Late last year, a friend of mine shared a link to a small creator on Instagram who was making something that combined two of my hobbies: cameras and Gundam. I was immediately on board. What is Gundam? Very broadly, Gundam refers to a series of science fiction anime shows and movies centered around a future where conflict is fought with giant robots — or mechs. It is named primarily after the first of the series, Mobile Suit Gundam from 1979. Not all of these mechs are Gundam, though, and typically that term is reserved for a very specific, highly performant variant of mech. Depending on the anime series (of which there are many, and they do not have to be connected in any way other than to feature the general themes of Gundam), there may only be one or a few Gundam mechs. Gundam is one of the most visible pop culture icons in Japan, and its influence has spanned the globe thanks to the varied and numerous iterations the concept has taken.…