In comparison, the earliest days of TV anime in the 60s & 70s were much more simple & straightforward.
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| A fine selection of anime from the 60s & 70s, some that have been licensed, & others still not. |
While there was a handful of anime produced for TV prior to the debut of Tetsuwan Atom on Fuji TV on January 1, 1963, it was this adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's iconic manga that really established the standards that are still followed to this day. It's success would lead to other studios making their own "TV manga" productions in a similar manner, which included the "limited animation" style that allowed weekly production to even be feasible; Toei attempted to make Ken the Wolf Boy without limited animation, but eventually had to switch over. Atom was so instantly successful that NBC & the late Fred Ladd debuted it in the US as Astro Boy on September 7, 1963, and while the term "anime" wouldn't really be a thing in English lexicon until at least the mid-to-late 80s (& even then only in extremely small circles) this was the embryonic start of the medium's slow but gradual increase in popularity that is now undeniable today. During the 60s & 70s a fair amount of TV anime would get licensed & dubbed into English for TV broadcast, often (but not always) under new names, resulting in the likes of Kimba the White Lion, Princess Knight, Speed Racer, Gigantor, Tobor the 8th Man, Battle of the Planets, Star Blazers, Tekkaman the Space Knight, Force Five (comprised of five different Toei mech anime), Tranzor Z, & Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years (though that last one also involved an 80s anime), among others. Some went on to become massive hits for their time (only to later be mostly forgotten), while others failed, but some went on to only bolster the growth of anime in English-speaking regions.
As time went on, & the English anime industry would start to truly come to form starting in the late 80s & early 90s, the anime of the 60s & 70s would sometimes still be given a chance in English, usually in the form of re-releases of those old dubs for nostalgic purposes (though sometimes given proper attention in their original form, like ADV dubbing all of the original Gatchaman in the 00s), but sometimes they were licensed for the first time, and on rare occasion even got TV time as the new millennium started up, like with the original Mobile Suit Gundam & Lupin the 3rd Part II; those attempts at TV airings in English tended to fail, but attempts were made nonetheless. After the anime bubble burst, & things started to even return to some sense of "normalcy" for the companies that either survived or were formed from the ashes, there started to be a little more focus put towards "filling in the blanks" when it came to iconic classics of those earliest decades finally being given official English releases. This is what resulted in titles like The Rose of Versailles, Dororo 1969, Devilman, Casshan, Cutie Honey, Nobody's Boy Remi, Osamu Dezaki's Treasure Island, a whole bunch more of Lupin & various mech anime, & even most recently stuff like Future Boy Conan, the original Humanoid Monster Bem, Aim for the Ace!, & Sasuke being given their first official English physical releases, while the likes of Ashita no Joe, The Gutsy Frog, & Ninpu Kamui Gaiden at least have been given official English streaming options at one point or another. Anime fandom has finally gotten enough older members to make releases of old (& maybe a little crusty) anime from the 70s, plus the rare pick from the 60s, somewhat viable today.
While prior lists with somewhat similar themes as this list that I made didn't feature any 60s or 70s anime in them, I did restrict myself to titles that had reasonable lengths to them, i.e. nothing more than a year's worth of episodes. Therefore, the Honorable Mentions for this list would be some of the most iconic classics that I felt were just too long to even consider as theoretically viable for licensing: Ken the Wolf Boy, Star of the Giants, Tiger Mask, Attack No. 1, Time Bokan, Dokaben, Sally the Witch, & Himitsu no Akko-chan. So let's just get right into things because... ♪The rest is yet to come, and babe, won't that be fine?♪ Hey, the song actually fits here, because Sinatra's cover came out in 1964!
