Cross-influence Between Robot Anime and Tokusatsu in SSSS Gridman

Abstract

This article focuses on the cross-influence between the establishment of the Robot Anime genre and the Tokusatsu in order to understand how both genres were fundamental in shaping and changing the way we perceive Japanese media, domestically and across the world. The design of plamodels and robotic mechanisms will be a point of contact for influencing one another, in terms of aesthetics and industry models. From the television broadcasting of friendly robots in the 1960s — to the giant robots of the 1970s and the henshin boom in Tokusatsu — to the explosion of the more realistic robots in the 1980 and the influence of Super Sentai shows — to the increasing mix between robots and humans in the 1990s — the robot imagery brought philosophical questions about the increasing use of technology in daily life and in the technicity of media itself. Particularly we will analyze the case of the anime SSSS. Gridman (2018) adapted from the original Tokusatsu series Gridman the Hyper Agent (Denkô Chôjin Gridman, 1993) created by Tsuburaya Productions. The anime context is a personalized otaku world with the everlasting influence of Tokusatsu and Super Sentai series. In that sense, the aesthetic analysis will be grounded on how different media captures other media, and how that brings an opening for choices with a deliberate difference in the composing of the moving image.



Author Information
Angela Longo, Yokohama National University, Japan

Paper Information
Conference: ACAH2019
Stream: Humanities - Media, Film Studies, Theatre, Communication

This paper is part of the ACAH2019 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon