The REAL History of 70s SUPER Robots
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An overview of the evolution of 70s super robots in anime.
Special thanks to MDChaos for additional helping writing this video. Check out his links.
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To keep the video more concise I didn't mention manga exclusive or Tokusatsu works but if you're interested some titles worth looking into are George Akiyama's The Moon (1972) which was not adapted into an anime, Astroganger (1972) the first color mecha anime premiering a few months before Mazinger but is animated by Knack productions, Daitetsujin 17 (1977) a mecha tokusatsu by Ishinomori and the first giant robot work I could find to utilize a military backdrop.
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Music:
Memories 1 - New Kimagure Orange Road OST
Tripmastermonk - Knocksteady Zencast Vol. 2
Rock and Roll Diabolic - New Kimagure Orange Road OST
Mazinger Z Theme - Ichiro Mizuki
Getter Robo Theme - Isao Sasaki
Grendizer Theme - Isao Sasaki
Tripmastermonk - Knocksteady Zencast Vol. 2
Reconnaissance - Macross OST
Ready Room Disco - Battle of the Planets OST
Teenage Mysterioso - Battle of the Planets OST
BP-100 - BP-100 A - Battle of the Planets OST
Orion Cue - Battle of the Planets OST
Zambot 3 Theme - Horimitsu Kazumichi
Daitarn 3 Theme - Makoto Fujiwara
Tobe Gundam - Koh Ikeda
Uchū no Ōja God Mars - Ippo Hiura
Love Flows - Macross OST - บันเทิง
![TREASURE - 'KING KONG' COMEBACK SPECIAL [THE TREASURE SHOW]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Jx1wyMaQzf0/mqdefault.jpg)
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!"
Getter Robo Armageddon really deserves love. I am rewatching it lately, although not consistently and the plot makes a little more sense now
That's because they were attracted to the characters and their story within the series, not so much for the robots. That's what I believe.
As a 65 year old anime geek I applaud the depth of research and effort displayed in providing us with this content!
god bless you brian harris, i hope you are having a wonderful day. i am on ambien
I aspire to be like you when I'm old. Still into anime and stuff.
My dad didn't like anime, but he loved the kaiju movies.
When I was 11, I was watching G-Force, a lame translation of Gatchaman '72. He said it instantly made him think about how he was 11 and loved Godzilla films.
@@skylinefever , I wish that the moron that tried to make Getter Robo/Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot in hentai anime did not permanently ruin the franchise, otherwise, I would partner with some people into making it into either a good anime series in that vein, like the Pacific Rim anime, or make it into a new live action super robot warrior series. The person that did that to the Getter Robo/Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot franchise is like the idiot that almost killed off the Valis video game series with some hentai/LGBT promoting idiocy that pathetically called itself a video game after Valis IV/Super Valis IV, but. thankfully, the person that now helms that franchise smacked some sense into the heads of the people that made that previous, as well as rightfully forgotten, entry into that franchise, and they are also making it go back to its roots with a new game.
senpai!
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.
It wouldn't fit the themes of Gundam but what you suggested sounds awesome. I could see it as an OVA.
I think that Nagai was more (but not differently than you said) about characters having a sense of justice and a self-given duty to protect the world (or the innocent) than that.
But yes, that sums it up pretty much.
Finally a TH-camr who gives 70's mecha shows some recognition and respect. Thank you 😊
If you can into moonlanguage, Japanes side of TH-cam has tons of videos about 'em.
@@Kuikkamies really? That's pretty cool.
@@Kuikkamies I see. Most I watch is stuff delving into SRW history and stuff. I'm not THAT interested in true mecha history even as a more than casual fan, and while I understand Japanese fine it's still too much effort.
Maybe one day.
@@sdgdhpmbp , strangely enough, Marvel was pretty influential on both the super robot warrior scene, as well as the sentai hero squad scene.
أفضل حقبه انميات الروبوت
"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.
Mecha and magical girls have a lot more in common, funny enough.
@@DreamFighterMaouji eg Mai-HiME
@@himwo. AND Nanoha as well as Symphogear.
