Japanese Mecha (genre)

In Japan, "robot anime" (known as "mecha anime" outside Japan) is one of the oldest genres in anime. Robot anime is often tied in with toy manufacturers. Large franchises such as *Gundam*, *Macross*, *Transformers*, and *Zoids* have hundreds of different model kits.

The size of mecha can vary according to the story and concepts involved. Some of them may not be considerably taller than a tank (*Armored Trooper Votoms*,*Yatterman*, *Megazone 23*, *Code Geass*), some may be a few stories tall (*Gundam*, *Escaflowne*, *Bismark*, *Gurren Lagann*), others can be titan sized as tall as a skyscraper (*Space Runaway Ideon*, *Genesis of Aquarion*, *Science Ninja Team Gatchaman*, *Neon Genesis Evangelion*), some are big enough to contain an entire city (*Macross*), some the size of a planet (*Diebuster*), galaxies (*Getter Robo*, *Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann*), or even as large as universes (*Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-hen*, *Demonbane*, *Transformers: Alternity*).

The first titan robots seen were in the 1948 manga *Atomic Power Android* (原子力人造人間, *Genshiryoku Jinzō Ningen*) and Mitsuteru Yokoyama's 1956 manga *Tetsujin 28-go*. However, it was not until the advent of Go Nagai's *Mazinger Z* that the genre was established. *Mazinger Z* innovated by adding the inclusion of futuristic weapons, and the concept of being able to pilot from a cockpit (rather than via remote control, in the case of Tetsujin). According to Go Nagai:

> *I wanted to create something different, and I thought it would be interesting to have a robot that you could drive, like a car.*
>
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*Mazinger Z* featured giant robots that were "piloted by means of a small flying car and command center that docked inside the head." It was also a pioneer in die-cast metal toys such as the Chogokin series in Japan and the Shogun Warriors in the U.S., that were (and still are) very popular with children and collectors.

Robot/mecha anime and manga differ vastly in storytelling and animation quality from title to title, and content ranges from children's shows to ones intended for an older teen or adult audience.

Some of the first mecha featured in manga and anime were super robots. The super robot genre features superhero-like giant robots that are often one-of-a-kind and the product of an ancient civilization, aliens or a mad genius. These robots are usually piloted by Japanese teenagers via voice command or neural uplink, and are often powered by mystical or exotic energy sources.

The later real robot genre features robots that do not have mythical superpowers, but rather use largely conventional, albeit futuristic weapons and power sources, and are often mass-produced on a large scale for use in wars. The real robot genre also tends to feature more complex characters with moral conflicts and personal problems. The genre is therefore aimed primarily at young adults instead of children. *Mobile Suit Gundam* (1979) is largely considered the first series to introduce the real robot concept and, along with *The Super Dimension Fortress Macross* (1982), would form the basis of what people would later call real robot anime.

Some robot mecha are capable of transformation (*Macross* and *Zeta Gundam*) or combining to form even bigger ones (*Beast King GoLion* and *Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann*), the latter called 'combination'. Go Nagai and Ken Ishikawa are often credited with inventing this in 1974 with *Getter Robo*.

Not all mecha need to be completely mechanical. Some have biological components with which to interface with their pilots, and some are partially biological themselves, such as in *Neon Genesis Evangelion*, *Eureka Seven*, and *Zoids*. *Attack on Titan* creator Hajime Isayama draws particular inspiration from the mecha visual novel *Muv-Luv* with its use of "pilots" controlling larger humanoid apparatus.

Mecha based on anime have seen extreme cultural reception across the world. The personification of this popularity can be seen as 1:1-sized *Mazinger Z*, Tetsujin, and Gundam statues built across the world.

## History

The 1940 short manga *Electric Octopus* (デンキダコ, *Denki Dako*) featured a powered, piloted, mechanical octopus. The 1943 Yokoyama Ryūichi's propaganda manga *The Science Warrior Appears in New York* (科学戦士ニューヨークに出現す, *Kagaku Senshi New York ni Shutsugensu*) featured a sword-wielding, steam-powered, giant humanoid mecha. The first series in the mecha genre was Mitsuteru Yokoyama's 1956 manga *Tetsujin 28-go* (which was later animated in 1963 and also released abroad as *Gigantor*). Yokoyama was inspired to become a manga creator by Osamu Tezuka, and began serializing the manga in *Shonen*, an iconic boy's magazine, in 1956. In this series, the robot, which was made as a last-ditch effort to win World War II by the Japanese military, was remote-controlled by the protagonist Shotaro Kaneda, a twelve-year-old detective and "whiz kid". The story turned out to have immense mass appeal, and inspired generations of imitators.

In 1972, Go Nagai, another of Japan's greatest manga creators, defined the super robot genre with *Mazinger Z*, which was directly inspired by the former series. He had the revolutionary idea to create a mecha that people could control like a car, while waiting to cross a busy street. The concept became "explosively popular", making the manga and anime into a success. The series also was the genesis for different tropes of the genre, such as the idea of a robot as a "dynamic entity" that could join with other machines or humans to become unstoppable. **Anime critic Fred Patten wrote that almost all mecha anime plots, such as monster of the week shows, were actually metaphors for re-fighting World War II, and defending Japan and its culture from Western encroachment.**

By 1977, a large number of super robot anime had been created, including *Brave Raideen* and *Danguard Ace*. The market for super robot toys also grew, spawning metal die-cast toys such as the Chogokin series in Japan and the Shogun Warriors in the U.S., that were (and still are) very popular with children and collectors. The super robot genre became heavily commercialized and stagnant, creating an opening for innovation, which was seized upon by Yoshiyuki Tomino in 1979 with the creation of *Mobile Suit Gundam*, a complex "space saga" that was called the "*Star Wars* of Japan" and birthed the real robot genre, which featured more realistic, gritty technology. Tomino did not like the formulaic storylines and overt advertising of the super robot shows he had worked on, and wanted to create a movie where robots were used as tools. While the response to *Gundam* was lukewarm at first, efforts by dedicated fans led to it becoming a success. It created a massive market for mecha model robots, and became an industry that earned Bandai ¥42.8 billion in 2004. Many real robot series and other media were later created, such as *Full Metal Panic!* and the video game series *Armored Core*.

1990 saw the release of *Patlabor*, a breakthrough animated movie directed by Mamoru Oshii that popularized the mecha genre and aesthetic in the West. *Neon Genesis Evangelion*, created by Hideaki Anno in 1995, was a major influence on the super robot genre, arriving when the real robot genre was dominant on television. A deconstruction of classic mecha anime tropes, it recast the "saintly" inventor/father as a sinister figure, and the enthusiastic teenage protagonist as a "vacillating" introvert. Due to its unusual psychological themes, the show became a massive success, and further caused Japanese anime culture to spread widely and rapidly around the world.