Abstract
This work is the extended version of a paper presented at the conference HMM2021, about the history of mechanical engineering. First, the initial cultural and industrial steps in the robotic field in Japan are introduced, to display the beginning of this interlaced path, before WW2; then, in the context of the aftermaths of the war, some famous anime heroes are presented as ancestors of the coming mecha anime series. The rising research in the field of robotics and more generally the developments of contemporary Japanese automation industry are then drawn, as a technological substrate for mecha conception. In particular, Masahiro Mori studies are taken into consideration to identify an actual robot design pattern to apply to the following comparative description and examination of the different mecha; finally, thanks to this analysis, the common breeding ground whence robotics and mecha (and their reciprocal influences) arise, is outlined.
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Notes
This last story, written in 1931, is set in a far future: a lead engineer in the Robotics Department at KK Electric Housewares Manufacturing Works, wants to control his widow after his death, and to possibly punish the woman. So he builds a lifelike robot designed to achieve that goal. See also Homer’s Odyssey (VIII, 272–284): Hephaestus builds a weight trap to trigger a net if the load on the bed exceeds his wife Aphrodite’s weight.
Astro Boy is the most famous Western name of the character; the reason why its lacks references to atomic power can be easily imagined. For its spread in the US, see (Ladd and Deneroff 2008).
Fluency in fifty languages, and calculation speed of one arbitrarily complex operation per second.
To cite the most famous consumer electronics, home appliances and car manufacturing ones and their date of foundation: Mitsubishi (1870), Toshiba (1875), Nissan (1933), Fujitsu (1935), and Toyota (1937).
It is therefore not surprising that in the same years, i.e. starting from 1969, the robot cat Doraemon by Fujiko F. Fujio appeared first in manga and then in anime, spawning as a media franchise. The strip depicts the daily life of an earless cat-shaped robot from the future of the twenty-second century, and Nobita Nobi, an elementary school student who is not good at studying and playing sports. The cat, who can have feelings, has been sent to Nobi by his grandson Sewashi Nobi; he decides to go back in time to help the boy improve his future, leaving a robot cat, to watch over him. Thanks to a four-dimensional pocket containing innumerable gadgets of unexpected future technology, Doraemon completely revolutionizes Nobita’s life, improving the relationship that the young man has with his parents and friends (Peters et al., 2002; Schodt 1999; Thompson 2007).
A super-robot 20 m tall and weighing 25.08 iron tons, inspired by the US B-29 bombers that flew over the Kobe port, where the artist lived as a boy.
A similar end also concerns the Laputian Robots, primitive automata in Studio Ghibli’s film “Laputa: Castle in the Sky” (1986). It is a good example of an anime designed for children, where the hero’s robot is presented as the force of good, devoted to bring help, opposed to the enemy’s technology as an egoistic, evil force.
In 1971 the first national robot association was established in Japan.
Literally “Universal Mate”; Patent Number 2,988,237.
Displaying the same separation between control activities and task execution as in Tetsujin.
In “Silent Running”, a 1972 movie, the Versatran was still considered a state-of-the-art industrial robot.
It is suggestive that the geography of many mecha stories, the slopes of Mount Fuji, is the place where the headquarters of FANUC, one of the main industrial automation and robotics industries, are located.
Hornyak (2006) (p. 60) refers that Go Nagai was looking for an original concept for his new robot manga, and, while waiting to cross a busy street, he imagined a robot that a person can ride in and control like a car “in a powerful union of man and machine”. Both sci-fi literature (I. Asimov, Runaround, 1942; Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers, 1959) and manga (Atom Boy, 1952) had told of people fighting on or inside robots or wearing robotic powered armor. The last feature will be present also a later live-action superhero TV series, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993–1996). The fighters can become powerful superheroes wearing different suits and helmets with visors. In addition to enhanced strength, durability, agility and combat ability, the rangers have Zords (animal-like robots) they can combine into a bigger Megazord.
or using voice commands to activate weapons, like the samurai did as for their attacks (VV. A., 1983).
Kenzo Kabuto, the once thought dead father of Koji Kabuto, raised an orphan, Tetsuya Tsurugi, and created for him a stronger version of Mazinger Z to fight against humanity’s new enemy, the Mycenae Empire, led by the Great General of Darkness and his army of Battle Beasts. Tetsuja will also have helpers: Jun Hono, a half Japanese, half African American girl, driving Aphrodites A (Venus Ace), and the aforementioned Boss. Tetsuya arrives just in time to Koji’s aid as the Mycenae Battle Beasts overwhelm Mazinger Z. Kenzo then left Japan’s defence in the hands of Tetsuya and the Fortress of Science.
All names of the evil characters are taken from Japanese tradition (Pellitteri, 2008).
In the same year another anime series was aired: Tekkaman, the Space Knight; it is not a mecha, but the plot quite resembles the typical one. In a dystopic future, the main character, Nanjoji, transforms into a Tekkaman with superhuman skills and succeeds in dismissing the enemies: the transformation is made possible by the Tech Set System, a device developed by Dr. Richardson that dramatically enhances physical abilities, by condensing and strengthening human cells. The biological manipulation that will lead to Evangelion has begun.
During the Seventies, a global oil crisis was on the go, culminating in two shocks, in 1973 and 1979.
Their names feature coded alpha-numeric model numbers. “RX-78-2”, for example, means that it is a second-generation prototype, rolled out in the year Universal Century 0078.
The vocal command for union is “Cross in” and the cross-shaped emblem represents the coalescence. Initially, Daltanious is powered with sigma energy, but later with hyperspace energy to enhance output for attacks. By releasing it, the robot can convert and store energy such as enemy attacks and explosions, and the capacity is said to be about one star.
The robot becomes ready for battle after the landing of the three aircrafts inside its body, and then it is controlled by Shingo. Thanks to the “Three for one” mode, King, Jack, and Queen can combine and form a smaller multipart robot, Tri, piloted by Remy.
The term “ghost” refers to human mind in the series idiolect.
It is also worth mentioning here the anime series Doraemon, a cat robot come from the twenty-second century to help a clumsy and bullied boy, Nobita, in his daily life: a first example of robot companion, first aired in 1973. Still in 2010s, Japanese robotics companies, supported by the Japan’s Robot Strategy of the government (former Abe administration), planned to create humanoid and “animaloid” robots to provide company and perform domestic tasks.
The WRS has taken place in Tokyo in 2018 a first time, but the following edition, which should have been held in Aichi and Fukushima in 2020, was postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic. The next one is scheduled for 2024.
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Ambrosetti, N. Fighting with Rotating Blades, Boomerangs, and Crushing Punches: A History of Mecha from a Robotics Point of View. Found Sci 29, 59–85 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-022-09887-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-022-09887-5