@@DreamFighterMaouji like how They're Pumping out Precure after Precure, they'd Focus on Sailor Moon or Magoka Magica or Any Gritty Magical Girls.
@@himwo. always to see another my hime fan
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.
Exactly.
Exactly! The forgetting history thing also applies to anime, too: When you forget history, you make shit like Darling in the Franxx and Witch from Mercury. Shows that are pure guttertrash yet pick up the most rabid followings for stupid reasons. Remembering history and learning from it was what made older anime and makes some newer shows great, and we should look at these older super robot and real robot shows to find proof of what would be built on in other good shows from future decades.
(Yes, I make it no secret that I think modern mecha shows are junk. At least we're getting a new Mazinger reboot (this one of Grendizer) down the road, so hopefully that show will be better than most of what we get now)
People tend to conveniently remove the past because they're like goldfish and want the next big thing (or reboot like hell, which I hope grendizer game nov 2023 does well). Or the boomers get nostalgic and obsess more than the chrono trigger game.
Sayaka sucks lol 4:17 why not show her 2 boob missiles. Obviously couldn't show couples fight hard now though but I wouldn't highlight it as a good thing back then.
4:37 later iterations lighten jun's skin and yeah 4:47 both anime and the manga has a horrendous skin lightening theme with soap. Does explain the lack of black characters and how sailor Pluto and Nico robin (one piece anime pre time skip) get skin lightened as well.
Zoomers be like:
Literally.
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.
Very true. The rest of of the world outside the US and Canada got anything and everything that could be dubbed. The US and Canada got only a handful of shows gate-keeped and recut with little care. So the US and Canada have a view where anime was rare and almost never shown nationally, while every other country enjoyed national broadcasts, every day.
This is likely in part due to an incident regarding the production and release of 'Mighty Orbots' which was heavily inspired by GodMars. A legal battle came when Tomy (of Zoids fame) successfully sued the producers of 'Mighty Orbots' claiming they owned the concept of combining mecha. So a lot of Super Robot mecha were not released in America for fear of being sued. Another is that Voltron was indeed the very first mainstream mecha anime in America and, because it was produced in the 1980s, the American releases of 70s mecha anime flopped, especially Mazinger, and why to this day those animes were never quite popular the way Voltron, Transformers, and Robotech did.
There were plenty of Super Robot anime dubbed into Neutral Spanish in the 80s, though very few mecha anime were dubbed since then, the only Gundam media dubbed into Spanish were Gundam Wing and Hathaway's Flash. Getter Robo was one of the few 70s mecha anime that wasn't dubbed into Spanish, just this year a company dubbed Getter Robo: Armageddon into Neutral Spanish. But Mazinger and Robotech are still well remembered
@@pablocasas5906 What I recall, Spanish had such a hardon for Mazinger Z that they localised Red Baron as a Mazinger sequel/spin-off.
@@Kuikkamies ah yeah, they did that in Spain, they also built a Mazinger Z statue in the entrance of a neighborhood. While here in Latin America we got the anime version of Red Baron dubbed and a couple of years ago Mazinger Z got a redub and Mazinger Z Infinity got released in theaters here
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!
Gosh, I wanna watch those old Getter Robo series soooo badly but I really cannot find any of them in the internet to download or to watch online 😭
@@e_lena9656 , you can if you were not so f
u
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k
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g lazy. Even a
f
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g five minute Google search could get those episodes for you, provided that you use the right key words in said search for what you want, anyway.
Watch Groizer X and you’ll see some of the saddest moments of Super Robot anime with (SPOILER) side characters dying every episode, they even showed a 10-year old kid being slowly killed by radiation…
@@diogoalmeida9200 in Grendizer it's also a thing to kill side characters, and the main character there is also SPOILER slowly dying from his old radioactive injury.
But in the Getter stories... Well, SPOILER:
most of the main characters die. Not only Musashi but almost all of them. And their beloved ones die too... And it's kinda beautiful
Great show
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
I've always found it hilarious that anime was going through a major revolution at the time while we were getting beaten down by parental groups regulating the level of violence and network heads just wanting Scooby-Doo and Archie clones. While we had the "cartoons are for kids" mindset before, the 70's clenched it. Though it also was the decade for the odd X-Rated animated movie fad, so there wasn't a lack of trying.
