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Gundam's Okawara Designs City's Image Mascot

Kunio Ōkawara, mechanical designer of many Gundam projects including the first television anime series, has created a robot mascot character for Inagi City in Tokyo Prefecture.

At the city's request, Jet Inoue, an episode director for the Gintama' and SD Gundam Force anime, collaborated with Okawara to create the nashi pear robot mascot. The nashi fruit, a large apple-shaped pear, is a specialty of Inagi. Local citizens will choose a name for the new character who was introduced to the public on October 22.

Okawara also designed a robot mascot character for Minami Uonuma City in Niigata Prefecture earlier this year. The old lady robot Basama Robo's ultimate weapon was kirizai, a local specialty food made up of minced pickled vegetables and fermented soybeans (natto).

Source: Sankei Shimbun

Image © Kunio Ōkawara, Jet Inoue, Inagi City