The were three

Super Robot Mecha anime and manga, known in Japan as and , are anime and manga that feature robots (mecha) in battle. The genre is broken down into two subcategories; "super robot", featuring super-sized, implausible robots, and "real robot", where robots are ...

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

series created by "

Saburo Yatsude () (also styled TOEI) is a Japanese film, television production, and distribution and video game developer and publishing company. Based in Tokyo, Toei owns and operates thirty-four movie theaters across Japan (all but two of them operated by ...

" (a collective name for the staff at Toei), directed by

Tadao Nagahama __notoc__ Tadao Nagahama (長浜忠夫 ''Nagahama Tadao''; September 26, 1936 – January 14, 1980) was a Japanese director of both puppet shows and animation. He is best known as the director of Sunrise and Toei Company's Robot Romance Trilog ...

, and aired on

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as (also known as EX and and stylized as TV asahi), is a television station that is owned and operated by the subsidiary of certified broadcasting holding company , itself controlled by The Asahi Shimbun Com ...

and its affiliates from late 1976 through early 1979. The trilogy, consisting of '' Chōdenji Robo Combattler V'', '' Chōdenji Machine Voltes V'', and '' Tōshō Daimos'', was a co-production between Tohokushinsha Film,

Nippon Sunrise , previously and still famously known as Sunrise Inc., is a Japanese animation studio founded in September 1972 and is based in Ogikubo, Tokyo. Its former names were also Soeisha, Nippon Sunrise and Sunrise Studio. Its primary division, , is ...

(formerly Soeisha) and

Toei Company () (also styled TOEI) is a Japanese film, television production, and distribution and video game developer and publishing company. Based in Tokyo, Toei owns and operates thirty-four movie theaters across Japan (all but two of them operated by ...

with Nippon Sunrise providing the animation work on Toei's behalf. The series are notable for developing ideas from ''

Brave Raideen is a super robot anime series. Produced by Tohokushinsha, Asahi News Agency and Soeisha (later renamed as Sunrise), it aired on Nihon Educational Television (now TV Asahi) from 4 April 1975 to 26 March 1976, with a total of 50 episodes. Th ...

'', helping the super robot genre evolve from a series meant mainly to sell toys with little to no plot or character development from episode to episode, into a series capable of telling

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

tic stories of human conflict and compassion.

References

Super robot anime and manga Bandai Namco franchises Trilogies {{Anime-series-stub