Just as with the 00s list this will be done in purely chronological order, so let's just start at the very beginning of everything with 1963! Yes, while Astro Boy was the sole TV anime for the vast majority of the year, by late October & early November actual competition came about in the form of both Tetsujin 28 & 8 Man by TCJ (now Eiken), Ken the Wolf Boy by Toei, & the short-lived stop-motion series Ciscon Ouji by Fuji TV. However, predating all of those as the second ever "modern" TV anime, by nearly two months, was Sennin Buraku/Hermit Hamlet, based on the four-panel comic strip by the late Ko Kojima that ran in Weekly Asahi Geino from 1956 to 2014. The longest-running manga of all time (by years) until just this very year, when Golgo 13 is set to overtake it within the next month or so of this piece, Sennin Buraku told the everyday lives of the various sennin/hermits that live in a small little village, with some like the Villager Elder spending his days researching magic & alchemy... while one of his disciples instead likes to partake in more "pleasurable" endeavors with the various ladies who also live in the village. Yes, the manga strip was a mix of erotic & sexually suggestive scenarios with oftentimes nonsensical gags, and considering that Asahi Geino is a gossip/tabloid magazine, not a manga magazine, Kojima's strips made perfect sense there.
The Sennin Buraku anime was another TCJ production & debuted on Fuji TV on September 4, 1963 at 23:40, i.e. 11:40 pm. Sennin Buraku was not just the first new TV anime in the wake of Astro Boy but also the very first late-night anime... for the first eight episodes, at least, as the remaining 15 episodes would air at 23:40/10:40 pm, and since each episode was only 15 minutes long that meant that Episodes 9 to 23 all ended just prior to the start of late-night, i.e. 11:00 pm. Amusingly, the original plan for the show was to be a "sexy" live-action adaptation sponsored by Clarion based on a performance done at the Nichigeki Music Hall, but due to restrictions regarding live sex scenes on TV at the time the decision was made to go with an anime instead... and even then the anime production had its own regulation hiccups to get past. The PTA even complained about the very existence of the anime, despite it airing at a time that wasn't intended for children, even after the shift to 10:40 pm, though it was still generally well received by the actual intended audience, apparently doing particularly well with "bar madams".
Sure, today I imagine the content seen in the Sennin Buraku anime would likely come off more as immensely tame when compared to the sexual content seen in much more recent late-night anime, a series like Interspecies Reviewers would likely make early 60s PTA members' brains explode, but I think there's still relevance to Sennin Buraku due to its historical value alone, both as the first late-night anime ever made & also as the literal first TV anime to come out in the wake of Astro Boy. Plus, since the show is made up of what's now considered half-length episodes it would equate to the modern standard of around 12 episodes, so it wouldn't even be a long show to translate; it's easily the shortest anime across both parts of this list. This is also the only black-&-white anime we'll see in this list (&, by default, all of the "The Rest is Yet to Come" lists), but don't let the lack of color prevent you from watching something, anime or otherwise.
Believe it or not, in some way, the concept of the modern day "superhero" actually originated in Japan! Now, to be fair, this character definitely didn't directly influence the creation of characters like The Shadow, Superman, The Phantom, or Batman, but from a straight "who came first" perspective the first modern day superhero would be Ougon/Golden Bat. The character first debuted in late 1930 via a kamishibai story by Takeo Nagamatsu and Ichiro Suzuki (who were only 16 & 25 at the time, respectively) where Golden Bat defeated Kuro/Black Bat, the initial villainous protagonist of Nagamatsu & Suzuki's stories who was a phantom thief. As Golden Bat became more popular, Black Bat would turn into Dr. Nazo, Golden Bat's archenemy who wants world domination & leads an organization with tens of thousands of subordinates. If Golden Bat is the first modern superhero, then Black Bat/Dr. Nazo would likely be both the first modern antihero & supervillain. Golden Bat's popularity would only increase over the next few decades in Japan, eventually resulting in a trio of live-action films between 1950 & 1972, with the first being produced by the now-defunct Shin-Eigasha & distributed by Tokyo Eiga (the precursor to Toei), the second being produced by Toei itself, & the third being a comical biopic about the creation of the character that was actually the very first ever film produced by Toho Pictures (now Toho Studios). The character has remained an iconic superhero in Japan, most recently getting a new manga by Atsushi Kagurazaka (story) & Kazutoshi Yamane (art) that ran in Champion RED from 2022 to 2024 for three volumes.
