The REAL History of 70s SUPER Robots 

As a 65 year old anime geek I applaud the depth of research and effort displayed in providing us with this content!

"People see the real robot as the next evolution of super robot anime, when in actuality, they're branching paths." Same happened with the magical girl genre. Witch -> idol -> warrior -> grimdark is seen as a linear pipeline even if we're still getting modern examples of the older, "kiddier" types.

The problem with Tomino is not that he kills too much, the problem is how tragic the deaths are, tragic enough to leave a mark on the protagonists. Go Nagai kills much more and in a much more brutal way, but most of the time it's just innocent bystanders, and it only serves to strengthen the resolve of the protagonists, who then proceed to punish the bad guys. For Tomino it's all about the tragedy of the loss, while for Nagai it's all about the sweet taste of vengeance. If Nagai wrote the story for Mobile Suit Gundam the show would look like Inglorious Basterds in space with mechs: the story of a EFF special forces team hunting down and executing Zeon war criminals.

Finally a RU-vidr who gives 70's mecha shows some recognition and respect. Thank you 😊

This video is important to WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER FORGET HISTORY OR ERASE THE PAST. A lot of these series made way for a lot of shows people praise today as well as making a lot of points with characters that would surprise many. You see a lot of shitty geek sites talking about super recent shows being the 'first to revolutionize' or 'groundbreaking' and it really shows how shallow of a pool they're pulling from, on top of their reluctance to watch a lot of older shows, missing out on a lot of the things they claim they want to see in newer series when it comes to being progressive in their storytelling and characters.

I remember an episode of Getter Robo G where we learn that the Hyakki Empire establishes propaganda-ridden military schools for their youths, and the episode follows a friendly girl who doesn't want to fight. She falls off a cliff, breaks her horn (The mark of a Hyakki), and suffers amnesia, to which she is nursed back to health by Michiru and the Getter Team. Unfortunately, she also happens to be the daughter of one of the highest esteemed soldiers of the empire: a woman who pilots a giant, black and purple, skull-faced Death Mecha with minigun-swords for hands! Upon hearing the news, she confronts the teacher who scared her daughter into running away in the first place and causing her accident, before she storms off to find her daughter herself, now labeled a Hyakki Empire fugitive, but seeing the Getter Team as enemies. I saw this as a kid, and it was the most tragic plot I'd ever seen in any animation, and I encourage more and more people to hunt down this crap and watch it for themselves. Your video did these shows a damn fine service here!

One of the weirdest things that get mentioned all the time is that "West" never got some shows, while South America and Europe got tons of shows that "The West" supposedly never had. European countries have their own histories with Japanese robot animation, or anime in general, that they influenced the origin nation back. Ah but well, maybe they're using the "West" in business terms, where sometimes it's meant only for the US and sometimes Canada.

The curse of every mecha anime fan vs a casual anime watcher: "Yeah, I watched Gurren Lagann, Code Geass and Evangelion, I loved those shows!" "Oh, then maybe you'll enjoy stuff like Getter Robo Armageddon or Fafner? You should give those a try!" "Nah man, I don't like huge robots. Anyway, they're playing a marathon of Michael Bay Transformers movies on TV soon, I can't wait!"

I've recently started getting into 70s mecha anime and like you said, it's nothing like what people say it's like. They're surprisingly addicting and very well made. Sure the animation is limited but that's just how things were made back in the day. I'm often surprised by the depth and continuation of story lines from one episode to the next. Something that happens to the characters or events in previous episodes aren't just hand waved away and often carries throughout the show. People who say they're kiddie and dumb clearly have never watched even a single episode. Hell, in episode one of Mazinger Z, the main character's grandpa dies by being crushed and their maid gets shot in the face. Not that "edgy=good" but it's definitely more mature and not dumbed down to only appeal to a younger demographic.

My childhood was filled with Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, Koutetsu Jeeg. Elementary with Transformers G1, Voltes V and Gundam. High School with Macross (and Dragon ball was a fun distraction). College years, more Gundams and Evangelion. Now as middle age guy I have and still collect Chogokin toys. Never regret and feel blessed I was exposed to Giant mecha. Great video essay btw. Thanks.

