70s Mecha Anime: 14 Best Super Robot Classics Ranked

Before the tactical realism of Gundam defined the 1980s, the 1970s was a playground of raw, unbridled imagination.

This was the era when the super robot was not just a machine.

It was a miracle of engineering, a mythical hero, and the ultimate weapon rolled into one.

From the volcanic launch sequences of Mazinger Z to the groundbreaking team dynamics of Getter Robo, 70s mecha anime did not just entertain.

It wrote the DNA for everything from Power Rangers to Evangelion.

Today I am looking back at the decade where the genre truly took flight, ranked with the most influential giant sitting at the very bottom.

What Made 70s Mecha Anime So Special?

Almost everything here belongs to what fans call the Super Robot genre: a near-magical giant machine, piloted by a brave young hero, defending Earth from a monster-of-the-week alien empire. Three creators basically built this whole era.

Go Nagai gave us Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, and Grendizer.
Yoshiyuki Tomino directed Raideen, Zambot 3, and Daitarn 3 before changing anime forever with Gundam.
Tadao Nagahama made the beloved combining-robot classics of the Robot Romance Trilogy.

To help you navigate, I have tagged each show with its vibe: the Super Robot Origin powerhouses, the Combining and Transforming breakthroughs, the Mythic and Legendary blends, and the Proto-Real Robot shows that pointed toward Gundam. If you love old mecha anime, this is the foundation it all stands on.

Blocker Gundan IV Machine Blaster (1976-1977)

We start with one of the deepest cuts of the era. Machine Blaster follows four young pilots whose separate machines combine into a single powerful robot to fend off the monstrous Beast Mechas and their alien commanders.

Never as famous as the big names, but it has well-drawn characters and real dramatic arcs.
Plenty of that satisfying combining-robot action.

The 70s Vibe: Combining and Transforming Breakthrough. A great pick for fans who want to venture past the obvious classics.

Future Robo Daltanious (1979-1980)

Closing out the decade, Future Robo Daltanious is set on a post-apocalyptic Earth conquered by an alien race, with humanity’s hope resting on a brave young man and his allies.

Daltanious combines from separate units, including a robotic lion.
That lion-mech idea was an early version of a concept Voltron would make famous years later.

The 70s Vibe: Combining and Transforming Breakthrough. A solid hidden gem that shows just how inventive the era could be.

Gaiking (1976-1977)

Gaiking brought a fresh spin to the giant robots of the 1970s. Former baseball ace Sanshiro Tsuwabuki is recruited to pilot Gaiking against the invading Dark Horror Army.

Its standout was the Daiku Maryu, a colossal dragon-shaped flying fortress that launched Gaiking into battle.
Great designs and big personalities.

The 70s Vibe: Super Robot Origin. The dragon-fortress launch setup still feels epic decades later.

Steel Jeeg (1975-1976)

Another Go Nagai creation, Steel Jeeg has one of the coolest gimmicks of the era. Race car driver Hiroshi Shiba is rebuilt as a cyborg whose head becomes the control unit of the robot Jeeg, with the rest of the body assembling around him through magnetism.

He battles the Haniwa Phantom Gods, an ancient civilization out to reclaim the Earth.
That magnetic build-a-robot concept made for legendary toys.

The 70s Vibe: Mythic and Legendary Blend. Its ancient-Japan mythology and magnetic assembly make it a true one-of-a-kind must-see.

Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3 (1978-1979)

Daitarn 3 comes from Yoshiyuki Tomino, and it is a real change of pace. Suave playboy investigator Banjou Haran pilots the giant Daitarn 3 against the Meganoids, who want to convert humanity into their cyborg race.

It mixes James Bond-style spy cool with super robot action and a big sense of humor.
Tomino was clearly experimenting right before he redefined the genre.

The 70s Vibe: Super Robot Origin, with a martini twist. The spy-movie flavor sets it apart from its earnest peers.

Zambot 3 (1977-1978)

On the surface, Zambot 3 looks like a standard super robot show, with young Kappei Jin and his family piloting Zambot 3 against the invading Gaizok. But Tomino had other plans.

