Unit 00 - Metal Gods: a Brief History of Giant Robot Cartoons

Your hosts Ian Cory and Joseph Schafer introduce themselves and then answer one burning question: why would two grown men make a podcast about the beguiling and beloved anime Neon Genesis Evangelion? To find the answer, we unpack the history of Japanese animation beginning in the aftermath of World War Two up through the early '90s. We especially focus on "mecha," the anime sub genre focusing on giant robots, from its earliest incarnations like Tetsujin 28-Go though beloved franchises like Mazinger Z, Macross and Mobile Suit Gundam.

Along the way we tell the story of Hideaki Anno, a young animator who worked with Hayao Miyazaki at Studio Ghibli before directing Evangelion. We touch on his well-documented strggle with mental illness, and how that informed one of the finest television series of all time.