Kobe to get 60-foot robot statue

When it comes to monuments, the Japanese know their priorities.

The port city of Kobe could get an 18-meter (60-foot) robot statue as early as spring 2008, according to the Kobe Shimbun and other newspapers. The towering steel monument, the height of a five-story building, would honor Ironman No. 28, a famous manga and anime robot created by Kobe native Mitsuteru Yokoyama in the late 1950s and known as Gigantor overseas. The statue would be about the same height as the juggernaut in Yokoyama's wild stories.

The colossus, fists raised in the air, would greet passengers coming out of JR Shin-Nagata Station in the city's Nagata Ward. A local business group, Kobe city and the central government are backing the amazing project, which is expected to be a symbol of the neighborhood's rebirth following its devastation by the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake and is expected to attract visitors. The construction cost for the statue is around 135 million yen ($1.1 million).

There's a TBS TV report on it here.

My book discusses the importance of Ironman No. 28 in the evolution of Japanese robots. Yokoyama was inspired by the terrifying attacks of the gigantic American B-29 Superfortresses that laid waste to Kobe during World War II. In the manga series, the Japanese military builds Ironman No. 28, a mindless hulk controlled with a handheld box, as a last-ditch secret weapon to save the Empire. It later falls into the hands of boy detective Shotaro Kaneda, who uses it to fight an international criminal gang. The first major series in the giant robot genre, it inspired countless other manga and anime series as well as a universe of toys and other merchandise. Ironman No. 28 was also made into radio shows, TV series and films including a 2005 live-action movie.

Yokoyama's mechanical behemoth looking up into the Kobe sky, as if to rebuke the invading bombers, should make quite a sight.