The REAL History of 70s SUPER Robots

there's an egregious misconception I noticed among English-speaking anime fans when it comes to talking about the rise of real robots over super robots in anime for some reason the Super Robot shows that dominated anime in the 70s are always portrayed as kid-friendly spectacles invented just to sell toys with scant Innovation for the entirety of the decade only for Mobile Suit Gundam to uproot the genre and turn everything into a gritty military Drama watching through YouTube videos on the history of Mecha anime you'll notice it's a common practice to jump from mausinger to Mobile Suit Gundam this sentiment that Super Robot shows of the era had so little Innovation that Gundam should be the next step in their evolution is not only cringe as [ __ ] but completely undermines the cultural and economic changes in Japan during that time that shaped Japanese media not to mention the internal politics within the industry itself that dictated what kinds of shows were made when and by who mobile stood Gundam changed the game for sure but it wasn't something that came out of left field the series was built on themes established by its predecessors in the genre and I'm not exclusively talking talking about Space Battleship Yamato to understand how the mecca genre evolved we have to first look at where it started and I'm controversially not talking about tetsujin [Music] in 1971 anime was dying the number of anime and production were dwindling and in the Years leading up to this even shows that pulled in high ratings were struggling to make a profit in April of 71 toei's television Department premiered Kamen Rider a series that would revolutionize Japanese pop culture and revive the then failing TV tokusatsu genre a few weeks after Kamen Rider premiered Ultraman returned from a three-year Hiatus in a series titled return of Ultraman the live-action special effects industry was a Powerhouse once again and children were ignoring anime in favor of special effect superheroes also the 1968 and 1969 bankruptcies of Morrison shoten and imai two of the biggest producers of anime related merchandise probably didn't help veteran anime writer masaki suji described the situation bluntly in a 2007 interview when he said TV anime was on the verge of Extinction internally towie's animation Department was desperate for a hit to bring anime back into the spotlight as there were genuine concerns that toy would shut down their animation Department known at the time as toei Doga the solution was to develop shows that took full advantage of the medium of Animation featuring extraordinary and Supernatural Feats that couldn't be accomplished in a live-action television show toei had several meetings with gonagai a famous author of gagmanga at the time whose manga harun shigakuan had already been adapted into four films and a 27 episode TV series at the time gonna guy and toei were working on the pre-production of Devilman when nagai pitched mazinger z mossinger z was a giant robot work in the same vein as mitsutera yokoyama's tetrajin 28 or giant Robo however mosinger would increase the drama and tension by having the main character pilot the Mac like a vehicle instead of controlling it from afar the project was initially met with skepticism but after mozinger Z began airing toei and their sponsors were shocked because kids loved it but why in the late 60s and early 70s there was a period of drastic Evolution for anime and manga this was the age of the geekiga movement a shift towards more realistic art and deeper storytelling where Japanese artists pushed against the stigma that manga was just entertainment for children the anime of the era reflected this with titles like lupon III ashitanojo and Ryu the Primitive boy the latter of which despite being about a cave boy fighting dinosaurs is overtly a series about Japanese racism these shows are revered with Prestige today but when they air it they were costly Productions and struggled to make their money back what mazinger Z did was combine the fantasy and sci-fi elements of classic manga with the detailed art and unrestrained nature of modern manga and mazinger Z would draw heavily from these Works don't get me wrong the series was aimed at kids but it was also still a series made by go nagai a name synonymous with pushing boundary for example anime was filled with male and female hero Duos at that time but mazinger's Koji Kabuto and sayaka Yumi stand out because unlike other pairings Koji and sayaka fight and when I say fight I mean physically sayakayumi's sense of agency and her Hot Blooded nature have letter to be cited as one of anime's earliest examples of a strong female character as well as the less impressive title of the first tsundere character mossinger wasn't trying to hit an older demographic like Joe or lupon but it still didn't hold back characters in mosing are good and bad die often brutally great mausinger would take this a step further and introduce the character Juno a half Japanese half-black pilot who was bullied throughout her life due to her dark skin so the point that she even tried scrubbing her skin until it bled while the real robots of the late 70s and 80s did present stories and characters that challenged viewers that doesn't mean Super Robot shows didn't and these Innovations carried the attention of children back to anime one of the greatest benefits for gonagai and his team at Dynamic planning was that unlike tetsujin they had the hindsight of the Kaiju boom of the 60s the Kaiju boom as its name implies was the explosion of giant monster movies produced in Japan following the success of Godzilla and because of these films