Elon Musk Says it’s Time to Make Mecha Real

Elon Musk is a controversial public figure who is pretty active on Twitter, and is one of the few people in the world who can make their wild dreams come true. After revealing he was an anime fan, Musk tweeted about another dream.

Whether it’s in jest, or whether it’s a full claim to start the process of making anime mainstays a reality, Elon Musk says it’s time for mecha to become a reality.

During what’s most likely one of his many sleepless nights Musk has admitted to in the past, Musk first tweeted his support of Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name. The film released back in 2016, but made its mark as one of the most popular anime films of all time. The film quickly earned more money than any of Studio Ghibli’s iconic films, beating out Spirited Away to become the highest-grossing anime feature in the global market.

This love of Your Name was shared among anime fans for sure, as replies to the Tweet prompted Musk to reveal more of his anime favorites. He talked about his love for other anime films such as Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. When asked if he’s seen the popular mecha series, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Musk only responded with “NERV,” the organization in the series creating Evangelions to combat invading monsters.

Just a short time after this conversation, Musk then tweeted the above “It is time to create a mecha” and this could possibly be in reference to the Evangelion discussion he had with a fan a short time before. Musk has been known to create entire businesses based on “jokes” such as his The Boring Company, which plans to tunnel under Los Angeles to ease traffic. It has already sold premium impractical flamethrowers which started as a reference to the parody film Space Balls.

So while this may seem like a small joke, Musk can indeed bring mecha into reality. Though hopefully it’s more of the Mobile Suit Gundam variety rather than the dread of the Neon Genesis Evangelion mecha which sparked this whole journey.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is a psychological drama by way of giant monster versus mech anime. The franchise debuted as a television series in 1995-1996 with two films following in 1997. Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth is an one-part drastically abridged retelling of the first 24 episodes of the television series, and one part new animation. The End of Evangelion, the second film, would incorporate some of Death & Rebirth‘s original animation and offer an alternate take on the original series’ controversial final two episodes.

The series follows Shinji Ikari, who is recruited by his father to pilot the giant mech Evangelion in the fight against giant monsters known as Angels in the futuristic city of Tokyo-3. But Shinji is unwilling to bear this huge responsibility and is often conflicted about taking part in a war he was dragged into. This conflict of emotions leads to many introspective episodes that cover the range of religious, philosophical, and existential concepts.