It's literally insane to compare 70s toons from both the east and the west as you notice the gradual difference. Japan could do whatever they want to their toons (be it grotesque, brief nudity, deep political/social narratives) even if it's a show targeted for kids. Meanwhile the west (or the anglo world aside from Ireland) censored anything that involves punches or a little blood in kids shows thus treating their audience as if their are too retarded to handle these kinda of stuff despite dealing with these irl.
@@jedijordaninfinity There's way too much to unpack there, actually. The super hero cartoons of the 60's, as well as the various at the time real world events caused a parental group called "Action for Children's Television" to rise up. Their hearts were in the right place, but it was a perfect storm of them pressuring networks and said networks only wanting exactly the same shows, mostly from Filmation and Hanna Barbera that put a cap on creativity. And on top of that, there's a massive cultural divide where the West hides death from children for some strange reason, so even when we slowly came out the other end in the late 80's, early 90's, they still had to adhere to cultural censorship. Not to mention the major "animation is for kids" stigma. Considering that the entire Saturday Morning cartoon concept WAS for kids to watch these commercials in between the shows, it's no wonder why that period was pretty bad over here. Though, not for the lack of trying, but the only "adult" animation we got in that period was weird exploitation style stuff. A lot of wanna be Ralph Bakshis made some awful sex comedies.
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.
I've heard the "Toei STOLE Gaiking" rumor floated around for ages so thanks for finally setting the record straight, guy.
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.
Go nagai always had an edge.
I read the manga.
I think people think of super robots as magical, and sentient to semi sentient.
But a lot of the early ones were very mechanical.
Honestly with AI. The sentience thing doesn't seem quite so magical.
Maybe cause Americans Voltron and transformers. But even Voltron...
The more I think about it, the less sense it makes.
I think maybe they just judge it off the merchandise or theme song?
Which maybe does focus on the robots.
Yes, research Goldrake (the name of Grendizer in Italy). I tell you to talk to any Italian man around my age (50 and older) and they will literally cry when they tell you about their relationship with the cartoon. For us was more than a cartoon, it was a window into the universe.
Point is that I agree.
But to a degree, because usually when I have the first distraction, I feel like I have no reason to keep going.
The only one of those animes that I finished was Mazinger Z.
This might be that thing called ADHD, but I am not really sure, because if they aired them on TV I would feel more motivated, since I watched Daitarn 3, Trider G7, Eureka Seven, Gundam and more on TV.
Still I think they are wonderful.
And today I even watched Mazinger Z vs Great General of Darkness, because Toei put it on the Theatrical channel only in Japan.
It was godly, visually speaking, especially compared to the final moments of Mazinger Z's TV anime.
(In my defense, I read Nagai's mangas, especially Devilman)
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.
This is the reason why Toei didn’t even make Mazinger Z Infinity until a few years ago.
Another stellar video, easily the most well-researched and properly fact-checked video about the history of early mecha on TH-cam.
Turns out that there was a LOT more to 70s mecha than just "Mazinger happened, but Gundam was the REAL turning point".
the whole thing with gaiking in this video regarding go nagai and toeis conflict is wrong. it takes one look at wikipedia to find that out. the sources there for that are words straight out of go nagais mouth lol.
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!
Dismissing the 70’s Mecha is like dismissing 1970’s Pro Wrestling, ignoring the development and innovation made in the decade.
even in Japan there's pretty prevailing idea that 70s mech = all simple super robot story and post gundam = flourishing of "real robot" type narrative especially amongst people who grew up in post-gunde, landscape
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.
Tetsujin 28
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.
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 TH-cam. Thanks for the video!
And that's without even mentioning Getter: a fucking Cosmic Horror story masquerading as a mecha series.
I also think Getter Robo is inspired by Lovecraft.
Thanks for providing clarity on an overly simplified piece of anime history.
Also, Galvion’s opening absolutely RIPS!
