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Japanese love robots. It is a nation of AIBO (remember the Sony dog robots?), ASIMO and NAO. Japanese literally created thousands of robot animes, starting from ASTRO BOY in 1950s. Now, it was foreseeable that Japanese fans of robots would be captivated by Guillermo del Toro’s PACIFIC RIM. And we are. There is a report of rather disappointing box office results from the opening weekend, but the reactions from its audience are exceptionally better. Twitter is filled with illustrations drawn by the fans of the film, some of which are simply amazing. As I have discussed before, Japanese consumed incredible amount of robot/monster-related action animes, TV shows and films in last fifty years. I am not a particularly into this genre like other hardcore fans, but still, have seen the share of these inspiring (and uninspiring) works. Guillermo del Toro is a self-admitted fan (otaku) of all these works, and his vast knowledge of the genre resonates with Japanese audience (including me). By the way, my personal favorite of del Toro’s work is still CRONOS (1993), a hypnotic horror fantasy film.