Ask John: What Was the Last Groundbreaking Mecha Anime?

Question:
I came across this question and thought it was interesting.

When was the last time a mecha anime actually contributed something completely original? That’s right, over 40 years ago. Name a mecha anime that brought something new to the anime industry. It’s funny how mecha fans complain about something killing creativity when the thing they love themselves has not brought anything new to the table in decades.

Answer:
Before analyzing the influences of contemporary mecha/robot anime, the analyst should consider a larger context involving the frequency of attributable influence from all anime genres and the extent of influence of any singular innovation. Now that anime has been established for half a century, frequent contemporary programs continue to appear to pose striking new visual dynamics and cinematic styles. The distinctive visual design of titles including Gankutsuou, Kuchu Buranko, and Kemonozume would have been unthinkable or impossible just ten years earlier. However, visual design doesn’t necessarily constitute a groundbreaking thematic, narrative, or technical contribution adopted by future anime productions. Beyond just the mecha anime genre, anime itself has largely aged past its formative years when new ideas were frequently previously untried. Anime is still evolving, but after fifty years and thousands of titles, most groundbreaking new ideas have already been considered and tried.

Within the mecha and robot anime genre specifically, even the genre’s most formative and groundbreaking concepts have largely remained within the genre alone. Mazinger Z introduced the idea of a giant robot that was piloted from within. That concept isn’t relevant to sports anime, romance anime, horror anime, shoujo or shounen adventure anime. Mobile Suit Gundam introduced the groundbreaking concept of mecha without innate morality. Although a tremendously influential idea within the mecha anime genre, it’s never been a relevant concept within other anime genres. So the influence and ideas of modern robot anime have to be recognized initially within strictly the mecha anime genre alone.

A question also arises regarding recognition bestowed upon groundbreaking but not influential concepts. For example, Ryousuke Takahashi’s 2006 web anime series Flag introduced a never before used consistent first person perspective to anime. Strikingly unique, it ironically remains unique because no other anime since has extensively used the narrative technique. In this case, Flag certainly seems to represent a contemporary mecha anime series which should be credited for introducing an entirely new technique to anime, regardless of its practical influence.

Tetsuwan Atom introduced the robot to modern anime. Tetsujin 28 was anime’s first giant robot. Getter Robo introduced the concept of combining robots. Yusha Raideen introduced the concept of the transforming robot. Indeed, seemingly most conceptual contributions to the mecha anime genre appeared in the 1960s and 70s. But that doesn’t mean that mecha anime has remained entirely stagnant since.

The origin of living robots is a bit murky. 1984’s Tatakae! Chou Robot Seimeitai Transformers may be the first anime to feature living, rather than constructed, robots. But Transformers was an American invented concept. However, the American vision of Transformers was adapted from the earlier Japanese Microman toy line, which did not have an anime until 1999. The concept of living robots reappeared in mecha shows including Cat Ninden Tyande, Karakuri Kengoden Musashi Road, Machine Robo, and the SD Gundam franchise.

Presuming that the definition of “mecha” refers to “mechanical” and not “robot,” the December 1986 Guyver: Out of Standardized OVA may be credited with introducing the idea, and more importantly, the visual design of bio-organic or bio-mechanical machines. Unlike cyborgs and androids that resemble human beings, Guyver introduced the visual concept of a machine with flesh and muscle, a concept carried further in anime like the following year’s Hagane no Oni. The concept of bio-organic robots, specifically conventional giant robots with an interior living nervous system, appeared in the 1989 Five Star Stories movie before becoming a prominently explored idea in 1995’s Shin Seiki Evangelion.

1994’s Mahou Kishi Rayearth may technically be the first robot anime to intentionally aim for a dual gender audience, but Rayearth isn’t often immediately recognized as a mecha anime series. On a side note, 1982’s Minky Momo, for example, periodically featured spaceships and giant robots, but Minky Momo isn’t part of the mecha anime genre. 1995’s Shin Kido Senki Gundam W is the first robot anime to be consciously constructed with the goal of attracting female viewers to the traditionally male oriented mecha anime genre. Prior mecha anime included handsome male characters, but it was Gundam Wing that included angst-ridden bishounen in a determined effort to appeal to a female audience. Later mecha anime including future Gundam series, Tenkou no Escaflowne, and Code Geass continued to include content designed to engage female viewers in shows typically targeted at boys.

The 2005 Sousei no Aquarion robot anime series may have borrowed some inspiration from 1997’s Yusha O Gaogaigar, but I believe that it’s Aquarion that deserves most credit for introducing the concept of robots manifesting the ability to do the impossible through sheer willpower. Aquarion’s “Mugen Punch” (Infinite Punch), the first and most memorable of the Aquarion robot’s “impossible” abilities, is the robot’s ability to extend it’s arm ending in a fist to any conceivable length. Scientifically this is impossible, but the Aquarion does it anyway. This concept is taken to further extreme in 2007’s Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, in which the titular robot is able to combine and manifest new weapons and abilities sheerly due to the willpower of its pilot. Fighting spirit overcomes even the fundamental limitations of scientific possibility.

If not last, than at least the concepts of “Itano Circus” and the “Gainax jiggle” have to be mentioned. Animator Ichiro Itano’s complex and intricately drawn missile swarms, first appearing in 1982’s Chojiku Yosai Macross, have appeared in anime far outside of the mecha genre, including Crayon Shin-chan, Disgaea, Futakoi, Nin-Nin ga Shinobuden, Getsumen to Heiki Mina, and Chikyu Shoujo Arjuna. Exposed female breasts have been present in modern anime for as long as modern anime has existed. Sennin Buraku, the third TV anime series ever (following Otogi Manga Calendar and Tetsuwan Atom), included female nudity. But it was the 1988 Top wo Nerae! OVA series that first depicted a naturally bouncing female bossom. The “Gainax jiggle,” as it came to be known, revolutionized “fan service” throughout the entire anime industry.