaburo (Beginning)
Jaburō-hen (Zen) (ジャブロー編・前) July 26, 2004 4-04-713647-6
8 Jaburo (End)
Jaburō-hen (Go) (ジャブロー編・後) November 26, 2004 4-04-713680-8
9 Char & Sayla (Beginning)
Shā Seira-hen (Zen) (シャア・セイラ編・前) April 26, 2005 4-04-713714-6
10 Char & Sayla (End)
Shā Seirah-hen (Go) (シャア・セイラ編・後) August 26, 2005 4-04-713746-4
11 To War (Beginning)
Kaisen-hen (Zen) (開戦編・前) December 26, 2005 4-04-713771-5
12 To War (End)
Kaisen-hen (Go) (開戦編・後) April 26, 2006 4-04-713805-3
13 Loum (Beginning)
Ruumu-hen (Zen) (ルウム編・前) July 26, 2006 4-04-713850-9
14 Loum (End)
Ruumu-hen (Go) (ルウム編・後) December 26, 2006 4-04-713883-5
15 Odessa (Beginning)
Odessa-hen (Zen) (オデッサ編・前) May 26, 2007 978-4-04-713920-6
16 Odessa (End)
Odessa-hen (Go) (オデッサ編・後) November 26, 2007 978-4-04-713987-9
17 Lalah (Beginning)
Lalah-hen (Zen) (ララァ編・前) June 26, 2008 978-4-04-715075-1
18 Lalah (End)
Lalah-hen (Go) (ララァ編・後) December 26, 2008 978-4-04-715145-1
19 Solomon (Beginning)
Solomon-hen (Zen) (ソロモン編・前) June 26, 2009 978-4-04-715260-1
20 Solomon (End)
Solomon-hen (Go) (ソロモン編・後) January 26, 2010 978-4-04-715285-4
21 A Cosmic Glow (Beginning)
Hikaru Uchū-hen (Zen) (ひかる宇宙編・前) July 26, 2010 978-4-04-715482-7
22 A Cosmic Glow (End)
Hikaru Uchū-hen (Go) (ひかる宇宙編・後) February 26, 2011 978-4-04-715601-2
23 Encounters in Space
Meguriai Uchū-hen (めぐりあい宇宙編) November 26, 2011 978-4-04-715770-5
24 Special
Tokubetsu-hen (特別編) February 26, 2015 978-4-04-102794-3
Aizōban volume list
No. Title Original release date English release date
1 Activation
Shidō-hen (始動編) May 26, 2005
978-4-04-853809-1 March 26, 2013[5]
978-1-93-565487-2
2 Garma
Garuma-hen (ガルマ編) June 26, 2006
4-04-853963-9 June 25, 2013[6]
978-1-93-565488-9
3 Ramba Ral
Ranba Raru-hen (ランバ・ラル編) May 26, 2007
978-4-04-854094-0 December 17, 2013[7]
978-1-93-565497-1
4 Jaburo
Jaburō-hen (ジャブロー編) June 26, 2008
978-4-04-854195-4 December 17, 2013[8]
978-1-93-565498-8
5 Char & Sayla
Shā Seira-hen (シャア・セイラ編) June 26, 2009
978-4-04-854339-2 March 25, 2014[9]
978-1-93-913019-8
6 To War
Kaisen-hen (開戦編) July 26, 2010
978-4-04-854502-0 June 17, 2014[10]
978-1-93-913020-4
7 Battle Of Loum
Ruumu-hen (ルウム編) February 26, 2011
978-4-04-854598-3 September 30, 2014[11]
978-1-93-913067-9
8 Operation Odessa
Odessa-hen (オデッサ編) August 26, 2011
978-4-04-854672-0 December 16, 2014[12]
978-1-93-913068-6
9 Lalah
Lalah-hen (ララァ編) February 25, 2012
978-4-04-120040-7 April 28, 2015[13]
978-1-94-122015-3
10 Solomon
Solomon-hen (ソロモン編) June 26, 2012
978-4-04-120275-3 June 23, 2015[14]
978-1-94-122016-0
11 A Cosmic Glow
Hikaru Uchū-hen (ひかる宇宙編) September 26, 2012
978-4-04-120394-1 September 17, 2015[15]
978-1-94-122046-7
12 Encounters
Meguriai Uchū-hen (めぐりあい宇宙編) August 26, 2014
978-4-04-101757-9 December 17, 2015[16]
978-1-94-122047-4
Cucuruz Doan's Island volume list
No. Japanese release date Japanese ISBN
1 February 25, 2017[17] 978-4-04-105343-0
2 October 26, 2017[18] 978-4-04-106296-8
3 March 26, 2018[19] 978-4-04-106700-0
4 November 26, 2018[20] 978-4-04-107500-5
5 August 26, 2019[21] 978-4-04-108469-4
Anime
Main article: List of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin episodes
Sunrise announced in June 2011 that an anime adaptation of Gundam: The Origin was in production.[22] In March 2014, it was announced it will be a four-episode OVA series with event screenings at Japanese theaters, in celebration of the 35th anniversary of Gundam, and centering on the stories of Casval Deikun and his sister Artesia. The first episode, titled The Blue-Eyed Casval (青い瞳のキャスバル, Aoi Hitomi no Kyasubaru), premiered in limited Japanese theaters on February 28, 2015.[23][24] Sunrise produced an English dub recorded at NYAV Post for the first time since Bandai retired their Gundam license.[25] Another two-episode OVA series, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin: Loum Arc, was released in 2017 and 2018.[26]
A 13-episode anime television recompilation of the OVA series aired from April 29 to August 12, 2019 under the title Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin – Advent of the Red Comet (機動戦士ガンダム THE ORIGIN 前夜 赤い彗星, Kidō Senshi Gundam: The Origin Zenya Akai Suisei).[27] Sugizo produced the theme songs.[28] His band Luna Sea performed the three opening themes, the first being "Sora no Uta ~Higher and Higher~" (宇宙の詩 ～Higher and Higher～),[29] the second "Hisōbi" (悲壮美),[29] and the third a cover of TM Network's "Beyond the Time (Moebius no Sora wo Koete)" (BEYOND THE TIME（メビウスの宇宙を越えて）), the ending theme of 1988's Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack.[30] For the ending themes he decided to collaborate with female singers. The first ending theme is a cover of Daisuke Inoue's "Meguriai" (めぐりあい), the theme song of 1982's Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space, by Sugizo feat. Glim Spanky.[28] The second ending theme is a cover of Hiroko Moriguchi's "Mizu no Hoshi e Ai wo Komete" (水の星へ愛をこめて), the second opening theme song of 1985's Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, by Sugizo feat. KOM_I (Wednesday Campanella).[30] The third ending theme is the new song "A Red Ray" by Sugizo feat. miwa.[30] The last is a cover of his and Morrie's co-composition "Hikari no Hate" (光の涯) by Sugizo feat. Aina the End (BiSH).[31] The English dub for the Advent of the Red Comet TV recompilation series was broadcast in the United States on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block from July 7 to October 6, 2019." (wikipedia.)
"Bandai Namco Holdings Inc.[a], commonly known as Bandai Namco[b], is a Japanese entertainment holding company founded in 2005 by the merger of Namco and Bandai. The company specializes in toys, video games, arcades, anime, restaurants, and amusement parks.[5]
The company's headquarters are in Minato, Tokyo.[5] Their US branch, Bandai Namco Holdings USA, was officially formed on January 6, 2008, and handles the US operations of the company from their headquarters in Irvine, California.[6] As of 2017, Bandai Namco was the world's largest toy company measured by total revenue, earning $6.4 billion in annual revenue.
History
On May 5, 2005, Namco Ltd. announced it was merging with Bandai Co., Ltd. to form NAMCO BANDAI Holdings Inc. (株式会社バンダイナムコホールディングス), with stock transfer to be completed on September 29.[8]
The merger was finalized on September 25, creating the third-largest video game publisher in Japan by revenue.[9] Bandai purchased Namco for US$1.7 billion, with Namco receiving 43 percent of shares and Bandai receiving the other 57 percent.[10][11][12] Officially, Namco was purchased by Bandai for $1.7 billion.[13][14] 57% of the company's holding went to Bandai while 43% went to Namco. Furthermore, Bandai swapped one of its shares for 1.5 shares of the new Namco Bandai. Namco traded evenly with a one-for-one share,[15] carried out via a share exchange. The shareholders of Namco received one NBHD share for each Namco share and the shareholders of Bandai received 1.5 NBHD shares for each Bandai share.[16] Prior to the merger, Bandai and Namco had various subsidiaries that worked under them. After the merger of Bandai Namco, the respective Bandai and Namco subsidiaries were re-designated into different areas of the combined conglomerate.
On March 31, 2006, Namco merged with Bandai's video game operations to form Namco Bandai Games.[17][18] Namco's video arcade and amusement park divisions were spun-off into a new subsidiary that retained the Namco branding.[17]
In September 2006, NBHD acquired CCP Co., Ltd. from Casio and made it a wholly owned subsidiary.[19][20] NBHD have since fully acquired developers Banpresto (whose video game operations were absorbed into Namco Bandai Games on April 1, 2008)[21] and Namco Tales Studio since the merger. Formerly, both were partially owned by Bandai and Namco respectively.
The business of Bandai Networks Co., Ltd. was merged into Namco Bandai Games in April 2009 and Bandai Networks subsequently ceased to exist as a separate company.[22]
Namco Bandai bought a 34% stake in Atari Europe on May 14, 2009, paving the way for its acquisition from Infogrames.[23] Until June 30, 2012, Infogrames had the option to sell the other 66% in Atari Europe to NBHD.[24] Between June 30, 2012, to June 20, 2013, Bandai Namco gained the option to acquire the 66% stake.[25][26] On July 7, 2009, Bandai Namco Holdings bought 100% of Atari Australia Pty Ltd. BNHD acquired 100% of the shares of Atari Asia Holdings Pty. Ltd. and 100% of the shares of Atari UK Ltd.[27]
Namco Bandai acquired D3 Inc., the parent company of D3 Publisher, on March 18, 2009,[28] after first acquiring a 95% stake in the company.[29] In August 2013, Bandai Namco opened a studio in Vancouver, broadening its reach for western demographics.[30]
In October 2019, Bandai Namco Holdings announced plans to acquire Sotsu, a move which will grant the company rights to the entire Gundam franchise, which the company already holds part of due to owning the studio Sunrise, which is also one of the producers of the series.[31]
The company acquired minority stake in Limbic Entertainment in February 2021.[32] It gained a majority stake in October 2022.[33]
The company unveiled a new logo and a new mission statement in September 2021 which will be implemented starting on April 1, 2022, to commemorate the 72nd anniversary of the founding as Bandai five years before the founding of Namco. The company's updated purpose was "the idea of connecting and working together to create things", and plans to work with fans of their games through communication to help plan how the company will go forward. As part of that, the new logo is based on a fukidashi, a speech bubble that represents both the worldwide influence of Japanese manga as well as their efforts to be communicative with players. On February 8, 2022, the company changed the color of their new logo from magenta to rose red.[34]
In July 2022, Bandai Namco confirmed that an unspecified party hacked the company, gaining unauthorized access to internal systems to multiple groups in Asia outside Japan.[35]
Corporate structure
Bandai Namco Holdings is headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Mita Building in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its North American branch, Bandai Namco Holdings USA, is headquartered in Irvine, California. The company's European and Asian divisions, Bandai Namco Holdings UK and Bandai Namco Holdings Asia, are headquartered in Richmond, London and Central, Hong Kong respectively. In September 2017, Bandai Nanco Holdings established China divisions headquartered in Shanghai.[36]
Bandai Namco Holdings is headed by president Mitsuaki Taguchi and chairman Shukuo Ishikawa, both of whom took their respective positions in 2018. The company's corporate structure is grounded in the relationships between its employees and subsidiaries; Bandai Namco believes that the health and motivation of its employees is necessary to sustain operations, as it allows for additional creative freedom in its array of products. As of 2019, Bandai Namco is the world's largest toy company by revenue, having accumulated over $6.5 billion.[37][38] It is among the largest and most profitable companies in Japan with over ¥189.8 billion as of 2020.[39]
In February 2021, Bandai Namco Holdings announced the merger of its business units. As part of the changes to be done in April 2021, it will reduce its operating units from five to three. Toys & Hobby and Network Entertainment Unit (video games) merged to form Entertainment Unit, Visual and Music Production Unit (production and distribution of anime and music) and IP Creation Unit (Production of anime) merged to form IP Production Unit and Real Entertainment Unit was renamed Amusement Unit (theme parks).[40]
Content units and subsidiaries
Prior to the recent reorganization into just three business units, Bandai Namco Holdings was structured into six product areas known as Content Units: Toys and Hobby (toys), Network Entertainment (video games), Real Entertainment (amusement parks), Visual and Music Production (anime and music albums), IP Creation (creation of new intellectual properties), and Affiliated Business (supporting companies).[41] The Network Entertainment Unit serves as the core area of the company, where it is led by Bandai Namco Entertainment, the company's video game publishing arm. Bandai Namco Entertainment owns multiple subsidiaries, including Bandai Namco Studios,[42] B.B. Studio, and D3 Publisher,[43] all of which develop video games for home video game systems and cellular phones across the world.[44] It holds multiple international divisions itself, including offices in the United States, Europe, and Taiwan. Often, the Entertainment division serves as the spearhead for market expansion. It established the Shanghai division in 2015,[45] two years before the Bandai Namco Holdings established its Chinese division.
