Getting a Gundam is something afforded to only a select few protagonists from the long-time mecha franchises’ bevy of shows. U.S. Representive of Minnesota’s 5th congressional district Ilhan Omar became the exception, earning hers when a fan artist drew her with one. She accepted the honor with a simple retweet.
Memes rarely extend beyond their short shelf life as they make their rounds on social media, but Rep. Omar (D – Minn.) once again acknowledged the anime fans that tapped into her popularity during a moment of controversy. Omar is a favorite among progressive democrats and when President Trump tweeted a video of her speeches interspersed with clips from the 9-11 terrorist attacks (Omar is Muslim) anime fans pitched in with a meme that stuck: “Defend Ilhan and build her a Gundam.” When artist Benjamin Sawyer honored the meme with a picture of Omar with a Gundam her official Twitter account acknowledged it with a quote tweet of her own.
The quote tweet from her official account earned more than 40,000 likes and 5,000 retweets affording the meme something it rarely gets — closure. This isn’t the first time that Rep. Omar acknowledged the Gundam franchise. Gundam has recently been in the news with a 60-foot version of its iconic mecha built in Yokohama coming to life. The large-scale model took its first steps and is now able to sit and even crouch. This accomplishment, achieved by the engineers at the Gundam Factory in Yokohama, was enough to earn the Congresswoman’s praise.
The Gundam franchise has gone out of its way to try and inject a little bit of positivity into a year weighed down by a lot of turmoil and upheaval. Sometimes it’s been through feats of science like the massive Gundam being built and smaller gestures like calling upon the series’ iconography to spread a message of hope through a short video messages.
It makes sense that Gundam would be something Rep. Omar would support after taking a look at the themes that often run through the franchise. The Gundam and their pilots are often agents of change, with the robots being at the root of political upheaval and change in a far-flung future. Rep. Omar is one of four freshman Congresswomen of color commonly known as “The Squad.” Together with Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan they and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, “The Squad” championed many progressive causes like The Green New Deal to grapple with growing impact of climate change.
With a contentious November election looming in the U.S. this year, a moment of levity and a bit of positivity is a good bellwether against the emotional rollercoaster that is looming.
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