Thank you for making this, it just pisses me off how easily people can write off a whole decade of innovation like this just because they don't think it's relevant or interesting and couldn't care less, when there's so much to learn from here. I especially like how you mentioned the interplay between the sponsors, anime companies, and creators because that kind of analysis is missing from a lot of videos about these subjects. And I especially like the mentions to the link between robot anime and tokusatsu, something so important to the genre yet not often talked about!

Another stellar video, easily the most well-researched and properly fact-checked video about the history of early mecha on RU-vid. Turns out that there was a LOT more to 70s mecha than just "Mazinger happened, but Gundam was the REAL turning point".

if this video doesn't reveal that the REAL history of 70s SUPER Robots was it's all based on real life events but the reality of which was too awesome for society to comprehend so it was then covered up by the World Powers but intrinsically revealed to us again through our memories of those events via anime - I will be most put out by this title.

It's crazy to think that less than 20 years later anime was being marketed as "Cartoons For Adults" in the Anglophone world when Japanese creators had to fight to get to something like that point in the early '70s

Voltes V was dubbed in English when I was growing up. Even though it was decade old, it became part of being a kid growing up in the Philippines. It continued to get aired even with Filipino dubs and from what I heard last, they were going to do a live action but nothing has happened yet except for some project concept "teasers" you can find on RU-vid. Thanks for the video!

Thanks for providing clarity on an overly simplified piece of anime history. Also, Galvion’s opening absolutely RIPS!

In regards to Daitarn, from what I understand Tomino liked to alternate between darker and more light hearted shows (with the more light hearted stuff acting as a pallet cleanser for him after the darker stuff). So I suspect that might be part of why Daitarn was so much lighter than Zambot.

I've heard the "Toei STOLE Gaiking" rumor floated around for ages so thanks for finally setting the record straight, guy.

Man oh man this is the video people need to watch if their anime fans. The Mecha genre of anime is just as important just as magical girls and sports anime . I know Gundam was revolutionary but don't forget the shows that came before it like Mazinger and romance trilogy series of shows.

This was a great retrospective and history of Giant Robots! You've not only touched on the darker, often overlooked human suffering with this genre, but tackled the tragedy of how it's criminally overlooked !!! I greatly appreciate what this video showcases and faithfully represents why many of us love this genre!!! It's not just a Giant Cool Robot show, its drama surrounding it!!

One thing to note: that lawsuit from Nagai Did happen, its conclusion was just dragged out through the 1980's as Nagai WAS the one who created all the conceptual content for them. The resuming of collaboration in the 90's some have speculated being due to the producer who would've been behind or okayed that decision leaving Toei or not being involved.

This is the reason why Toei didn’t even make Mazinger Z Infinity until a few years ago.

Really good video. My first exposure to the super robots was when Mattel brought out the Shogun Warriors toys. When I went to San Diego Comic-Con in 1979 there was a guy selling Japanese books with the Shogun Warriors on them and he explained that they were all based on Japanese cartoons which blew me away since I wasn't used to anything like that in American cartoons. I bought one of the books from him and he mentioned that he and his group were going to have a presentation which consisted of a brief introduction, a bunch of show openings and episodes of Yamato and Harlock. I've been hooked to this day. In 1980 Go Nagai came to Comic-Con and was doing signings and sketches. At this point my knowledge was pretty much limited to what I had read in Fangoria issue 8 when they did an article on Force Five, an attempt to bring over (mostly) super robots to America. The article said that two of the shows, Danguard Ace and Starzinger were created by Leiji Matsumoto, and the other three, Starvengers (Getter Robo G), Grendizer and Gaiking were created by Go Nagai. My two favorites of the Shogun Warriors were Gendizer and Gaiking so while I was waiting in line for Go Nagai I kept vacillating on which I wanted to get a sketch of. When it was finally my turn I asked for Gaiking, But Go Nagai mentioned he didn't work on Gaiking, so I got a sketch of Grendizer from him. I felt bad at the time that the article had bad info in it andI felt even worse years later when I found out about the behind the scenes drama.