The Toy and Hobby Unit is led by Bandai, who designs toys and electronic devices based on licenses such as Dragon Ball, Gundam, and Sailor Moon.[46] Bandai Spirits designs toys intended for more mature audiences, alongside prizes for video arcades.[47] MegaHouse designs figurines and toys for candy machines, as does Heart Corporation for seasonal events. Other companies under the unit include Seeds, which produces medical equipment; Plex, a designer of toys based on licensed characters;[48] Sun-Star, which designs and distributes stationery to consumers and Japanese school systems; CCP, a producer of sundries and consumer electronics; and Banpresto Sales, a distributor of prizes for arcades.
Bandai Namco Amusement, known as simply Namco until 2018, heads the Real Entertainment Unit. Amusement designs arcade games and maintains the company's amusement parks, including Namco Namja Town, Wonder Bowl, and its VR Zone locations. Video games designed by Amusement include Time Crisis 5, Star Wars Battle Pod, Pac-Man Racing, and Galaga Fever.[49] In addition, Amusement provides services for Bandai Namco's "Banacoin" digital currency platform and mobile applications to promote events at its arcades. Assisting the company are Bandai Namco Technica and Bandai Namco Amusement Lab, which provide repair services and research & development (R&D) operations respectively.[50] Hanayashiki Co., Ltd. operates Japan's oldest surviving theme park of the same name, while PleasureCast maintains and opens amusement centers across Japan.[51] The Visual and Music Production is hemmed by Bandai Namco Arts and Actas, anime production studios; Highway Star, a music artist manager; and Bandai Namco Live Creative, handling ticket sales and production of live concerts.
Sunrise, a Japanese anime studio known for productions such as Mobile Suit Gundam and Cowboy Bebop, is the center of the IP Production Unit. Sunrise holds three subsidiaries—music copyright manager Sunrise Music, animation planner Sunrise Beyond, and production house Bandai Namco Pictures[52]—which are also part of the unit. Sotsu is an advertising agency that also provides planning and productions for anime series such as Gundam. Bandai Namco's Affiliated Business comprises companies that provide additional support and resources. Companies under this unit include the product distributors Bandai Logipal and Logipal Express, finance manager Bandai Namco Business Arc, day care facility operator Kaikaya, toy distributor Happinet, graphic design studio Artpresto,[53] and disability supporter Bandai Namco Will.
Bandai Namco Shanghai Base
Bandai Namco Shanghai Base (Chinese: 万代南梦宫上海文化中心), originally Qianshuiwan Culture Center, is a performance center located in Putuo District, Shanghai, China. The building opened to the public in 2012 and was renamed to its current name in 2017. It contains the theatre "Bandai Namco Dream Hall" and several smaller studios and practice spaces." (wikipedia.)
"Tabletop games or tabletops are games that are normally played on a table or other flat surface, such as board games, card games, dice games, miniature wargames, or tile-based games.
Classification according to equipment used
Tabletop games can be classified according to the general form, or equipment utilized:[3]
Game category Game examples
Board games Adventure board games, adventure gamebooks, backgammon, chess, German-style board games, go, reversi, Mancala, Shogi, Gomoku, Four-in-a-row (or Yonmoku), Tic-tac-toe (or Sanmoku, Three-in-a-row)
Card games solitaire, collectible card games, hanafuda, tarot card games, poker
Dexterity games Jenga, Crokinole, Klask, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Loopin' Louie, Terror in Meeple City, Don't Break the Ice, Crossbows and Catapults, Knucklebones, Twister (game), PitchCar
Dice games bunco, craps, poker dice, sic bo, yahtzee
Paper and pencil games Battleship, Connect 5, dots and boxes, hangman, sprouts, sudoku
Tabletop role-playing games Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game
Strategy games wargames, government simulation games, miniatures games
Tile-based games 15 puzzle, anagrams, dominoes, mahjong, mahjong solitaire
Tabletop sports See article.
Games like chess and draughts are examples of games belonging to the board game category. Other games, however, use various attributes and cannot be classified unambiguously (e.g. Monopoly and many modern eurogames utilize a board as well as dice and cards).
For several of these categories there are sub-categories and even sub-sub-categories or genres. For instance, German-style board games, board wargames, and roll-and-move games are all types of board games that differ markedly in style and general interest.
Tabletop game components
The various specialized parts, pieces, and tools used for playing tabletop games may include:
Stopwatch, clock, hourglass or egg timer
Meeples, Miniature figures, pawn, or playing piece
Gambling chips or play money
Game board
Game box or container
Scoreboard or paper pad
Cardboard Counter, Dial Counter, Marker or peg for keeping score/tally
Pencil
Rule manuals
Ruler or measuring device
Modelling clay
Gamemaster's screen
Bowls, trays, or component organizers
Stickers often used in Legacy games
Card sleeves used in games that have a "Card Crafting System"[4]
Randomizers such as:
Coins
Dice, which can include polyhedral dice
Dice tower or Dice cup
Playing cards, which can be collectible cards
Shuffling machine
Tiles
Tops, such as Teetotums or Dreidels
Drawstring bag
Spinners
Bones, Cowrie Shells, or Stick dice, used in ancient games
A refereed game could also include various aids to play, including scenario packs and computer game aids. Role-playing games can include campaign settings and various supplementary manuals and notes.
Classification according to elements of chance
As an alternative to classifying games by equipment, they can also be classified according to the elements of chance involved. In game theory, two fundamentally different elements of chance can play a role:
Chance due to outcome uncertainty, e.g. due to dice rolls or due to unknown cards being dealt during the game. Games in which outcome uncertainty plays a role are referred to as stochastic games as opposed to deterministic games.
Chance due to state uncertainty, e.g. due to the opponent's position or cards not being visible, or due to the simultaneous move character of the game. Games in which state uncertainty plays a role are referred to as partial or imperfect information games as opposed to full or perfect information games.
Examples of the chance classification for some well-known tabletop games are given in the table below.
Full/perfect information Partial/imperfect information
Deterministic
Chess
Shogi
Xiangqi
Draughts
Go
Gomoku
Hex
Mancala
Reversi
Dots and boxes
Phutball
Abalone
Lines of Action
Domineering
Nine men's morris
Contract bridge
Stochastic
Backgammon
Monopoly
Craps
Roulette
Yahtzee
Pig
Scribbage
Parcheesi
Poker
Blackjack
Gin rummy
Scrabble
Canasta
Risk
Mahjong" (wikipedia.)
"Bandai Co., Ltd.[a] is a Japanese multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California, and Richmond, London. Since 2006, Bandai is the toy production division of Bandai Namco Holdings. Between 1981 and 2001, Bandai was a manufacturer of video game consoles.
Bandai was founded by World War II veteran Naoharu Yamashina as Bandai-Ya on July 5, 1950, as the corporate spin-off of a textile wholesaler. The company began as a distributor of metallic toys and rubber swimming rings, before moving to metal cars and aircraft models. It was renamed Bandai Co., Ltd. in 1961 and achieved considerable success with its action figures based on the anime Astro Boy.
History
Origins and success with toys (1947–1968)
In 1947, Naoharu Yamashina began working for a Kanazawa-based textile wholesaler.[1] The eldest son to a rice retailer, Yamashina had studied business in high school and was enlisted in World War II, where an impact from a grenade shrapnel blinded him in his right eye.[2][3] The textile business, ran by his wife's brother, was struggling financially as a result of Japan's post-war economy.[4] He made little money working, and as he was having a difficult time finding ways to allow the business to pick up, a neighbor told him about the potential of the toy industry and the financial success that could be generated from it.[4] Intrigued, Yamashina convinced his wife to travel to Tokyo with him to begin studying the potentially lucrative market for toys.[3] With little money or exposure in the field, the two worked long hours to establish a small toy distribution division within the textile business.[1]
Yamashina assumed full control of the toy division on July 5, 1950, when it was spun-off as a separate company named Bandai-ya[b] in Taitō, Tokyo.[1][5] The name was derived from Japanese reading of Chinese phrase "bandai fueki" (万代不易), meaning "eternally unchanging" or "things that are eternal."[1][2][6] Being assisted by Atsuko Tatsumi, publisher of the Weekly Toy News in Tokyo, Bandai-ya distributed and imported celluloid dolls, metallic toys, and rubber swimming rings.[1][3] The company released its first original product the same year, the Rhythm Ball, a beach ball with a bell inside that suffered from numerous quality defects.[1][5] Bandai-ya improved the quality of its products as it continued designing new kinds of toys, such as inexpensive metal cars and aircraft models.[3][6] Several of these were exported to the United States and elsewhere as a result of their popularity, being among the earliest "Made In Japan" products exported outside the country.[3]
Bandai logo from 1959 to 1975
As its revenue increased, Bandai-ya began expanding its operations.[3] A new shipping and warehouse facility was constructed in spring 1953, followed by research and development (R&D) and product inspection departments later that year.[3] A manufacturing facility, Waraku Works, was opened in early 1955 to increase the production of toys.[3] In the same year, it implemented the toy industry's first quality assurance system; the first toy approved by this was the 1956 Toyopet Crown model car, which was also Bandai-ya's first product with a guarantee.[5][7] The growing company worked on creating a friendly corporate image for itself, introducing a new logo, slogan, and television commercials that emphasized its quality products.[3] Bandai-ya was renamed Bandai in July 1961, the same time it started spreading its operations overseas, beginning with the establishment of Bandai Overseas Supply in New York City.[5][7]
While its toys often sold well in Japan, Bandai didn't achieve considerable success until 1963, when it began producing action figures based on the anime Astro Boy.[5][3][7] The toy line's success prompted Bandai to reorganize and rethink its business strategies, as the company transitioned from working on original products to funding the creation of new television series and acting as a sponsor during their run, with advertisements that showed off Bandai's tie-in action figures and costumes.[5][3][8] A similar blockbuster hit was found with action figures in the likenesses of Ultraman characters, largely due to the popularity of the television series at the time; the figures were later released in North America to little fanfare.[3] In July 1966, it released Crazy Foam, a line of bubble blowing canisters that sold 2.4 million units in three months, thanks to the backing of an extensive marketing campaign.[5] Bandai's other products included the Thunderbird electrical vehicles, the Water Motor bath toys, and the Naughty Flipper, the last of which received a gold medal at the 1968 New York International Innovative productions Exhibition.[7] An additional manufacturing plant was acquired in late 1969 to further increase the production of toys.[3]
Continuing expansion and Mobile Suit Gundam (1971–1983)
Bandai continued its expansion throughout the 1970s. The company established a joint venture with model car manufacturer Tonka in 1970 and established Tonka Japan K.K., as part of Bandai's continuing mission in establishing ties with foreign companies. A subsidiary named Popy was formed a year later that specialized in the manufacturing of toys based on popular children's characters. Though Bandai became a major player in the Japanese toy industry, competing with companies such as Takara and Epoch, executives believed the company needed to further spread out into international territories to help increase worldwide brand awareness.
Bandai continued to expand in the 1970s with the creation of several subsidiaries; Tonka Japan in 1970 following a joint venture with Tonka,[9] Bandai Models being established in 1971, and finally Popy,[10] who specialized in the manufacturing of toy characters.[11] Although not their most profitable range, Bandai's 1/48 scale AFV models dominated that segment of the model kit market. Bandai America Inc. was established as local US sales/marketing operation in 1978. Spacewarp, a line of build-it-yourself toy rolling ball "roller coasters" was introduced by Bandai in the 1980s.
In May 1980, Makoto Yamashina, son of the founder, became president of Bandai. Naoharu Yamashina became chairman of the board. Upon his arrival, Makoto Yamashina completely changed the ageing staff of Bandai and replaced them with younger employees with the intent of not only bringing new ideas, but also revisiting the strategy of the group. The new president took a different commercial approach by selling directly to retailers rather than going through intermediates.[3][5]
In July 1980, Bandai launched the 'Gundam Plastic Model' based on the animated series Mobile Suit Gundam which gave birth to the Gunpla range of scale model kits.[12][13] In November, the subsidiary Celent was created.[5]
Entry into the video game market (1983–1989)
Bandai videogame platforms
Bandai became one of the first third-party developers for the Nintendo Family Computer in 1985.[14] Among its first titles was Tag Team Match: MUSCLE, a video game adaptation of the Kinnikuman manga, which sold over one million copies.[5] Bandai also produced the Family Trainer Pad, released outside Japan as the Power Pad, which also performed well commercially. A series of games was released both in the US and in Japan, including Athletic World and Stadium Events for the NES. Shortly after its release, Nintendo purchased the rights to the FFF mat in North America, replacing it with their own redesign, the Power Pad. In order to maintain branding continuity, Stadium Events was pulled from shelves after a short period of availability at Woolworth's stores. Because the game was pulled from shelves and discontinued before many copies were sold, Bandai's Stadium Events is universally accepted as the rarest licensed NES game released in North America.[15][16] A shrink-wrapped copy of the game sold for $41,270 on eBay in February 2010.[17] The sister game to Stadium Events, called Athletic World was initially released with a label that indicated compatibility with the Family Fun Fitness mat, but was later re-released with an updated label that mentions the Power Pad instead.[18] Stadium Events was not released by name again, but instead was slightly modified and relaunched as the Power Pad pack-in game, World Class Track Meet.
