The Origins of Mecha: The 1980s, Part 1: From Gundam to Robotech And Beyond

Author: Anime Commentary

In my previous article on mecha history, I examined various genre standards and figures that were introduced in the 1970s. The decade proved significant, thanks to shows such as Mazinger Z and Mobile Suit Gundam pioneering and popularizing the Super Robot and Real Robot subgenres, respectively. The 1980s continued this trend, offered real evolutions to both formats, while also helping to establish a number of new trends, particularly the concept of the transforming robot that has several distinct modes. . Moreover, as both Super Robot and Real Robot works saw releases over the course of the decade, particularly on television; international interest in mecha as a whole grew throughout the 1980s. It was an era marked by bold strides, and controversial practices, which formed a tapestry of content that could (and would) never be replicated.

In Japan, mecha anime experienced continued popularity as the nation entered the 1980s, building upon the successes they found in the previous decade. The decade saw the debuts of numerous popular anime, ranging from Giant Gorg to various entries in the iconic Gundam franchise. With regards to Gundam,  though the original TV series did not achieve success initially, it eventually found an audience through reruns, leading to three new productions in the 1980s. The first, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, introduces a new generation of pilots, with Kamille Bidan as a primary protagonist. The series proved popular with women, who comprised roughly 30% of the audience at the time of its debut.

Zeta’s successor Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, was released the following year. In the series, Neo Zeon rose as a force composed of former Zeon remnants, who set their base up in an asteroid base. Haman Karn, who was introduced in Zeta Gundam as a supporting villain, returns to become the show’s main antagonist as the leader of Neo Zeon.

Feature film Char’s Counterattack was released into theaters in 1988,and would go on to become a beloved staple of the greater franchise. The movie, which is based on the novel Hi-Streamer by Yoshiyuki Tomino, is set in the in-universe year of U.C. 0093. It concludes the story of Amuro Ray and Char Aznable, with the former leading the new Londo Bell task force against the latter, who plans to destroy the Earth with an asteroid.  In 1988, Tomino would write Beltorchika’s Children, which tells an alternative version of the story.

These three Gundam productions, in addition to the 1979 original, would further form a bedrock from which the franchise’s popularity could grow. That said, series creator Tomino would also produce a number of other mecha projects during the decade, including 1980’s Space Runaway Ideon and the 1982 series Combat Mecha Xabungle. Xabungle tells the story of an orphaned boy named Jiro Amon, who wishes to exact vengeance against the person who murdered his parents. Like Gundam ZZ, Xabungle adopts a generally lighthearted tone for its story, rather than a pessimistic one. Ideon, by contrast, presents a more bleak tone, focusing on a conflict between the villainous Buff Clan and the inhabitants of the planet Solo.

In contrast, Ideon tends to play more towards the Super Robot subgenre in its overall tone. The eponymous mechanoidunit is the combination of three separate units, each with its own pilot, which can attach to each other to form the iconicin  robot’s profile. The idea of a combining robot can also be found in other mecha works, with the most notable being 1981’s Beast King GoLion. GoLion was one of two shows that were, like the mighty robot itself, merged together to produce Voltron for American distribution (the other being Armored Fleet Dairugger XV).

This practice of combining shows to form a new production no longer exists, as it was essentially an artifact of 1980s syndication regulations. While no official law existed to govern which shows were allowed to be distributed in syndication, a rule of thumb suggested that a title needed at least sixty-five episodes (ideally 100) to qualify. Since neither Dairugger XV nor GoLion had enough to pass that threshold, American company World Events Productions chose to combine the two together to satisfy the rule.

This practice can also be seen in another 1980s work, Robotech, which was produced by Harmony Gold. In Robotech’s case, three separate shows, rather than two, were combined to form a new narrative context that would see the three unrelated works connected.  As a result of Harmony Gold’s work, though, a peculiar legal situation surrounds the famed Macross franchise worldwide. Although the initial 1982 series and a handful of other projects did receive official distribution worldwide , subsequent works remain in legal limbo. Harmony Gold, meanwhile, has extended their license to Robotech for the foreseeable future.

Speaking of Macross, the franchise began with the release of Super Dimension Fortress Macross in 1982. Created by Studio Nue and Artland, with mecha designs by Shoji Kawamori, this series presents the story of a great interplanetary conflict between the inhabitants of Earth and the Zentraedi, with the eponymous space-faring battleship being serving as the main space vessel for Earth. Macross helped introduce the concept of transformable mecha to a wider audience. Though forebears such as Getter Robo explored the concept previously, Macross showed the units as individual mechs that did not connect physically in any way. The series presented this idea with the Valkyrie units operated by Earth’s pilots. Each unit had three different configurations, including a plane, humanoid mecha and an intermediary step known as “Gerwalk” that had characteristics of both.

Another show used in Robotech, Genesis Climber MOSPEADA, was broadcast between in 1983 and 1984. The story follows humanity’s attempt to reclaim Earth from the Invid, who decimated and conquered the planet in 2050. Like Macross, MOSPEADA features transformable units in the form of the Legioss mecha (which were similar to Macross’ Valkyries in their construction). In addition, the show also includes powered armors known as MOSPEADA, which could transform into motorcycles.

Though shows like Macross and Zeta Gundam served as harbingers of the Real Robot subgenre  of mecha shows, the Super Robot genre still existed and thrived. Aside from the aforementioned GoLion and Ideon, another notable example is Giant Gorg, which was directed by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (who also provided character designs for the original 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam). The series focuses on  the eponymous Gorg and its young pilot Yuu Tagami, the son of a prominent scientist who was mysteriously killed while researching a resurfaced island. Yuu discovers Gorg when he teams up with one of his father’s former students and travels to the island in question. Gorg is the product of an advanced extraterrestrial civilization that arrived on Earth thousands of years prior, and one of the civilization’s descendants (whose brother previously piloted Gorg) attacks Earth in his own unit when he becomes disillusioned with humanity.

Other Super Robot shows that appeared during the decade include Chō Kōsoku Galvion and Galactic Whirlwind Sasuraiger, the latter of which is part of the J9 franchise alongside its predecessors Braiger and Baxingar. Sasuraiger stars a gambler who wagers that he can traverse the entire solar system in a year, enlisting the help of three others and the eponymous transforming train mecha. The series bears the distinction of a musical score provided by Joe Hisaishi, who famously contributed scores to various Hayao Miyazaki films, including My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away.

Galvion, meanwhile, stars pilots who happen to be criminals, who agreed to operate the mecha in exchange for reduced sentences. The title features mecha designs by Koichi Ohata, who is also famous for his work on Gunbuster.  Unfortunately, Galvion did not fare well critically, and it was subsequently cancelled. Kokusai Eiga-sha, the studio responsible for the series, ultimately folded by mid-decade, and the toy manufacturer Takatoku went bankrupt before it was able to produce any merchandise intended for the series.

As the various examples given show, the 1980s saw a continuation of both the Super Robot and Real Robot subgenres. That’s to say nothing of works like SD Gundam, which would go on to spur interest in Gundam and its merchandise, or similar ilk. Meanwhile, American interest in mecha saw remarkable growth with the aid of heavily-edited U.S. broadcasts of shows such as GoLion and Macross.    This would lay the foundation for the following decade, which would prove fruitful for the international distribution of mecha anime when channels like Cartoon Network began picking up mecha anime for broadcast.

In the next installment, we will continue our examination of the 1980s, as we cast our gaze on other mecha productions from the decade, particularly those that found their way to the world via the nascent direct-to-video OVA market.