Normally, on any given day, the BBC is one of the most trusted and respected news outlets in the world. They report news in a fair and balanced manner, and it’s rare to see them make a major mistake. This is why I believe that August 5th, 2021 is a day that will certainly make their social media person see red for many years to come.
See if you can spot the tiny little mistake that the BBC made in this Twitter post from the Tokyo Olympics.
Just when you thought speed climbing was frightening enough, you now need to impress a Transformer too at #Tokyo2020! 👀🤖 pic.twitter.com/0GzmVd3CnX
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) August 5, 2021
As you can see, it seems that the BBC doesn’t know their giant robots from a hole in the ground. Luckily for them, however, otaku around the world rushed to fill their Twitter feed with “handy” corrections and didn’t at all razz the news organization for their obvious blunder. I’m just kidding. They totally razzed the BBC all day and all night. Here are some of my favorites, below.
Anime giant robot in foreign view lol pic.twitter.com/DaJuAbKF8v
— SHIZU (@MC_SHIZU) August 6, 2021
— Saiful Ahmad (@xyfahmad) August 5, 2021
https://twitter.com/TheBirdOHermes/status/1423258485958004736
That’s not a transformer. Common mistake. It’s actually Transformer’s monster
— Adam Vian (@SFBDim) August 5, 2021
How dare you mislabel this Evangelion.
— Off The Fence Podcast (@OffTheFenceTalk) August 5, 2021
It's only a Gundam if it comes from the Gundame region of France, otherwise it's just a sparkling Transformer.
— Lee Cheney (@Leeroybrownhu9) August 5, 2021
As you can see, otaku around the world were very helpful, which led to the BBC doubling down with a follow-up tweet that posed a deep, philosophical question, though I’m sure that many Gundam and anime fans would rather they just apologized for the error.
We see what's happened here…
But who would win in an Olympic battle between a Gundam v Transformer? #bbcolympics pic.twitter.com/VXGszX18VK
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) August 5, 2021
As was pointed out, it’s been quite a long while since the BBC has aired anime on their station so this is an easy mistake that anyone could’ve made. However, as was also pointed out, just a few seconds on Google would’ve correctly identified the giant robot statue as a Gundam and would’ve saved the outlet a bit of face.
So, is it too late for us to just say that this never happened and let the BBC slide on this one little misstep? I mean, it could’ve been much worse; at least they didn’t mess up with any of the names of the cultural ambassadors. Right?
