Where to Start Space Battleship Yamato

Space Battleship Yamato (Uchuu Senkan Yamato) was created by Leiji Matsumoto as the first anime space opera premiering in 1974. It was monumentally influential by pioneering a serious tone and complex storytelling which would later influence Captain Harlock, Macross and Mobile Suit Gundam to name a few.

If you want to start watching Space Battleship Yamato you’ll want to decide if you want to start with the classic series, or the more 2012 remake. Both are good starting points, we’ll cover them both in detail and then finish with a summary. Click here to jump directly to the summary.

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Where to Start with Classic Super Robot Anime

In this post we’re going to talk about some classic Super Robot shows, which we will loosely define as the piloted Super Robots created in the 70s and 80s. The shows will be listed in Production order. We will update this post as we add additional classic super robots to the MechaStellar roster.

Mazinger as well as Getter Robo are both large franchises and each have their own where to start posts.

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Where to Start Mobile Suit Gundam

Kunio Okawara painting of the original RX-78-2 Gundam

Mobile Suit Gundam is a long running mecha franchise that created the “Real Robot” genre. To give a brief explanation, the Real Robot genre typically has a more militaristic feel where logistics, geopolitics, and the fragility of human life in a conflict are often at the forefront. That’s not to say Super Robot shows cannot do the exact same (and have done so), but Real Robot shows generally embody those traits while trying to stay as grounded and realistic as they can within the boundaries of their setting.

Trying to shoehorn every single mecha anime into a strictly Super or Real Robot classification is generally an exercise in futility, but the broad strokes of Super Robot and Real Robot can be useful when describing a show to someone else.

Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) followed in the footsteps of Space Battleship Yamato (1974) by delivering a science fiction show with the main theme being “War is Hell”.

We’ll update this post periodically as we add more Gundam series to the MechaStellar game roster.

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Where to Start – Captain Harlock

With the recent addition of Captain Harlock to the MechaStellar rules we wanted to do a post to discuss the different media for Captain Harlock which has a number of animated works but not all of them connected.

Captain Harlock was created by the late Leiji Matsumoto the creator of several foundational anime and manga titles including Space Battleship Yamato, Galaxy Express 999. He has a very distinctive style and many of his works share common themes and even common characters which lead to some fans calling his works the ‘Leijiverse’.

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MechaStellar Roster Update – Sept 2023 – Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

For this month’s update we have long awaited Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann! This is a fondly remembered mecha show that became a phenomenon when it first released in 2007 being picked up by a large swath of the anime blogging community and soaring in popularity on various image message boards and forums being enjoyed by mecha fans and general viewers alike, it was later picked up for US Broadcast in 2008.

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Where to start the Braves (Yuusha) series?

For most people the most well known Braves show is The King of Braves: GaoGaiGar released in 1997 and then followed up with the GaoGaiGar FINAL OVA in 2000. It was the final show in the Braves franchise and studio Sunrise went all out delivering a tour-de-force in the Mecha genre, it was beloved both by Mecha fans and casual viewers when it was released.

Although still very popular today, not many people know that GaoGaiGar is the final show in a series. This post hopes to illuminate some of the other shows in the Braves / Yuusha franchise you may be interested in.

(Note: Yuusha is the original Japanese name that is translated as Braves for this series, when searching for information on these shows if you can’t find what you are looking for using the Braves keyword, try using Yuusha instead.)

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Where to start Getter Robo?

Getter Robo is another foundational series for the Mecha genre, since it’s an older series a lot of younger fans might not be familiar with it outside of its Super Robot Wars appearances. While Mazinger Z gave us our first piloted super robot, Getter Robo gave us our first combining robot which would become a staple spectacle in the Mecha genre. In this post we’ll cover some entry points to the Getter Robo franchise. If you are here looking for recommendations on where to start go ahead and scroll down to the end of this post.

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Where to start Mazinger Z?

Mazinger Z is a foundational series for the mecha genre, however, it’s an older show so a lot of younger mecha fans may not be acquainted with it. In this post we’ll cover some entry points to the Mazinger Z franchise. If you are here looking for recommendations on where to start go ahead and scroll down to the end of this post.

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