A cheerful setup that curdles into something much heavier.
You can feel the war-is-hell realism he would perfect in Gundam.

It is shockingly dark for its time. Zambot 3 broke the cheerful super robot mold hard. Ordinary civilians are turned into living human bombs, innocent people die, and the heroes are blamed and hated for the destruction their battles cause. It is a tragic, daring show that pointed straight at the grim realism Tomino would unleash two years later.

The 70s Vibe: Proto-Real Robot. This is where the genre first grew a conscience.

Brave Raideen (1975-1976)

With early direction from Tomino before Nagahama took over, Brave Raideen is a landmark for one big reason: it was one of the first mecha that could transform. Young Akira Hibiki discovers he is the only one who can pilot Raideen, an ancient robot left by the lost civilization of Mu.

Its shift into a giant flying “God Bird” broke from the boxy humanoid robots of the day.
It pointed the way toward all the transforming mecha that followed.

The 70s Vibe: Combining and Transforming Breakthrough. The ancient-Mu backstory adds a mythic layer to a real technical first.

Combattler V (1976-1977)

Combattler V, full name Super Electromagnetic Robot Combattler V, helped define the combining giant robot formula. Five young pilots each control a separate vehicle that joins into the mighty Combattler V to fight the alien Campbellians.

It opened director Tadao Nagahama’s celebrated Robot Romance Trilogy.
That trilogy traded simple villain-of-the-week plots for real human drama.

You could buy these robots in America. Combattler V, Voltes V, Raideen, Mazinger, and several others were imported to the United States in the late 1970s as Mattel’s Shogun Warriors toy line, a set of huge die-cast and plastic robots with spring-loaded fists. For a lot of American kids, those toys were the first taste of Japanese super robots, long before the shows arrived.

The 70s Vibe: Combining and Transforming Breakthrough. The blueprint for the whole combining-robot craze.

Great Mazinger (1974-1975)

Picking up right where Mazinger Z left off, Great Mazinger is Go Nagai’s direct sequel and the middle chapter of the Mazinger saga that leads into Grendizer. This time the pilot is Tetsuya Tsurugi, a hot-blooded fighter defending Earth against the Mykene Empire.

It gave the hero an upgraded, more powerful Mazinger.
Together the three Mazinger shows form the backbone of the super robot genre.

The 70s Vibe: Super Robot Origin. It doubled down on everything fans loved about the original.

Voltes V (1977-1978)

The crown jewel of the Robot Romance Trilogy, Voltes V is built around five sibling pilots reunited to fight the Boazanian invasion and its scarred Prince Heinel. That famous “Let’s Volt In!” battle cry and the “V” sword slash are pure 70s cool.

Its themes of family, class oppression, and rebellion give it surprising depth.
The five-vehicle combination is one of the most iconic in the genre.

A dictator banned it, and that made it a legend. In 1979, Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos pulled Voltes V off the air just episodes from its finale, officially over violence but widely believed to be because its story of an oppressed people overthrowing a tyrant hit too close to home. The final episodes did not air there until 1999. Voltes V became a symbol of Filipino resistance and got a big live-action remake, Voltes V: Legacy, in 2023.

The 70s Vibe: Combining and Transforming Breakthrough. Few shows from the decade carry this much real-world weight.

UFO Robo Grendizer (1975-1977)

The third chapter of Go Nagai’s Mazinger saga, UFO Robo Grendizer takes the action into space. Duke Fleed is an alien prince who flees to Earth after his world is ravaged by war, and defends his new home aboard the powerful Grendizer.

Its themes of exile, sacrifice, and redemption make it one of the more emotionally rich shows of the era.
The move into space gave the Mazinger saga a grander scale.

It is a bigger deal abroad than in Japan. Grendizer became a full-blown cultural phenomenon overseas. In France, where it aired as “Goldorak,” it pulled record-breaking ratings and is remembered as a foundational anime for an entire generation. It was just as beloved across Italy and the Arab world, making it one of the most internationally significant 70s mecha anime out there.

The 70s Vibe: Super Robot Origin, in orbit. Emotionally, it aims higher than most of its peers.

