A Tokyo Exhibition Celebrates Giant Anime Robots Through The Decades

The history of anime giant robots is, well, giant. It's pretty much inevitable that the current Tokyo exhibition, “Giant Robots: The Core of Japanese Mecha Anime,” which runs at the Sunshine City complex in Ikebukuro until January 13, offers only a select guide to the genre. I went to it together with a Japanese friend, Carlos Nakajima, who took the photos for this article (thanks a million, Carlos!). Afterwards we argued about whether the show was adequate.

I was impressed by the sweep of titles, from vintage 1960s and '70 anime like Tetsujin 28 (Gigantor) and Mazinger Z, through 1980s landmarks like Megazone 23 and Xabungle, to '90s retro anime including The Big O and Gekiganger 3 (from Martian Successor Nadesico). But there are huge omissions—no Evangelion, no Patlabor, no twenty-first-century titans such as Gurren Lagann or Code Geass. There was no Macross at the preview event either, though I went back a few days later and found a large number of sketches from the original series had been added in the meantime - unfortunately, photos of them weren't allowed.

Rights issues or marketing agendas may have influenced the selection of titles, but as Carlos' pictures show, there was still loads to see. Anyone able to go in person should be advised that nearly all the exhibition text, barring the introductions to each section, is Japanese-only. Google Translate helps, but unless you have a large smartphone, it's still awkward to make out the text on the panels.

The exhibition is in Sunshine City's Exhibition Hall B on Sunshine City's fourth floor. It is open daily until January 13, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (The last admission is 30 minutes before closing time.) The exhibition has a Japanese web page.

An adult ticket costs 2,200 yen. Tickets cannot be purchased with cash at the exhibit; I bought mine at the Family Mart convenience store with a surcharge of 130 yen.

The exhibition begins with the original big robot, Tetsujin 28 or Gigantor as it was known in America. Even through a smartphone translator, the text is particularly interesting, pointing out how the anime coincided with the birth of Japan's incredible postwar infrastructure. It also highlights how the first screen version of the character wasn't the 1963 anime, but rather a 1960 live-action series.

That leads on into a display celebrating some of the beloved Super Robots of the 1970s: Mazinger Z, Steel Jeeg, Reideen the Brave and Chō Denji Robo Combattler V.

The fabulous painting in the next image was created by the mecha design legend Kazutaka Miyatake (the original Macross). He was present at the exhibition's preview and graciously let ANN take his picture.

Watch out, or you'll step on a Gundam!

The next picture is a CG painting created by another feted illustrator, Naoyuki Katō. Both Katō and Miyatake were founding members of the design studio that would become Studio Nue. The picture beneath that is especially significant. Created by both artists, it was the frontispiece illustration for the Japanese edition of Robert Heinlein's American novel, Starship Troopers, which helped spark the "Real Robot" revolution in anime to come.

Carlos was in a nostalgic swoon at some of the robot toys on display, especially the Reideen the Brave figure. One toy is based on the 1973 anime series Zero Tester, which the exhibition helpfully notes was influenced by a British mecha classic - Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds.

Below is one of the more unexpected robots to get a display. This long-armed fellow might look like the robot in Hayao Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky, but it's an ancestor - it's the robot that causes mayhem in Tokyo in "Farewell, Lovely Lupin," a TV episode of Lupin the 3rd which Miyazaki directed in 1981. The exhibit acknowledges, though, that it was hardly an original design. The robot was a direct homage to the criminal mecha that appears in a classic American Superman cartoon by the Fleischer Studio, 1941's The Mechanical Monsters.

The next decade is represented by the likes of Megazone 23 and two Sunrise series, Xabungle and Fang of the Sun Dougram.

The last part of the exhibition shows the return of the retro robot, in shows such as GaoGaiGar: King of the Braves, Dai-Guard, The Big O and the show-in-a-show from Martian Successor Nadesico, Gekigangar 3.

And finally, one more epic painting by Kazutake Miyatake, showing The Big O, Gaogaigar and Gekigangar 3 in a magnificent collision!