It indeed 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.
Daitarnos weird because rewatching it as adult you see lot of darker themes running out there, and that.perhaps was intended to be kind of more serious. (Like it was implied by some lines that Don Zauker brain was Benjo's dad one)
Reminds me of ZZ Gundam starting off as a lighthearted comedy after the downer ending of Zeta
yeah Tomino-san did interviews recently to promote new G Reco movie on Sunrise TH-cam channel and he said that doing Zambot was becoming too depressing for him so he went with more light hearted tone in next show, which was Daitarn
Even in the 80's, there's always a Xabungle or L-Gaim in contrast of Ideon and Dunbine
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.
The Robot Romance Trilogy is very underated.
Let's not forget that in the 70s even Japanese Spider-Man had a mecha.
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.
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.
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.
Kinda like rlm and the prequels.
@@GODCONVOYPRIME prequels kinda suck tho lol
@@brig.badger2896 You're in the minority tho lol
@@brig.badger2896 Your opinion means as much to me as someone who loves the disney trilogy. As in not at all. You're too dumb to understand the prequels. Don't bother trying to argue you'll just move the goal posts and will take it personally and get mad and well, let's just say you'll make yourself look bad.
@@brig.badger2896 Speaking of sophists.......
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!!
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!
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!
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)
The age of the viewers can be a factor as well as certain 70's mecha getting modern versions/semi sequels. Not to mention the 70's Mazinger timeline if count Grendizer is over 222, with 70's Getter being 90 ep in total.
Mazinger has Kaiser, Zero, Shin and Infinity, Getter has Armageddon, Shin vs Neo, New and the manga/Arc anime. Then there's Jeeg and Gaiking which are shorter, but have LODM and Shin Jeeg. Newcomer mecha fans would likely start with those more, especially if are in their early 20's-early 30's.
Another factor could be due to SRW. It's far easier to play the GBA/DS/PSP titles due to them having easy to use emulators that don't require high end pc/laptops to run and/or they are region free. Not to mention the gameplay and animations are more modern.
Those have a roster that's more modern overall. If went into the Alpha series first, your gonna experience more 70's stuff. Helps that older srw gave the 70's ones more attacks than later SRW.
Like if your first experience with Combattler and Voltes was J/L, chances are your gonna see the yoyo's and tops starting off which might not seem as cool as say, Godannar punching, Dancouga wipping out a gun, Shin Jeeg firing a tornado from it's stomach etc. Where as if got to try Alpha, you'd get Combattler firing eletric blasts from it's fingers, shooting fire from it's arms, launching chainsaws at the enemy etc.
The upside is Discotek is licensing 70's mecha, which is good opportunity to check em out, especially if wanna add some history to the mecha collection, something I plan to do.. 30 adding Combattler and Voltes helps too on top of adding back older attacks like Grand Fire and Atomic Burner. I'm areal sucker for Combattlers arsenal more than Voltes though.
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.
It's worth noting that the only people who are mouthing the "Decline of Mecha" lie are English Speakers or Americans whose only experience with anime are whatever cultural gatekeepers in geeksites say is "influential" or "phenomenal" or whatever buzzword you can pull out.
You never hear this from anywhere else.
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.
Voltes V was my first taste of Japanese animation
Finally, Someone that talked about the robot romance trilogy.
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.
Amazing video. You're probably the only anime TH-camr 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.
ppl give too much credit to Evangelion just because their units are made with organic features, they don't even know how the super robot genre works. the first super robot Mazinger Z is enough proof that having organic parts doesn't make a unit special.
Boss Borot himself is a robot made out of scrap, but hes a super robot.
a super robot has those features/style:
-unique robot
-created for an special/noble purpose
-pilot shout the name of special attacks
-special weapons only the unit can use
Eva units fits completely the real robot genre, the anime is filled with them, they're common and used for warfare, they didn't deconstructed anything.
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.
No wonder the Boazanians looked like Revolutionary-era French aristocracy with all those frills and wigs
@@iwasanangryyoungman Yep! While I am not aware that he even stated so openly, it seems clear to me that Nagahama wanted to give the same vibe of haughty and completely detached aristocrats he just finished delivering in Versailles no Bara.
