The 40 most popular 1970s animation TV shows, ranked. Click any show for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


Doraemon
1979
country: Japan
Doraemon is an anime TV series created by Fujiko F. Fujio and based on the manga series of the same name. This anime is the much more successful successor of the 1973 anime.


Lupin the 3rd
1971
country: Japan
Follow the exciting adventures of Arsene Lupin III, the grandson of the world's greatest thief, Arsene Lupin. Together with Daisuke Jigen, Goemon Ishikawa and his love interest Fujiko Mine, he carries out the greatest robberies of all time, all the while evading the control of Inspector Koichi Zenigata.


Japanese Folklore Tales
1975
country: Japan
"Manga Nippon Mukashibanashi" was a series running from 1975 to 1994 (with a short stop) in japanese tv. Each episode contained 1 to 3 short folk tales from the rich tradition of Japanese storytelling. Ghosts, samurai, goddesses, famous doomed romances, wandering heroes, legendary creatures, mysterious magical visitors... all presented in a simple cartoon style which varies from silly to quite charming.


Die Sendung mit der Maus
1971
country: Germany
The children's show has been a fixed Sunday morning ritual in German living rooms since 1971. Not only children, but also many adults sit in front of the television every week when the clever orange mouse, his blue elephant buddy and the yellow duck lead the way with short, funny cartoon clips between the "funny and factual stories".


Super Friends
1973
country: United States
The most powerful heroes ever--Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Batman and Robin--join forces with teenagers Wendy and Marvin and their dog, Marvel the Wonderdog, to defend justice and guard the innocent.


Mézga család
1970
country: Hungary
The family consists of Géza, the father, a comical and inept figure, his wife Paula who actually dominates family affairs, pubertal daughter Kriszta and 12-year-old son Aladár, a child prodigy. The cat Maffia and a dog, Blöki accompany the family. Dr. Máris, their cynical neighbour, is regularly and unvoluntarily involved in disasters surrounding the family.


Tomorrow's Joe
1970
country: Japan
A young drifter named Joe Yabuki wanders through the slums of Tokyo, but when the local ruffians try to give him a hard time he teaches them a rough lesson with his fists. The spectacle sparks a gleam in the eye of an old drunk who happens to be watching—Danpei Tange, a failed boxer and former coach who sees something special in the boy. He pleads with Joe to train with him off, but the cocky young fighter brushes him. Later, though, when Joe is arrested and put in a juvenile detention facility, he realizes that he’s going to need to hone his raw fighting skills if he wants to survive. Thus is born a partnership that might just take Joe all the way to the top…


Ikkyū-san
1975
country: Japan
The mischievous adventures of a young Ikkyū during his stay at Ankoku Temple. He relies on his intelligence and wit to solve all types of problems, from distraught farmers to greedy merchants.


Candy Candy
1976
country: Japan
This story is about a girl, Candy, who is a orphan. She is a nice and optimistic girl and she has a warm heart. When she was a child, she lived in an orphanage called Pony's Home. She had a good friend called Ann. And she met the "handsome boy on the hill" who is a important person in her life, on the hill behind the orphanage. She was adopted by the Loka's family. What's awaiting her are the bad-hearted Leo and his sister, Eliza. One day, in the rose garden, she met a boy, who is identical to the "handsome boy on the hill" who she had met in her childhood. The boy is called Antony. Thereafter, a fantastic story that she has never expected begins.


Wattoo Wattoo Super Bird
1978
country: France
Wattoo Wattoo Super Bird is a French cartoon series created in 1978. Consisting of 60 five-minute episodes, the series was intended to teach morals to children.


UFO Robot Grendizer
1975
country: Japan
The story revolves around Duke Fleed who is a survivor of the Vega Star, raised by Dr. Umon as his adoptive son, and known as Daisuke Umon on Earth. Years after his arrival, he's faced with the threat of King Vega and his army, who want to conquer the Earth. With his friends Koji and Hikaru (and later his kid sister Maria Grace), Duke decides to fight back using his best weapon, the almighty Grendizer.


Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo
1979
country: United States
Everyone’s favorite mystery-solving Great Dane is here to find clues, along with a little help from his energetic nephew and four human companions.


Anne of Green Gables
1979
country: Japan
Anne Shirley is a freckle-faced, red-haired girl, who grows up in an orphanage having lost her parents at a very early age. Anne is always cheerful and fun-loving despite being brought up without love or affection. When she turns 11, she is adopted by the old farmer Matthew Cuthbert and his sister Marilla. Anne starts her new life at Green Gables, but actually the Cuthberts wanted a boy who could help with their work on the farm...


Future Boy Conan
1978
country: Japan
After the great disaster of 2008, a war that destroyed the planet, the world is now largely ocean with the continents having sunk. Conan lives on a remote island with his grandpa and nature, never having seen another human being. But one day a mysterious girl, Lana, washes up on his beach. The two become quick friends, but she’s soon kidnapped and taken to Industria, a technological remainder from the world before. Conan leaves his island in pursuit, braving new lands and many hardships with new friends and enemies just beyond the horizon.


