The 1970s are usually treated as the first decade of mature TV anime production. Toei's super-robot shows dominate the first half of the decade; Space Battleship Yamato (1974), Yoshiyuki Tomino's first Gundam (1979), and the rise of the Year 24 Group in shōjo reshape the form by the end of the decade. The OVA era and the international export of anime are still ahead, but the catalogue of the 1970s is the bedrock against which everything later is measured.
The super-robot boom
Go Nagai's Mazinger Z (1972) is the first piloted-from-the-cockpit giant robot and the prototype of the form that dominated the early 1970s TV schedule. Toei followed with Getter Robo (1974), Grendizer (1975), and Voltes V (1977). Sponsor relationships with toy manufacturers (especially Popy, later Bandai) shaped these productions around weekly toy releases.
1974 — Space Battleship Yamato
Leiji Matsumoto's Space Battleship Yamato broadcast in 1974 with disappointing ratings, but its 1977 theatrical re-edit became a major box-office event. The film effectively created the late-1970s anime fandom — older teenagers and university students treating anime as a serious medium — and made the subsequent Gundam reception possible.
1979 — Mobile Suit Gundam
Yoshiyuki Tomino's Mobile Suit Gundam began broadcasting in April 1979 and was cancelled before its run completed because of low ratings and weak toy sales. Subsequent rebroadcast and a 1981–1982 theatrical re-edit trilogy turned it into a cultural fixture and a long-running franchise. The series is the standard reference point for the real-robot subgenre.
Shōjo in the 1970s
Moto Hagio, Keiko Takemiya, Yumiko Ōshima and Riyoko Ikeda — the Year 24 Group — restructured shōjo around the long-form, character-driven serial. Their work tackled subject matter including queer relationships (Heart of Thomas, Kaze to Ki no Uta), historical drama (The Rose of Versailles, 1972), and science fiction (They Were Eleven, 1975). The decade's shōjo is one of the principal periods of literary ambition in manga.
Other landmark works
- Lupin III (TV anime 1971, 1977).
- Heidi, Girl of the Alps (1974, Isao Takahata).
- Future Boy Conan (1978, Hayao Miyazaki).
- Galaxy Express 999 (manga 1977, anime 1978).
- The Castle of Cagliostro (1979, Miyazaki's feature debut).