However, what I'll be focusing on for this list is Ougon Bat/Golden Bat, the TV anime adaptation produced by Dai-Ichi Douga, the now-defunct anime production division of what's now ADK Emotions, that ran on both ytv & NTV from 1967 to 1968 to 52 episodes. This anime take on Golden Bat saw our hero now be awakened from a 10,000-year slumber in the ruins of Atlantis by Dr. Yamatone, his son Takeru, his assistant Dareo, & a young girl named Marie after they all run afoul of Dr. Nazo & his forces, with Golden Bat's origins relating to Atlantis being taken from Toei's live-action film from 1966 (the second of the three); young Marie would usually be the one to summon Golden Bat to save the day in most episodes. The anime also gave Golden Bat a new rival in the form of Kurayami/Dark Bat, seeing as Dr. Nazo was no longer Black Bat, but by & large the anime looked to have followed an episodic format, where Dr. Yamatone & company would be summoned by heads of state & the like to investigate a new scheme by Dr. Nazo, before Marie would eventually summon Golden Bat to save the day. The Golden Bat anime was also one of the earliest times the late, great Noboru Ishiguro would ever direct, working as an episode director here, & the anime that would replace it on NTV would be Star of the Giants. And while the Golden Bat anime never saw release in the United States, it did see release in Latin America, Brazil, & Italy, where it was renamed Fantasmagórico, Fantomas, & Fantaman, respectively. Meanwhile, Frontier Enterprises (which dubbed the likes of Lupin the 3rd: Mystery of Mamo, the Space Warrior Baldios movie, & Cyborg 009: The Legend of the Super Galaxy) actually dubbed this anime into English, where it got aired over in Australia as either Phantaman or Fantoma: Warrior of Justice. In other words, there's a (potentially) full English dub that could be included if licensed, and while I'm sure it isn't necessarily a "great" dub I imagine it's at least charming for the era it was dubbed in, i.e. the 70s and/or 80s; hey the "JAL" dub for Mystery of Mamo Frontier did actually holds up pretty well.
Similar to Sennin Buraku, I decided to include Golden Bat here partially for its historical relevance, but it's also the only anime adaptation of one of Japan's most iconic superheroes, as a new anime was planned in the late 90s or early 00s, with Shinichi "Nabeshin" Watanabe rumored to direct, but it never went beyond a trailer. An anime adaptation of what may possibly be the very first modern superhero? That sure as hell sounds cool to me!
Naturally, Osamu Tezuka was an important part of the early decades of TV anime, and a good number of TV anime adaptations of his vast assortment of manga (even back then) saw official English release back in the day. Astro Boy, The Amazing 3, Kimba the White Lion, & Princess Knight from the old Mushi Pro days all were dubbed into English & broadcast in North America back then, and over the decades that was also true for a number of the later Tezuka Pro productions; hell, even Dororo 1969 would eventually see official English release via Anime Sols & (later) Discotek Media. Probably one of the most curious omissions, in that regard, is also one of the most unique Osamu Tezuka TV anime out there, because it's the only one that was co-produced by the two studios Tezuka himself founded, and it has a bit of an infamy behind it later down the line, too. Running from 1970 to 1972 in Shogakukan's Shogaku-Ichinensei magazine, Fushigi na/Marvelous Melmo was a single-volume manga that told the story of Melmo Watari, a nine-year old girl who just lost her mother to a car accident & now has to care for her two younger brothers. Upon reaching Heaven, Melmo's mother wishes that Melmo could grow up faster than usual, and in return her ghost is allowed to deliver a bottle of pills to Melmo, one that ages her up to 19 & the other can de-age her back to nine. Meanwhile, taking both at the same time will then turn her into a fetus, followed by an animal of her choosing; Tezuka is never going to drop that connection to furry fandom, I guess.
