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INTEREST: Japanese Government Study on Robot Anime Now Available in English

...the final chapter features an exhaustingly complete list of robot anime shows and movies...

NOTE: This list was complied by the project team. Once this report has been released publicly, we plan to refine it based on comments from industry professionals and fans

This report is being prepared with future expansions and revisions in mind. It is a birds-eye view of the “big picture” of the genre and is not intended as a comprehensive “be-all, end-all” on the topic.

The second new development is the debut of the director Guillermo Del Toro's film “Pacific Rim," which was released in Japan on August 9, 2013. The plot involves humanity using giant robots
controlled by human pilots to defend Earth’s cities from gigantic “kaiju.” At the end of the credits, the director dedicates the film to the memory of “monster masters” Ishiro Honda (who oversaw many of the “Godzilla” films) and Ray Harryhausen (who pioneered stop-motion animation techniques.) The film clearly took a great deal of inspiration from Japanese robot anime shows.

In spring of 1974, the first of the "gattai" (combining) robot characters debuted. Called "Getter Robo," it was created by Go Nagai, the same man who had created Mazinger Z.

Coming full circle, tokusatsu also represents the last bastion of giant robot productions in Japan today, amidst a declining birth rate that has reduced the audience for robots to the point where only a handful of new shows now debut every year.

It's definitely very interesting, however, and I thank ANN for calling attention to this. I do have one question out of mere curiosity though. What's the untranslated Chapter 3 about?

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...the final chapter features an exhaustingly complete list of robot anime shows and movies...

Well, not exactly. The list certainly has most of the important highlights, but is far from being exhaustive or complete.

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In spring of 1974, the first of the "gattai" (combining) robot characters debuted. Called "Getter Robo," it was created by Go Nagai, the same man who had created Mazinger Z.

Ken Ishikawa, not Go Nagai.
It's not even like a glance at the cover of the original manga could solve it. Nagai only gave the concept of the jet and for the most part, took a background role. The story and everything else was done by Ishikawa.

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Coming full circle, tokusatsu also represents the last bastion of giant robot productions in Japan today, amidst a declining birth rate that has reduced the audience for robots to the point where only a handful of new shows now debut every year.

I didn't ask for this.

While I know that Ken Ishikawa is responsible for something like 90% of Getter Robo, Go Nagai still created the original idea behind the series. Didn't he also work a little on the original manga and pitch the idea to Toei for their TV anime adaptation?

Director Kazuyuki Hirokawa's"Uchū Senshi Baldios"(SpaceWarriorBaldios), which also debuted in 1980, is another robot anime that utilized a "hard" sci-fi setting.
The "alien" invaders turn out to be humans from the far future, driven to the brink of
extinction and forced to travel back in time as a last-ditch survival measure, which
turns out to be the cause of their downfall in the first place. The producers' confidence in
incorporating a classic hard sci-fi time paradox into their storyline illustrates how
expectations had grown for robot anime productions and their directors.
But both of these series suffered extremely lackluster toy sales, resulting in their
cancellations before the full stories could play out. They had obviously been ahead of
their time. Both eventually saw their finales shown not on TV, but as theatrical
features. They represent the first and the last of the robot shows that sacrificed
"merchandisability" for "content."