Getter Robo (1974-1975)

From Go Nagai and Ken Ishikawa, Getter Robo pioneered the transforming, combining robot. Three jets piloted by Ryoma, Hayato, and Musashi merge into one machine, forming three completely different robots depending on how they combine.

When the Dinosaur Empire attacks, these three are Earth’s last hope.
Its bold, almost legendary storytelling raised the genre’s ambitions.

Three pilots, three totally different robots. The genius of Getter Robo was that the same three vehicles could combine in three different orders to make Getter-1, Getter-2, or Getter-3, each with its own strengths. That single idea, swappable combining forms, became one of the most copied concepts in all of mecha, and the franchise is still going strong today.

The 70s Vibe: Mythic and Legendary Blend. Wild, primal, and endlessly influential.

Mazinger Z (1972-1974)

This is the big one, the show that started it all. Koji Kabuto climbs aboard the super robot Mazinger Z to battle the sinister Dr. Hell, and in doing so kicked off an entire genre.

It set the template of a young hero physically piloting a giant robot.
Its rocket-punch spectacle defined super robot action.

It invented the super robot as we know it. There were giant robots before Mazinger Z, but they were controlled by remote. Go Nagai’s 1972 creation was the first to put a human pilot inside the robot’s cockpit, steering it from within. That one idea is the foundation of the entire mecha genre. It was such a hit it even inspired knockoffs abroad, like Korea’s Robot Taekwon V.

The 70s Vibe: Super Robot Origin. Quite simply, the show every other entry here owes its existence to.

Mobile Suit Gundam (1979-1980)

We end the decade with the show that flipped the entire genre on its head. Mobile Suit Gundam, another Tomino creation, ditched the magical super robot for grounded, mass-produced military machines called mobile suits.

It told a serious war story between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon.
Complex politics, real casualties, and morally grey characters replaced the monster-of-the-week.

It launched the Real Robot genre, and a toy empire. Gundam struggled in the ratings at first and was cut short. Then Bandai’s Gunpla model kits exploded in popularity, reruns found a huge audience, and Gundam grew into one of the biggest anime franchises on the planet. Not bad for a show first written off as a failure.

The 70s Vibe: Proto-Real Robot, fully realized. The bridge from the 70s playground to the modern genre.

The Anatomy of a 70s Legend

Part of why these shows still hit so hard is the specific set of ideas the decade locked into place. Three of them stand out.

Why the gimmicks mattered. Those rocket punches, chest-lasers, and finishing swords were not random. They were toys first, designed to be sold on a shelf. Here is the twist most people miss: that toy-to-show cycle did not limit the animators, it fueled them. Every new weapon and combining form had to look unforgettable, so the pressure to sell plastic pushed the designs to get wilder and more creative, not tamer.

The birth of the super-pilot. These shows also invented a trope we now take for granted: the chosen young pilot bonded to a machine.

It was never only about training. It was about the link between human emotion and mechanical might, the idea that a robot is only as strong as the heart in its cockpit.

Every anime since, from Evangelion on down, is still riffing on that.

The animation style. Then there is the look.

Hand-painted backgrounds, bold flat cel colors, and thick confident linework give these shows a warmth that modern digital gloss often lacks.

That exact aesthetic is having a real design resurgence in 2026, which makes now a perfect time to revisit where it came from.

More 70s Mecha Anime Worth Watching

The decade had far more giant robots than I could rank here. If you want to keep digging, a few more are well worth your time.

Tosho Daimos (1978): completes Nagahama’s Robot Romance Trilogy alongside Combattler V and Voltes V, leaning into martial arts and a Romeo-and-Juliet romance.
Danguard Ace (1977): brought a sleek, space-faring design to the super robot formula.
Magne Robo Gakeen (1976): ran with the magnetic-combining idea Steel Jeeg made famous.

Together with everything above, they make up the unbeatable golden age of classic mecha anime. These shows are over four decades old now, but the energy, the imagination, and the sheer joy of a giant robot punching an alien monster have never gone out of style.

Your turn: Which 70s super robot is your favorite, and what classic did I leave off? Let me know in the comments, and tell me which giant you would most want to pilot.