Dynamic planning had a good idea of what kids wanted to see from a show about giant robots fighting monsters in fact mozinger's name evil appearance and his reputation as a Punisher of evil is more than likely an homage to the 1960s film series dimajin which was about a giant Stone statue that comes to life to punish evil one of the greatest obstacles for those films was that they were very expensive to produce due to their large sets expensive Miniatures and costly special effects all of which could be done more cheaply and cleanly in animation making mausinger a series with all the benefits of the Kaiju boom without any of the drawbacks mozinger also introduced Concepts that would become Staples in the mecca genre like adding new equipment and power-ups such as the scrandor which allows mozinger to fly and the photon Rockets introduced in episode 18 giving mozinger the ability to jump 500 meters in the air and jet through water mossinger's sponsor was a company called popey who produced two lines of toys to promote the series the jogokine line and the jumbo machinder line the chogokine line named for the super alloy chokokin Z which mazinger Z was said to be built from were a line of die-cast metal toys with articulated joints and action features like rocket punching fists the jumbo machinder line were 24-inch plastic figures with similar action features and both were massive hits contributing to Pope's complete domination of Japanese toy aisles the success of the toy line and the mossingers the anime would lead to the series running for two years ending with 92 episodes as well as mossinger appearing in a handful of toa's Summer Films in 1974 toei Pope Dynamic planning and Fuji TV would team up to produce two new Super Robot shows the sequel to mosinger titled great mausinger and get a robo get a robo was another major Innovation for the mecca genre as the anime featured three ships that could combined in different sequences to form three different robots expanding Popeye's line of figures and becoming anime's first combiner Mac get a robo was even darker than mazinger and portrayed its main characters as hot-blooded Renegades fighting a bloody and often disturbing War for the fate of the Earth with much heavier political overtones in the manga unlike toei's adaptation of mazinger get her Robo definitely feels like it was toned down to hit a particular demographic not that the show isn't worth watching it's still a fun story with great animation like this fight scene in episode 11 animated by kazuhide tomonaga best known for animating the car chase from Castle of caliostro and the opening to Batman the Animated Series but it is a completely different tone than kanishikawa's manga on the subject of Animation there's also four episodes towards the end of the series animated by yoshinori Kanata Kanata is known as Japan's first rock star animator whose flashy action animation would go on to inspire The Works of studio gynax and Trigger this includes one episode he worked on where getarobo has to fight the dinosaur Empire deep inside a volcano which would have been a cool concept if they didn't just steal it from Evangelion geez in 1974 while getting Robo was still airing the mossinger staff would move to working on the sequel series great mossinger by this point the getter and mausinger series were massive hits for toei Pope and Fuji TV but it was in 1975 where we'd see a division arise within this Collective mosinger's second sequel series UFO robot grandizer premiered in October of 1975. grundheiser was inspired by the rise in popularity of UFOs and ancient civilizations and you'll notice from this point onwards that a lot of anime I mentioned will depict enemies and flying saucers or will open with images of Stonehenge moai heads or the Nazca Lines fun fact also the enemy seen in episodes 52 and 53 King gory who's based on a giant gorilla wearing armor is believed to have inspired the cyan armor worn in Dragon Ball Z despite being the next title in the mazinger series grendeiser wasn't being worked on by the animation staff behind great mausinger instead toei used the team from getter Robo while the mosinger staff were developing a new robot show titled steeljig which omitted two of the major parties in the previous Network Fuji TV and Pope still geek premiered on the same day as Grenda as her on net and was about a giant piloted robot who could detach his items at the joints and reform himself using magnets the series was sponsored by Toy Company Sakara who was in direct competition with popey's grandizer that Christmas popey ran into trouble as they struggled designing the mechanism that would attach the grandizer robot toy to its saucer and as a result the toy was delayed and didn't make it to shelves in time for the holiday season takara's Magna Robo steel jig became the toy to have Christmas of 1975 and Pope saw this as a betrayal the company who once stood uncontested in the field of robot toys now not only had competition but their competition was winning and to Poppy it was all the fault of gonagai Pope's grudge against Dynamic planning would see jig excluded from what had become a tradition among toeimeka shows the summer crossover films every summer toei would create original films that saw Dynamic planning characters crossing over into each other's Universe to fight against the new enemy these films were huge events and were highly anticipated by children in the early 70s in 1976 toei released grandizer get a robo G and great mausinger battle the giant sea monster this film was intended as a finale to go in a guy's robot series with gunagai even trying to convince toei to allow him to include Devilman