The album, succinctly titled Gundam Rock, is due out September 9th and will contain English language covers of the theme songs from Mobile Suit Gundam and the movie trilogy, as well as covers of the background music. He also plans to reenact the opening narration and the speech Gihren Zabi makes during his father's funeral:

This isn't Andrew W.K.'s first tribute to Japanese culture. Just last year, he released a 14-song album covering J-pop songs, including Daisuke Inoue's "Ai Senshi," which served as the ending theme to the second Gundam movie:

[Anime News Network via Japanator]

The Gundam Academy is pulling its virtual faculty from experts in the fields of astrophysics, engineering, anthropology, medicine, linguistics, and urban planning. Their intention is to study the lessons and ideas contained in the Gundam franchise to usher in social and technological advances:

Shinya Hashizume, a professor of urban planning and architecture at Osaka Prefectural University, said: “Gundam presents the reader with many challenges that we will encounter. It is vital to begin conducting research into these. Scientific research in Japan desperately needs a flow of new ideas…”

Shinichi Nakasuka, a professor of astronautics at the University of Tokyo and one of the founders of the academy, said: “Studying fiction is an excellent way to get ideas about the future. Scientists often restrict their way of thinking to what they factually know. The comic shows how ordinary people without much deep scientific knowledge can come up with very good ideas.”

Gundam’s mechanized mobile suits in particular have already driven innovation. MIT aeronautics professor Dava Newman's sleek, counter-pressurized BioSuit struck many as Gundam-inspired, as has NASA’s foray into nuclear thermal rocket research.

Gundam cartoon academy to turn science fiction into reality in Japan [Times Online]

In this future, fossil fuels have completely been tapped out and humanity runs on solar power. Countries with the best solar power capabilities now call the shots and are at war with the weaker lands. This unfair advantage, and threat to the "promised land of God," leads to the creation of the Celestial Beings, a group who wants to end the war and unite us all under the four Gundam mechs.

The series will begin airing on the Sci Fi Channel this November on the 17th. There will be a total of 50 episodes, which originally aired in Japan in 2002.

What's a Gundam Mobile suit? It's a mecha war machine with the capability to inflict some serious devastation, considering your enemy doesn't also have a fancy suit of their own. The Gundam world is huge, and the dubbed version of this show will no doubt become a huge success for Sci Fi.

Astro Boy
Birth year: 1963
Who he is: A doe-eyed robot with jet engine feet, eyes that double as searchlights, and a nuclear reactor heart, created by manga godfather Osamu Tezuka.
Lessons learned: 1. Robots are smart and good. (Astro Boy had decision-making skills and a heroic conscience built into his circuitry.) 2. International politics: nuclear power is only dangerous if used maliciously, or if there's an accident. 3. Optimism goes a long way even when your world is being ravaged by war.

Doraemon
Birth year: 1969
Who he is: A blue robotic cat from the future that appeared out of accident-prone schoolboy Nobita's desk drawer. Doraemon has a treasure trove of secret weapons in his four-dimensional built-in fanny pack—everything from candy that makes you tell the truth to an ATM machine that recycles used goods for cash. In March, Doraemon was chosen to be the Anime Ambassador of Japan by the Foreign Ministry.
Lessons learned: 1. Don't be afraid of bullies. 2. Travel as much as you can—whether it's through a teleportation door, with propellers on your head, or on a time machine. 3. Just because you look different doesn't mean you can't be best friends.

Arale Norimaki
Birth year: 1980
Who she is: A purple-haired, near-sighted girl robot built by a kooky professor named Norimaki Senbei (seaweed-wrapped rice cracker) to resemble a real 13 year old human girl. She was created by Akira Toriyama, the same genius manga artist who wrote the Dragon Ball series.
Lessons learned: 1. To be fun and spontaneous. 2. To be honest about your compulsions. 3. That you can be female + completely non-sexual + still be the most powerful humanoid in the entire world. 4. How to launch pumpkin cannons and split the earth in half with one punch. 5. The art of the Japanese poop joke. (Even today, my favorite way to pick up my dog's poop is by poking it with a stick and then chucking it into the bushes or a trash can.)

Gundam
Birth year: 1979
Who he is: A cockpit-operated "mobile suit" from a world called UC (Universal Century). Some would argue that Gundam is technically not a robot, but it wouldn't be fair to exclude him from this list because of his importance in global humanoid machine history.
Lessons learned: 1. War is inevitable. 2. Bigger is sometimes better. 3. There are other universes out there, and one day we will all live in outer space.

I love the tee with the laser-eyed robot (below).

And who could resist this bizarre tee (bottom), which says "wonderful future life" and is topped with inexplicable pictures of mouse heads and explodey stars.

Be sure to check out the Terratag gundam gallery.

Terratag via Hide Your Arms.

The tank is 9.42 meters long, 3.24 meters wide, and 2.3 meters tall. The 44-ton tank comes equipped with a 120mm gun, a 12.7mm and a 7.67mm machine gun. Japan's military is, by law, only for defense. These tanks certainly do look very . . . defensive. Photos via TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images

Japan's Defense Ministry to Explore "Realizing" Gundam [Anime News Network]

The two bars are named after the rival factions in the Gundam universe: Zeon and Federation Forces. They're advertising right now for lady servers who want to dress up like characters from Gundam.
No word yet on whether Bar Zeon will go to war with Bar Federation Forces, but it seems inevitable. Now there's some live entertainment I'd like to see.

Mobile Suit Cosplay Bar [Anime News Network]