The construction of the new giant Gundam in Yokohama is progressing well. Although it has been delayed, like everything else, due to COVID-19, the plans to open the Gundam Factory in Yokohama are still ongoing, with a new date currently unannounced. The test run for the moving Giant Gundam caught the imagination of people around the world, including US Democratic House of Representatives member Ilhan Omar, who shared her love for the moving behemoth in a tweet on her Twitter account. It’s not the first time she’s shared Gundam on social media, and I for one believe she is more than deserving of piloting this new Gundam or getting one of her own.
Standing by and ready to suit up. https://t.co/KlZiGfWbfd
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) September 21, 2020
For context, this first-term progressive congresswomen has been the subject of attacks on her policy and race since entering the US congress. Leaping to her defense with the power of memes, a growing joke among those who defended the congresswomen was that we needed to build her a Gundam. This eventually reached a peak during the primaries when a staffer on the Bernie Sanders campaign tweeted a spoofed campaign issues page about building her a Gundam that Omar was proud to endorse (the original retweet has since been deleted). Of course, the sight of this moving Gundam only caused this running joke to erupt once again.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) September 22, 2020
After she acknowledged the new Gundam in Yokohama, twitter erupted and soon, she got her own mobile suit… sort-of. An artist on twitter known as Benjamin Sawyer created an incredible piece of fan-art in that features Ilhan Omar proudly standing alongside a towering mobile suit, ready to pilot the Gundam to defend the Earth.
While this art is cool and everything, it doesn’t replace the real thing, and I for one wholeheartedly endorse the possibility of giving Ilhan Omar her own Gundam mobile suit to pilot. In the meantime, though, maybe she can have a Gunpla kit.