Since the 1980s, Bandai has become the leading toy company of Japan, and to this day, has the main toy licenses in Japan to popular properties including Daikaiju, Ultraman, Super Robot, Kamen Rider, the Super Sentai and Power Rangers series (which it took part in creating), Gundam, and many others. In February 1989, it acquired arcade game developer Coreland and reorganized it into Banpresto, which became Bandai's coin-operated entertainment division.[19] In the early 1990s, Bandai published games for Nintendo in the United Kingdom, including Street Fighter II on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
Mainstream success and expansion (1989–1995)
Financial decline and failed merger with Sega (1995–1999)
In January 1997, Bandai announced it would merge its operations with Japanese video game developer Sega.[21][22][23] The merger, a $1 billion stock swap where Sega would acquire Bandai and dissolve the company,[21] would have established a new entertainment conglomerate named Sega Bandai Ltd. with an estimated $6 billion in revenue.[24] The announcement followed a ¥9 billion loss from Bandai the same month, attributed to declining game sales and the poor reception of the Apple Pippin console.[21] Bandai felt Sega was an appropriate company to merge with, as it possessed an American management model and several international offices, in addition to owning several successful franchises like Sonic the Hedgehog.[21][24] Opposition arose within Bandai's employees and midlevel executives, as neither felt the company's family-friendly work ethic meshed well with Sega's top-down corporate culture.[25] As a result, Bandai called off the merge in May before its finalization in October.[26] President Makoto Yamashina took responsibility for its failure, publicly apologizing and resigning his position within the company.[27] Bandai instead agreed to a business alliance with Sega.[25]
Namco takeover and restructuring (2005–present)
After its merger with game developer and amusement facility operator Namco in 2005, Bandai Company is now under the management and a member of Bandai Namco Holdings (Bandai Namco Group). Following a group reorganisation in 2006, Bandai heads the group's Toys and Hobby strategic business unit (SBU).[28] Bandai Entertainment announced it would cease its distribution operations in January 2012.[29][30] Beez Entertainment is no longer releasing new anime in Europe.[31]
In February 2018, Saban Brands and Bandai's US division jointly announced a mutual agreement to not renew their Power Rangers master toy license, effective Spring 2019, after which competing toy company Hasbro will inherit the license. This transition will not affect Bandai Japan's Super Sentai (the series from which Power Rangers takes footage) master toy license with Toei.
A sister company, Bandai Spirits, was established on 15 February 2018. On 1 April 2018, the division of Bandai Co., Ltd that dealt with products for adult customers (including figures and plastic models) as well as Banpresto's prizes business were transferred over to Bandai Spirits.
Product lines
Scale models
(incomplete list)
Scale model trains by Bandai
Star Wars
Bandai has developed kits of the following Star Wars vehicles and figures:
Millennium Falcon
X-Wing
Y-Wing
Tie fighter
Toys
SH Figuarts line
Kira Yamato[33]
Lacus Clyne[33]
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Action Figures
Tanjiro and Nezuko (2024)[34]
Corporate structure
Bandai's headquarters is in Taitō, Tokyo, Japan. The company owns offices in the United States (Bandai America), Mexico (Bandai Corporación Mexico), the United Kingdom (Bandai UK), Indonesia (Bandai Namco Indonesia), France, Spain, Taiwan, and mainland China. In the past, it owned offices in Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand, Germany, and East Asia, which acted as distributors for Bandai products in their respective countries. Bandai is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings and heads its parent's Toy and Hobby Content Strategic Business Unit (CSBU).
Bandai is among the largest and most profitable toy companies worldwide, alongside Mattel and Hasbro. The company focuses on creating unique and innovative products for its consumers, and to bend established conventions within the industry; its slogan, "Break out of the box" was made in reference to this.[35]
Subsidiaries of Bandai
The Bandai Hobby Center in Aoi-ku, Shizuoka
Bandai Spirits Co., Ltd. produces figurines and plastic models targeted towards older demographics, utilizing popular licenses such as Mobile Suit Gundam, One Piece, Pokémon, Kirby, Disney, Star Wars, Hatsune Miku, Dragon Ball, Demon Slayer, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Ultraman, and My Hero Academia.
Bandai produces confectioneries, board games, and capsule toys through its subsidiary MegaHouse Corporation, which also releases toys and figurines under its MegaToy label. MegaHouse also holds the license for the Rubik's Cube in Japan, and has created multiple variations of the toy specifically for Japanese audiences. Manga series, television shows, and character-themed products are created by the Plex subsidiary." (wikipedia.)
"This is a list of traditional Japanese games.
Games
Children's games
Beigoma
Bīdama
Daruma-san
Hide-and-seek
Kemari
Kendama
Ken-ken-pa (Hopscotch)
Menko
Nawatobi (Jump rope)
Ohajiki
Onigokko
Oshikura Manju
Otedama
Board games
Go - originates in China, important rules change (free opening) in Japan
Renju
Shogi
Hasami shogi
Sugoroku
Ninuki-renju
Card games
Buta no shippo
Daifugō (another name: Daihinmin)
Hanafuda
Karuta
Oicho-Kabu
Two-ten-jack (Tsū-ten-jakku) - a Japanese trick-taking card game.
Uta-garuta - a kind of karuta (another name: Hyakunin Isshu)
Tile games
Japanese Mahjong - Japanese mahjong, also called rīchi mahjong
Goita
Dice games
Cho-han bakuchi - a gambling game
Kitsune bakuchi
Word games
Dajare
Henohenomoheji
Kaibun
Shiritori
Uta-garuta
Solitaire games
Sudoku
Tsume shogi" (wikipedia.)
"This is a list of board games invented or developed in Japan.
Game name Year Origin Players Gameplay style Similar Games Reference
Love Letter 2012 Kanai Factory 2–4 Risk and deduction game Coup
Gomoku (五目並べ, gomokunarabe) circa 850 Traditional 2 Strategic abstract game played with Go pieces on a Renju board (15×15), goal to reach five in a row Renju, Four in a row
Jinsei Game (人生ゲーム, jin-sei gēmu) 1967 Takara ? Japanese adaption of The Game of Life The Game of Life
Machi Koro (街コロ) 2012 Grounding Inc. 2–5 Tabletop city-building/resource-gathering game using cards and dice Catan
Renju (連珠) 1899 Traditional 2 Strategic five-in-a-row game with equal chances for both players Pente, Gomoku
Riichi Mahjong (リーチ麻雀, Riichi Maajan) 1924 Traditional 4 Chinese Mahjong with Japanese rules Mahjong
Shadow Hunters (シャドウハンターズ, shadō hantāzu) 2005 Game Republic 4–8 Supernatural themed, strategic, secret team play Bang!, Mafia
Shogi and variants (将棋, shōgi, generals' chess) Japanese chess 16th Century Traditional 2 Played on a 9×9 board; can use captured pieces against opponent Chess
Sugoroku (双六) 6th Century Traditional ? Race game, two variants Backgammon (variant), Snakes and Ladders (variant)" (wikipedia.)
"Japan[a] is an island country in East Asia. It is in the northwest Pacific Ocean and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, and Taiwan in the south. Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire, and spans an archipelago of 14,125 islands, with the four main islands being Hokkaido, Honshu (the "mainland"), Shikoku, and Kyushu. Tokyo is the country's capital and largest city, followed by Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto.
The Japanese archipelago has been inhabited since the Upper Paleolithic (30,000 BC). Between the fourth and ninth centuries AD, the kingdoms of the region became unified under an emperor and the imperial court based in Heian-kyō. Beginning in the 12th century, political power was held by a series of military dictators (shōgun) and feudal lords (daimyō), and enforced by a class of warrior nobility (samurai). After a century-long period of civil war, the country was reunified in 1603 under the Tokugawa shogunate, which enacted an isolationist foreign policy. In 1854, a United States fleet forced Japan to open trade to the West, which led to the end of the shogunate and the restoration of imperial power in 1868. In the Meiji period, the Empire of Japan adopted a Western-modeled constitution, and pursued a program of industrialization and modernization. Amidst a rise in militarism and overseas colonization, Japan invaded China in 1937 and entered World War II as an Axis power in 1941. After suffering defeat in the Pacific War and two atomic bombings, Japan surrendered in 1945 and came under a seven-year Allied occupation, during which it adopted a new constitution.
Under the 1947 constitution, Japan has maintained a constitutional monarchy with a bicameral legislature, the National Diet. Japan is a highly developed country and a great power, with one of the largest economies by nominal GDP. Japan has renounced its right to declare war, though it maintains a self-defense force that ranks as one of the world's strongest militaries. A global leader in the automotive, robotics, and electronics industries, the country has made significant contributions to science and technology, and is one of the world's largest exporters and importers. It is part of multiple major international and intergovernmental institutions. Japan has over 125 million inhabitants and is the 11th most populous country in the world, as well as one of the most densely populated. About three-fourths of the country's terrain is mountainous, concentrating its highly urbanized population on narrow coastal plains. Japan is divided into 47 administrative prefectures and eight traditional regions. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world. Japan has one of the world's longest life expectancies but is experiencing a population decline due to its very low birth rate. A cultural superpower, Japan's culture is well known around the world, including its art, cuisine, film, music, and popular culture, which encompasses prominent manga, anime, and video game industries.
Etymology
Main article: Names of Japan
The name for Japan in Japanese is written using the kanji 日本 and is pronounced Nippon or Nihon.[9] Before 日本 was adopted in the early 8th century, the country was known in China as Wa (倭, changed in Japan around 757 to 和) and in Japan by the endonym Yamato.[10] Nippon, the original Sino-Japanese reading of the characters, is favored for official uses, including on Japanese banknotes and postage stamps.[9] Nihon is typically used in everyday speech and reflects shifts in Japanese phonology during the Edo period.[10] The characters 日本 mean "sun origin",[9] which is the source of the popular Western epithet "Land of the Rising Sun".[11]
The name "Japan" is based on Min or Wu Chinese pronunciations of 日本 and was introduced to European languages through early trade.[12] In the 13th century, Marco Polo recorded the Early Mandarin Chinese pronunciation of the characters 日本國 as Cipangu.[13] The old Malay name for Japan, Japang or Japun, was borrowed from a southern coastal Chinese dialect and encountered by Portuguese traders in Southeast Asia, who brought the word to Europe in the early 16th century.[14] The first version of the name in English appears in a book published in 1577, which spelled the name as Giapan in a translation of a 1565 Portuguese letter....Culture
Contemporary Japanese culture combines influences from Asia, Europe, and North America.[292] Traditional Japanese arts include crafts such as ceramics, textiles, lacquerware, swords and dolls; performances of bunraku, kabuki, noh, dance, and rakugo; and other practices, the tea ceremony, ikebana, martial arts, calligraphy, origami, onsen, Geisha and games. Japan has a developed system for the protection and promotion of both tangible and intangible Cultural Properties and National Treasures.[293] Twenty-two sites have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, eighteen of which are of cultural significance.[105] Japan is considered a cultural superpower....Media
Main articles: Cinema of Japan, Manga, Anime, and Media of Japan
According to the 2015 NHK survey on television viewing in Japan, 79 percent of Japanese watch television daily.[321] Japanese television dramas are viewed both within Japan and internationally;[322] other popular shows are in the genres of variety shows, comedy, and news programs.[323] Many Japanese media franchises have gained considerable global popularity and are among the world's highest-grossing media franchises. Japanese newspapers are among the most circulated in the world as of 2016.[324]
Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries globally.[325] Ishirō Honda's Godzilla became an international icon of Japan and spawned an entire subgenre of kaiju films, as well as the longest-running film franchise in history.[326][327] Japanese comics, known as manga, developed in the mid-20th century and have become popular worldwide.[328][329] A large number of manga series have become some of the best-selling comics series of all time, rivalling the American comics industry.[330] Japanese animated films and television series, known as anime, were largely influenced by Japanese manga and have become highly popular globally." (wikipedia.)
"Mahjong or mah-jongg[1] (English pronunciation: /mɑːˈdʒɒŋ/ mah-JONG) is a tile-based game that was developed in the 19th century in China and has spread throughout the world since the early 20th century. It is played by four players (with some three-player variations found in parts of China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and Southeast Asia). The game and its regional variants are widely played throughout East and Southeast Asia and have also become popular in Western countries. The game has also been adapted into a widespread online entertainment.[2][3][4][5] Similar to the Western card game rummy, mahjong is a game of skill, strategy, and luck. To distinguish it from mahjong solitaire, it is sometimes referred to as mahjong rummy.
The game is played with a set of 144 tiles based on Chinese characters and symbols, although many regional variations may omit some tiles or add unique ones. In most variations, each player begins by receiving 13 tiles. In turn, players draw and discard tiles until they complete a legal hand using the 14th drawn tile to form four melds (or sets) and a pair (eye). A player can also win with a small class of special hands. While many variations of mahjong exist, most variations have some basic rules in common including how a piece is drawn and discarded, the use of suits (numbered tiles) and honors (winds and dragons), the basic kinds of melds allowed, how to deal the tiles and the order of play. Beyond these basic common rules, numerous regional variations exist which may have notably different criteria for legal melds and winning hands, radically different scoring systems and even elaborate extra rules. A group of players may introduce their own house rules which can notably change the feel of play.