There are some really egregiously mecha videos by larger anime channels that I won't name that have really skewed the perception of the mecha genre. So it's channels like this one that are a breath of fresh air that actually explain the nuance and wide array of history of what mecha is.

That Danguard Ace animation is definitely crispy. Thanks for making me aware of Yoshinori Kanada's massive contributions to the Leijiverse!

I think the general disgust for the look and content of 60s-80s anime fuels a common disinterest in these older shows and films, which results in an inaccurate perspective and surface level Wikipedia research.

And that's without even mentioning Getter: a fucking Cosmic Horror story masquerading as a mecha series.

Someone slapping bad arguments made by sophists that don’t know or care about the mecha-genre? It will be a good day. We will eat well today.

The build up to the release of gundam is so expertly done. It truly did revolutionize the genre. I’m glad you highlighted all of the power houses in the 70s that led up to gundam because not only are they great anime on there own they are the building blocks that create gundam.

I do find it amazing how in Japan they extended the length of a series when it acquired a large female following, when in America I've seen so many shows canceled when the same thing happened, leading the sponsors to fear they'd not make enough on toy sales. If only US producers could learn that lesson from Japan, give your audience a chance to support the show.

Yes! Thank you! Finally a video that gives Seventies super-robot anime the respect they deserve. They are more than just a stepping stone towards Gundam and the dawn of 'realistic' robot shows.

I really appreciate this video! Definitely my favorite era of anime. It always bugged me how so many people never understood this era of mecha and glanced over it all the time. And thank you for bringing up Godmars. The show needs more love.

Having seen many of these shows close to 30 years ago, i gotta say i am BLOWN AWAY by the clarity of the HD transfers used in your clips! 😳 A far cry from the grainy, scratchy 70’s broadcast-quality VHS versions i remember from back in the day 😅

Really well put together and informative video, if I had one minor criticism it's the lack of spoiler warning for Zambot 3's finale, but we are talking about a 40+ year old show after all so it's fine.

In the Philippines, we also got a lot of Super Robot anime early on, with my uncle's generation growing up with Gigantor and Mazinger Z. They were already in their teens when Voltes V and Daimos came out in the early 70s, and Marcos banned Voltes V with the excuse that it was violent---coveniently concealing that it had very strong themes of an exiled hero returning to his homeland to overthrow a corrupt dictatorship. The last few episodes of Voltes V weren't shown here until I was already in my teens, long after the fall of Marcos's regime. I did grow up with Daimos, though, and while it was never as iconic or controversial as Voltes V, it still became a big part of millennials' childhoods, along with Robotech and Voltron.

You also forgot to mention the Genre's popularity overseas. While Mazinger was popular overseas in Spanish speaking nations, Grendizer was popular in many places, for starters it was the first anime to be serialized in France and called UFO Robot Goldorak, the French dub eventually made it's way to Canada and in Algeria where it soon spread through the Arab world through it's own Arabic dub. It was also popular in Italy where it was called Goldrake. Another anime popular in Italy is Steel Jeeg, which made the Super Robot genre to become somewhat popular there. There's even an Italian movie called "They Call me Jeeg" which pays tribute to Jeeg, but it's just a movie about a guy who gets powers from radioactive water. Another one of Go Nagai's mecha anime that became popular in a foreign country is Groizer X, which is known as O Pirata do Espaço in Brazil. Moving on to the Robot Romance Trilogy, Voltes V became hugely popular in The Philippines. This was during the regime of Ferdinand Marcos, whose dictatorial rule of the Philippines caused much unrest. Voltes V's general quality and its story of family and friends fighting aliens with a giant robot were surefire recipes for success, but it was the show's cancellation that propelled it to cultural infamy. Marcos banned Voltes V and other "violent" cartoons of the time, allegedly due to them having an ill impact on the fragile psyches of children. However, many claim that the actual reason for the ban were the show's heavy themes of revolting and fighting against an oppressive regime. This ban obviously didn't go over well with children of the era, who were dubbed the "Voltes V generation" when they were refused the right to watch the show's final fourteen episodes. Soon Marcos' reign ended and the show was finally available to the public.

