When the Japanese go big they like to go really big, and such is the case with their monsters and the heroes who fight them! Godzilla and his gargantuan ilk face the likes of Titanic Ultraman, a giant superhero dedicated to destroying all monsters! But of all the towering heroes and monstrous villains that have loomed over Japan’s cities and shores, there are none more beloved than the giant robot!
Giant Robots, also called Mecha, began their mechanical evolution as far back as the 1600s with Karakuri, lifelike moving puppets used to amaze and entertain at festivals. Japan’s love affair with automata began with them and has continued ever since. The next great Japanese robot was the 1930s Mighty Atom, or Astro Boy, an adaptation of the Pinnochio story, a robotic puppet who felt like a human and had no strings! This also heralded the age of Anime, the unique Japanese animation that has slowly conquered the world with its cleverness and charm, spawning a wide range of products from anime-style jumpers to a treasure trove of children’s toys! Anime is where the giant robot first rose into being.
In the 1950s Tetsujin-28-Go established a grand mecha tradition, a giant robot of tremendous power controlled by a human, usually a boy genius! It was the first of many giant robots to come. The 1970s saw the creation of Mazinger-Z, a massive robot far larger than its predecessors and controlled by a human pilot seated inside of it, starting an enduring tradition that can be seen today in the Pacific Rim films.
The giant robot worn as a kind of high-tech, mobile armour suit reminds us of the fearsomely faced armour worn by samurai. Mazinger-Z was uniquely Japanese, being constructed from a fictional super-metal that could only be mined in Mt. Fuji! Mazinger-Z also had the ability to detach its limbs into separate functional robots, and also transform itself, a trope made famous decades later in the West by the hugely popular Transformers franchise.
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The late 1970s a new giant robot arrived that soon became the nation’s biggest iconic character- Mobile Suit Gundam, who starred in a vast, epic story set in a future outer space where the Rx-78 Gundam that saves the galaxy is piloted by a brilliant teenage boy. The show has been compared to Star Trek, with its message of hope and peace across a wide-ranging group of different planets, but with Gundam there to protect and serve the diverse populace. Gundam inspired a huge toy industry dedicated just to it, and the model kits are so popular that they have their very own fiercely dedicated subculture joyously glueing them together whenever a new kit is released.
In the 1980s Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, known as Robotech in the West became hugely popular worldwide, spawning comic books, animated TV shows, and of course, lots and lots of toys! Although still beloved by robot fans worldwide, giant Japanese Robots seem to have faded from view in the last few years, presumably waiting in some enormous hidden hangar to stride out and face the next generation of evil behemoths bent on destroying the world!