The All-New Popeye Hour
1978
country: United States
The All-New Popeye Hour is an animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and King Features Syndicate. Starring the popular comic strip character Popeye, the series aired from 1978 to 1983 on CBS.


Space Battleship Yamato
1974
country: Japan
Space Battleship Yamato is a Japanese science fiction anime series featuring an eponymous spacecraft. It is also known to English-speaking audiences as Space Cruiser Yamato; an English-dubbed and heavily edited version of the series was broadcast on North American and Australian television as Star Blazers. The first two seasons of this version were broadcast in Greece in 1981-82 as Διαστημόπλοιο Αργώ. An Italian-language version was also broadcast under the name Star Blazers in Italy, and a Portuguese-language version was successfully shown in Brazil under the title Patrulha Estelar and Viaje a la Ultima Galaxia or Astronave Intrepido in Spain and Latin America. It is a seminal series in the history of anime, marking a turn towards more complex serious works and influencing works such as Mobile Suit Gundam and Neon Genesis Evangelion; Hideaki Anno has ranked Yamato his favorite anime and credited it with sparking his interest in anime. Yamato was the first anime series or movie to win the Seiun Award, a feat not repeated until the 1985 Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.


Mazinger Z
1972
country: Japan
Mazinger Z, known briefly as Tranzor Z in the United States, is a Japanese super robot manga series written and illustrated by Go Nagai. The first manga version was serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump from October 1972 to August 1973, and it later continued in Kodansha TV Magazine from October 1973 to September 1974. It was adapted into an anime television series which aired on Fuji TV from December 1972 to September 1974. A second manga series was released alongside the TV show, this one drawn by Gosaku Ota, which started and ended almost at the same time of the TV show. Mazinger Z has spawned several sequels and spinoff series, among them UFO Robot Grendizer and Mazinkaiser. It was a very popular cartoon in Mexico during the 1980s, where it was dubbed into Spanish directly from the Japanese version, keeping the Japanese character names and broadcasting all 92 episodes, unlike the version aired in the U.S.


Manga Fairy Tales of the World
1976
country: Japan
Each episode of this series tells the story of a famous fairy tale from all around the world. Some of them are adapted from famous books such as "The Iliad".


Barbapapa
1974
country: France
The adventures of Barbapapa and Barbama and their seven children, where they search for their place in the world, while helping humans and animals.


Science Ninja Team Gatchaman
1972
country: Japan
Science Ninja Team Gatchaman is a five-member superhero team that is composed of the main characters in several anime created by Tatsuo Yoshida and originally produced in Japan by Tatsunoko Productions and later adapted into several English-language versions. It is also known by the abbreviated name Gatchaman. The original series, produced in 1972, was eponymously named Kagaku Ninja Tai Gatchaman and is most well known to the English-speaking world as the adaptation titled Battle of the Planets. The series received additional English adaptations with G-Force: Guardians of Space and ADV Films' uncut 2005 release. Tatsunoko also uses the official translation Science Commando Gatchaman, as shown in numerous related products and media. Because the English-language versions are notoriously inconsistent not only with one another but also with the original Japanese series, viewers most familiar with the English versions often experience some confusion upon re-examining the series after a long hiatus. The original 1972 Kagaku Ninja Tai Gatchaman series was followed by an animated film, two sequel series, Gatchaman II, and Gatchaman Fighter. In the 90's, episodes from both series were dubbed into English by Saban as Eagle Riders. In 1994, the original series was remade as a condensed OVA series.


Monica and Friends
1976
country: Brazil
Monica, the leader of the crew and 'ruler of the street,' is a little girl with a strong personality, not one to overlook any insult. She absolutely loves her stuffed bunny, Samson, and takes him with her everywhere. Jimmy Five, one of her best friends, is a smart kid, but he's always provoking her. Maggy is Monica's best friend and a super cute girl, who is always eating watermelons. To complete the show's main quartet, enter Smudge, a skillful boy who is terrified of water.


Dokaben
1976
country: Japan
No overview available


The New Scooby-Doo Movies
1972
country: United States
Aside from doubling the length of each episode, The New Scooby-Doo Movies differed from its predecessor in the addition of a rotating special guest star slot; each episode featured real-life celebrities or well known fictional characters joining the Mystery, Inc. gang in solving the mystery of the week. Some episodes, in particular the episodes guest-starring the characters from The Addams Family, Batman, and Jeannie, deviated from the established Scooby-Doo format of presenting criminals masquerading as supernatural beings by introducing real ghosts, witches, monsters, and other such characters into the plots.


Godzilla
1978
country: United States
Follow the adventures of the Calico, an ocean going research vessel under the command of Captain Carl Majors and his crew, scientist Dr. Quinn Darien, her teenage nephew Pete, first mate Brock, and the protector of the ship, Godzilla.


