The Age of Robots and Heroes — The Diversification of the 1970s

Last time, we saw how ‘Astro Boy’ invented the template of a weekly thirty-minute TV anime and lifted anime into a national pastime. Riding on that template, from the late 1960s into the 1970s, works of all kinds of genres blossomed one after another inside the cathode-ray tube. What colored this era most strongly were giant robots and grand stories set in space. In this chapter, we trace neutrally, faithful to the historical record, the process by which anime expanded beyond the frame of children’s entertainment and an ardent fan culture began to bud — around three milestones: ‘Mazinger Z’, ‘Space Battleship Yamato’, and ‘Mobile Suit Gundam’.

The robot you board — Mazinger Z and the lineage of giant robots

‘Mazinger Z’, which began airing in 1972, is regarded as a turning point in the history of robot anime. There had been works in which robots were active before it, but what this work popularized was the form in which a human boards the inside of the machine and pilots it to fight. The hero sits in the cockpit and moves the giant steel body at will — this premise gripped children’s hearts strongly and was passed down to countless robot anime thereafter.

Another important aspect this work showed was its bond with toys. The robot in the story was merchandised as an alloy toy and drew great popularity. Anime and toys supported each other and expanded the market together — one could say this was the form in which the idea we saw last time, of supporting production with income from outside the broadcast, blossomed greatly in the field of robot anime. The story sells the toy, and the toy’s popularity gives birth to the next story. Such a cycle became one pillar of the anime industry that followed.

The genre of giant robots built a solid footing in this era. Longing for a powerful hero, and the appeal of mechanical design. These joined together and stirred children’s imaginations. The diversification of anime began, first of all, with this enrichment of easy-to-grasp entertainment.

Into space — the range of story that Yamato opened up

‘Space Battleship Yamato’, which aired in 1974, is remembered as a work that greatly broadened the range of stories anime could depict. A ship and its crew set out to the far reaches of space to save an Earth facing the crisis of extinction. Woven carefully into it were a science-fiction setting of grand scale and the human struggles and drama of its characters.

What is interesting is the path its reputation took. Its first broadcast did not necessarily win a large response, it is said. But after the broadcast, ardent support spread as reruns accumulated, and when a theatrical version was eventually released, it grew into a popularity that could be called a social phenomenon. Rather than the outcome being decided by a single broadcast, fan support pushed the work up over time — this path would come to be seen again and again in later anime works.

The surge of ‘Space Battleship Yamato’ was also a sign that the audience watching anime was changing. Not only children, but middle and high schoolers, and even older generations, were drawn into the weight of the story. The premise that anime was ‘something for children’ was beginning, little by little, to waver.

A challenge toward the real — Gundam and the maturing of the audience

And then in 1979, ‘Mobile Suit Gundam’ began airing. Made under chief director Yoshiyuki Tomino, this work inherited the form of the giant robot while greatly reworking its contents. The robot was depicted not as the tool of a superhuman hero, but as a weapon operated by an army. There are people of differing standpoints in war, the enemy too has its circumstances, and within the fighting young people are wounded and grow. Such layered human drama, and a depiction of war that aimed for realism, lay at the core of this work.

That said, its launch was not smooth. The ratings at the start of broadcast struggled, the number of episodes originally planned was cut, and it ended its broadcast at 43 episodes in total, it is said. It was, in a sense, a work that once struggled commercially. But after the broadcast ended, support rose through reruns, and the situation changed completely when plastic models based on the weapons in the work drew explosive popularity. Combined with the release of theatrical versions, ‘Mobile Suit Gundam’ set off a major boom and grew into a great series that would continue for long afterward.

What Gundam showed was that anime could speak of complex, heavy themes toward an older audience. A story that does not simply divide good and evil, and the weight of war as a subject. A work that handled these head-on gathered strong support from young people. Anime surely broadened its range from the frame of children’s entertainment into expression that drew in young adults as well.

Fans make a culture — the upheaval of the late 1970s

In the latter half of the 1970s, a new phenomenon was growing around anime. Fans who ardently supported works, spoke of them themselves, gathered, and created — the presence of such fans began to hold visible power. That the popularity of ‘Space Battleship Yamato’ and ‘Mobile Suit Gundam’ was pushed up by fan support rather than by the broadcast itself was a symbol of this.

Magazines ran features, tie-in goods sold, and the connections among fans spread. A movement in which culture took shape around a work, rather than merely receiving it, budded in this era. The fervor later called the anime boom was, one could say, supported by this active involvement of fans. It was also the doorway through which anime changed from a mere broadcast program into a cultural pursuit in which people are deeply involved with one another.

The power of giant robots, the grandeur of stories that voyage through space, and the maturing of a gaze that looks upon war. The anime of the 1970s stretched out its branches in these varied directions, and broadened the ages of those who watched it. Anime, which had begun as something for children, would in time change into the frontier of expression — and the footsteps of that great transformation were surely beginning to be heard in this era.