Etymology
The game was originally called 麻雀 (pinyin: máquè; Jyutping: maa4 zoek3–2)—meaning sparrow—which is still used in several Chinese languages, mostly in the south, such as Cantonese and Hokkien. It is said that the clacking of tiles during shuffling resembles the chattering of sparrows. It has also been suggested that the name came from an evolution of an earlier card game called Madiao from which mahjong tiles were adapted.[6] In Chinese, 麻雀戰 (麻雀战; máquè zhàn) denotes a form of guerilla warfare tactics colloquially called 'sparrow warfare (tactics)'. Other languages, such as Sichuanese, Shanghainese and Standard Mandarin, now call the game 麻將 (májiàng), which is a nasal erhua form of the original name. Its name is similar in other languages, except in Thai, where it is called ไพ่นกกระจอก (phai nok krachok), a calque meaning "sparrow cards"....Game equipment
Main article: Mahjong tiles
Old Hong Kong mahjong is played with a standard set of 144 mahjong tiles (though cards may be used). Sets often include counters (to keep score), dice (to decide how to deal), and a marker to show who the dealer is and which round is being played. Some sets include racks to hold the tiles, especially if they are larger or smaller than standard tiles or have an odd shape. Mahjong sets originating from the United States, Japan or Southeast Asia will likely have extra tiles or specialized markings.
The tiles are split into three categories: suited, honors, and bonus tiles....Choosing table positions and first dealer
Chinese dice
The dealer is chosen by various means. For example, each player throws dice with the highest count taking the dealer position, second-highest taking south etc. Or one player may place one tile of each wind face down and shuffle them. Each player randomly select one of these tiles and these tiles dictate their wind position. Each player sits down at their respective position (called the wind position) at the table in positions of an inverted compass: East is dealer, the right of the dealer is South, across is West, and the left is North. The order of play is traditionally counter-clockwise.
Hands, rounds, and matches
Cubic dealer and prevailing wind marker
A match consists of four rounds, each representing a "prevailing wind", starting with East. Once the first round is completed, a second round begins with South as the prevailing wind, and so on. Wind position is significant in that it affects the scoring of the game. A mahjong set with winds in play will usually include a separate prevailing wind marker (typically a die marked with the wind characters in a holder).
In each round at least four hands are played, with each player taking the position of dealer. In the first hand of each round, Player 1 (winner of the dice toss) is East and therefore dealer. In the second hand, Player 2 takes the East position, shifting the seat winds amongst the players counter-clockwise (though players do not physically move their chairs). This continues until all four players have been East (dealer). A marker is used to mark which player is East and often the round number. (In sets with racks, a rack may be marked differently to denote the dealer.)
Whenever a player in the East position (dealer) wins a hand, or if there is no winner (a draw or "goulash hand"), an extra hand is played with the same seating positions and prevailing wind as in the previous hand. This means that a match may potentially have no limit to the number of hands played (though some players will set a limit of three consecutive hands allowed with the same seat positions and prevailing wind)....Variations
Variations may have far more complicated scoring systems, add or remove tiles, and include far more scoring elements and limit hands.
In many places, players often observe one version and are either unaware of other variations or claim that different versions are incorrect. In mainland China alone, there are over thirty variants.[10] Many variations today differ only by scoring.
Further information: Ponjan
Chinese variants
Changsha mahjong is widely played in Hunan Province. Like Wuhan mahjong, players need to obtain special Jong consisting of only tiles of two, five or eight. Changsha mahjong forbids using winds and some special tiles, those tiles are first drawn out from the table when playing. Winners each round get a special drawing session for bonuses, usually doubling the score.
Chinese classical mahjong is the oldest surviving variety of mahjong and was the version introduced to America in the 1920s under various names. It has a small, loyal following in the West, although few play it in Asia. All players score and it is possible to score higher than the winner.
Competition mahjong is an international standard founded by All-China Sports Federation in July 1998 that some mahjong societies have adopted for competition play and in some cases for all play. It includes a large variety of different scoring rules in a way that emphasizes strategy and calculation ability.[citation needed]
Fujian mahjong, thirteen tile hands. Certain tiles can be wild. No dragons. Winds are treated as bonuses.
Harbin mahjong, popular in northeastern China, using only 108 suit and 4 red dragon tiles. The player's hand must meet a set of few conditions (e.g. at least one chow / pong, at least one terminal or red dragon, etc.) and be declared "ready" in order to win, with points earned by discard or self-draw and a bonus tile revealed when the player wins.[11]
Hong Kong mahjong or Cantonese mahjong is a more common form of mahjong, differing in minor scoring details from the Chinese Classical variety. It does not allow multiple players to win from a single discard.[citation needed]
Shenyang mahjong, a fast-paced version with 13-tile hands. Valid winning hands must contain all 3 suits, honor or terminal tiles, and at least one open pung.
Sichuan mahjong [zh] is a growing variety, particularly in southern China, disallowing chi[clarification needed] melds, and using only the suited tiles. Play continues until a loser is decided or a draw. It can be played very quickly.
Taiyuan Lisi mahjong [zh], or Lisi (lit. 'Raise Four'): the players must win with the first four blocks drawn which are placed separately in front of the others. These four blocks cannot be touched until the player has a ready hand.
Tianjin mahjong [zh] using normally seven jokers, with special scoring such as joker-free, joker-waiting-pair, catch-5, dragon, joker-suited-dragon.
Wuhan mahjong is growing rapidly[citation needed] and become popular in southern China. It is different from other parts of China such that it has a tile that can be used as everything called Laizi, and the player has to have a set of special two tiles, namely two, five, eight, as prerequisite for winning. Another variation has become the new trend. Special tiles need to be discarded.
Xiangyang mahjong is played with three players, and without winds, seasons, flowers and one suit of dots, bamboo and characters. It places special emphasis on the 5 tile giving extra points for any hand made using a 5 tile.
Other variants
American mahjong is a derivative of mahjong, standardized and regulated by the U.S.-based National Mah Jongg League, Inc. [12] and the American Mah-Jongg Association.[13] Unlike other forms of Mahjong, permitted "legal" hands are changed annually through a published card that must be purchased by players from one of the sponsoring organizational bodies. It uses joker tiles, the Charleston, plus melds of five or more tiles, treats bonus tiles as honors, and eschews the chow and the notion of a standard hand. Purists claim that this makes American mahjong a separate game. In addition, the NMJL and AMJA variations, which have minor scoring differences, are commonly referred to as mahjongg or mah-jongg (with 2 Gs, often hyphenated).
Taiwanese mahjong [zh] is the variety prevalent in Taiwan and involves hands of sixteen tiles (as opposed to the thirteen-tile hands in other versions), features bonuses for dealers and recurring dealerships, and allows multiple players to win from a single discard.
Japanese classical mahjong is still used in tournaments. It is closer to the Chinese classical scoring system but only the winner scores.
Japanese mahjong is a standardized form of mahjong in Japan and South Korea, and is also found prevalently in video games. In addition to scoring changes, the rules of rīchi (ready hand) and dora (bonus tiles) are unique highlights of this variant. In addition, tile discards are specifically arranged in front of each player by discard order, to take discarded tiles into account during play. Some rules replace some number 5 tiles with red tiles so that they can eventually get more value.
Korean mahjong is unique in many ways and is an excellent version for three players. One suit is omitted completely (usually the bamboo set or 2–8 of bamboo) as well as the seasons. The scoring is simpler and the play is faster. No melded chows are allowed and concealed hands are common. Riichi (much like its Japanese cousin) is an integral part of the game as well.[14]
Pussers bones is a fast-moving variant developed by sailors in the Royal Australian Navy. It uses an alternative vocabulary, such as Eddie, Sammy, Wally, and Normie, instead of East, South, West, and North respectively.
Singaporean mahjong and Malaysian mahjong are two similar variants with much in common with Hong Kong mahjong. Unique elements are the use of four animal bonus tiles (cat, mouse, cockerel, and centipede) as well as certain alternatives in the scoring rules, which allow payouts midway through the game if certain conditions (such as a kong) are met. Melds may also be presented in a form different from most other variations.
South African mahjong is a variant of Cantonese mahjong. It is very similar in terms of game play and follows most of the rules and regulations of Cantonese mahjong. However, there are some minor differences in scoring, e.g. the limit on the maximum points a hand can be rewarded is three or four faan depending on the house rules. A chicken hand (gai wu) is normally considered a value hand. Depending on the house rules flowers may also be used to boost scoring.
Thai mahjong has eight specialized jokers with eight extra flowers and eight animals for a total of 168 tiles.
Vietnamese mahjong has the same eight specialized jokers but with only eight different extra flowers for a total of 160 tiles. A modern variant triplicates or quadruplicates the jokers for a total of 176 or 184 tiles.
Western classical mahjong is a descendant of the version of mahjong introduced by Babcock to America in the 1920s. Today, this term largely refers to the "Wright-Patterson" rules, used in the U.S. military, and other similar American-made variants that are closer to the Babcock rules.
Three player mahjong (or 3-ka) is a simplified three-person mahjong that involves hands of 13 tiles (with a total of 84 tiles on the table) and may use jokers depending on the variation. Any rule set can be adapted for three players; however, this is far more common and accepted in Japan, Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines. It usually eliminates one suit entirely, or tiles 2–8 in one suit leaving only the terminals. It needs fewer people to start a game and the turnaround time of a game is short—hence, it is considered a fast game. In some versions there is a jackpot for winning in which whoever accumulates a point of 10 is considered to hit the jackpot or whoever scores three hidden hands first. The Malaysian and Korean versions drop one wind and may include a seat dragon.
Equipment
Tables
Interior of an automatic mahjong table.
Mahjong playing surfaces are typically square and small enough to be within arm's length of all equipment. The edges are raised to prevent tiles from sliding off and the surface is covered in felt to limit wear on the tiles. Automatic dealing tables, often used for high stakes playing and tournaments, are able to shuffle tiles, build walls, and randomize dice. It is an elaborate device built into a table which uses two alternating sets of tiles . It shuffles one set of tiles while the players play on the other set. After the round is finished the tiles are dropped into the table and the standby wall raises upwards....Current development
See also: Mahjong and artificial intelligence
Students in the United States learning how to play Mahjong
There are many governing bodies which often host exhibition games and tournaments for modern and traditional Mahjong gaming.
Mahjong, as of 2010, is the most popular table game in Japan.[40] As of 2008, there were approximately 7.6 million Mahjong players in Japan and an estimated 8,900 Mahjong parlors did ¥300 billion (converting to US$2.8 billion according to exchange rates for 30 April 2020) in sales.[41] There are several manga and anime (e.g. Saki and Akagi) devoted to dramatic and comic situations involving Mahjong.[42] Since the 1980s, hundreds of different Mahjong arcade machines in Japanese video arcades have been created, including strip versions. Newer units can connect with other arcade machines across the Internet." (wikipedia.)
"The RX-78-2 Gundam (Japanese: RX-78-2 ガンダム, Hepburn: Āru Ekkusu Nanajū Hachi no Ni Gandamu) is a fictional manned robot (mecha), introduced in 1979 in Yoshiyuki Tomino's and Sunrise's anime series Mobile Suit Gundam. In the series, it is a prototype weapon for the Earth Federation when it falls into the hands of Amuro Ray, the son of its designer in story (Tem Ray), who goes on to pilot it in the Earth Federation's war against the Principality of Zeon.
As the success of the series began the Gundam franchise, the robot's design was the first of many variations in subsequent works. The design appearing in Mobile Suit Gundam serves as the iconic symbol of the Gundam franchise and sparked the creation of its multiple sequels and spinoffs.
Character design
The RX-78's initial concept was that of a powered armor, the primary design for Yoshiyuki Tomino's proposed series Freedom Fighter Gunboy. The series later changed its name to Mobile Suit Gundam and Kunio Okawara was given Tomino's concept to shape into a finalized design for the anime. Okawara created multiple designs before settling on the current, samurai-styled design for the anime in 1979.
Enemies in the series regularly refer to the RX-78-2 as the white suit or the White Devil (due to the suit's formidable battle performance) while it is a mix of blue, red, and white. Tomino's response in the novel version of Gundam is that the original design was to be a grayscale machine, made up of mostly white and light gray colouring. However, Sunrise disapproved of the colouring and insisted the unit to be painted in brighter colours to attract attention, like other super robot anime at that time.[2]
The "original" Gundam, the RX-78-2 design was to be the second unit in a line of eight prototype high-performance assault-type mobile suits.[3] The preceding Gundam model RX-78-1 and the subsequent model RX-78-3 were designed by Okawara between 1980 and 1983 for Gundam Century[4] and Mobile Suit Variations[5] and the latter appeared in the novel version as the G-3 Gundam after the original Unit 2 was destroyed in battle.[2] The fourth to seventh Gundam is designed by Okawara in 1989 for Kunio Okawara collection, also known as M-MSV(Missing Mobile Suit Variation).[6] Other mechanical designers later added further design variations; including Yutaka Izubuchi's RX-78NT-1, designed in 1989 for the OVA series Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, and Shoji Kawamori's and Hajime Katoki's Gundam Development Project designs in 1992 for Gundam 0083.
The RX-78-2 has also been redesigned several times by other artists. In particular, Hajime Katoki's version of the Gundam (referred to as Ver. Ka) has become popular enough to be made into both injection plastic model kits sold by Bandai and resin-based garage kits sold by their B-Club subsidiary. Okawara himself redesigned the Gundam for original character designer Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's manga Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, a retelling of the events of the original series. Though mostly identical to the original, it features slightly different designs for its weapons, a small Vulcan pod in its shoulder, and the ability to replace one of the beam sabers stored in its backpack with a cannon similar to that of the RX-77 Guncannon. In addition, the 15th installment of the Gundam Evolve series of shorts features another variation on the RX-78's design, a highly stylized version of the iconic machine based on "modern" design aesthetics. It has been referred as Ver. Evolve 15.[7]
The continuing popularity in Japan of this mobile suit has led Bandai to create a 1.5m tall model version, which went on sale in Japan in 2007.[8]
The Japan Self-Defense Forces built an approximately full scale RX-78-3 Gundam with styrofoam in its show and contains a simulation pod.[9]
Gundam Expo (Hong Kong) uses the RX-78-2's last shooting scene in its logo's X.[10]
In the Super Robot Wars series of tactical role-playing games, the Gundam franchise is the chief representative of the "Real Robot" genre and one of the three mainstays of the series (the other two being Mazinger and Getter Robo), and the original Gundam itself is referred to in the series as the First Gundam (ファーストガンダム, Fāsuto Gandamu) in order to distinguish it from its many successors.
