McDonald’s Japan gives us a taste of the anime world with new series of Gundam burgers

Char takes over McDonald’s for a limited time, but are his burgers as good as he says they are?

Just last week, a new spokesperson for McDonald’s appeared in Japan. Usually, this wouldn’t be much cause for concern, but this new spokesperson wasn’t a friendly face — in fact, it wasn’t the face of a human at all. Instead, it was the helmeted face of one of the world’s most famous anime antagonists – Char Aznable, from the mecha anime Mobile Suit Gundam!

▼ Here he is, fronting up for the new series of Gundam burgers, with this one playing up the spiciness of the Char Custom Kara Dabuchi.

While the entire four-burger series includes a Char Custom Dabuchi Sausage Muffin, only available on the morning menu, when our Gundam-loving reporter Egawa Tasuku stopped by to try the burgers at lunch, there were three to choose from.

▼ Left to right: Red Garlic Teriyaki, Kara Dabuchi, and Newtype White Torichi

Seeing as Egawa had previously tried the Kara Dabuchi when it appeared on the menu for a limited time last year, he was keen to try the “New” burgers, which were making their debut at McDonald’s for the first time. So he ordered the Teriyaki and the Torichi, along with a Red Energy Flavour McFizz, and took them home for a taste test.

▼ Lovin’ it.

Like Char himself, who’s known for fighting in custom versions of standard mobile suits featured in the anime, these burgers have been equally enhanced. Taking them out of the bag revealed they were decked out in Char Custom mobile suits of their own — Zeong for the Newtype White Torichi (left) and the Char Custom Gelgoog for the Red Garlic Teriyaki (right).

Starting with the Newtype White Torichi, Egawa stopped for a moment to gaze at the beauty of the packaging.

Inside this mobile suit was the white triple cheeseburger, oozing with white cheddar cheese, which reminded Egawa of the colour associated with series protagonist Amuro Ray. It was heavy and delicious, but if this were a battle, Amuro would probably want to curl up for a nap after eating a burger like this rather than head into battle with Char.

▼ Next up to the tasting dock, we have the Char Custom Red Garlic Teriyaki.

This new burger sits inside the Gelgoog, the mobile suit Char piloted before Zeong. As a nod to Char’s favourite colour, and his nickname, “The Red Comet”, red plays a big role here, featuring in the spicy sauce and colouring the burger buns.

The specs for this burger are built upon a teriyaki base model, and include smoked bacon and garlic soy sauce mayonnaise.

This was a deliciously smoky, saucy encounter, and it delivered such a wallop of spice to the taste buds that Egawa was glad he’d bought the red McFizz. This fizzy beverage helped to douse the heat and sweeten the climax with honey and guarana berries.

Everything Egawa tasted made an impact and left him feeling happy and satisfied, much like a Gundam episode, although this new series will be coming to a conclusion soon, as it’s only on the menu until the end of July.

Before the series wraps up, Egawa hopes to order all the burgers and head out to the life-size statue of the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam in Tokyo, the RX-78-2 Gundam in Yokohama, and the RX-93 ν (“Nu”) Gundam in Fukuoka, to really blur the lines between fast food and fiction!

Photos © SoraNews24
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