From the second half of the seventies the first Japanese anime landed in Italy. At the time they were simply called cartoons, or rather, they were often referred to as “Japanese science fiction animated series”. It was Atlas Ufo Robot, better known as “Grendizer”, the first mecha anime broadcast in Italy, it was April 4, 1978 when it made its appearance on Rete 2, the current Rai Due. For the young people of the time it was an absolute novelty accustomed, at the time, to the monopoly of the American cartoons of Hanna and Barbera. Giant robots that fought against alien invaders, spaceships, star monsters, to our children, a totally new world opened up made of brave heroes and heroines, amazing pilots of spacecraft, mecha, but, above all, of splendid motorcycles that, from an early age, they made us dream. A journey into the past to remember the most famous animated series of the Rising Sun: Jeeg Robot d’Acciaio, Ufo Robot Grendizer, Mazinger Z, Aphrodite A, The Great Mazinger, Venus Alpha, Daitarn 3, but also Hurricane Polymar, Devilman and why not , Judo Boy.