Gundam Mk-II
RX-178 Gundam Mk. II
First appearance
"The Black Gundam"
Zeta Gundam
Last appearance Double Zeta Gundam
Designed by Kunio Okawara, Mamoru Nagano, Kazumi Fujita
In-universe information
Affiliation Titans; Anti Earth Union Group (AEUG); Kamille Bidan; Char Aznable (alias Quattro Bajeena); Emma Sheen; Jerid Messa and others
Weapon
360mm hyper bazooka
beam rifle
2 x beam saber, stored in recharge racks in backpack
clay bazooka
optional 2-barrel 60mm vulcan pod, mounted on head
optional long beam rifle (movie, taken from Super Gundam)
The RX-178 Gundam Mark-II is a fictional mobile suit from the Universal Century Gundam anime series. A collaborative design created by Kunio Okawara, Mamoru Nagano, and Kazumi Fujita, it is featured prominently as protagonist Kamille Bidan's mobile suit in the first half of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, and used by various secondary characters throughout the rest of that series and its sequel, Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ. It has appeared in a number of other media, including the PlayStation 2 title Mobile Suit Gundam: AEUG Vs Titans,[13] the multi-platform title Dynasty Warriors: Gundam,[14] the Super Robot Wars series,[15] and PSP title Gundam Battle Royale, among many others.
Media
Pop culture
The appearance of the unit is not limited to Gundam series. RX-78-2 Gundam is one of the basic units that appear in the Super Robot Wars series, ever since the first game for the Game Boy.[12] The RX-78-2 also makes multiple cameo appearances in the anime Sgt. Frog.
The current Bandai Universal Century models' label copyright classification also uses the head of the Gundam as its icon.[16]
Pepsi released several series of Pepsi bottles with special-edition bottle caps featuring miniature statues of various mobile suits from the many Gundam anime released over the years.[17][18] The RX-78 was one of three of these designs (the other two being both the normal Zaku and Char's red Zaku) to have multiple miniatures released during the first promotional campaign, including both a full-body sculpture and a sculpture of its bust.[citation needed]
On October 23, 2000, Japan included the RX-78 Gundam and Amuro Ray in the 20th Century Stamp Series.[19] This mobile suit and other notable machines from various Gundam series were also recognized in the second set of "Anime Heroes and Heroines" stamps, released in 2005. Other franchises and series included were Pokémon, Galaxy Express 999, and Detective Conan.[20]
The RX-78-2 Gundam & 2 Medea transport planes were featured in a fire fighting poster in Japan. The RX-78-2 was equipped with water spraying equipment instead of weapons.[21]
According to Gundam-san 4 koma comic, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution appearance is influenced by the RX-78-2 Gundam.[22]
Pocky released a series called Pocky Gunpla Bag that contains a small plastic model in it. One of them is the RX-78-2 Gundam. The target customers of this product is 30-year-old male.[23]
In 2008, an ink and wash painting of Gundam drawn by Hisashi (天明屋 尚) in 2005 was sold in the Christie's auction held in Hong Kong with a price of $600,000 (USD).[24][25]
An 18-meter life-size version of the Gundam was built in 2009 to commemorate the franchise's 30 year anniversary.[26] The project is in response to the 30th Anniversary of Gundam as well as a fund raising project for Green Tokyo, a project preparing Tokyo in terms of the bid for 2016 Olympic Games with the theme of a Green Olympic.[27] The statue itself is depicted in the 2010 anime Model Suit Gunpla Builders Beginning G. After an appearance at Bandai's headquarters in Shizuoka from late 2010 to March 2011, it was erected again at the new Gundam Front Tokyo theme attraction on Odaiba, opening in July 2012 until March 2013.
On July 16, 2010, ANA launched a series of flights as part of the 30th anniversary of Gunpla. Called the "ANA x GUNDAM Sky Project," the promotion used specially painted Boeing 777s on domestic and international flights. The initial flight was from Tokyo to Osaka. Passengers were also given the chance to buy HGUC 1/144 and 1/48 MegaScale kits of the RX-78-2 Gundam painted in ANA colors aboard the flight. It was scheduled to end in March 2011, but was extended to June 30, 2011.[28][29] The promotion was expanded to offer special 1/144 versions of the 00 Raiser and the Gundam Unicorn.
The RX-78-2 Gundam appeared in Steven Spielberg's film Ready Player One (2018),[30] where one of the protagonists controls a full size Gundam replica during the climactic battle in a virtual reality environment, where it, and its ally The Iron Giant is used to battle the antagonist's Mechagodzilla.
The Gundam was featured on the online series Death Battle and was pitted up against the Autobot leader Optimus Prime and lost due to the Autobot being more skilled, having far superior feats and better weapons.
Statues
A life-sized statue of the Freedom Gundam from Gundam SEED in Shanghai
On March 23, 2008, a bronze statue of the Gundam was erected at the south entrance of Kami-Igusa Station in Suginami, Tokyo to honor the hometown animation studio Sunrise.[32]
As part of the 30th Anniversary of the Gundam series, the company officially announced a project on March 11, 2009, called Real-G planning to build a 1:1 real size scale Gundam in Japan. It was completed on June 9, 2009, and displayed in a Tokyo park.[33][34] The 18-meter tall statue was later moved and reconstructed in Shizuoka City, where it stayed from July 2010 to March 2011.[35][36] In August it was dismantled and reconstructed in Odaiba, Tokyo on April 19, 2012.[37][38] Until March 5, 2017, it stood in Odaiba along with a gift shop called "Gundam Front Tokyo".[39]
On March 5, it was announced that the life size RX 78-2 Gundam will be replaced by another life size statue of the RX 0 Unicorn Gundam from Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn.[40]
A second statue based on the original Gundam was announced in late 2018 as part of the "Gundam global challenge" made to receive concepts for an animatronic version.[41] The statue finished construction in 2020 and opened to the public on December 19, 2020[42][43]
Outside of the Lalaport shopping complex in Shanghai, China, there is a life-sized (18 meters tall) statue of the Freedom Gundam robot that moves and has glowing eyes. It was installed in 2021.[44]
Theme park attraction "Gundam Crisis" and "Gundam Front Tokyo"
The RX-78-2 Gundam had a full 1:1 scale mock-up constructed for the theme park attraction Gundam Crisis. It costs 800 yen to go into the attraction and the attraction is basically a game where the players have to complete about eight different missions within 8 minutes (1 minute per mission) in order to access the cockpit. If successful, players are shown a special, Gundam-related video inside the cockpit.[45]
The statue stood in Odaiba, Tokyo, outside the shopping mall Diver City Tokyo, where it was a centerpiece of the "Gundam Front Tokyo" attraction until March 5, 2017. Visitors could visit the statue and also see the Gundam Front Tokyo attraction on the sixth floor of the mall, which featured a 360 degree panoramic movie theater, a room dedicated to Gundam models throughout the years, much concept artwork, and a life-size 1/1 scale bust of the Strike Freedom Gundam from the show Gundam SEED.[39] The nearby hotel, Grand Nikko Tokyo Daiba (formerly Grand Pacific le Daiba) had a Gundam themed hotel room during this time.[46]
Other Mk-II appearances and beyond
The concept of Isuzu VX 2[47] is inspired by RX-178 Gundam Mk-II as concept design arts released in the Jan/Feb 1998, as seen in issue no. 71 of the magazine Axis published in Japan.
The Mk. II appeared years before the official North American release of Z Gundam on the talk show Late Night with Conan O'Brien in a commercial bumper.[48] Featured on an episode originally aired on September 30, 1998, the "Conan Mk. II" was formed from a Mk. II model kit altered with O'Brien's face, and a cartoon-like head on the shield, as typical of Late Night bumpers of the period. Zeta Gundam was not officially released in the North American market by Bandai until 2004. Late Night graphical designer Pierre Bernard is a self-stated anime enthusiast,[49] though if he specifically created the "Conan Mk. II" bumper has not been confirmed by any official source.
As with most mobile suits from Zeta Gundam, the Gundam Mk. II (and its Super form) received 1:144[50] and 1/100[51] scale model kits in 1987, along with a 1:220 scale "pocket model" (scaled to match large Z Gundam mobile suit kits, such as the MRX-009 Psyco Gundam).[52] In 1994, the Mk. II was featured in the limited-run 1:144 High Grade series (not to be confused with the later HGUC, or High Grade Universal Century, series), along with the original RX-78 Gundam and the Mk-II's successor MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam.[53] With the 1:144-scale HGUC lineup, launched in 2000, the Mk. II has seen very heavy coverage. The Mk. II was released as a stand-alone model in May 2002 (in AEUG and Titans colors),[54] with the G-Defenser in "Super Gundam" configuration in November 2002,[55] a limited production (now discontinued) collector's "extra finish" version in May 2005,[56] with the Flying Armor re-entry vehicle later that month,[57] and as part of the "Gryphios War" 3-pack with the Zeta Gundam and MSN-00100 Hyaku Shiki in March 2006.[58] The Mk. II joined the 1/100-scale Master Grade lineup in August 1998, in both AEUG[59] and Titans colors.[60] A Master Grade "Super Gundam" kit with the G-Defenser was issued in January 1999,[61] Totally re-designed versions of the Master Grade Mk. IIs were released in October 2005 (AEUG version)[62] and March 2006 (Titans version),[63] concurrent with the releases of the second and third Zeta Gundam movie compilations respectively. Finally, the Gundam Mk. II was inducted into the enormous 1:60-scale Perfect Grade line in November 2001,[64] and again in Titans colors in July 2002.[65] In May 2012, Gundam Mk. II (AEUG)[66][67] & Gundam Mk. II (TITANS)[68] was introduced into the new 1/144-scale Real Grade model kit series." (wikipedia.)
"Gundam Plastic models, Gundam Plamo, or Gunpla (ガンプラ, Ganpura)[1] are model kits depicting the mecha machinery and characters of the fictional Gundam multiverse by Bandai.
These kits became popular among mecha anime fans and model enthusiasts in Japan and nearby Asian countries beginning in the 1980s. Gundam modeling spread in the 1990s with North America and Europe being exposed to Gundam through television and manga.
The name Gunpla derives from an abbreviation of "Gundam plastic model" phrase, since most kits are made of plastic.
Bandai sold over 100 million Gundam plastic model units between 1980 and 1984, and over 300 million units by May 1999.[2] Recently, Bandai had sold an estimated 450 million units worldwide across nearly 2,000 different Gundam models.[3] As of March 2021, Bandai Namco has sold 714.84 million Gundam plastic model units, including 538.24 million standard Gundam units (since 1980) and 176.6 million SD Gundam units (since 1987)....2000s
For the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED models a new type of non-graded (NG) 1:144 model was introduced, with a completely different design plan. While these still feature snap-fit and color molding, they omit major joints, opting instead to only allow critical pieces to move—typically the neck, hips, shoulders, and feet. These are budget models, usually retailing much lower than other models; and this line was extensive, covering nearly every machine to be featured in that TV series.
Gundam SEED also featured non graded 1:100 models, identical in quality to Bandai's High Grade offerings.
It was also during this decade that the term "Gunpla" was coined by Bandai....Design
Several colored components fit together without glue to make a foot assembly
Over the decades, Gundam plastic models have been available in many forms, with many levels of intricacy and functionality, from immobile display units that are static once assembled, to fully poseable, highly articulated models with interchangeable parts (weapons, shields, etc.) and complex mechanical engineering.
All parts fit together with a variety of glueless, toolless joints, such as ball-and-socket pivots, or posts on one component that fit tightly into holes on another. While models are designed to be posed for display, these joints are not intended to hold up to action figure-style play; even during gentle pose adjustments, it is possible for parts to come loose and need to be pushed back together.
Components are made of plastic materials selected to fit the needs of each part. A given unit, like a foot or leg, may use parts made of multiple different materials. Bandai casts colored pigment into each part to provide a basic color scheme for the finished model, so the builder does not need to paint it if undesired.
The picture above illustrates the detail level of a higher end (Real Grade, 2011) model. This is one part of the model's "foot", less than an inch across, which not only has many details in a very small component, but is built around a very small doubly-articulated hinge. The fully assembled leg unit uses many more parts which allow it to bend at two major joints, and also has trim panels which slide apart as the leg is bent to allow the motion....Hobby
Gundam model building as a hobby is a worldwide phenomenon.[24] Participation ranges from simply assembling kits as sold, to mild personalization with paint and decals, to creating nearly original works with parts from multiple kits, additional custom-made components and in-depth, highly detailed multi-layer paint jobs.
Like any hobby, gunpla building can be extremely involved and expensive, but with model kits starting at less than US$20[25] and requiring no special tools or materials, barrier to entry is low.
Some hobbyists build dioramas around finished models[26] using techniques shared with other miniature model-based hobbies such as model railroading and wargaming. A diorama could depict a mecha in combat, undergoing maintenance or even destroyed on the battlefield.
