So I've been reading Alex Kerr's 'Dogs and Demons' quite voraciously - it's an engrossing read. I've just finished a couple more chapters on the surreal (and rather depressing) situation Japan finds itself in when it comes to construction, such as the building of unnecessary monuments to detract from the country's actual issues. And then today this video cropped up (hat tip to Andy) about the building of a 1:1 model of Gigantor aka Tetsujin 28-go in Kobe. This follows the temporary 1:1 Gundam statue erected in Tokyo Bay as part of some green festival held during the summer.

Now I love robots and I'm the first to geek out on things like this (any self-respecting nerd would after all), but having the words of Alex Kerr prominently in my mind at the moment it did strike me as interesting that Japan's construction industry seems to be moving towards the creation of monuments based around anime/manga franchises. He published his book at the turn of the century, and it seems that nearly ten years on Japan's construction industry has found its latest construction craze - it's ironic that the subject of this new craze should be fictional material best known for their depiction of dystopian futures, material which Alex argues in his book, and I think validly in some parts, is starting to have striking similarities to real life Japan (life imitating art, imitating life?).

The title 'Dogs and Demons' is a reference to the bureaucracy's systemic approach that involves diverting attention from the real problems by building 'distractions' if you will and, despite my inner geekyness and joy towards things like giant robots, this latest focus on giant robot monuments is actually quite depressing in a way.

Who cares about the sinking economy and endemic corruption, look there's a giant lifesized version of your favourite childhood robot/anime character. Still giant robot statues ftw.