First, Gundam is an exception, but what is the ‘reality of war’ that Japanese anime, which is based on the principle of ‘decisive battle,’ has neglected?

There is something crucially missing from Japanese anime when thinking about “war.” Here is an excerpt from a discussion between Tokyo University’s Associate Professor Koizumi Yu, the head of the Defense Policy Research Department at the National Institute for Defense Studies, Takahashi Sugio, and Asahi Shimbun reporter Ota Hiroyuki, entitled “The Truth and Lies of War as Depicted by Gundam.”

Anime otaku and military otaku overlap

Ota: You two have been anime and special effects fans since you were kids. Is there a connection between that and your current work? Takahashi: Not at all. Because we use different areas of our brains (laughs). Koizumi: What would you be doing if it weren’t for your current job? Takahashi: Maybe a newspaper reporter. Ota: Really? We’re in the same line of work. Koizumi: As a military otaku, I became an army commentator without overcoming my “Chuunibyou” syndrome. It’s directly connected to my current job. Ota: That’s interesting.

I’ve always thought anime fans and military otaku have something in common. Takahashi: That’s true. Koizumi: For us Japanese, the military and the mecha in anime seem like worlds far from reality. At least I didn’t distinguish between them as a child. I felt that real weapons were like super-mecha in some faraway world. I started making warship plastic models in the fourth grade of elementary school.

The first one I made was the heavy cruiser “Nachi.” He was the coolest guy in the plastic model shop. So, I know exactly when I became a military geek. Designed by Vice Admiral Hiraga Yuzuru Ohta! Takahashi: It was the moment I was attracted to the functional beauty of the “treaty-type heavy cruiser,” which pursued performance to the limit within the treaty restrictions.

Koizumi: And then, I became a professor at the university where he was president (laughs). Ohta: I was born in 1964, and people a little older than me were familiar with manga magazines featuring the battleship Yamato and Zero fighters. Koizumi: Those were the old boys’ magazines. Ohta: Right. There was a time when war stories were popular. After that, Matsumoto Leiji ‘s “Battlefield Manga Series” became popular, and I was heavily influenced by it. Like Koizumi, I was also heavily influenced by military plastic models, and I didn’t get into this world through anime (laughs).