Elon Musk tweets it’s time to create a ‘mecha’ or giant anime robot

SpaceX
founder and chief executive Elon Musk speaks after announcing
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa as the first private
passenger on a trip around the moon, Monday, Sept. 17,
2018.

Chris
Carlson/AP Photo

• Elon Musk tweeted about his love for a 2016 anime film and
  followed it up by saying it was time to create a “mecha,” or
  giant fighting anime robot in the wee hours of Sunday morning.
• While governments around the world spend hundreds of billions
  on weapons and defense programs annually, no major military has
  yet outlined a need for a giant robot that swings a sword.
• But Musk has come through on seemingly joking propositions
  before. The Boring Company, a subsidiary of Musk’s SpaceX
  company, “started out as a joke.”
• Musk also had a foray into the weapons market with
  flamethrowers.

Elon Musk tweeted about his love for a 2016 anime film and
followed it up by saying it was time to create a “mecha,” or
giant fighting anime robot in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

Musk has tweeted about anime before and admits to not getting that much
sleep.

At around midnight PT, Musk tweeted the trailer for “Your
Name” saying that he loved it. Wikipedia describes the film
as 
“Japanese animated romantic fantasy drama
film” that became a smash hit in and outside of Japan.

Around 1:30 a.m. PT, Musk tweeted “it’s time to create a
mecha.”

A “mecha,” in the context of anime, is a giant fighting and
flying human-shaped robot with a pilot onboard. The robots, made
popular in anime like the “Gundam” series, typically are armed
with guns, melee, or sci-fi weapons.

While governments around the world spend hundreds of billions on
weapons and defense programs annually, no major military has yet
outlined a need for a giant robot that swings a sword.

Though it appears Musk was casually mentioning taking on a sci-fi
manufacturing challenge, he has come through on seemingly joking
propositions before.

The Boring Company, a subsidiary of Musk’s Spacex company,
“started out as a joke,” Musk
said in September.

But now the Boring Company has undertaken a massive tunneling
project for the city of Los Angeles with the goal of
easing traffic.

The Boring Company is actually already in the business of selling
impractical weapons with the flamethrower that quickly sold
out, and also started as a joke reference to a film, “Space
Balls.”

But not all of Musk’s Twitter jokes have gone over so well. After
Musk’s infamous “funding secured” tweet where he said he’d take
Tesla private when the stock hit $420 a share, the Securities and
Exchange Commission sued him.

The SEC’s lawsuit alleges Musk made false or misleading
statements with the tweet, and that it may have been a joke for
his girlfriend.

“Musk stated that he rounded the price up to $420 because he had
recently learned about the number’s significance in marijuana
culture and thought his girlfriend ‘would find it funny, which
admittedly is not a great reason to pick a price,'” the filing
reads.

Musk agreed to step down as
chairman of Tesla’s board for three years as part of a
settlement with the SEC, though he will remain CEO.

Get the latest Tesla stock price here.