There are a lot of stereotypes about Japanese animation. First, there are the big eyes and small mouths. More negatively, people immediately think of schoolgirls being raped by giant tentacle monsters. But if there are two stereotypes about Japanese animation and comics that are almost unique to the respective mediums, it’s magical girls and giant robots. And here is your weekly dose of said robots.

If one were to speculate as to why robots became popular in Japanese animation, I’d argue that it was because of market successes from shows like Tetsuwan Atom and Tetsujin 28-gou (each known respectively as Astro Boy and Gigantor in North America) in the 1960s. One could probably argue that hokey science fiction films, especially those of the 1950s that were exported to Japan, could have also nurtured a few ideas to spin themselves into an entire sub-genre of science fiction animation, which would further break itself down into sub-sub-genres over the next four decades.

In 1972, mangaka Nagai Go had an idea that his robot heroes, unlike previously popular machines such as Yokoyama Mitsuteru’s Tetsujin 28-gou or Giant Robo, would be more like vehicles rather than remote controlled sidekicks. The broadcast of Mazinger Z in 1972 would relegate the side-kick robots of the late 1960s to the background. Nagai had many other creations, such as Getter Robo and UFO Robo Grendizer among many others. These shows, considered the “Super Robots” because they represented classic stories of good always triumphing over evil. The super robot series would dominate the 1970s robot shows filled with advertisements for colorful toys and sugary candy as the heroes fought monsters from outer space. But, arguably, all art - even commercial art - must change or become stale.

In 1979, a man named Tomino Yoshiyuki who worked at the animation studio Nippon Sunrise (now just called Sunrise) pitched an idea for a new television series a little piece of work called Mobile Suit Gundam. Tomino had begun working in animation for Tezuka Osamu’s Mushi Pro and made his directorial debut in 1973 with a series called Umi no Triton (Triton of the Seas). It was in Triton that he worked darker storytelling into his projects. He made his way into the robot genre with 1975’s Yuusha Raideen (Brave Raideen) and began working for Nippon Sunrise thereafter. With Raideen being an absolute commercial success, he then worked on another super robot series for Sunrise called Zambot 3. Like Triton, darker story elements were worked into its narrative and the ending completely caught the audience off guard in 1977 (though, it would become a staple of the directr who’s nickname became “Minagoroshi Tomino”).

Zambot’s critical success convinced Nippon Sunrise gave Tomino the credence to then propose his pet project, Mobile Suit Gundam to Sunrise producers. Sunrise green-lit the project expecting to roll around in money with another robot show; however, Tomino decided that this work would turn robot cartoons on its head. Influenced more by the hard science fiction being written in the 1960s and a different turn from the contemporary popular space opera anime by Matsumoto Reiji (or, Leiji Matsumoto), Gundam featured robots-as-weapons-of-war, humanity moved to space and locked in yet another war with itself and the drama of human emotion tested by conflict. Not to say that Gundam wasn’t without it’s own dose of psycho-babble science fantasy either; Tomino developed the concept of NewTypes, humans who had begun the next stage of human evolution by having a form of emotional ESP with each other. While popular with early anime otaku in Japan, the show had little commercial success as marketing tools for toy sponsors were haphazardly added and the production was constantly under threat of losing funding. The series was cut short to wrap in 43 episodes.

Tomino’s experiement, as time proved, was a success. After regaining faith of his superiors with Space Runaway Ideon (a very dark super robot series) in 1980 -’81, Tomino convinced Nippon Sunrise to condense the Gundam series into a theatrical film trilogy. It was through these films that Japan as a nation blossomed with Gundam fandom. The concept of realistic depictions of mechanical war machines and futuristic space combat quickly took hold. A group of otaku-turned-professionals (and early Gundam fans) called Studio Nue developed an animation series which became a hit franchise in its own right, 1982’s Superdimension Fortress Macross. Like Gundam, Macross featured realistic futuristic combat and human emotion wrecked by conflict but it also incorporated the closest thing to actual space opera - a pop soundtrack that was as notable and complementary to the narrative. The rest of the 1980s would be dominated by the Real Robots and Sunrise seemingly had a monopoly on them: in addition to continuing Gundam, Sunrise also worked on massively popular and epic series such as Armor Trooper Votoms, Blue Comet SPT Layzner and the oddly-fitting Aura Battler Dunbine.

As the 1990s began, robot series being produced were a part of two camps: real robot series that were continuations of earlier franchises (Mobile Suit Gundam F-91 and Mobile Suit V Gundam) or psuedo-remakes and psuedo-sequels of super robot series from the seventies (Chouja Raideen, a collection of Mazinger Z/Gret Mazinger/Mazinkaiser OAVs). Revolutionary notes of genre development came in 1995 with GAINAX’s Neon Genesis Evangelion (Shin Seiki Evangelion). Evangelion took many of the trappings of previous robot series: an unwilling pilot, fantasy-babble and money troubles then added elements of director Anno Hideaki exploring his own psyche and the series lit the otaku community ablaze. Evangelion’s grip on the Japanese otaku community has yet to be loosened as re-hashes of the same material are released, driving otaku crazy, unlike many (if, any) other mecha franchises in Japan.

It’s one’s opinion that the turn of the twenty-first century has seen the mecha genre take a back seat from being one of Japanese animation’s stand-out genres. Part of this is from the shift away from traditional cel animation, which had developed from rough and shoddy productions in the 1960s and ’70s to comparatively fine-tuned and smoother works in the 1980s and ’90s,  to shifts in all digital animation. While there are arguably external factors affecting this, to add to the growing pains of technology, Japanese otaku just didn’t seem as interested in science fiction and robot series as they were the slew of romance-anime-based-on-porn-games or shut-in-moe-fetishes. These factors combined have led to a few quiet, pleasing sleeper hits and a mountain of garbage.

Mecha Mondays isn’t just here to parrot facts or re-hash reviews; it’s here to add a bit more perspective to already talked about shows and it’s about getting the word out about other series that are generally unexplored or have been forgotten about. It’s a column not just of reviews, but one that will also discuss metafandom. So, I hope you all look forward to the next installment!

Drew Sutton is a long-time Japanese animation fan, operator of Akihabara Renditions: Anime of the Bubble Economy and host of its component podcast.