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. :)
Second the "Go nagai actually did sue them and WON' thing. Also with Gundam, the "banished from earth' element of the story is a bit of a recontextualized retcon brought forth from the later entries and Gundam Origin, as in UC Gundam those with enough money and political influence DID eventually end up with the legal power to declare eminent domain on other people's property and forcibly export those they did this to into space. Trying to prevent this was the plot of Hathaways' flash, with the setting of F91 and Victory Gundam having that as its backstory.
@@desshinta9428 I wasn't aware of the retcon till now, but that does make sense, especially with Meitzer Ronah mentioning the high born's role in society in F91 and why the Crossbone Vanguard was created as well as giving Hathaway Noa more of a reason to turn into a terrorist following Char's Counterattack. Over time it seems the UC timeline becomes more dominated by the rich, giving way for breakaway groups like this. Though some may still prefer to think that the Zeon just wanted independence for their own sake, but really the Zabi family just want power for themselves and supports the want for political power for themselves at the end of the day.
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,.
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 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.
It probably isn't helped by the pop culture history of western animation, like Hanna-Barbera cartoons, & the cheesy dub of Speed Racer in 1967.
Also it's age and how it looks ugly for newer anime fans.
I can definitely say this is a factor. I personally really like most mecha series I've seen. But I can barely stomach watching a single episode of most mecha from the 70s
@@BradleytheDavis skill issue
@@BradleytheDavis it's a certain taste I just ignore it and focus on the story.
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.
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.
It’d be nice to have a dedicated classics network for older anime productions.
Never stop making bangers, John!
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.
Well France and Italy get everything and manga or anime was popular in France and Italy all the way back in the late 70s early 80s gets everything
@@thomasffrench3639minor problem tho.
We had the Mazin saga inverted.
We got Grendizer, Great Mazinger and Mazinger Z in this order. This probably made Grendizer noticeable as a revolution in animation... Or something like that, I don't remember the story too well...
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.
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.
Every TH-camr who writes off super robots but praises eva did not get bullied enough in high school.
G Gundam is basically Dragon Ball with ridiculous robot designs. How can you not love that?
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.
So, Takara winning that xmas season let them become the fathers of the car-robots, nice
People that bring up Eva and GL as the only good mecha shows, are people that have never watched mecha shows.
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.
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.
Curiously enough I literally watched all of Getter Robo (except the crossover movies and Go), but I couldn't go past Shin Getter with the manga, because I couldn't find Go
Also Getter Robo and Evangelion have been my firsts, with Evangelion the first robot anime I watched entirely
@@tatohayanami9156 the Go manga is on Mangadex, as are basically everything else. Though if you're using the anime of G and the original as replacements for the manga I'd say don't. The original mangas are very different.
I'm what you may call an oldtaku. I remember when Getter Robo G was localized in the USA as Starvengers.
I really like the Super Robot genre and I wish more Super Robot anime would come out nowadays
almost impossible to make a good title with the limits society put on creators they didn't had before. with all the censorship and stuff, we barely can have 30% of what we had before. just compare old shows with their newer versions, a good example is the new Urusei Yatsura.
I really wish too, but even if we did, probably they couldn't be too different than what they were long ago... But I hope I'll be wrong if this ever happens
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 😅
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.
Mazinger Z is criminally underrated.
It was my introduction to Japanese animation and I still love it to bits.
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.
I salute all the in-depth research and scripting that went into this: WOW!!
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
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.
Yeah the thing is it is assumed people who make "deconstructive" shows hate or think themselves above them. When in reality theyre fans, who simply want to elaborate on favorite parts of the shows they watched and express their love via references whether subtle or overt
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
"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.
A rule of thumb: if a statement comes from Gigguk, it's some fairly stupid misconception (to put it mildly).
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.
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!
