AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Tucked beneath the railway viaduct at JR Inagi-Naganuma Station, the Gundam Monument is a pilgrimage photo-spot for anime fans: two full-size sculptures of the RX-78-2 Gundam and Char Aznable's red-and-pink MS-06S "Char's Zaku," each standing about 3.6 metres tall, set face-to-face like a frozen duel from Mobile Suit Gundam.↗↗
The statues are the centrepiece of Inagi's "Mechanical Designer Kunio Okawara Project." Okawara, the original mecha designer behind Gundam and countless other series, grew up here, and the city has turned its streets into an open-air gallery of his most famous machines. The monument's setting—an information hub called Pear Terrace, with park green behind and a bench-lined plaza in front—makes it as much a place to linger as a place to photograph.↗↗
Why this little corner of Tokyo matters to fans
The connection is personal as well as pop-cultural. Kunio Okawara, the man whose pencil gave shape to the Gundam and the Zaku, is an Inagi local, and the city built an entire identity around his robots. The Gundam monument is the flagship of that "Mechanical City Inagi" effort—a deliberate attempt to celebrate a homegrown designer and lure visitors into a quiet residential suburb south-west of central Tokyo.
