Anime Commentary runs through the history of anime's mecha genre, taking a look at the rise of Super Robot anime like Mazinger in the 1970s.
Dec 22, 2020 • Subscribe
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The REAL History of 70s SUPER Robots
Use code "MERCURY" to get $5 off for your first #Sakuraco box through this link: https://team.sakura.co/Sakuraco-MercuryFalcon and first #TokyoTreat box through this link: https://team.tokyotreat.com/TokyoTreat-MercuryFalcon" For this month's theme, TokyoTreat…
Astroganger, Getter Robo, Kimagure Orange Road, Macross, Mazinger Z


The Origins of Mecha: The 1990s Part 1: Landmarks and Evolutions
The dawn of the 1990s saw Japan entering a period of economic turbulence and upheaval. Rampant speculation, coupled by inflation from the Plaza Accord saw


This Week in Games - Super Fighting Robots
Jean-Karlo looks at the history of the Mega Man U.S. cartoon, the NIKKE mascot that has escaped gacha containment, and a new visual novel from Success!


Why Super Robots are superior to Moe
So I was browsing through the anime bloggosphere when I came across Colony Drop's article on moe . It was a pretty interesting read, but wha...
The Origins of Bara
Like with all kinds of mediums, Bara has a history of its own. And it comes with its own prejudice. History for some reason won’t always tell the…
The Origins of Weeaboo
I’ve never had much first hand contact with the term “weeaboo”. I learned it from an anime loving friend who used it more like a term of endearment.…
Urusei Yatsura #01 — The Comedy of the 1970s
I would like to think as a society that we have moved past deafening screams as a joke. Impressions: I'm someone without any real nostalgia, or even…
The Origins of Visual Novels
Last year I wrote a blog post about the origins of visual novels and how I believe the term is often misused in the West to classify games…


The Story of Animerama: Origins
In the 1960s, one of the first studios to make anime for television was Mushi Productions. Towards the end of that decade, their desire to ...


Poseable Super Robots, Take 3: The Robot Spirits 〈Side SUPER〉 Voltes V (Voltes V: Legacy)
The legendary super robot is now back in action thanks to the overwhelming love of The Philippines! Let me first preface this by saying that, while I’m not…


Impact Indeed! Mecha Smile Impact #MODEROID Reveals: Isekai & Magic Robots
Before 2021 ended, Good Smile Company and its mecha sub-brand Good Mecha Smile have been promoting Mecha Smile Impact, an event which they promise would excite and bring…


8 Mecha Isekai Anime About Robots in a Fantasy World
Mecha isekai anime is fairly rare, but not too uncommon. You definitely have to look a lot harder for it, though. If you enjoy both mecha and isekai,…
Tenchi Muyo!, Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar, Aura Battler Dunbine, Escaflowne, Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet


Mecha Smile Impact 2024 Summer: More Super Deformed and Fantasy Mecha
Compared to previous years, Good Smile Company / Good Mecha Smile is doing things a little differently for this year’s Mecha Smile Impact. Instead of a single big…


Animation in the 1970s: Selected Shorts
American animation’s “golden age” was effectively over by 1970 – Warner Bros. closed its animation department in 1969 (it had closed in 1963, and the studio contracted DePat…


The Avant-Garde Origins of 'Gumby'
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Baoh The Visitor: The Origins of Jojo
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Double Feature Memories, Part 2: The 1970s
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The Origins of Unico, Tezuka's Lonely Unicorn
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K-on! Origins of Musicianship
Introduction The members of After School Tea Time are fantastic musicians. Their music isn’t just cute and fluffy, it can be fast and aggressive at times as well.…
Pick of the Week: Foodies, Weddings, and Robots
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Super Robot Wars Producer Takanobu Terada on Classic Robots and Power Rangers
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The futility of a mecha warmachine.
Will the anime mecha design ever work? It turns out that mechas are just like my hopes and dreams. They will never come true.