Thank you for making the very informative and well presented video. I’ll put my hands up and admit I’ve not given enough credit to the super robot shows of the 70’s for what they achieved. This will certainly change after today. Great work.

I'm what you may call an oldtaku. I remember when Getter Robo G was localized in the USA as Starvengers.

Zambot 3's ending had a pretty big influence on one of my favorite mecha series, so its cool to see it talked about here.

Let's not forget that in the 70s even Japanese Spider-Man had a mecha.

I thoroughly enjoyed this history lesson into 70's mecha anime. It's very well researched and throughout. Go Nagai would go on record when he attended an anime convention in Italy in the mid 2000's that he admits creating Gaiking and that Toei didn't pay him, because they simply thought they were paying him enough from all his other projects. Resulting in the ten year court battle to which I assume Nagai won, but relations between the two got better as they did work together on later projects like Getter Robo Go, the Cutie Honey 90's OVA, Cutie Honey Flash and Gaiking: Legend of Daiku Maryu. The humans in Gundam weren't banished, they just moved into space, with Zeon wanting to establish it's own free government away from the Earth Federation for all space residents or 'Spacenoids' as they called themselves. I'm also surprised that you weren't sponsored by Buyee, but maybe that's next week? :D Either way, you earned a sub from me. :) Keep up the good work. :)

The moment you brought up Gekiga I knew right away this would be a well researched video. So many people do these pretentious video essays on japanese forms of cartooning and animation while overlooking gekiga and it's rather upsetting when the themes and shows they are touching upon are begging to discuss it for the purpose of context. In a similar vein as to how many mecha-centric videos completely dismiss all the years in which the super robot genre was developed and jump straight to Gundam. Please make a whole video about Gekiga, the world needs it. 'The pushman and other stories' is a great example of what gekiga was like to anyone interested, dark, bitter stories not afraid to explore the most upsetting and disgusting sides of the human condition. Godspeed Yoshihiro Tatsumi.

Great retrospective and finally someone that contextualises those series to their cultural and economical background. As others made you notice, “the West” is really USA or Canada in your video. Some series where major hits in other countries. In Italy, Grandizer - called “Goldrake” as it was bastardised from the French version - was the first to be dubbed and was a huge hit. The final episode had something like 50% TV share in the middle of the afternoon - it was thought it was a series for kids, but lots of adults, including my parents, watched it with us kids 😊 It was known that many who could at the time manage their working hours (it was not common in the late 70s) like doctors, dentists, and professionals - shut their practice early to catch on the last episode. “Goldrake” makes the newspapers still today, if anything about it resurfaces, and it has been a cultural milestone that non-Italians of that time cannot imagine.

Glad to see this vid happen and turn out as well as it did. The 70s is weirdly neglected by people, even from Mech fans, despite it having plenty of iconic and really great shows even outside of Gundam. I do attribute to how badly exposed those shows were(either by dumbing them down for the west, lack of access, etc), but even then it's an issue that's been on for far too long with not many really taking it that seriously. Based on my experience, a lot of the shows either range to good to great, with the personal stand out ones for me being Toei Mazinger Z, Zambot 3, Robot Romance(Daimos in particular). The weakest one I've seen is probably Dai-apolon but even that's still decent. There's plenty of other stuff that I have yet to get around to like Jeeg, Gaiking, Raideen, Gakeen, and Balatack. Also I think the whole idea of Gakeen being piloted by both a man and woman probably comes from Ultraman Ace, who is notable for being the one Ultra to having 2 hosts to merge into 1 ultra(Hokuto and Minami)

I was (relatively it's been like 2 years now) recently introduced to the Getter Robo manga and it's become my favorite piece of visual media probably ever. I frequently call myself the manga's strongest soldier talking to friends. However I truthfully don't know too much about the old anime made by Toei so seeing how they shaped all this Mecha history as well as you touching on the manga even briefly really did make my day.

Never stop making bangers, John!

