This $500 million concept megayacht was inspired by Japanese anime and designed to look like a swan — take a look at the Avanguardia

The Avanguardia concept megayacht.Lazzarini Design Studio

• Rome-based Lazzarini Design Studio unveiled the Avanguardia, a concept megayacht shaped like a swan.
• The design was inspired by 1970s and 1980s Japanese anime shows, according to its maker.
• The "neck" is movable, and the "head" — which otherwise serves as the command center — can be detached and turned into a tender.
• If a client wants to build the yacht, Lazzarini Design Studio estimates the total cost would be about $500 million.

Lazzarini Design Studio unveiled the Avanguardia, a concept megayacht shaped like a swan with a movable neck and removable head.

Avanguardia, which is Italian for vanguard or avant-garde, is a seemingly fitting name for this uniquely shaped yacht that prominently features a swan head-like control tower above the rest of the ship.

According to the Rome-based design studio, the yacht was inspired by several 1970s and 1980s Japanese anime series that depicted the head of robots as command centers. But in terms of the specific swan component, its designer drew inspiration from a single anime: "Casshan", a series that featured a robot swan character pretending to be a woman.

Keep scrolling to see the yacht: