"Recreate a State Funeral at Home" and "Too Funny": Fans React to Giant Garma Zabi Portrait in Ichiban Kuji for Anime Mobile Suit Gundam

The full lineup for "Ichiban Kuji Mobile Suit Gundam UNIVERSAL CENTURY SAGA INTERLUDE" has been revealed on the official Ichiban Kuji X account, generating major buzz among fans. The giant, roughly 200 cm "Garma Zabi portrait" in particular drew attention.

The anime "Mobile Suit Gundam" is a robot anime produced by Sunrise that aired from April 1979 to January 1980, directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino. It pioneered a new genre known as "real robot anime" and had a major influence on anime that followed. Although its ratings were weak during the original broadcast, its popularity surged through reruns and theatrical releases, and it became an unprecedented hit that also sparked the Gunpla boom. Numerous series, spin-offs, and other derivative works have been produced up to the present day, and the franchise remains hugely popular.

Posted alongside the announcement of the full lineup, which goes on sale in stages starting November 5, was an extra-large cloth measuring about 200 cm tall by 140 cm wide, themed on the portrait of Garma Zabi (voiced by Katsuji Mori) from the series. This is the portrait used as his memorial photo at his state funeral in the story, and many viewers likely remember how enormous it was, as if meant to show off the scale of the funeral. The size of this item is truly reminiscent of that memorial portrait, and a surreal photo has also been released showing a model gazing up at a portrait that is larger than the model.

In response to the post, fans have left many delighted and enthusiastic comments, such as "This will make playing Garma's state funeral so much easier," "You can easily recreate Garma's funeral at home...!", "Just because the original was ridiculously huge, did the merch really have to be huge too?! I thought Hyper Mega Cloth was the name of a special move. Too funny," "Whoever wins this should be required to give a speech," and "I bet the person planning these products is testing how far they can go. Keep it up!"

(C)SOTSU·SUNRISE