Bandai holds an annual international contest, Gunpla Builders World Cup,[27] in at least 16 countries. Winners are awarded trophies and model kits....In popular culture
Four Gundam Media series titles focus primarily on Gunpla kits: Plamo-Kyoshiro (1982), Model Suit Gunpla Builders Beginning G (2010), and Gundam Build Fighters (2013) and its sequel Gundam Build Fighters Try (2014) and later the spiritual successor Gundam Build Divers (2018) as well as its sequel series, Gundam Build Divers Re:Rise (2019-2020).
In the manga/anime series Sgt. Frog, an addiction to Gundam models is the only thing stopping Keroro from invading Earth, since he reasons that if the Keronians invade Earth, all of the Gundam models will be destroyed, and there will be no one to make new ones. He loves the models so much, if any harm comes to them, he will react violently (such as going Super Saiyan). He is prepared for such events, though, since he keeps spare kits in the Hinata family's attic. Because the anime is made by Sunrise (the makers of the Gundam anime), and because Bandai is the show's primary sponsor, the show is able to refer to Gundam models directly without legal issues.
In the manga/anime series Genshiken, Soichiro Tanaka teaches Kanako Ohno and Kanji Sasahara how to build Gundam models in Chapter 13 (adapted as episode 8 of the anime, where the pseudonym "Gungal" is used). Saki Kasukabe accidentally breaks Ohno's model and has to make it up to her by doing cosplay." (wikipedia.)
"Gundam (Japanese: ガンダムシリーズ, Hepburn: Gandamu Shirīzu, lit. Gundam Series) is a Japanese military science fiction media franchise. Created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Sunrise (now Bandai Namco Filmworks), the franchise features giant robots, or mecha, with the name "Gundam". The franchise began on April 7, 1979, with Mobile Suit Gundam, a TV series that defined the "real robot" mecha anime genre by featuring giant robots called mobile suits (including the original titular mecha) in a militaristic setting. The popularity of the series and its merchandise spawned a franchise that includes 50 TV series, films and OVAs as well as manga, novels and video games, along with a whole industry of plastic model kits known as Gunpla which makes up 90 percent of the Japanese character plastic-model market.[1][2][3]
Academics in Japan have viewed the series as inspiration; in 2008, the virtual Gundam Academy was planned as the first academic institution based on an animated TV series.[4]
As of March 2020, the franchise is fully owned by Bandai Namco Holdings through subsidiaries Sotsu and Sunrise. The Gundam franchise had grossed over $5 billion in retail sales by 2000.[5][6][7] By 2022, the annual revenue of the Gundam franchise reached ¥101.7 billion per year,[8] ¥44.2 billion of which was retail sales of toys and hobby items.[8]
Overview
Concept
RX-78-2 Gundam by Hajime Katoki
Mobile Suit Gundam was developed by animator Yoshiyuki Tomino and a changing group of Sunrise creators with the collective pseudonym of Hajime Yatate. The series was originally entitled Freedom Fighter Gunboy (or Gunboy) for the robot's gun, with teen boys the primary target demographic. Early production had a number of references to freedom: the White Base was originally "Freedom's Fortress", the Core Fighter was the "Freedom Wing" and the Gunperry was the "Freedom Cruiser". The Yatate team combined the English word "gun" with the last syllable of the word "freedom" to form the portmanteau Gundom. Tomino changed it to Gundam, suggesting a unit wielding a gun powerful enough to hold back enemies like a hydroelectric dam holding back water.[9] In keeping with the concept, Gundams are depicted as prototypes or limited-production, with higher capabilities than mass-produced units.
Most Gundams are large, bipedal, humanoid vehicles controlled from a cockpit by a human pilot. The cockpit is located in the torso, while the head serves as a camera to transmit images back to the cockpit. Most of the series protagonists are Newtypes, genetically advanced humans adapted for space. Newtypes have psychic abilities that enable them to sense each other across space and to utilize special mobile suits.
The series itself has been described as a space opera.[10]
Innovation
Mobile Suit Gundam reportedly pioneered the real robot subgenre of mecha anime.[11] In contrast to its super robot cousins, Mobile Suit Gundam attempted realism in its robot design and weaponry by running out of energy and ammunition or malfunctioning. Its technology is derived from actual science (such as Lagrange points and the O'Neill cylinder in space, and the use of Helium-3 as an energy source) or feasible technology requiring only a few fictional elements to function (such as Minovsky Physics).[12]
Timelines
Most of the Gundam animation (including the earliest series) is set in what is known as the Universal Century (UC) calendar era, with later series set in alternate calendars or timelines. Although many new Gundam stories are told in their parallel universe with independent timelines (giving them greater creative freedom), the original UC storyline continues to be popular, with new installments frequently produced ever since. It established the series, setting the standard for hard science fiction in anime; the original Gundam marked the maturing of the giant-robot genre. Nostalgia for the oldest Gundam shows (and its status as a pop-culture icon in Japan) is a factor in its continuing success.[13]
Spinoffs
SD Gundam, a spinoff of Gundam which began during the mid-1980s, features super deformed designs and emphasizes comedy and adventure. Model Suit Gunpla Builders Beginning G, Gundam Build Fighters, and Gundam Build Divers feature contemporary settings and use Gunpla as plot elements....Live-action film
At the 2018 Anime Expo, Legendary Pictures and Sunrise announced a collaboration to develop a live-action Gundam film.[20] Brian K. Vaughan was brought in to write and serve as an executive producer for the film.[21] In April 2021, it was reported that the project had landed at Netflix and that Jordan Vogt-Roberts had been hired to direct.[22]
Manga and novels
Main article: List of Gundam manga and novels
Manga adaptations of the Gundam series have been published in English in North America by a number of companies, such as Viz Media, Del Rey Manga and Tokyopop, and in Singapore by Chuang Yi.
Video games
Main article: List of Gundam video games
Gundam has spawned over 80 video games for arcade, computer and console platforms, some with characters not found in other Gundam media. Some of the games, in turn inspired spinoff novels and manga.[23]
Gunpla
Main article: Gunpla
Primarily made of plastic, but sometimes paired with resin and metal detail parts, hundreds of Gundam scale plastic models, aka Gunpla, have been released. They range in quality from toolless-build children's toy kits (Entry Grades) to hobbyist and museum-grade models, and most are in common scales such as 1:35, 1:48, 1:60, 1:100 or 1:144 scale. Various Grades exist to target hobbyists, ranging from smaller sized kits such as High Grade and Real Grade, to larger Master Grade and finally Perfect Grade model kits. The Real Grade (RG) Gundam series combined the Master Grade's detailed inner structure with additional colour separation, making the 1:144-scale series complex in design and compact in size, with the final goal of retooling a Gundam to what they might would look like in real life, similar to the real-life Gundam Front Tokyo RX-78-02.
Promotional 1:6 or 1:12 scale models are supplied to retailers and are not commercially available. For Gundam's 30th anniversary, a full-size RX-78-2 Gundam model was constructed and displayed at Gundam Front Tokyo, in the Odaiba district;[24] it was taken down on March 5, 2017.[25] A new statue of the Unicorn Gundam was erected at the same location, now renamed The Gundam Base Tokyo.
Other merchandise
Bandai, Gundam's primary licensee, produces a variety of products.[26] Other companies produce unofficial merchandise, such as toys, models and T-shirts. Products include Mobile Suit In Action (MSiA) action figures and Gundam model kits in several scales and design complexities. Each series generally has its own set of products, MSiA and model lines such as Master Grade and High Grade Universal Century may extend across series. The most popular action-figure line has been the Gundam Fix series, which includes the mecha in the animated series, manga and novels and accessories to create an updated version. In addition to Master Grade and High Grade Gundams, Bandai released a 30th-anniversary series of Gundam models in 2010.[27] After the introduction of the RG Gunpla line, Bandai released the Metal Build series in March 2011 (beginning with the 00 Gundam)....Impact
Main article: Cultural impact of Gundam
Gundam is a Japanese cultural icon; it is a ¥50-billion-annual business of Bandai Namco, reaching ¥54.5 billion annual revenue by 2006,[29] and ¥80.2 billion annual revenue by 2014.[8] Stamps have been issued, an Agriculture Ministry employee was reprimanded for contributing to the Japanese Wikipedia Gundam-related pages,[30] and the Japan Self-Defense Forces has code-named its developing advance personal-combat system Gundam. Based on a December 16, 2023 survey conducted by Nikkei Entertainment, the fanbase of Gundam within Japan has an average age of 42 years, and a male-to-female ratio that skews 90:10.[31]
The impact of Gundam in Japan has been compared to the impact of Star Wars in the United States." (wikipedia.)
"Japanese mahjong (Japanese: 麻雀, Hepburn: Mājan), also known as riichi mahjong, is a variation of mahjong. While the basic rules to the game are retained, the variation features a unique set of rules such as riichi and the use of dora. The variant is one of a few styles where discarded tiles are ordered rather than placed in a disorganized pile. This is primarily due to the furiten rule, which takes player discards into account. The variant has grown in popularity due to anime, manga, and online platforms.
History
In 1924, a soldier named Saburo Hirayama brought the game to Japan.[1] In Tokyo, he started a mahjong club, parlor, and school.[1] In the years after, the game dramatically increased in popularity. In this process, the game itself was simplified from the Chinese version. Then later, additional rules were adopted to increase the complexity.[2] Mahjong, as of 2010, is the most popular table game in Japan.[3] As of 2008, there were approximately 7.6 million mahjong players and about 8,900 mahjong parlors in the country. The parlors did 300 billion yen in sales in 2008.[4] There are several manga and anime devoted to dramatic and comic situations involving mahjong (see Media).[5] Japanese video arcades have introduced mahjong arcade machines that can be connected to others over the Internet. There are also video game versions of strip mahjong.
In Japan, there are what are known as professional players, usually members of organizations that compete in internal leagues and external events with other professionals and the general public. There are over 1,700 professionals spread across a half-dozen organizations. There is no universal authority for riichi mahjong in Japan: professionals cannot dictate how mahjong parlors or amateur organizations and players operate, nor can they regulate each other since everything is left to the free market. Likewise, there is no global authority regulating riichi mahjong. Since 2018, there exists a league of select professionals (coming from the other professional mahjong organizations) named M.League which takes the game and presents it as a professional sport. Teams of professionals receive salary as players, compete in ranking and playoffs as teams, and wear team jerseys to enhance the image of mahjong as a sport.[6]
Setup
Japanese mahjong tiles, including red dora tiles as well as season tiles which are used in variants
Japanese mahjong is usually played with 136 tiles.[7] The tiles are mixed and then arranged into four walls that are each two stacked tiles high and 17 tiles wide. 26 of the stacks are used to build the players' starting hands, 7 stacks are used to form a dead wall, and the remaining 35 stacks form the playing wall.
There are 34 different kinds of tiles, with four of each kind. Just like standard mahjong, there are three suits of tiles, pin (circles), sō (bamboo) and wan (characters), and unranked honor tiles (字牌 jihai). Honor tiles are further divided between wind tiles and dragon tiles. Some rules may have red number five tiles which work as dora that earn more han value. The flower and season tiles are omitted. Names for suit tiles follow the pattern of [number] + [suit], the numbers being Japanese pronunciations of the corresponding Chinese words....Japanese rules overview
While the basic rules to mahjong apply with the Japanese variation, an additional, distinct set of rules are applied. (See the rules for Old Hong Kong Mahjong.)
Yaku and yakuman
Main article: Japanese Mahjong yaku
Yaku are specific combinations of tiles or conditions that yield the value of hands. Unlike many variants, a winning hand consists of four melds and requires at least one yaku. When scoring, each yaku has its own han value, and the han works as a doubler. A winning hand needs at least one yaku. Yakuman is a value for limit hands which are hard to get, and in some variations cumulative and/or multiple yakuman can be counted. Yakuman-class hands ignore all other scoring patterns and points.
Riichi
Declaring riichi means declaring a ready hand, and is a kind of yaku. A player may declare ready if a player's hand needs only one tile to complete a legal hand (tenpai), and the player has not claimed another players' discards to make open melds. When declaring ready, a player can win on a discard even when the hand didn't have a yaku because ready itself is a yaku.[9] Upon declaring ready, the player must pay a deposit and may no longer change their hand except when forming certain closed quads.
As a possible house rule, a player can choose to reveal their hand to win more points if successful, which is called ōpun riichi (open riichi). In that case, the player shows only the tiles that are related to waits, or reveals all the tiles in the hand depending on the rules.[10] The declaration increases the yaku count allowing the player to score extra points.
Dora
Dora (ドラ) are bonus tiles that add han value to a winning hand. Every kind of tile can become a dora tile. A dora tile adds the same number of han value as the amount of its corresponding "dora indicator" tiles. Dora is not counted as yaku, and having it without yaku does not meet the one yaku requirement for a winning hand.[11]
At the start of a hand, the upper tile from the third stack of back end of the dead wall is flipped and becomes a dora indicator.[12] Then, its succeeding tile is recognized as dora. For example, if an indicator is a Green dragon (), Red dragons () are counted as dora by the sequence shown below, in which the Red dragon wraps around to the White dragon ()....The number of dora indicators increases in the following manner: Each time a player calls a quad, the next adjacent dora indicator tile is flipped, starting with the upper tile from the fourth stack from the back end. The indicator is flipped immediately after the quad is called, and after that the player draws a supplemental tile for their hand from the back end of the dead wall. The number of indicators increases in that direction, which becomes five if a single player calls four quads, and that is the largest possible number from the upper tiles in the third to seventh stacks of the dead wall (see four quads).