Man I fucking love Getter Robo, just felt like sharing that. Also gotta love that they FUCK each other UP in early mecha and toku. The toku models exploding by what looks like bootleg firecrackers always gets me.

5:24 "...which was about a giant stone statue that comes to life to punish evil. Its hilarious that Nagai eventually cycles back to this in the form of God Mazinger, a stone Mazinger that comes to life to punish evil...that's also an ISEKAI!

Been a Shogun Warriors and Transformers fan since my 70's / 80's childhood, so it was nice to see where it all originated from. I'm not the biggest anime fan, but I love 70's Japanese monster and robot movies! Anytime an old Godzilla movie or an episode of Ultra Man came on, I was glued to the TV!

Damn, you've done the near impossible. You've made a good anime-tuber video essay. Thank you. I look forward to seeing your work in the future. We need more people like you.

Every RU-vidr who writes off super robots but praises eva did not get bullied enough in high school.

Thank you for another great video. What's amazing is how video companies like Discotek are releasing many of these classic Super Robot anime in America (many for the first time), so it's really a new dawn in the States for the Super Robot.

I think I see how Super Robot Wars got off the ground. A lot of the classics were made by a handful of studios, producers, and writers which later made licensing for the games more straightforward. Plus, Go Nagai himself set a precedent with his Mazinger/Getter crossover films.

I salute all the in-depth research and scripting that went into this: WOW!!

My Father was a huge fan of Robot mechs from the 70's back then His favorites were: Grendizer, Daimos, Voltes V, Great Mazinger, Mazinger Z. And a lot more. my father has a collection of toys of these robots, before he died he passed them down to me.

this video remind me of many old die cast mecha, sadly many were lost when I got too old and my mum give it away. One unconfirmed story about Gundam is why Gundam is in bright red, blue, yellow and white cause the producer insist on so they can sell die cast toys ( I have 1 RX78 die cast too ), where Zaku are more like military tone color,.

Here in my country Mazinger z was the first successful anime broadcasted at the time, around the 80s here, dubbed, this made the TV channels keep bringing more anime so it had a huge impact in the people who grew around that time and they tell it. As a young fan of mecha anime this brings new knowledge about the super robots and adds more to what I knew before. Also I know Mazinger was a bit overshadowed by gatchaman in Japan due to being broadcasted around the same time in different channels

Absolutely the best video on the history of mecha anime I've seen on this platform. I hope it can reach far and wide.

Me and my friends were watching old anime like Speed Racer and Gatchaman together in highschool, and I forced them to watch Mazinger Z. That was probably one of the funniest binges we ever did, because they were not expecting to see Koji and Sayaka beating the shit out of each other, Count Brocken being a Nazi, or the iron cross dudes gunning civilians down. They were like "JESUS I THOUGHT THIS WAS A KIDS SHOW!?" lol. Yeah people tend to react strongly to actually watching super robot shows, especially the older ones.

The Robot Romance Trilogy is very underated.

I really like the Super Robot genre and I wish more Super Robot anime would come out nowadays

It is worth noting that Koutetsu Jeeg was created after a strong drive from a toymaker sponsor that saw a magnetic robot in the 7th episode of Mazinger Z and demanded that concept to be expanded. Also, Godam included contributions from Yoshiyuki Tomino and it can be seen in the opening - the long 3D rotation with the enemies all being show in the subterranean city being initially cut since the animation was not ready (Tomino has a reputation for delivering even when the animators lag behind). BTW, I think Godam also flopped because the story and the mecha were definitely sub-par when put next to any competitor of the era, not just Grendizer. Gakeen was hardly a spiritual successor of Jeeg, having only the partial magnetic theme in common. No words on God Mazinger? If Gakeen was bad, that was on another level! Raideen also had a lot of influences in later series, with the core idea of being basically a divine creature; you might say it influenced Gainax with Evangelion, and it was officially credited as a strong inspiration for Rahxephon. The unfortunately early departed Nagahama (he died shortly after the end of his Romantic Trilogy) was also strongly influenced by his work on Versailles no Bara: the antagonists of Boretsu V are clearly based on the aristocrats of the Ancien Regime in France. Minnagoroshi Tomino already had his trademark reputation from Umi no Toriton, but I can see how Zanbot 3 solidified that. Daitarn 3 was lighter in the beginning, true, but I guess mostly because of Tomino's brain, not just because of the sponsors: he admitted later in his life to have some bipolar tendencies, so he alternated very dark and more lighthearted shows across his career (check Z Gundam compared to ZZ Gundam); also, Daitarn 3 finale is still somehow darker if you read between the line (Banjo is probably a Meganoid or something similar too and he realises how cruel his quest for vengeance had been when it was too late). Banjo was based on both Lupin III and 007.