During the second half of the manga's run a TV anime adaptation of Marvelous Melmo ran from October 1971 to March 1972 for 26 episodes, and this was not only the first TV anime ever produced by Tezuka Pro, but it was also the only TV anime ever co-produced by Tezuka Pro & the original Mushi Pro, the latter of which went bankrupt in 1973; the current Mushi Pro is a successive entity that formed in 1977. The anime put a stronger focus on sex education for kids, which apparently rubbed some parents the wrong way (due to kids now asking questions that parents weren't quite ready to answer yet), while the Melmo anime also introduced the idea of the "panty shot" fanservice trope, as Melmo's panties would often be shown whenever she transformed into her young adult form. However, what aired back in the early 70s has largely been out-of-print in Japan for a long time, and that's mainly because in 1998 WOWOW debuted Marvelous Melmo Renewal, which alongside some visual corrections completely recast everyone, updated the spoken dialog, & even redid the entire musical score; ever since, it's Melmo Renewal that's been offered in Japan, not the OG. The story goes that Osamu Tezuka wasn't satisfied with the original end result of the Melmo anime, since he was co-director on it, though his workaholic nature meant that he was juggling multiple productions at the same time. That, in turn, resulted in the Melmo anime being a bit of a nightmare to produce, with Episode 14 even having its voice work recorded without any animation to look at, resulting in the voice cast nearly quitting in protest. Tezuka always stated that he wanted to "fix" things after it finished airing, and nine years after his passing in 1989 Tezuka's wish was finally granted with Melmo Renewal. However, according to Hiroshi Shimozaki (who was the lead producer for the Melmo anime in the 70s), the only thing Tezuka wanted to fix was any poor animation, with Shimozaki publicly lambasting the people behind Melmo Renewal for changing everything about the show, in general; he said that if they were going to go that far then they should have just made a brand new Melmo anime.
Now, to be fair, including Marvelous Melmo here does sort of break the basic rule of this series of lists, as Tezuka Pro actually did upload the first episode on its YouTube channel back in 2023, complete with English subtitles. However, aside from it only being the first episode, this is also the Renewal version of Episode 1 from 1998, so I can still include Marvelous Melmo here due to the original 70s version not having an official English release whatsoever. Technicalities rule!
A fun part of going back into anime & manga history is discovering the titles that are now essentially the stepping stones of entire genres, and even if they aren't necessarily the "first" examples they are still very much titles where, if you experience them in their original form, they can be seen as Rosetta stones of storytelling. A perfect example of that is the manga Babel II by the late Mitsuteru Yokoyama, which originally ran in Weekly Shonen Champion from 1971 to 1973 for 12 volumes & told the story of Koichi, a high school student who discovers that he's actually the descendant of an alien entity known as Babel, who came to Earth 5,000 years ago. Koichi winds up taking on the mysterious Yomi, another descendant of Babel who wants to rule the world, & to help fight Yomi & his forces Koichi has the assistance of Babel's three partners: The shapeshifting panther Rodem, the pterodactyl-like Ropross, & the giant robot Poseidon. Combined with Koichi's psychic & psychokinetic powers, given to him as a descendant of Babel, Babel II is often seen today as the progenitor of the modern sci-fi action manga, with Yokoyama both creating a sequel from 1977 to 1979 (Sono Na wa 101/His Name is 101), and in later years Yokoyama often cited it as his favorite work. The influence Babel II has had on manga is incalculable, both from the basic idea of a young boy/man discovering that he has supernatural powers to even the simple idea of a gakuran being a common battle outfit for said young boy/man, since that's what Koichi often wore in his battle against Yomi.