In addition, when a player goes out with a declaration of riichi (ready hand), the tiles underneath the dora indicators are flipped after the win and become additional dora indicators, making their succeeding tiles also counted as dora which are called ura-dora (裏ドラ, hidden dora).
It is said that the name dora stands for "dragon," although it has nothing to do with dragon tiles in contemporary Japanese mahjong.
Red 5 tiles: A variation uses specially marked red number 5 tiles that also count as dora themselves, regardless of dora indicators. In addition, if a dora indicator is number 4 of the same suit as red 5 tiles, players acquire further han value. One red 5 tile for each suit is usually used in place of regular five tiles, with some local variants using various amounts (two 5-pin only, two 5-pin and one 5-sō and 5-wan, two of each 5 in all three suits, et cetera). In some variations, tiles of other numbers such as 3 or 7 can be marked red.[11]
Scoring system
Main article: Japanese Mahjong scoring rules
Among the modern mahjong variants, the Japanese scoring system is unique. Two variables are considered: the han value and fu value. A hand winner acquires points based on these values, which correspond to a points-value table. If the han value is five or more, then the fu value is still counted but no longer necessary.
Winning
There is a distinction between winning from the wall and winning from a discard. When going out, players call out "tsumo" (自摸 or ツモ, self-drawn) or "ron" (栄 or ロン, picking up a discard). In the case of tsumo, the other three players share the responsibility of paying out points, according to the scoring table. For ron, the player who discarded the tile pays all of the points....Theory
Japanese mahjong has an extensively developed theory. Japanese mahjong is reliant on both skill and luck, so strategy focuses on gaining probabilistic and strategical advantages.[22]
Japanese mahjong is a comparative point game. Unlike betting variations of mahjong, decisions are made compared to other players instead of a strict expected value basis. As mahjong is a game dependent on psychology and game theory, experienced players may deviate from optimal decision-making in order to bluff or mislead opponents.
Tile acceptance
In Japanese mahjong the first player to complete their hand wins the round. As a result, it is typically advantageous for players to reach a complete hand as fast as possible.
Tile efficiency, also known as tile acceptance theory, is a concept to estimate which tile is best to discard. The goal is to move to a completed hand as fast as possible, aided by maximizing the number of available tiles that improve the hand
Discards should aim to reduce the shanten (向聴) of the hand, the number of tiles required to reach a ready hand (tenpai). As a consequence, discards should also aim to increase the ukeire (受け入れ) of the hand, the number of tiles that can be drawn to reduce shanten.
Defense
Unlike some other mahjong variants, in Japanese Mahjong the player who deals in pays the full point value of the winning player's hand. Defense revolves around avoiding dealing into a player with a tenpai hand.
The sacred discard rules (furiten) can be used to identify safe tiles known as genbutsu (現物). Both the contents and order of tiles in a player's discard pile can be further used to identify tiles that are either statistically unlikely or impossible to be one of their winning tiles.
Push-fold
Push-fold decisions revolve around using tile acceptance and defensive information to weigh whether a player should pursue a winning hand at the risk of dealing in, against abandoning completing their hand in order to discard the tiles least likely to deal in.
Push-fold lies on a spectrum of decisions including betaori (ベタ降り), the complete abandonment of winning in order to avoid dealing in to a tenpai player; zentsuppa (全ツッパ), conversely aiming to complete one's hand without regard to the risk their discarded tiles may pose; and mawashi (回し打ち), stepping back in shanten to avoid dealing in while still leaving open the opportunity to win the hand.
Related versions
There is a three player version called sanma (三麻), which eliminates 28 tiles from the number suit's 2-man through 8-man tiles and removes the ability to call "chii". There is a four player version called "Clear Mahjong" that was created by Noboyuki Fukomoto for the manga "Ten: Tenhōdōri No Kaidanji".[23] There is a version for two players called "San Hako Mahjong" that keeps all tiles, permits calling "chii", and utilizes a dummy player.[24]
Media
This variant is featured in anime and manga series such as Akagi, which has also been made into a live action television series, The Legend of the Gambler: Tetsuya, Saki and Mudazumo Naki Kaikaku. A live action series named Shin Janki (真・雀鬼) features the game involving yakuza and gambling, while employing various cheating tactics and techniques.
Mahjong Soul is based on this type of mahjong. Furthermore, riichi mahjong is found in several video game series as a Minigame, two popular examples of which being the Like a Dragon franchise and Final Fantasy XIV." (wikipedia.)
"Mobile Suit Gundam (Japanese: 機動戦士ガンダム, Hepburn: Kidō Senshi Gandamu), also known as First Gundam, Gundam 0079 or simply Gundam '79, is an anime television series, produced and animated by Nippon Sunrise. Created and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, it premiered in Japan on Nagoya Broadcasting Network and its affiliated ANN stations on April 7, 1979, and lasted until January 26, 1980, spanning 43 episodes. It was the first Gundam series, which has subsequently been adapted into numerous sequels and spin-offs. Set in the futuristic calendar year "Universal Century" 0079, the plot focuses on the war between the Principality of Zeon and the Earth Federation, with the latter unveiling a new giant robot known as the RX-78-2 Gundam piloted by the teenage civilian mechanic Amuro Ray.
In 1981, the series was re-edited for theatrical release and split into three films. The characters were designed by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, and Kunio Okawara was responsible for the mechanical designs, including the eponymous giant robot, the RX-78-2 Gundam. The first film was released on February 22, 1981. Tomino himself also wrote a trilogy of novels that retell the events of the series. Two manga adaptations of the series have also been written by two manga artists.
Despite initial low ratings that caused the series' cancellation, the popularity of Gundam saw a boost from the introduction of Bandai's Gunpla models in 1980 and from reruns and the theatrical release of the anime, leading to the creation of a prolific and lucrative media and toy franchise. The series is famous for revolutionizing the giant robot genre due to the handling of mobile suits as weapons of war, as well as the portrayal of their pilots as ordinary soldiers. This aspects contrasted with the previous style of portraying hero pilots and their giant super hero robots.
Plot
See also: List of Mobile Suit Gundam characters
Set in a fictional universe (Universal Century year 0079 according to the Gundam Calendar), the Principality of Zeon has declared independence from the Earth Federation, and subsequently launched a war of independence called the One Year War. The conflict has directly affected every continent on Earth, also nearly every space colony and lunar settlement. Zeon, though smaller, has the tactical upper hand through their use of a new type of humanoid weapons called mobile suits. After half of all humanity perishes in the conflict and much of Earth's ecosystem, the war settled into a bitter stalemate lasting over eight months.
The story begins with a newly deployed Federation warship, the White Base, arriving at the secret research base located at the Side 7 colony to pick up the Federation's newest weapon. However, they are closely followed by Zeon forces. A Zeon reconnaissance team member disobeys mission orders and attacks the colony, killing most of the Federation crew and civilians in the process. Out of desperation, young Amuro Ray accidentally finds the Federation's new prototype arsenal—the RX-78 Gundam, and manages to beat back Zeon forces. Scrambling everything they can, the White Base sets out with her newly formed crew of civilian recruits and refugees in her journey to survive.
On their journey, the White Base members often encounter the Zeon Lieutenant Commander Char Aznable. Although Char antagonizes Amuro in battle, he takes advantage of their position as Federation members to have them kill members from Zeon's Zabi family as part of his revenge scheme as he is the son of the original of Zeon and the nation's namesake. Amuro also meets ensign Lalah Sune with whom he falls in love, but accidentally kills when facing Char. When the Federation Forces invade the Fortress of A Baoa Qu to defeat the Zeon forces, Amuro engages on a final one-on-one duel against Char due to each blaming the other for Lalah's death. Having realized he forgot his true enemy, Char stops fighting to kill the last surviving Zabi member, Kycilia Zabi. Amuro then reunites with his comrades as the war reaches its end, leaving behind the Gundam as it was rendered inoperable after his battle. The conflict officially ends when the prime minister of Zeon surrenders to the federation, losing the majority of its industrial capabilities and reverting itself to a republic. However, many remnants of the zeonic military go into hiding and lick their wounds in the hopes retaliating against the federation at a time of their choosing.
Production
Director Yoshiyuki Tomino used the series to tell a story about war.[1]
The "Mobile Suits" of the show were inspired by the powered armor from the novel Starship Troopers from 1959.[2] Mobile suits were conceptualized as human-like robots which would not only appeal to children.[1] Yoshiyuki Tomino's original plot for the anime was considerably much more grim, with Amuro dying halfway through the series, and the crew of the White Base having to ally with Char (who is given a red Gundam), but finally having to battle him after he takes control of the Principality of Zeon. The original concept found expression in a series of novels written by Tomino soon after the show's conclusion, and elements of the storyline weaved themselves into Zeta Gundam and Char's Counterattack.
In previous series Tomino worked in, villains were alien agents. Mobile Suit Gundam was the first of his work which featured humans as antagonists. The director commented he wanted to tell a story about war.[1] He aimed to expose through art the horrors of the Japanese wartime aggression in Manchuria in 1939. Tomino did not wish to revise history and wanted to use the story to force viewers to confront the tragic realities of war. The director was originally unwilling to discuss the message of his work, expecting the viewers to reach their own conclusion. Additionally, he commented he "packed his frustrations" when making Gundam.[3]
Tomino met mechanical designer Kunio Okawara when he first worked in two television series from Sunrise. Tomino liked Okawara's work and asked him to collaborate with him in his upcoming project. Originally, the anime would be called "Gunboy" but it was renamed Mobile Suit Gundam.[4] The White Base, the mothership of the protagonist crew members, is designed with a 3 plane view method by Kunio Okawara, however, it is not specially designed for the anime series Gundam, it was actually a salvaged design from the anime Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3.[5] The idea of having a space carrier from Tomino is partly inspired by the earlier science fiction anime Space Battleship Yamato, which he claimed to be a fan of.[5] It was intended to be in a more realistic black color, but was changed to white by the order of Sunrise, who similarly ordered the main mecha, Gundam, changed from a grayish white to white, red, blue and yellow. Director Tomino showed great disgust in the color change, also noticing the unrealistic non-aerodynamic design of it after the show was on air, said in an interview that such design would never appear in the real world, since it would be a sitting duck from fighter aircraft. Tomino still held a grudge 10 years after the show aired and stated in an interview in Newtype 1989 April issue that the imaginary enemies of Gundam are Sunrise, sponsors and television stations.[6]
Tomino compares the machines with religious history in Japan, most notably the worship of Buddha statues located in temples. The relationship between the pilot and the mobile suit has also been compared with the Formula One drivers who rely on machines to achieve a goal.[7] In order to give the mechas fast movements, most of the fights were situated in space where there was low gravity. This led to the creation of space colonies as a common setting. In order to explain how a person as young as Amuro could pilot the Gundam, the team came up with the idea of Newtypes.[1]
Media
Anime
See also: List of Mobile Suit Gundam episodes
In February 1980, Mobile Suit Gundam was aired in Italy, the first country to broadcast the show outside Japan.[8] Mobile Suit Gundam was also later aired by the anime satellite television network, Animax, across Japan, with the series continuing to be aired on the network currently, and later its respective networks worldwide, including Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and other regions.
Hoping to capitalize on the success of Gundam Wing from the previous year, Bandai Entertainment released a heavily edited and English-dubbed version of Mobile Suit Gundam, premiering on Cartoon Network's Toonami weekday afternoon after-school action programming block across the United States on Monday, July 23, 2001. The series did not do as well as Wing but the ratings were high enough for the whole series to be aired and to spawn an enormous toy line. Due to 9-11, Cartoon Network, like many other American TV stations, began pulling, and editing, war-themed content and violent programming, resulting in the cancellation of the series. However, the series finale was shown as part of Toonami's "New Year's Eve-il" special on December 31, 2001.[9] On Saturday, June 8, 2002, the series would later air on their late-night Adult Swim block, starting over from the first episode, but it was again pulled before completing its run because of low ratings.
On May 30, 2006, Bandai Entertainment re-released the English dub of the TV series in a 10 volume DVD set.[10] There was no Japanese audio track included, apparently because Yoshiyuki Tomino felt that the original mono mix was in too poor of a condition to use.[11] However, in 2007 the original series was released on DVD in Japan, which sold over 100,000 copies within a month's time from December 21, 2007, to January 21, 2008.[12]
Only one episode out of the 43 episodes ("Cucuruz Doan's Island") had never been dubbed nor aired. This was at the request of Yoshiyuki Tomino, as he felt that it was not on par with the other episodes, resulting in the episode becoming a "lost episode" of sorts.[13] Despite this, the episode was included on Japanese DVD and Blu-ray releases, and was dubbed in Italian in the early 1980s.
At the 2010 New York Comic Con/New York Anime Festival, Bandai Entertainment announced that they would re-release Mobile Suit Gundam with both the original Japanese audio and the English dub. Bandai released it in two sets in the summer of 2011.[14] The first set was released on September 13, 2011.[15]
Following the closure in 2012 of Bandai Entertainment, the series went out of print. At their New York Comic Con 2014 panel, Sunrise announced their plans to re-release all of the Gundam series on home video in North America, starting with the original series. They would be distributed via Right Stuf Inc.[16] They released the series on Blu-ray and DVD in October 2015.[17]
On July 25, 2015, British anime distributor Anime Limited announced they would release Mobile Suit Gundam in cooperation with Sunrise for the first time in the UK on DVD and Blu-ray.