Saboru: The Strange Origins of “Cutting Class” in Japanese
The creation of the 8-hour workday, an early 20th-century vogue for foreign words - all led to the most popular Japanese word many don't even realize is foreign…


Comics and the Origins of Manga: A Revisionist History
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08 The Origins of Shōjo Manga (Dr. Deborah Shamoon)
Richard Lloyd Parry is an award-winning foreign correspondent, the Asia Editor at The Times of London in Tokyo, and author of the book Ghosts of the Tsunami:


A Serenade for Change — The Origins of Radiant’s Hameline
Near the climax of Radiant’s first season, there comes a specific moment where the story completely shifts gears, culminating in a very…


Nine: Adachi's Origins
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Vox Machina Origins
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Ju-on: Origins
(This is one of the ones I watch so that you don’t have to, folks. Spoilers ahead.) Against all odds, I still hold out hope for Japanese horror—that…


Pretty Cure: Origins
Toei Animation has been making magical girl anime since Sally the Witch in 1966 – and TV Asahi (previously known as Nihon Educational Television, or NET) has been…


Gattai: The Global Interplay of Mecha Design
Shipped overseas and repackaged in the ’70s and ’80s, the Japanese concept of “giant robots” has become a global phenomenon, the stuff of Hollywood films, video games, TV…


The History of Tatsunoko – 3 – Mecha animations
mixture of expressionist motion and anatomical realism was born. It was also the moment when another one of anime’s key stylistic features developed: mechanical animation. Early TV anime…


The Roles of “Characters” in Mecha Anime
Sometimes, you’ll see a wild claim about mecha anime, like “Gurren-Lagann was the first giant robot series to be about characters instead of the robots,” and it inevitably…


Weebsmas Day 6: Demystifying the Origins of the Virgin Killing Sweater
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Percival Of Death: The Origins!! Four Knights Of The Apocalypse Chapter 127 BREAKDOWN
I may not care for that series much anymore, but I will use a common chapter motif for a title! Especially when it fits like this; we getting Percival’s Origin…
Love, Death & Robots S03
By Andrew Osmond. I’ve previously reviewed seasons one and two of Netflix’s anthology series Love, Death and Robots, and found it an interesting if erratic mix of adult…


Pluto – Robots and Revenge
Naoki Urasawa never disappoints with his stories, the mystery, the themes, and the characters most of all, it gives you an experience that is special to only his…
![Featured image for [18+] Wet Petals – 1970s Eurotrash Kino (Eng Sub)](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20240912/1726108793.89921.130607.jpg)
![Background image for [18+] Wet Petals – 1970s Eurotrash Kino (Eng Sub)](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20240912/1726108793.89921.130607.jpg)
[18+] Wet Petals – 1970s Eurotrash Kino (Eng Sub)
DDL Hold up, dafuq is this? It came in what looked like a blank tape and despite having a Japanese title, the contents turned out to be a…


(#MechaMarch2024) Astro Boy (1980): Of Love and Robots
The “Then” Newer Astro Boy Created by Osamu Tezuka in the 1960’s in manga form and anime soon after, it’s hard to think of a time period where…
Mecha Declaration of Year Start
I don’t normally follow anime as it airs, Gundam and, lately, Precure excepted. (I’m looking forward to Smiley’s Precure. Apparently the Cure colours will be grey, brown, and…
Age of Yamato mecha notes
In these pages from the Age of Yamato movie program book, Mecha Designer Junichiro Tamamori and Animator Kia Asamiya discuss the thought process behind the highlight of the…
Episode 350 - Pokémon Origins
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MechaMarch2025: The State of Mecha Anime from 2024
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Mecha, Isekai, and the Changing Image of Anime
A while ago, a thought popped into my head: isekai is the mecha of the past decade and change. The comparison is not perfect by any means, but…


Already 2024 Anime of The Year - (Mecha Ude)
Mecha-ude Mechanical Arms Today’s anime is a bit of a misfirtune, actually it’s pretty brutal where this one episode, let me start off by affirming to you it was an…


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Let’s take a look at the humble beginnings of one of the most well known blocks in all of USA anime, Toonami.


Everybody Loves Bridget: The origins of otokonoko and birth of a trans icon
Spoilers for Bridget’s storyline across the entire Guilty Gear franchise Amidst of a lot of bad news in summer 2022, one thing trans people found to celebrate was…
Rising Sun over Hollywood: American Imaginings of the Japanese Setting in Cinema- Part 2 [the 1970s-1980s]
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Kinji Fukasaku’s 1970s gangster movies upended decades of depictions of the yakuza and held up a mirror to Japanese society at the same time.


Predicting the End of Dragon Ball Super
Today I will try to predict the future of Dragon Ball Super. With the series on indefinite hiatus, there are plot threads still left dangling that I am…