Gundam Producer Naohiro Ogata Reflects on Anime’s Ready Player One Cameo

Naohiro Ogata has managed to have a hand in several of the biggest anime series around, such as Inuyasha and Love Hina, but he has also managed to make a name for himself as producer on several Gundam anime series to date. Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt, Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, and Mobile Suit Gundam UC are just a few of the series that Ogata has had a hand in when it came to the Gundam series and its owners at Sunrise. During a recent interview with the Anime Herald, Ogata broke down the giant mech’s recent appearance in the Stephen Spielberg led feature length film, Ready Player One!

Ogata himself had not had the chance to review just how the classic mech suit was going to be used in the giant Hollywood blockbuster that crossed over dozens, if not hundreds, of franchises but after seeing the Gundam used on screen, he definitely had some thoughts to share:

“During production, I only got to see the splices of where the Gundam would come out. I had no idea how they were going to use those scenes in the final product. When I saw the film in its entirety, I was like “Wow, I’m glad they used the Gundam in the most dramatic scenes.”

You would find few fans of the series that would argue that Mobile Suit: Gundam is far and away the most popular mech suit franchise in the world, so it’s definitely no surprise to see that it was used in the Ready Player One film. In the movie, the mech suit was even used in a fight against Mecha Godzilla, showing just how insane the movie could get at points when different characters clashed.

Gundam is showing no signs of stopping, in terms of popularity, any time soon with a live action movie in the works and a satellite being launched as part of the Tokyo Summer Olympics taking place next year!

What did you think of the Gundam cameo in Ready Player One? What other series or movies would you like to see Mobile Suit: Gundam make an appearance in? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and Gundam!

Mobile Suit Gundam is one of the most popular franchises in the world, and that popularity is only expected to grow as Sunrise continues to release new projects for the franchise. This includes new anime based in the original Universal Century storyline, which will next see a film trilogy based on the Hathaway’s Flash novels, a returning anime for its SD Gundam spin-offs, and even a brand new live-action movie coming to the West co-produced by Legendary, a studio who is currently in the midst of bringing a new take on Toho’s Godzilla franchise to the screen.