Great video! In Asean countries, we see the “Robot Romance Trilogy” as the best of the genre. Super Robots are still very much popular and sellable here. The Philippines even has a live action tV series retelling of Voltes-V this 2023
& Netflix might Stream the Filipino made Reboot called Voltes V Legacy Outside the Phillipines, cuz it fits the Mold.
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.
Yeah, Super Robots are really sold short. Some claim that they're fun but often over-the-top with their violence. I recall how someone called Golion's high carnage came off as a kid's idea of "maturity." I can't say I don't see where they're coming from but I do feel there's a lack of appreciation all the same.
i'm going to say again what i said in the last upload, hope this video and your channel as whole get more recognition so this type of mentality dies down.
I have nothing else to say except. I love you. This is immaculate.
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.
Im a old fart who grew up with shogun warriors. I will always love mazinger, getter robo, and the whole "super robot" genre.
My love for this type of anime hasnt gone away and wont.
Outside of Super Robot Wars, I feel like older Super Robot shows aren't brought up a whole lot these days. At least in the US, I always see people brushing these series off as not worth checking out. I think part of that is just because of the tendency for Americans to ignore anything that isn't a shiny new thing or part of a series that spawned that shiny new thing, but it's still a bit disheartening to know that none of my friends will likely ever read the original Getter no matter how many funny/cool screenshots I show them.
Thank you so much for giving me some easier-to-digest info about the genre's history. Digging through Wikipedia is fun sometimes, but not an especially efficient way to decide what I want to watch on a given night.
I think it has more to do with the fact that they enjoy the tastes of today. 70s media in general is much different from modern media, and that’s because collective tastes change. Although it’s not fair to dismiss stuff you haven’t had experience with.
22:40 - suddenly anime music makes a lot more sense
I really *LOVE* mecha.
I had gotten the impression that _Space Runaway Ideon_ was a pre _Gundam_ series. So thanks for clearing that misconception up.
This was pretty glorious (although a tiny nod to Daltanius when discussing Nagahama's efforts would have been appreciated by this viewer).
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.
Godannar and Cross Ange are Mecha anime from the 2000s and 2010s so the Mecha genre of Anime are still going strong with a series popping up every now and then.
Tomino didn't get the nickname "Kill tell all" for nothing, Zambot 3 was brutal
Steel Jeeg became part of Micronauts toyline in the 80s. Its body was repurposed into the figures of Baron Kazar and Force Commander. To children back then, this was like seeing the miserable chimera in Hagaren.
You're one of the most underappreciated channels out there, my dude, hats goddamn off to you.
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.
Jesus Christ, that Zambot 3 was something else. Great video, man.
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.
In some ways it is definitely a deconstruction; however, the amount it deconstructs is way overblown. It shows how scary a real invasion would be where in other super robot shows, it’s glosses over. Rei and Asuka are deconstructions of female anime tropes. It’s not as simple as most people claim it to be.
@@thomasffrench3639
> It shows how scary a real invasion would be where in other super robot shows, it’s glosses over.
No not even close. Watch the video again, especially the one with the human bombs in Zambot 3. Also Neo Tokyo 3 is literally a purpose build fortress and trap city rolled into one to lure the Angels in to attack, and the Angels rarely attack elsewhere for that reason (cos Adam and Lilith is trapped in Neo Tokyo 3). There's nothing scary with EVA's invasion which hasn't been done before in Super Robot shows.
>Rei and Asuka are deconstructions of female anime tropes.
Again no, they are tropes and they aren't deconstructions. The mysterious quiet girl turning out to be a tool of war is a real robot trope you can find in works like Votoms and Five Star Story. Asuka solidify the tsudere trope but pretty much every super robot female romance interest is like Asuka, the video even points out how Sayaka of Mazinger Z is that.
EVA is not a deconstruction because it doesn't do anything to say those tropes have any meaning, it literally is just repeating the tropes because they are popular.
@@nanaholic01 ah yes, I remember all the Zambot 3 clones like GoLion and the Brave series.