Novel
In 1979, before the end of the anime, Yoshiyuki Tomino himself created the first novelizations of the original Gundam anime series. The novels, issued as a series of three books, allowed him to depict his story in a more sophisticated, adult, and detailed fashion. Along with this adaptation came several major changes to the story. For example, Amuro is already a member of the Federation military at the time of the initial Zeon attack on Side 7, and the main characters in the Federation serve on the White Base-class ships Pegasus and Pegasus II rather than the Pegasus-class White Base.[18] Additionally, the war continues well into the year UC 0080 in the novels, whereas it concludes at the beginning of that year in the anime series. In the novel Amuro Ray is killed in the final attack against the Zeonic stronghold of A Baoa Qu when his RX-78-3 is pierced through the torso by a Rick Dom's beam bazooka. This occurs as Char's unit attempts to warn him about Gihren's intention to destroy the fortress and take the Federation's offensive fleet along with it. Char and the crew of Pegasus II (White Base), along with handpicked men under Kycilia Zabi's command, make a deep penetrating attack against the Side 3 and together kill Gihren Zabi, after which Kycilia is killed by Char. Tomino later lamented that had he known that the anime's ending would be different and that another series would be made, he would not have killed off Amuro in the novels.
The three novels were translated into English by Frederik Schodt and published by Del Rey Books in September 1990. At the time, there were no officially recognized romanizations of character and mecha names, and a variety of different spellings were being used in the English-language fan community. In the original three novels, therefore, Mr. Schodt wrote the name "Char" as "Sha." "Sha" is a transliteration of the Japanese pronunciation, although Mr. Tomino later publicly confirmed at Anime Expo New York 2002 that the name was originally based on the French name Charles Aznavour, a popular French-language singer. (The 2004 edition of the English translation revealed that Schodt felt that the "Char" rendering "seemed too close" to Aznavour's name.) He also rendered "Zaku" as "Zak," and (after consulting with Tomino) "Jion" as "Zeon," instead of "Zion," which was in use in some circles. Some North American fans, already attached to particular spellings, took great umbrage at Schodt's renditions, forgetting that in the original Japanese most character and mecha names are written in katakana, and that there were, therefore, no "official spellings." Many years later, when the Gundam series was finally licensed in North America, the rights holders came up with a unified list of "official spellings" for English-language material, and some of these spellings include Schodt's renditions, as well as the renditions to which certain North American fans were attached.
In 2004, Frederik Schodt revised his original translation of the books, which had been out of print for nearly a decade. What had been a three volume set in the 1990 Del Rey edition was re-released by Stone Bridge Press as one single volume of 476 pages (with a vastly improved cover design), titled Mobile Suit Gundam: Awakening, Escalation, Confrontation. Since the rights holders in Japan by this time had created a unified (although still evolving) list of romanized character and mecha names, Schodt was able to use it, and Amuro's rival in the novel thus became "Char" and not "Sha"; the popular Zeon Mobile Suit, similarly, became "Zaku," and not "Zak".[19]
Films
Following the success of the Mobile Suit Gundam TV series, in 1981 Tomino reworked the footage into three separate compilation films. The first two films, Mobile Suit Gundam I (also known as Mobile Suit Gundam The Movie) and Mobile Suit Gundam II: Soldiers of Sorrow, were released in 1981. The third film, Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space, was released in 1982.
Each of the three films is largely composed of old footage from the TV series, however Tomino felt that some things could be changed for the better. Tomino removed several aspects of the show which he felt were still too super robot-esque for the real robot series he intended Gundam to be, such as the Gundam Hammer weapon. The G-Armor upgrade parts were also completely removed and replaced in the narrative by the more realistic Core Booster support fighters, and Hayato receives a RX-77 Guncannon at Jaburo to replace the disadvantaged RX-75 Guntank. The third film also includes a substantial amount of new footage expanding on the battles of Solomon and A Baoa Qu.
The first Gundam film, upon release on 22 February 1981, drew a large crowd of 15,000 people at its premiere, leading to concerns from police and media that it could lead to social unrest from a riotous crowd. The event is considered a turning point in the history of anime, referred to as "the day that anime changed" according to Asahi Shimbun newspaper.[20] The first film grossed ¥1.76 billion, and Gundam II grossed ¥1.38 billion.[21] Encounters in Space was 1982's fourth highest-grossing Japanese film, with a distribution income of ¥1.29 billion[22] and a total box office gross of ¥2.31 billion.[23] Collectively, the trilogy grossed ¥5.45 billion at the Japanese box office.[21]
In 1998, the three compilation films were first released directly to VHS subtitled into English as part of Bandai's AnimeVillage releases, which makes them among the first Gundam works released in English. A year later, Bandai released an English dub of three compilation films in 1999. Featuring the voice of Michael Lindsay as Amuro Ray, and Steve Blum as Char Aznable. Due to the dub mispronouncing the word Gundam as "Gun-dam", and the Principality of Zeon being called the "Duchy of Zeon", Sunrise prevented it from being re-released after its debut on VHS. The films were released again in North America on May 7, 2002, in DVD format, available separately or in a boxed set. These are also available only with re-done Japanese audio with English subtitles, the DVDs identical to the 20th anniversary release of the film compilation in Japan. The original Japanese voice cast members rerecorded their lines with the exception of those who were deceased. The 20th anniversary release was digitally remastered and many of the sound effects were replaced, most notably the futuristic gun sounds being replaced by louder machine gun sound effects. Also, the music soundtrack, while not remixed was rearranged and in some cases removed from some scenes. The vocal songs are rearranged also, especially in the closing credits of the second and third films.
Bandai Visual has announced the re-release of the Mobile Suit Gundam films on DVD from new HD masters and with the original, theatrical, mono audio mix. This boxed set was released in Japan on December 21, 2007.[24][25] On May 18, 2010, Bandai Entertainment re-released the 20th anniversary version of the trilogy under their Anime Legends label.[26][27] As with the TV series, the films were re-released in North America under Sunrise themselves with distribution from Right Stuf Inc.[16]
The trilogy of films were distributed on DVD in the United Kingdom by Beez Entertainment in 2005 in Japanese and with a selection of subtitle tracks including English. Anime Ltd. has since acquired the UK license and has released a limited edition Blu-ray box set of the film trilogy (limited to 500 units) as an exclusive, sold only on their AllTheAnime.com store. It was released on March 27, 2017, in Japanese with English subtitles only.
An animated film adaptation based on the "Cucuruz Doan's Island" episode titled Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island (Japanese: 機動戦士ガンダム ククルス·ドアンの島, Hepburn: Kidō Senshi Gandamu Kukurusu Doan no Shima) was released on June 3, 2022.[28]
Manga
There have been three manga series based on Mobile Suit Gundam. One was written by Yū Okazaki between 1979 and 1980 and compiled into two volumes.[29] Another is Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 by Kazuhisa Kondo. It was published in Dengeki Comics from 1993 to 2005 in a total of twelve tankōbon volumes.[30] Viz Media published its first nine volumes in English between 2000 and 2003. The third manga is Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin by anime character designer Yoshikazu Yasuhiko. It was published from June 2001 to June 2011 in Kadokawa Shoten's Gundam Ace magazine and collected in a total of 23 tankōbon volumes. The series was first released in English by Viz Media but was dropped before it was completed; it was then released by Vertical from March 2013 to December 2015.
Besides adaptations, there is a popular parody yonkoma manga titled Mobile Suit Gundam-san, which was written and drawn by Hideki Ohwada and serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Gundam Ace magazine since 2001. This manga was adapted into an anime in 2014. Ohwada also created a spinoff manga, Gundam Sousei (ガンダム創世), which follows Yoshiyuki Tomino and the Sunrise staff as they work to make the television series and the compilation films. This series was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Gundam Ace magazine from 2009 to 2011 and compiled in the Gundam-san tankōbon starting in Volume 5. Kadokawa released two tankōbon volumes collecting Gundam Sousei chapters as The Men Who Created Gundam (「ガンダム」を創った男たち, "Gundam" wo Tsukutta Otoko-tachi). Denpa published The Men Who Created Gundam in English in June 2022 as an omnibus volume.
A continuation of the Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 manga, titled Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 Episode II Luna, began serialization in Kadokawa Shoten's Gundam Ace magazine on November 26, 2022....Reception, influence and legacy
See also: Cultural impact of Gundam
Gundam was not popular when it first aired, and in fact came close to being cancelled. The series was originally set to run for 52 episodes but was cut down to 39 by the show's sponsors, which included Clover (the original toymakers for the series). However, the staff was able to negotiate a one-month extension to end the series with 43 episodes.[32] When Bandai bought the copyrights to build plastic models for the show's mecha, which was a relatively new market compared to the old Chogokin series Clover was making, things changed completely. With the introduction of their line of Gundam models, the popularity of the show began to soar. The models sold very well, the show began to do very well in reruns and its theatrical compilation was a huge success.[33] Audiences were expecting another Super Robot TV show, and instead found Gundam, the first work of anime in an entirely new genre: the Real Robot genre.[34] The Anime ranked #2 on Wizard's Anime Magazine on their "Top 50 Anime released in North America",[35] and is regarded as changing the concept of Japanese robot anime and the turning point of history in Japan.[36]
Despite being released in 1979, the original Gundam series is still remembered and recognized within the anime fan community. The series revolutionized mecha anime,[37] introducing the new Real Robot genre, and over the years became synonymous with the entire genre for many. As a result, for example, parodies of mecha genre commonly feature homages to Mobile Suit Gundam, thanks to its immediate recognizability.[38]
The series was the first winner of the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize, in 1979 and the first half of 1980. In the top 100 anime from Animage, Gundam was twenty-fourth.[39] The magazine Wizard listed the series as the second best anime of all time.[40] By the end of 2007, each episode of the original TV series averaged a sales figure of 80,928 copies, including all of the different formats it was published in (VHS, LD, DVD, etc.).[41] The first DVD box set sold over 100,000 copies in the first month of release, from December 21, 2007 to January 21, 2008.[42] As part of the 30th Anniversary of the Gundam series, the company officially announced a project on March 11, 2009 called Real-G, a plan to build a 1:1 real size scale Gundam in Japan. It was completed in July 2009 and displayed in a Tokyo park then taken down later.[43] The 18-meter tall statue was reconstructed in Shizuoka Prefecture and was taken down in March 2011.[44] In August 2011 it was dismantled only to reopen in Odaiba, Tokyo on April 19, 2012.[45][46] It stood Odaiba along with a gift shop called "Gundam Front Tokyo" until it was dismantled in March 2016.
Most of the critical response to the series has been due to the setting and characters. John Oppliger observes that the characters of Amuro Ray, to whom the young Japanese of that time could easily relate, and Char Aznable, who was "simply [...] fascinating", made a major contribution to the series' popularity. He also concludes that "in many respects First Gundam stands for the nostalgic identifying values of everything that anime itself represents".[38] The series has been praised by Anime News Network for the way it portrays war with Amuro facing traumatic moments as a result of killing enemy soldiers in his becoming of a soldier.[47][48] The series is also notable for having humans from a different race as antagonists rather than evil creatures. However, the animation has been noted to have notoriously aged when compared with series seen in the 2000s.[48][49]
Mecha anime creator Shoji Kawamori attended Keio University in the same years as Macross screenwriter Hiroshi Ōnogi and character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto, where they had a Mobile Suit Gundam fan club called "Gunsight One", a name they would use years later as the call sign of the bridge of the SDF-1 spaceship from their first Macross anime television series. In fact, The Super Dimension Fortress Macross mecha anime series was inspired by Gundam in several aspects during its early development.[50] Guillermo del Toro has cited the series as an influence on Pacific Rim.[51]
American musician Richie Kotzen, former guitarist from Poison and Mr. Big, released an album called Ai Senshi ZxR in 2006 in Japan. The album consisted of covered music from the Gundam series and original songs. American musician Andrew W.K. also released an album called Gundam Rock on September 9, 2009, in Japan. The album consists of covered music from the Gundam series to celebrate its 30th anniversary.[52]
Background research
The background research of Mobile Suit Gundam is well praised in its field. The positions in which the colonies (sides) are located in orbit are called Lagrangian points, and are real world solutions to the three-body problem. The colonies (sides) are based on the O'Neill cylinder design for space habitats.[53][54][55] The Gundam franchise was a major contributing factor to the fame of the O'Neil cylinder in Japan.[56]
Rides
"Gundam the Ride: A Baoa Qu" was an amusement park attraction at the Fuji-Q Highland Amusement Park located in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi, Japan. It was a dark ride for the park. Gundam the Ride, which opened to the public on July 20, 2000, was based on Mobile Suit Gundam. Set during the final chaotic Battle of A Baoa Qu, Gundam the Ride places its riders in an Escape Launch Shuttle about to leave the battleship Suruga.
The animation of Gundam the Ride used mostly computer graphics, however, all human characters were hand-drawn cel animation, similar to the style current Gundam video games are done in. All of the character designs for Gundam the Ride were done by Haruhiko Mikimoto. The ride's characters make a cameo appearance in the video game "Encounters in Space" while the player (playing as Amuro Ray in his Gundam) is making his way through the Dolos.
The ride closed on January 8, 2007, and replaced with "Gundam Crisis Attraction" The main feature of this attraction is a full size 1:1 Gundam model, lying flat inside the venue. Instead of sitting in a movable cockpit and watching a CG movie, it requires participants to carry handheld devices throughout the attraction to find certain pieces of information, similar to a scavenger hunt, in order to activate the Gundam. The interior of the attraction is a mock-up of a Federation ship, and employees remain in-character inside of the ride." (wikipedia.)
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