cutie honey and McCune and jig so all of dynamic planning's TV animation characters could appear on screen together but towie shot the idea down stating it would take additional effort to include those characters since they were from different TV networks while grandizer great mausinger and get a robo G were all airing on Fuji TV regardless the movie was a great success so much so that toei greenlit another crossover movie despite this one being positioned as the great send-off the movie was titled UFO robot crandiser steel jig and get a roboji but before the the film could be animated it was canceled due to Pope's protest about their robot appearing alongside takara's a script was finished and the story was adapted into a four-page comic titled grundizer vs steeljig but the two would never meet on the big screen toei and Fuji TV would continue to produce giant robot shows but without gonna guy both to appease their sponsors and so they wouldn't have to deal with having to send Dynamic planning huge royalty checks following the finale of getterrobo G toei created a new robot series titled guy King featuring many of the themes and design elements that had become Staples for the giant robot genre there was a problem though gona guy claims that guy King's design was too similar to mosinger and grandizer and threatened to take toei to court over copyright infringement toei opted to avoid going to court and gave Dynamic planning a creative credit on guy King but despite giving go nagaya Credit in the final version of the show guy King really would represent the end of an era for giant robot anime foreign [Music] Tokyo tree sakurako is a monthly subscription box packed with up to 20 traditional and authentic Artisan Japanese snacks including Japanese tea and one piece of Japanese tableware in every box in this box I received a teacup saucer soccer co-partners with local Japanese snack makers to share the Japanese tradition of snacking and Japanese culture with the world the theme for this box is Kyoto Moon Festival and this box is packed with snacks you'd actually find on Japan's moon Tokyo treat offers up to 20 of the latest contemporary Japanese snacks so if you prefer pop Japanese snacks the latest and greatest in Japanese snacking then Tokyo treat is the box for you if you don't know what any of these snacks are that's fine I don't either but there's this helpful booklet detailing all of the snacks and what they're made of King Caesar loves the sugar bun almost as much as he loves making a mess meanwhile I got another one of those pancakes with stuff inside it I'm in China foreign if you want to try any of these boxes for yourself click the link in the description and use code Mercury for a discount and thanks again to sakurako and Tokyo treat for sponsoring this video from 1972 to 1975 Guna Guy Kenny chikawa and the team of creatives at Dynamic planning were the kings of robot anime but they weren't the only names making Headway in the industry in 1972 tatsunoko background artist kunio okawara would be placed in charge of drawing the mecca for the anime science ninja team gotcha man akawara would receive the first industry credit as a mechanical designer and he and his boss art director mitsuki Nakamura who'd found tatsunoko Design Studio mechaman designing robots and sci-fi vehicles for many of tatunoko's most popular anime during the era by 1976 Mecca man would break off from tatsunoko though they'd maintain a healthy relationship designing many of the Studio's iconic Max and vehicles in fact only a few days after Telly premiered guy King tatsunoko premiered a new robot anime in collaboration with Takara and Mech designer kunio okawara guapa 5 go Dam would hold a place in anime history as tatsunoko's first giant robot show and the first Mecha anime to feature a female as the main character and the leader of a team but unfortunately the series was in a ratings battle with toei's grandizer as well as a popular game show and the show ended as a huge flop a few months later in September of 76 Takara would reveal a new collaboration with toei serving as a spiritual successor to steal jig titled Magna Robo gawking Magna Robo gakkin is notable for having a Mech piloted by a man and a woman who were equal parts of the main character and this Duality between a male and female sharing the role as a protagonist was a huge point in the promoting of the series with the anime magazine uchusen describing the main robot as a robot that has both the strength of a man and the kindness of a woman on the surface with the violence of a man and the cruelty of a woman on the inside to put it lightly the relationship between toei Pope and dynamic planning was not what it used to be and Pope would find success working directly with Toyon guy King as well as with studio so Asia on their robot anime Brave riding Brave writing was a huge series for Poppy and Mecca anime in general unlike previous giant robots who were built by scientists in Universe the titular writing was actually a robot-like god from an ancient civilization a story element created to help the show stand out from mausinger writing's main gimmick was its ability to transform into a jet a transformation which unlike ghetto Robos could be accurately recreated by the choco King figure riding had two directors and both would become very important names in Mecca tario nagahama and yoshiyuki tomino with the success of writing's chogokin and jumbo mashinder toys Pope would collaborate on a project that joined both zoesha and toei on a Mecca Trilogy that saw nagahama at the helm known today as the robot romance Trilogy these series were combatler V voltas 5 and tosho Daimos