@@nanaholic01 also for something to be a deconstruction it must also be a trope as well. Played straight but to the logical extremes and examine why a trope exists
@@thomasffrench3639 yes that's correct - a deconstruction must take the trope to extreme and re-interpret the meaning of those tropes for it to be a deconstruction, but EVA doesn't do that, it merely pays respect to the tropes by copying them, so it wasn't a deconstruction, which isn't surprising because Anno Hideki is a super fanboy of Gundam creator Tomino Yoshiyuki. EVA's mecha themes is essentially Anno fanboying over Tomino's iconic work - namely Gundam and Ideon. Same reason why Shin Gozilla done by Anno was also a deep tribute to the original Godzilla and not a deconstruction of Godzilla films, or Gunbuster being a tribute to super robot and sports anime shows of the 70s etc. Anno is not a deconstruction writer - he's a super fanboy referencing works which affected his childhood and trying to reproduce those specific factors in his work. Anno's work is not deconstruction but rather re-enforcement of genre tropes in everything he does, reading his work as deconstructions would actually mean you miss his points.
A proper deconstruction of the mecha genre trope is actually the often overlooked by western audience show Martian Successor Nadesico which was released at the roughly the same time as EVA. It's a show which at the time of release got overlooked due to the western audience (mainly Americans) being unfamiliar with the mecha genre tropes and thus couldn't understand the deconstruction of the genre the show was doing, and that show absolutely deconstructed both super and real robot tropes. It's a show where the more you know the mecha genre tropes the funnier but also deeper it gets.
4:25 Considering where things gone today, I think "first tsundere" is a far more admirable title than "strong female character".
I mean, its a strong female character in a good way, not like all that preachy and pretentious writting that plagues most of the western media nowdays
I'd say the biggest problem with the giant robot acceptance (and anime in general) in the anglosphere is the editing. Everything is toned down to a 5 to 8 year old demographic. I always loved Battle of the Planets, but I was totally blown away by the quality of Gatchaman! The problem is, as always, Hollywood's overzealous editors.
Kotetsu Jeeg was pretty much forgotten until the debut in 2nd Super Robot Wars Alpha and due to its debut in the game, it garnered quite an interest that a continuation of it was made named Kotetsu Shin Jeeg.
I know Banjo from Daitarn 3 was known to be somewhat of a Japanese Bruce Wayne but didn't expect it to be inspired by the campy Batman series.
The 80's opening in my opinion depends on the target audience and possibly the animation studio.
Didn't know that some people think that real robot evolved from super robot, like seriously.
8:30
Amazing video all around but I absolutely love how you correctly pronounced Saiyan. That is extremely rare in the west.
3:54 grendizer
King grendizer
Grendizer giga
Grendizer u
One of the things about Gundam is, by all means it should of been a massive failure project, the toy sales where bad, the show's ratings where bad to the point Tomino had to call weekly to apologize for the low ratings, it was made purely by the new hire and b list animators Sunrise had cause the good ones where making The Ultraman anime, Yasuhiko was hospitalized for 6 months of it and he was the main animation director. But the stars aligned just right and cause of the records selling well, magazines promoting it, the cult fanbase it gained, and Bandai coming in with their models, it is now the 15th largest media franchise ever made
Who knew selling the Toy Rights to Another Toy Company cancelled a Another Crossover Movie.
Attack on Titan is basically a Giant Robot series crossed with Devilman and Bio-Booster Armor Guyver.
I'd say that it more resembles Demon Lord Dante which was written by Devilman creator Go Nagai.
Absolutely the best video on the history of mecha anime I've seen on this platform. I hope it can reach far and wide.
Mecha has an interesting story for me as I loved Gundam when they ran on toonami but around the time SD Gundam force ended I became obsessed with Kingdom Hearts, Zelda and Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic takeing up my time and leading to mechs becomeing a distant memory. Then in my senior year of High School I watched the original Transformers movie and loved it and wanted more stuff like it but didn't know where to start when about 2 years later a member of Team Four Star mentioned G Gundam during an unboxing video and I went I rember that and rewatched the series via a sketchy TH-cam channel and then Unicorn appeared in my recommendations and I fell down the Gundam rabbit hole and then 2 years after that I imported Super Robot Wars V and discover Getter Robo and became a huge fan of the Genere ever since