Mobile Suits a Reality

As I was reading through some of my RSS feeds this afternoon I came across an interesting article. It looks like Masaaki Taira, a member of Japan's National Legislature, has announced that Japan's Liberal Democratic Party will consider adding in efforts to create "piloted two-legged mobile suits" to the party's platform manifesto.

Much of the design ideas for something like this seem to be coming from anime and manga such as Mobile Suit Gundam, Patlabor, Appleseed, and Ghost in the Shell. It seems that the technology to create something like this is in place, however, the markets to sustain it as an industry are not present yet. Creating some of these suits on a 1:1 scale such as Gundam (18 metres) might not be a feasible option yet, however, 3-5 metres like Patlabor is a potential possibility. It has also been noted that to minimize the robots falling over, a six legged model might be more practical such as the Tachikoma model from Ghost in the Shell.

All I can say after reading this article is that my dream of being able to pilot a Gundam is coming closer and closer to reality. Although I doubt that a foreign government would allow a Canadian anime blogger to pilot a Gundam or mobile suit of any nature, the fact that these mecha can be feasibly created is amazing.
Check out the original article HERE