Forum - View topicINTEREST: Japanese Political Party to Hold Panel on Developing Real Gundam
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Ryu Shoji
Posts: 676 Location: Cambridge, United Kingdom |
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And we all laughed when he said "The Japanese will make real Gundams"....
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aereus
Posts: 576 |
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Well, I think a lot of people knew that the technology was getting closer to being able to design a frame that could work. The problem is that "Gundamium" doesn't exist, and there is no way they could be as agile or fly, etc.
I think something like a basic Knightmare Frame would be a lot more possible and practical than trying to design a Gundam. It would fend off small arms fire, while bringing fairly large guns to bear, and the wheeled movement system seems a lot easier to replicate. |
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Anton Chigurh
 Posts: 257 Location: Guam |
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The first thing I thought of after reading the note was that particular scene early in 20th Century Boys where grown-ass men discuss spoiler[the logistics of making a giant robot meant to kill a lot of people.] Hopefully this real-life discussion doesn't turn out nearly as creepy or insane.
The second thing that caught my attention was "The Liberal Democratic Party, a center-right faction in Japanese politics..." Hmm, a Liberal party that leans center-right? I know of Japan's reputation for crazy stuff, but that might be among the craziest I've read yet. Then again, what America considers "left" compared to, say, Europe, might skew more center-right itself, but that's a can of worms better off sealed. |
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aereus
Posts: 576 |
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It depends on what definition you have for Democratic. If you actually look at the history of the political parties in the US, the Republicans and Democrats actually flip-flopped at some point (I think it was in like the 1880s?) As far as how they were named compared to their leanings.
And I still need to read 20th Century Boys, I've heard good things about it =\ |
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Surrender Artist
 Posts: 3264 Location: Pennsylvania, USA |
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I thought that this might be the doing of some daffy minor party, perhaps one with no seats in the Diet. I was not expecting the LDP. The LDP which is the second largest party in the Diet. The LDP that governed Japan for all but one of the years between 1955 and 2009 and was the largest part for that whole period.
I guess that if it's all on the party's dime, no harm, no foul. But they had better just be kidding around and probably fishing for a few nerd votes.
It's not that crazy. The word Liberal is associated with right-wing parties in many places, such as the Australian Liberal Party, the British Columbia Liberal Party (although the Federal Liberal Part is more or less center-left), the liberal 'Free Democratic' parties of Switzerland and Germany, the Swedish Liberal People's Party and a number of parties in South America. The word liberal has historical association with an ideology something like what Americans would know as libertarianism, although less doctrinaire than that. Liberalism, especially Manchester Liberalism, wanted low taxes, minimal regulation of commerce and free trade. The term had little cachet in the United States until, if I remember not too wrongly, Franklin Delano Roosevelt began to use it to describe his policies, although some, notably Louis Hartz, have argued that the United States has a liberal consensus on most matters. FDR's use of the term wasn't too unprecedented, really, as British Liberals, for example, had taken a turn toward supporting social welfare programs some time around the late nineteenth century. Indeed, it was the Liberal party's 'People's Budget' that laid the foundations of the modern British Welfare state and created a constitutional conflict that lead to the neutering of the House of Lords The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan came ultimately from merging the Liberal and Democratic parties in 1955. The two had their origins earlier than that. Both have always been conservative parties, but they chose their names because they believe that they would please the occupying powers. The LDP has historically been somewhat non-ideological because Japanese electoral laws, especially before the adoption of a mixed system in 1993, tended to encourage heavily factionalized, ideologically heterogeneous parties. (Something similar is true of American parties, although that was historically more a product of Southern Democrats, who eventually came out far out of line with the rest of their party, as well as congressional tradition and our Presidential system, both of which place little emphasis on party discipline, although the Republicans have begun to behave in a more 'parliamentary manner') Last edited by Surrender Artist on Tue Jun 26, 2012 8:24 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Chagen46
 Posts: 4377 |
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A real Gundam is impossible. Not only would the Square-Cube law ensure that it would be able to stand without sinking into the ground, a humanoid war robot is absurdly impratical compared to conventional war machines.
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dandelion_rose
 Posts: 657 Location: Kuala Lumpur |
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This is like a plot for an artsy anime. Boy declares that his lifelong ambition is to build a real-life Gundam. Everyone laughs at him. His parents nonchalantly suggest that the only way he'd ever build a Gundam is if he were to rule Japan.
Seeing a path, the boy is determined, and pours himself into his studies. Boy grows up. Boy joins the leading Japanese political party. Boy spreads the importance of Gundam as a symbol of Japanese pride, which gets along well with the conservative elements of the party. Boy wins the elections. Boy becomes Prime Minister of Japan. Boy builds Gundam. |
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Gasero
 Posts: 939 Location: USA |
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Well, yeah, if you wanna be all practical about it. Can't we try to make at least one good one? Just for fun. |
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nhat
Posts: 922 |
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Countries like JP have it lucky since they can concentrate a lot of their resources in their country instead of the military. This may sound like a crazy idea to build one but the development and research being put in building one can be used to create something useful or to enhance bionics or something. Also I'm sure it won't be a full scale model of one, a smaller scale one is more realistic and practical. |
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Polycell
 Posts: 4623 |
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But at what point do you go from mobile suit to powered armor? Really, we're talking about a recruiting tool/terror weapon at this point.
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Melanchthon
 Posts: 550 Location: Northwest from Here |
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You know, I could spit out a list on every reason Gundams are utterly retarded in real life, but I'll just say this: you could spend a fortune on building a battleship, making it the most powerful ship on the seas, and it could be destroyed by a Chinese missile at 1/100th of the cost. The same thing applies for Gundam. You could spend a fortune, (one that Japan doesn't have right now) to develop and field these monstrosities, only to have them easily defeated by current conventional weapons. Boondoggle, meet politicians.
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Chagen46
Posts: 4377 |
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No, they can't. It's like what Melanchthon said. One of the articles linked in this one says that building a Gundam would require 90% of the JST's current budget. Read that again. 90% of the budget on a useless contraption which is literally incapable of even STANDING. That's the definition of mental insanity. |
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Tenebrae
Posts: 490 |
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What I find interesting is how far out of touch with technology those politicians are to even debate with straight face the building of a giant war robot.
...on second thought, maybe I shouldn't be seeing any significance in that. |
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sender
Posts: 24 |
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Again people saying imposible... funny... and a bumblebee can't fly.
Squarecube law... you are thinking a gundam as just an oversized version of an actual robot, that will colapse if magnified (material will be the same than its samller counterpart). There is always a way around, design, materials, etc.... Impractical, as for now, totally. But still what can be found in the research is unknow, and of course... the uses on space where gravity is not a problem. For the moment they have another things to get busy instead of giant mechas, but little by little they can advance in investigations... maybe they will have a good model in 30 or 40 years |
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Mawdryn
 Posts: 240 Location: St. Louis, MO. U.S.A. |
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I think mobile suits can only exist in a world where mobile suits are considered the ultimate infantry weapon, and the technology & materials to build them is fairly commonplace.
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