Naturally, the popularity of Babel II meant that anime adaptations would come about, and two of those would eventually see official English release via the four-episode OVA from 1992 (first via Streamline Pictures, & Image Entertainment, before eventually getting re-released by Discotek Media on both DVD & BD), as well as the 13-episode TV anime adaptation from 2001 (via Media Blasters)... though we don't talk about the 2001 TV anime, because (aside from an excellent OP theme by Lapis Lazuli) it's not good. However, most bizarrely, there has never been an official English release for the original Babel II TV anime from 1973, which was done by Toei Animation & ran for 39 episodes. The anime differed from Yokoyama's manga in some ways, namely that Koichi now had the last name of Komi instead of Yamano (something that'd be done again for the 2001 anime, where he was Koichi Kamiya), and now Koichi had to leave his family behind to chase after Yomi, with his cousin Yumiko always just one step behind Koichi as she tries to reunite with him. Along with the manga becoming a success that Yokoyama didn't expect, as it was originally just meant to be 10 chapters long, Toei's anime was likewise a massive success. In fact, the last 13 episodes were actually an extension that was essentially a soft reboot/sequel, with Koichi now being a lodger at the Watari Ranch in Hokkaido, with a brand new supporting cast, as Koichi takes on a resurrected Yomi, following his defeat at what was originally meant to be the end of the show in Episode 26. Complete with Ichiro Mizuki-sung theme songs & the legendary Akira Kamiya voicing Koichi, the original Babel II anime by Toei may still be seen by many to be the most iconic version of one of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's most iconic manga. In fact, the future sequel manga Babel II: The Returner by Takashi Noguchi, which ran from 2010 to 2017 & saw Koichi return 40 years later to declare war on the United States, featured elements of Toei's anime, like the inclusion of Yuki from Watari Ranch as an adult. Therefore, it is kind of bizarre that a company like Discotek Media still hasn't bothered to release Toei's Babel II anime in English yet.
Not just that, but where the other two anime adaptations of Babel II are seemingly stuck in potential licensing limbo due to their international rights being handled by Enoki Films, the OG Babel II TV anime is handled by Toei, which readily works with English-language licensors.
We end the first half of the list of unlicensed 70s (plus some 60s) TV anime with two titles that come from the same sources, i.e. Weekly Shonen Jump & TMS. While today it's almost a guarantee that any Jump manga with a modicum of popularity or long-enough serialization will receive a TV anime adaptation at one point or another (there have been exceptions, but they're quite few in number), that's only been the case since the smash success of Dr. Slump Arale-chan by Toei in 1981. Prior to that there were literally only four Jump manga that were adapted into TV anime, seemingly due to Shueisha worrying that if too many of its popular Jump series were airing on TV via anime then it'd negatively effect the magazine's serialization numbers; there were also more petty reason behind this, as well. The first two TV anime adaptations of Jump manga were Otoko Ippiki Gaki Daisho from 1969-1970, which was made up of 26 serials that were split daily across six 7-minute parts each, & The Gutsy Frog from 1972-1974, which was the first long-running Jump anime at 103 episodes. There were also Judo Boy & Mazinger Z, but those were more media mix IPs, & Mazinger Z is apparently part of why Shueisha held off on doing more Jump anime, due to the manga being serialized in other magazines, alongside Jump; like I said, "petty reasons". I decided not to go with Gaki Daisho here mainly due to its more niche subject matter (late 60s delinquent gangs) & what's now a non-standard airing style (each serial totals around 40 minutes, or so), while The Gutsy Frog actually is currently available in full with English subs over on TMS' YouTube channel (the playlist isn't up-to-date, but all 103 episodes are there).
That leaves only two more Jump anime from the 70s, both from TMS, and we begin with Koya no Shonen/Wilderness Boy Isamu, which ran from April 1973 to March 1974 for 52 episodes. This was based on the 1971-1974 manga of the same name by Noboru Kawasaki, who had just come off of finishing Star of the Giants over in Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine, & was actually a heavily expanded remake of the 1952 manga Koya no Shonen by Soji Yamakawa, which ran in Omoshiro Book, later Shonen Book, the precursor to Shonen Jump. The manga was pushed heavily by Jump during its run, & today it's still second only to One Piece in terms of average placement in each issue's Table of Contents for a long-running manga (2.54, to OP's 2.35). The anime, like the manga, told the story of Isamu, a young boy who grows up in the "Wild West" of America during the 1800s, the son of a Japanese man & a Native American woman, but lost his mother as a baby while his father disappeared after being chased by outlaws. Isamu would wind up being raised by the Wingate Family, a group of outlaws, but Isamu's kind nature eventually puts him at odds with the Wingates, eventually resulting in Isamu becoming someone who uses his gun for justice, despite being a wanted man himself, all while searching for his father. The manga was notable for dealing with racial issues of the era, as one of the recurring characters was a black ginslinger named Big Stone who helps free slaves (as well as Isamu's mixed race heritage likely playing a factor, at points), as well as showing Isamu grow from a young boy to a young man over the course of the story. TMS' anime adaptation of Koya no Shonen Isamu seemingly toned down some of the more brutal & violent scenes, while also keeping Isamu a young boy throughout the story, but considering that the chances of the manga seeing an English release are essentially nil it would be neat to see the anime adaptation be given a shot, especially since anime/manga about the American West are so few & far between; even Boichi's current Jump+ series The Marshall King only resembles the Wild West.