Automatic favorite video on the genre. There are a few super robot series that I didn't know about showcased here. And of course, the rush to sell toys and inter-studio/broadcaster politics gets either glossed over or slightly mentioned because it's seen as not interesting by most people, but it's really important to show the ebb and flow of the era, let alone the genre in the 70s.

What a timely video, for me personally this really nailed some questions I was having after recently getting into the whole Gundam universe. I wanted to understand the fundamental difference between "Super" and "Real" as well as the process that led to one eclipsing the other or if that was even an accurate assessment. All those questions were answered here and many tacit assumptions I didn't realize I had inheretid from reductive overviews were corrected. Thanks so much for all your hard work and continuing to put the full story out as opposed to parroting the typical "abbreviated" timelines. You're the best Falcon!

Amazing video. You're probably the only anime RU-vidr that I think is worth watching. Truth is a lot of people seem to gravitate towards "anime classics" and give them way too much credit. It's gotten better though - just 10 or so years ago you'd still be seeing people claim en masse how Evangelion is the only worthwhile mecha because of it "deconstructing" the genre. There is a clearly visible pipeline from Mazinger to Gundam how the genre evolved as a whole, how small and subtle changes from show to show opened up new storytelling potentials. Great stuff. Sadly most of these shows besides Mazinger (and even then not the full trilogy, only Z and Great), Gaiking and the Robot Romance Trilogy + Daltanious have had no official release at all, while a lot of 80s robot anime were released in all their glory. Hope this changes in the upcoming years and Discotek (or somebody else who'd be willing and has the access to Toei's catalog) releases more of their stuff with good subs! Suggestion for next video: The more obscure 80s Real Robot series.

You keep topping your last video with each new one. Learned a lot in this and was definitely worth the wait.

YOOOOOO not even finished the video yet but this is a convo that we had to have! Keep up the good work man!

Finally, Someone that talked about the robot romance trilogy.

You're one of the most underappreciated channels out there, my dude, hats goddamn off to you.

People that bring up Eva and GL as the only good mecha shows, are people that have never watched mecha shows.

THANK YOU!!!! As a die hard fan of Super Robots for 30+ years…this is a video I’ve wished existed for a very long time. The dismissal of Super Robots, AND their history and significance, has been a continued point of irritation for me forever. I love all of your videos, as your research and attention to detail, is by far the best on the subject on RU-vid. The sheer popularity of Super Robots in Japan has made it beyond perplexing that no one has accurately conveyed their history. Great job!

Because of this video, I have just spent a day looking at various Super Robot shows. I remember when people would say that this or that mecha show deconstructed the genre by doing revolutionary new things A, B, and C. Now I'm seeing those things were already there in various Super Robot shows of the past. That's not a criticism of the new shows. Mining the past for ideas, then putting a new spin on them is standard practice. It's me admitting I knew less than I thought I did.

Definitely a subject that NEEDED to be explored more fully. Thanks, great work.

The two biggest misconception of mecha anime by western/American Millennial self-proclaimed anime otakus which gets repeated ad infinium and has taken to be true on face value without serious examination - that super robot anime has no depth and is cheesy and it took Gundam to make it gritty, and that Evangelion "deconstructed" the mecha anime genre. You my friend has done an excellent job rebutting the first with this video. Now if someone would put the latter to rest as well because every true mecha fan knows that Evangelion is NOT a deconstruction but rather an homage, a love letter even, to the mecha and tokusatsu genre. Anno is a massive otaku who loves mecha and tokusatsu, one watch of his works like Shin Gozilla and Gunbuster should know he doesn't deconstruct anything but rather is paying his deepest respect to the original work/genre.

