Kitty White—best known to her friends as Hello Kitty, the beloved Sanrio mascot that has charmed the world for decades—likes friendship. She does not like devastating pan-galactic conflict between Federations and principalities. So it’s of no surprise that she has lofty goals: Stop Mobile Suit Gundam from happening at all costs.
That is, essentially, the premise of the truly bonkers Gundam vs. Hello Kitty crossover, an event held in Japan over the last year to celebrate 45 and 40 years of both Hello Kitty and the original Mobile Suit Gundam, respectively. Mainly marked by a bunch of adorably silly crossover merchandise, it was also heralded by a brief animated short in which Kitty and Gundam’s original hero, Amuro Ray, meet. Released in three parts, the final “episode” of the OVA was dropped this week, with Sanrio and Bandai releasing a full compilation of the three shorts to celebrate.
You’ll have to dig elsewhere to find unofficial English subtitles for the skit, but the premise is pretty simple: Kitty is watching an episode of Mobile Suit Gundam at home, gets upset that Amuro is sad about the horrors of war, and promptly decides to...magic her way over into Gundam’s reality to have a chat with him about this whole bloodshed thing?
Amuro, being Amuro, is mostly unsure if this cutesy little cat being can stop a war that has literally already claimed the lives of millions. He’s also horrified by the fact that, in his world, Kitty is a godlike being capable of deflecting beam blasts with love, and also transforming Mobile Suits into cute, chibi versions of themselves that don’t want to fight, but instead, hug.
Yes, Hello Kitty is a god who also invented the SD Gundam craze. I love it.
The whole thing is only about six minutes long, but it’s this incredible mix of absurdity and almost a sense of tragedy. As hopeful as Kitty and Amuro are at the end, they cannot succeed in a peaceful end to the Federation and Zeon’s conflict, because, well, the rest of the Universal Century Timeline happens. A handwave of sparkles here and an SD mecha there cannot undo the horror of war, try as Kitty might.
But also, it bears repeating: Hello Kitty is a God? She doesn’t need Amuro’s co-operation. She could atomize these Mobile Suits in a heartbeat. But at what cost to her soul?
I love it. I love it so much.
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