한국일본학회

The current paper examines into the historical significance and characteristics depicted in the science fiction animation “Gasshin Sentai Mechander Robo,” particularly focusing on the portrayal of apocalypse and occult culture prevalent in the 1970s Japan within the context of the Cold War. While exploring the hypothetical scenario of Japan being the sole surviving nation amidst global collapse, Mechander Robo adopted a “Hard Romance Action” approach, reinterpreting the prevalent apocalyptic fear of pollution, epitomized by “Godzilla vs. Hedorah,“ through a Hard-SciFi cosmic worldview. Furthermore, to elucidate the confrontational dynamics of the war against extraterrestrial invaders, the series draws upon the concept of the “great king of fear” from “The Great Prophecies of Nostradamus,” a seminal work of the Occult Boom authored by Goto Ben. Ultimately, the narrative presents an imaginative scenario of Japan assuming the role of the United States in the Cold War following the collapse of US hegemony in a post-apocalyptic era. By portraying the Soviet Union, a tangible adversary, as occult alien invaders facing annihilation by Mechander Robo, the series encapsulated Japan's aspiration to confront and overcome the fear of nuclear conflict and armament in a “world without the US” within a cultural simulation. The process by which “Gasshin Sentai Mechander Robo” juxtaposed fictional occult fantasy with a dry war genre to establish a sense of reality not only serves as a precursor, but also as a transitional link to the emergence of real robot series in the 1980s, notably exemplified by “Invincible Super Man Zambot 3” (1977) and “Mobile Suit Gundam” (1979).