Watch: Japan’s new life-size Gundam blessed by Shinto priest

A Shinto priest blessed a life-size RX-78F00 — Japan’s latest Gundam replica — just before Bandai Namco completed its assembly on Yumeshima Island in Osaka City on Wednesday.

A video shows the priest performing the ritual as a crane lifts the Gundam’s head into place.

Bandai Namco, which will present at Expo 2025 Osaka from April 13 to Oct. 13, 2025, chose to unveil the Gundam ahead of the event. Installed next to the Gundam Next Future Pavilion, one of the pavilions for the private sector attending the world fair, Bandai Namco Group Chief Gundam Officer Hiroshi Sakakibara explained that the robot’s pose — kneeling on one knee with its arm extended towards the sky — symbolizes “reaching out to the future and paving the way to a new era of the universe together with mankind.”

This is the first Gundam installation in the Kansai area, following three others, including two in Tokyo and one in Yokohama, the latter of which took its final bow in April.