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Gundam-esque Robot Makes Surprise Cameo in Dodgers' World Series Art

Following the Los Angeles Dodgers' back-to-back Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series wins, the MLB posted the team's championship illustration by local artist McFlyy on Wednesday. While fans were quick to congratulate the Dodgers on their achievement, astute anime fans also noticed a Gundam-lookalike robot in the top right corner of the illustration. The robot appears to sport a batting helmet (complete with a jaw-protecting C-flap), a vaguely bat-shaped beam saber, and baseball glove hand.

The robot appeared three weeks earlier in McFlyy's illustration for the National and American Leagues' Championship Series:

A Japanese poster wondered if the Dodgers would collaborate with Gundam in the future (“Will a Dodgers Gundam be released?”), and put up an image of the Seibu Lions' official RX-78-2 Gundam Lions Ver. model kit:

While many of the comments focused on the Gundam-esque robot, one noticed the World Series illustration has a striking resemblance to a visual for The End of Evangelion movie. The commenter appears to reference the bottom of the illustration's red water, debris protruding from the water, and the MLB Commissioner's Trophy in the same location as Evangelion character Kaworu Nagisa's face.

McFlyy also posted the World Series image and sketches to his social media account on Wednesday. McFlyy said, “This collaboration was about intertwining the influential culture of anime and the global phenomenon that is baseball.” As of press time McFlyy, has not commented if the robot is based on the RX-78-2 Gundam and if the landscape is based on The End of Evangelion visual.

The Dodgers took home the Commissioner's Trophy on November 1 (well, November 2 after midnight) in the epic seventh-of-seven World Series 2025 game against the Toronto Blue Jays. The Blue Jays won the first matchup 11-4. Ohtani and the Dodgers bounced back for games 2 and 3 by beating the Blue Jays 5-1 and 6-5, respectively. The latter was a grueling 18-inning game. Toronto came back in the fourth game to win 6-2. The Dodgers clinched the World Series in the final two games by beating the Blue Jays 3-1 and 5-4 respectively. The final game was decided in the 11th inning, when Dodgers catcher Will Smith hit a home run to left field and pitcher (and the series' eventual Most Valuable Player) Yoshinobu Yamamoto held the Blue Jays to 0 runs for a final score of 5-4.

Sources: MLB's X/Twitter account, @chikillerdsk's X/Twitter account, @JustPlants31's X/Twitter account, IMDB, McFlyy's Instagram account via Hachima Kikō