The Old School Otaku Lounge

I stopped by a 7-11 to pay for an order I placed on Amazon Japan today and saw a color-illustrated book called 戦え！全日本アニメロボ大全集 ("Tatakae! Zen Nihon Anime Robo DaiZenshuu"). It introduces anime robots from the '70s and '80s. The same publisher also released some Gundam books, one claiming to list every single Mobile Suit from the Gundam franchise. However, it did not feature my favorite, the V2 Assault Buster Gundam from Victory Gundam. Likewise, this book does not include the "complete works" because as I immediately noticed, it does NOT include Go Lion or Dairugger, aka the Voltron robots. For that, I was disappointed. (I am pretty certain that Go Lion, aka "Voltron III" or "Lion Voltron," must be more popular in America than it ever was in Japan.) The book does, ironically, include Albegas, which was known as Voltron II (or "Gladiator Voltron") for the Voltron Toy series, although that series was never made into a Voltron show.

But for 600 yen, this full-color guide to robot anime is spectacular. Naturally, it covers the basics: the Go Nagai robot shows like Mazinger Z and Getter Robo, Ideon, the Gundam series, Votoms, Macross, Dunbine, etc. The book goes year by year through the 70s and 80s, starting with Astro Gangar (?) in 1972. It's nice to see some robots I am not very familiar with, like Gaiking, Combattler V, Danguard A, Voltes V, Bismark, and Godmars. The book also includes a mix of TV shows, movies, and OVAs, including Orguss, Mospeada, Southern Cross, Dougram, Xabungle, L-Gaim, Vifam, Megazone 23, Gunbuster, Galvion, Dancougar, and Layzner. Some names that reminded me from the beginnings of my fandom, yet were shows I never got around to watching, are Iczer 1, Zerorymer, and Dangaio. There are some robot shows I have never even heard of, such as Garian (Galian?), Sasuraigar (?), Srangle (?), Bakushinger (?), Brigar, and Gougu. Also, I never even knew that there was a Machine Robo anime! A few of them, actually. And to think that we got stuck with that lousy, terrible Go Bots cartoon. Ugh!

Hey, come to think of it, this book does not feature Patlabor! What were they thinking? The OVA was out in '88 and the show in '89. They definitely overlooked a few series, for sure.

Some names that reminded me from the beginnings of my fandom, yet were shows I never got around to watching, are Iczer 1, Zerorymer, and Dangaio.

I really liked the designs in Zeorymer, and Iczer-1 and Dangaioh are just plain spectacular. If you haven't seen these yet, you really should...!

Garian (Galian?)

I remember thinking that the series was OK, but really getting into the 3rd OVA.

Brygar, Baxingar, and Sasuraigar were the three J9 robot shows from Kokusai Eiga-Sha; I go into a little detail about them in my last two Let's Anime columns.

Part one: http://www.letsanime.blogspot.ca/2012/1 ... a-sha.html

part two: http://www.letsanime.blogspot.ca/2012/1 ... ional.html

Watched most of Brygar and it's an entertaining series, though Kokusai Eiga really really didn't want to spend a lot of money on animation, and it shows.

I wonder what was behind this "complete" book's curious lack of GoLion. Maybe Toei wouldn't give them decent production art or something. Perhaps there's some sort of obscure criteria or yardstick this book is following.

Dave or anybody else, if you are interested in getting one of these books, just send me a PM. They're only 600 yen each, so I can maybe get one for you. Either that, or you could order one directly from Amazon Japan. They ship abroad at very reasonable rates.

Interestingly enough you can go to YouTube and check out the Robot anime theme songs by year. I do that when I'm bored sometimes. Easier than digging the tapes out. Had way too many series episodes back in those days, including most of the shows in the OP's list from that book. What I didn't have was the shows prior to 1980 other than ones that might have been featured in the many "best of" or "top 100 best" specials of the time.

Somebody had uploaded a series of videos that were collectively a comprehensive compilation of opening themes, but a few of them were forcibly removed due to copyright infringement. I'm so tired of this, because unless people are uploading the contents to entire shows, they really should just leave the stuff on YouTube for informational purposes as well as for fandom's sake. I had uploaded some trailers to the Macross: DYRL movie I'd ripped from the LaserDisc, but once I received a notice that it was identified as containing content belonging to Victor Entertainment (or whatever company it was), I deleted the video to avoid any trouble with my account.

But anyhow, those videos were really cool, and they went into the '90s even. Although I seem to remember that they also failed to include Patlabor. How can such a major title overlooked? I lost track of those videos after a few of them were removed. I didn't know they were still available and I figured that the guy must've had his account removed or something.

Hey Greg, if you have an extra 600 yen rolling around in your pocket pick me up one of those books, yeah. That would be awesome.

It's irritating the seemingly arbitrary way YouTube yanks videos, but at the same time, I kind of like the fact that not EVERYTHING is instantly available online. There should still be some mysteries out there somewhere.

I'm tempted to get one also, not for me but I have a friend who is a HUGE giant robot fan.