Anime fans, assemble: Bandai Namco opening ‘Gundam Base’ retail experience south of Seattle

(Bandai Namco Image) Giant anime robots are landing in the Seattle area. Bandai Namco is opening an official Gundam Base retail store at Westfield Southcenter mall in Tukwila, Wash., this fall, giving Pacific Northwest anime and model-kit fans a permanent flagship destination for all things Gunpla. For the uninitiated, Gundam isn’t just a nostalgic cartoon; it’s a massive, multibillion-dollar global media franchise that revolutionized Japanese animation when the original “Mobile Suit Gundam” ser