Any time you come across an artifact with as much singularity as the two Daicon Opening Anime films, it's natural to wonder what shaped them into being. After all, nothing emerges from a vacuum. Timing, skill, and inspiration explain a lot, but the piece that's still missing is invisible; cultural coordinates. What role did this have to play in shaping a haphazard collective of SF fans to produce such a singularity? Find out in this look back from over 40 years later.

The opening animation for Daicon IV is as close to pure magic as anime can get. You only have to see it once, and it's with you for all time. The 5-minute Daicon III opening was cobbled together by a ragtag group of amateur animators. Two years later, they were still ragtag but they were no longer amateurs. From the first moment of the Daicon IV opening, it was instantly obvious that significant things had happened in the interim.

A deep dive into the opening animation made by fans for fans in 1981 for Daicon III. This film was a statement. This was anime fandom saying, "We're not only here among you SF fans, we are claiming part of this turf that was once all yours." The gatekeepers scoffed, "That's not SF." But deep down, they knew change was coming.

Armored Trooper Votoms is my favorite mecha anime of all time. It's one of the things that made me who I am today. I participated in its import to the US and various other projects, but never got the chance to take my fandom online...until now. This right here is a website-within-a-website that will explore Votoms like never before. Keep watching as new content is added!

Alien invasion on Earth! Rebels fight back with transformable mecha! Rock and blues music is in the air! Everything great about 80s anime all in one show! How could it NOT have been a hit? Well, it wasn't, not at first. But as time went on, Mospeada made a great big legacy footprint. Here's the story of how it happened and everything that came with it.

You've known it as Speed Racer probably your entire life, but what do you know about its Japanese origins? What was going on in the Japanese auto world in 1967? Do you know who designed the Mach 5? Have you ever heard of a manga called Pilot Ace? If not, adventure's waitin' just ahead!

Few "live-action anime" movies succeed in doing justice to their source material. Speed Racer (2008), Space Battleship Yamato (2010) and Battle Angel (2019) are rare exceptions that capture both tone and spirit. But if you want one that embodies the flavor and texture of 80s mecha anime, Gunhed is where it's at.

Theme songs for anime shows have a unique, rarified energy. If you've heard even a few, you won't be surprised to learn that countless compilation albums exist. From straight up reprints to remixes to genre-bending covers to live performances, just about everything can be found in just about any form. And they're essentially limitless. No two collectors will have identical libraries.

If you're like me (and I know I am), you watch every astronaut movie you can get your hands on, and afterward you think, "I wish someone could give us a version of that that lasts longer than two hours." I've got good news for you: a Japanese fella named Chuya Koyama has been doing exactly that since 2007. And he's still at it as I write this.

Lupin III first made the scene in 1967, two years after I was born. My first Lupin exposure was the 1978 feature film The Mystery of Mamo, followed by the sublime Castle of Cagliostro. Those twin punches made me a fan for life, and sleuthing out the latest treasures kinda makes you feel like the groovy guy himself.

In the parallel fields of comics and animation, there's a dictum that applies equally to both: you reach the pinnacle of success as a storyteller when your story can be clearly followed via pictures alone. This also applies to a story that can be clearly followed despite a language barrier. Blue Meteor SPT Layzner is that kind of story.

The way other Gen X types are nostalgic for 80s pop music, I'm nostalgic for 80s SF mecha anime. It's my absolute favorite genre, and there are books aplenty to explore the topic with a big crossover into modeling and games. Here are over 100 titles that keep the golden age of Japanese mecha alive and rocking!

Planetes wields the predictive power of hard science-fiction by "borrowing" a story from the future that illustrates the probable outcome of today's neglected problems. This is what science-fiction excels at, and it's what lands Planetes on my top ten list of favorite stories to come out of Japan.

When I became an anime fan in 1984/85, there were books and magazines aplenty to document past and present. What I didn't know then was that these efforts had been underway for less than ten years. I started collecting these books out of a desire to learn more, and it was fascinating to see how coverage and presentation styles grew along with the medium they covered.

I adore Fist of the North Star. The manga art is exquisite. Its mythos are unique and propulsive. The characters are engaging and iconic. Its most dramatic moments are transcendent. And there's so damn MUCH of it, you can always return to the well for a fresh taste. Those are the hallmarks of a masterpiece, and it's been around long enough to achieve the mantle of a true classic.

Gundam is the Star Wars of Japan. Once you watch a Gundam show, it's very likely you'll pick up some merch. Once you do that, it's very likely you'll start a collection. Then one day you'll move to a new address and you'll suddenly realize what you've gotten yourself into. I'm a book hound, so that's what I lug from home to home. Once you start down this dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you it will.

Thirteen children, refugees of an alien invasion on an Earth colony planet, are adrift in hostile enemy space. In their struggle to survive on board the training ship Janus, they learn to pilot the powerful Round Vernian robots and fight back as they search for their missing parents. Drama, comedy, action, tragedy; this engaging anime series has it all! Even an impossibly catchy English theme song! Open this profile up and say Hello, Vifam!

Leiji Matsumoto is a legend in his own time, known for a huge range of genres from everyday drama to elevated science-fiction. His began his manga career as a teenager in 1953 and is still going in his 80s. This collection encompasses books on Matsumoto's anime and manga projects, art collections, retrospectives, biography, and other odds and ends. It is by no means the complete catalog, but it's definitely extensive.