Finally, we end the first half of this list of unlicensed anime from the 70s (plus some 60s) with a baseball anime based on a manga written by one of the greatest to ever do it, Ikki Kajiwara. Just as with Noboru Kawasaki, Ikki Kajiwara also went to Jump for his next manga after the end of Star of the Giants, but in this case Kajiwara not only followed up with another baseball manga, but his actually debuted two issues before Koya no Shonen Isamu did, though its anime adaptation would debut six months after Isamu's. Working with newcomer artist Ko Inoue, Samurai Giants told the story of Ban Banba, a talented & hot-blooded high school pitcher whose sheer power on the pitching mound winds up getting him signed to the Yomiuri Giants. In essence, Samurai Giants was Kajiwara taking what he had done with Star of the Giants' iconic Dai League Ball, the iconic "makyu/magic ball" of that series, and made a manga that eventually was all about pitchers throwing out makyu & how other players had to counter these pitches that were otherwise impossible to perform in real life. The general reception to the manga at the time was seemingly either seeing it as a spiritual successor to Ashita no Joe, especially in how similar Ban was to Joe Yabuki, or as an absurd derivative of Star of the Giants, due to how much focus was put on makyu later on.
Regardless, TMS would eventually produce a TV anime adaptation of Samurai Giants, which ran from October 1973 to September 1974 for 48 episodes & was directed by the late Tadao Nagahama, prior to his career defining work on the Robot Romance Trilogy (Com-Battler V, Voltes V, & Daimos). Since the manga was made with approval from the Yomiuri Giants, the anime was able to take even more advantage of the actual then-current history of the baseball team, with Ban's personal growth being interwoven into actual historical events, like the Giants' slump during the prior summer, Shigeo Nagashima's absence from the team during the second half of the season, & the team's battles against both the Hanshin Tigers & the Nankai Hawks. Despite the anime ending right around the time the manga did in Jump, though, the anime didn't include the manga's legendarily infamous ending, instead telling an anime-original three-parter where Ban & the Giants took on an American team in a "Japan/U.S. World Series". The fact that the anime featured actual pro players in the story, even more than the manga did apparently, might potentially create a licensing issue internationally, though none of the real-life players voiced their anime interpretations, but Samurai Giants' status as the last Jump anime that would be made until Dr. Slump Arale-chan does help make it sound a bit alluring... or, at least, I think that's neat.
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This bring us halfway through this look at 12 titles from the earliest two decades of "modern" TV anime, and while the chances of any of these anime getting licensed for official English release are rather low... we're also far from the days where it was essentially a guarantee that they'd NEVER see official English release. Instead, English-speaking anime fandom has managed to age up enough where older fans have become a notable enough niche where, on occasion, a company is actually willing to give anime from this earliest era a chance now. Come back next week to see what unlicensed titles from the second half of the 70s I thought sounded the most interesting & enticing to include.
Sennin Buraku © Ko Kojima/Eiken
Golden Bat © Ougon Bat Kikaku/ADK
Marvelous Melmo © Tezuka Productions
Babel II © Hikari Pro・Toei Animation
Koya no Shonen Isamu © Souji Yamakawa・Noboru Kawasaki/TMS
Samurai Giants © Ikki Kajiwara・Ko Inoue/TMS
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