Briliant and precise vídeo. Good editting, Nice timing and solid narration

I love your videos so much I get a little sad when they're over. It would be neat to see sequels to this video talking about mecha's differences in each decade. Anyways, keep up the good work!

This is pretty good history of mecha anime content. When it comes to old shows, you're a real authority here. People should try to give these classics a chance.

So, Takara winning that xmas season let them become the fathers of the car-robots, nice

I have nothing else to say except. I love you. This is immaculate.

0:34 Gee, I wonder why a Gigguk video would contain terrible options and wrong facts.

as a now 30 year old who enjoys the occasional Mecha show and has really seen none of these old 70s and 80s shows properly, I think it cannot be understated just how amazing the designs, themes, music, and passion these shoes display really is. I got my hands on Super Robot Wars V a couple years ago, and before too long playing I was shouting attack names, cheering when new robos made a sudden save, and fascinated by every series I saw. I felt nostalgic for shows I'd never even heard of. None of that would be possible without such amazing design work starting things off.

Voltes V was my first taste of Japanese animation

As usual, one of the best videos in the anime sphere of the internet, incredibly informative, well edited, and funny too, Love watching these, and hope they keep coming.

Honestly, the thing which pisses me off is how unloved a lot of good Mecha anime are. You go look up the ratings of anything which isn't a BIG title and it's got a shitty 6-low 7.something rating on MAL. Let's take Sasuraiger, for example. Really good, disgustingly underrated and sold so poorly Discotek shit canned it and the rest of the J9 trilogy a month after it came out on Blu-Ray.

Super!!! Great research and presentation video content you have done!

Thank you for this video, very well researched and the footage chosen encapsulates the essence of those shows. I haven't watched most of these shows, but as a long-time Super Robot Wars fan, I knew they all contributed to the genre as a whole, each in their own way. Watching mecha anime is more rewarding when you notice all the little ways shows expanded upon or branched out from what was done before them.

Following you for a long time, this is your best video yet and I perfectly knew what I was in for and it still blew me away. Amazing work!!!!

A rule of thumb: if a statement comes from Gigguk, it's some fairly stupid misconception (to put it mildly).

You might have become my favorite anime channel. Always top notch.

"Grendizer" and "Tetsujin 28 Go (1980)" was a big hit on Arabic TV in the 80s. I remember loving Tetsujin 28 Go's Jazz rock music.

I love your videos. Keep up the fantastic work dude and thanks!

i'm not a mecha fan or an anime fan - but growing up in the new england area circa 1980, we were exposed to Force Five. This was a unique concept where 1 of 5 imports were aired for each day of the week. i.e. Monday: Dangard Ace Tuesday: Getter Robo G Wednesday: Starzinger Thursday: Grendizer Friday: Gaiking I assume most anime fans have heard of this, but for those who haven't, I can tell you it was glorious. Gatchaman had made it's mark, but the Force Five show was mind-blowing and preceded Yamato, Mazinger, Voltron, etc.

I'm impressed with your level of research as you just gave out info that I wasn't aware of as a super robot fan. Great job and consider me subbed!

This was a really a good retrospective, that clears up a lot the misconceptions people pushed about the pre-Gundam mecha period.

Well done, it was insightful.

I don’t want to say I hate the current generation but I hate how the current generation acts if they can’t go back to anime older than Akira. It’s so many influences. I knew a portion of this info but not a lot and this was amazing! I commend you brother

Excellent video. I love all the different mecha designs. It's so cool yet violent

Awesome doc, thanks for making this and sharing it!

G Gundam is basically Dragon Ball with ridiculous robot designs. How can you not love that?

This was a great retrospective on the genre! I grew up watching Mazinger in the 80s, but we never had much else. This was such a treat. Can't believe how serious those old animes were with their content. From the little mecha anime I've watched over the last 20 years, it seems way more ... sanitized now.