kombala V was still a monster of the week show but featured greater character development especially among the villains despite not being canonically connected one Mainstay of the robot romance Trilogy was the inclusion of a tragic villain who despite being a different character in each series was always voiced by Osamu ichikawa compiler drew some inspiration from getarobo being a combiner Mech piloted by a team but was designed in a way so that the transformation could be properly replicated in the tour way as you can imagine by now that was a common criticism leveraged at getterrobo combat combat all the entries in the robot romance Trilogy were created by sabaro yatsude a pseudonym for toei's internal writing staff zavaro yatsade would also later be credited as the creator of the Super Sentai series and a lot of sentai's troops can be seen in these series such as the use of combiner mechs teams with color-coded uniforms and extended scenes of comical or melodramatic interplay between the villains meanwhile gonagai would team up with nap Productions to release grosser X Knack Productions is a somewhat controversial Studio known for their low production value and often so bad its funny output such as the infamous charge man can according to next president kiyoshi nishino gonagai originally wanted goizer X to be produced by toei but after his falling out he would bring it to Knack budabashi's gonna Guy TV anime encyclopedia paints a different picture stating that the series was already in development at Knack who approached Dynamic planning after the incident for help bringing the show together and for help producing a serialized Manga version Grazer X flopped miserably and unfortunately Dynamic planning would continue to release low quality if not at least somewhat interesting works with Knack like the 1976 live-action tokusatsu series battle Hawk in 1977 toei replaced to go in a guy with Legion Matsumoto of Space Battleship Yamato Fame creating Vanguard Ace denguard Ace actually sported really high production value with high quality animation by toei Studio number one and the show wound up doing very well however Matsumoto would opt out of creating more robot shows with toei as he wasn't a huge fan of the giant robot genre in general and mostly agreed to make the show as a means of greasing the wheels on getting an animated adaptation of his Captain Harlock manga meanwhile so Asia who were disappointed with the fact that most of their profits were going to their parent company tohoku shinsha made a deal with toy company Clover who agreed to sponsor three anime projects affording the studio the freedom to break away from their parent company and produce more original anime without having to rely on subcontracting work the studio renamed itself Nippon sunrise and their first project under the new name was a series titled zambot 3. zambot 3 follows three clans of alien children who flee their home planet Beale after it was destroyed by the alien entity gaizak while trying to start new lives on Earth guys invade so the children must use three vehicles that can combine into the robot sambot 3 to fight off the Invaders zambot 3 is where we see a huge leap in the themes and tone of Mecca anime with zambot 3 giving us some of the earliest examples of psychological introspection in the genre the show often portrayed its battles as horrific often cutting to civilians running from debris there is an emphasis on human suffering and the collateral damage these battles caused episode 13 is famous for a scene where the main character kape becomes Frozen at the site of refugees being blown up by a gaizak mecha boost episode 16 would see the introduction of one of the series most infamous elements the human bombs the episode sees the gizoc abducting humans and planting time bombs in them then releasing them turning them into unknowing suicide bombers but beyond all of that the most famous aspect of zambot 3 is probably the ending in the final episode of the series during a battle in space two of zambot 3's child pilots uchita and Keiko are killed the ending would earn series director yoshiuki tomino the moniker kilimall tomino and confused and disgusted the toy sponsors I wouldn't be surprised if this response to zambot 3 is why the second series from Sunrise would leaned way more heavily into comedy daikon 3 was a robot show but Drew more heavily from Spy Thrillers and American comic books but more specifically it feels like a parody of robot anime spy Thrillers and American comic books the series features Mech designs from kunio okawara who at the time was best known for making the colorful toyotic Mexican Vehicles seen in tatunoko's popular time-boken series and you can see the influence from time boken not just in the mech designs but in the overall tone of the show unfortunately daikon wouldn't sell as well as zambot at least not domestically and sunrise would only have one more chance to produce a hit anime before they'd be forced to return to subcontracting work due to the success of the Space Battleship Yamato film Sunrise decided to make a series with a serialized story that could be adapted into a feature film like Yamato hoping that the success of the film would make it so Sunrise could continue producing their own original anime the fate of the studio ended on sunrise's Next original anime and that anime was called freedom fighter gunboy later changed the Mobile Suit Gundam Mobile Suit Gundam combined the realism of war scene in zambot 3 and the serialized storytelling and Military backdrop of Space Battleship Yamato creating something that felt truly original to the mecca genre Gundam was a show that portrays self-sacrifices heroic or honorable he was traumatizing and led to confusion and anger while other Mecca anime used Alien Invaders as their antagonists the villains of Gundam were humans who were exiled to outer space by Earth's government they wage a war against the Earth seeking Independence but in doing so have committed atrocities that have resulted in the loss of millions of innocent lives unlike previous Mecca shows the robots in Gundam were military weapons mostly of practical color and designs or at least they tried to at the time there were two major Mech Design Studios the previously mentioned Mecca man and Studio nue unlike Mecca man's colorful toyatic designs Studio nue was known for their grounded realistic designs and their High attention to detail surprisingly of the two Studios Sunrise hired kunio okawara of Mecca man however his art style clearly clashed with the tone director yoshiyuki tomino was going for oh [Music] foreign [Music] unfortunately the show started off on unstable ground receiving a time slot of Saturdays at 5 30 p.m reading skewed low and the story wasn't conducive for selling toys part way through the initial run though the series picked up steam and the soundtrack's vinyl record would become a bestseller this proved that while the series didn't resonate with young children teenagers and sci-fi enthusiasts loved it after the series ended Bandai saw major success with the sale of Gundam plastic models unlike toys plastic models were something you assembled painted and imposed yourself because of the skill required they weren't popular with children but were very popular with teenagers and enthusiasts the main demographic of Gundam something that I'm surprised a lot of people never talk about is how it's way easier to sell plastic models than toys toy sales especially with robot anime are very cut and dry when a show is popular on TV kids want to buy the robot from that show when that show is over kids generally lose interest and move on to the next robot however since plastic models hit an older audience not only do they have more money to spend but they're also willing to buy model kits for shows that might not be on TV anymore or they may have never even heard of it's also worth mentioning that according to mozinger composer chume Watanabe by the late 70s it was becoming much more common for record companies to sponsor anime and this would lead to anime having bigger budgets as well as more emphasis on the music this is one of the reasons why 70s anime openings are shouting about how strong your robot is and 80s anime openings are pop songs that have nothing to do with the show at all food [Music] thank you [Music] baby [Applause] [Music] [Applause] with the popularity of Gundam Rising as the series entered Nationwide syndication plus the success of the plastic models and vinyl records Sunrise green lit the theatrical film and the success of the film would turn Gundam into the massive multimedia franchise it is today the rise of Gundam and plastic models turned the industry's attention towards an older demographic and real robots inspired by Gundam would come to dominate anime throughout the 80s however it would be misguided to say that super robots fell out of favor in actuality super robots were having their own little Renaissance six combination godmars for example was a show planned to air for 24 episodes but strong toy cells and a large vocal female fan base led to the show being extended to 64 episodes and the creation of a feature film Shin tatsujin from 1980 is probably one of the most underrated Mecca series I've seen it continues the classic monster of the week format but modernizes the characters and Mech designs from yokoyama's original work in a way that even impressed yokoyama himself not to mention Gundam Creator yoshiyukitomino's own space runaway idion a Super Robot that continues the path of Zamba 3 by psychologically torturing all those who pilot it you see I think the issue the real robot genre as the next evolutionary step in robot anime when in actuality they're branching paths and throughout the early 80s both sub-genres would grow and mature by the 90s we'd even see super robots reclaim their status with Takara dropping the brave series on us and not to mention yasukiro imogawa dropping some of the greatest Super Robot anime to exist period including that one Gundam that everyone who says they hate Gundam says I'll accept that one in conclusion Gundam and real robots in general definitely innovated by popularizing serialized stories and the use of a military backdrop but super robots were in no way dead and still managed to create Innovative and influential shows if I had to guess where the Assumption of super robots just being colorful superheroes lacking real substance stems from I'd say it's probably because of how the West was exposed to Mecha anime through Voltron and Transformers I always find it strange how many write Mecca as a genre off entirely usually offering the caveats of except Evangelion Gurren Lagann and Code Geass which usually just translates to yeah I like the ones I've seen but the ones I haven't I assume are bad and stupid as the man who coined the phrase when an anime YouTuber says unlike most Mecca anime that focus on the robot this one focuses on the characters mocking how so many in the anglospheres seem to not understand that regardless of a static the Crux of Storytelling is character drama I think the first step in erasing these assumptions is learning about them foreign [Music] because I

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Length: 26min 22sec (1582 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 01 2022