Galaxy Express 999
1978
country: Japan
In a distant future, Tetsuro is a human boy who wants his body replaced with a robotic one. This is possible, but to do so he has to reach the Immortal Planet onboard the space train Galaxy Express 999. Maetel, a beautiful and mysterious blonde woman dressed in Russian style, joins him in the long journey through space. Every episode sees our heroes arriving in a new planet's space train station.


Heidi: Girl of the Alps
1974
country: Japan
After becoming an orphan, Heidi is forced to live with her grandfather, who lives in the Alps. She learns he's a very bitter man who only accepted by force to take her in. But Heidi's kindness may be able to open his heart. Together with her friends Peter and Clara, she goes on lots of adventures.


Scooby's All-Stars
1977
country: United States
Each episode of this series include multiple segments: The first and last were "Laff-A-Lympics" segments, the other ones were "Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels", "Scooby-Doo" and "Dynomutt" segments. The "Laff-A-Lympics" segments feature 45 Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters (classic and otherwise) competing for gold medals in wacky events. Events include racing on ostriches, camels, kangaroos, rickshaws and unicycles, as well as scavenging for creatures like the Abominable Snowman, vampires, and the Loch Ness Monster.


Mobile Suit Gundam
1979
country: Japan
What would you do if you suddenly found yourself in the middle of a war? Teenager Amuro Ray sees his life shattered when war comes to his home. During the chaos, Amuro finds himself inside the mobile suit Gundam, the Earth Federation's new secret weapon, and he somehow gets it to work. Amuro and the other refugees flee their homeland on the warship White Base. This group of children and inexperienced soldiers will change the outcome of the war.


First Human Gatorus
1974
country: Japan
A comedy about the wacky adventures of Giatrus and his tribe of the first human beings on the planet.


The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show
1979
country: United States
The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show is an animated television series produced by Ruby-Spears Productions from 1979 to 1981; it was shown right after Super Friends on the ABC Network. It featured various adventures of the DC Comics superhero Plastic Man. The show features many adventures in different segments: Plastic Man, Baby Plas, Plastic Family, Mighty Man and Yukk, Fangface and Fangpuss, and Rickety Rocket. The show was repackaged by Arlington Television into 130 half-hour episodes, and released into national, first-run-off-network daily syndication in 1984. The Plastic Man Comedy Show was produced and directed by Steve Whiting and featured a live-action "Plastic Man", played by Taylor Marks.


Vinterbyøster
1973
country: Denmark
No overview available


Laura, the Prairie Girl
1975
country: Japan
No overview available


Space Pirate Captain Harlock
1978
country: Japan
When a mysterious invader from the stars catches Earth unawares, only the legendary space pirate Captain Harlock and the crew of the Arcadia have the will to stand against them.


The Rose of Versailles
1979
country: Japan
Raised from birth as a man, the Lady Oscar commands the palace guards at Versailles in the years before the French Revolution. Her beauty and noble spirit make her a shining figure in the eyes of both men and women but she is torn between her chosen life of service and duty to class and country and her own heart and desires. She lives as a noble amidst the opulence of Versailles but her keen senses and compassion are not blinded to the poverty of the French people.


Star Trek
1973
country: United States
The animated adventures of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and the crew of the Starship Enterprise.


Bagpuss
1974
country: United Kingdom
Bagpuss is a UK children's television series, made by Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate from 12 February 1974 to 7 May 1974 through their company Smallfilms. The title character was, "An old, saggy, cloth cat, baggy, and a bit loose at the seams." Although only 13 episodes of the show were made, it remains fondly remembered, and was regularly repeated in the UK for thirteen years. In 1999 Bagpuss topped a BBC poll for the UK's favourite children's TV programme.


Pat & Mat
1979
country: Czech Republic
Pat & Mat is a Czech stop-motion animated series featuring two handymen, Pat and Mat. It was created by Lubomír Beneš and Vladimír Jiránek.


Maya the Bee
1975
country: Japan
The adventures of a young and happy bee who is sent by her queen to search for pollen, and in doing so she finds a new world that surrounds her, making friends with various forest creatures.


Alfie Atkins
1979
country: Sweden
Alfie Atkins is a pretty ordinary guy who lives with his father. When he was younger he had an imaginary friend named Malcolm that only Alfie could see. Later on he finds real friends such as Milla and Victor. He also has a cat named Puzzle.


Flower Angel
1979
country: Japan
The King of the Flower Planet is dying, but his heir can't take up the throne until the legendary Seven Color Flower, symbol of the King's power, is found. The Angels Cateau and Noveau are sent to Earth to find the Flower Girl, a young female who descends from both humans and Flower Angels (who once inhabited Earth, long ago) - and they find Lunlun in France. They convince her to go in a long journey to find the Flower - she'll know the good and bad sides of humans and Flower Angels (incarnated in the ambitious Togenishia and her sidekick Boris), and will fall in love with Serge Flora, a man who holds a great secret.
1970s television grew markedly more socially engaged, with sitcoms and dramas taking on subject matter the previous decade wouldn't touch.
Animated television covers everything from long-running adult satire to prestige anime. It's a format where a distinctive visual voice can survive far longer than in film, and where some of the sharpest writing on TV lives.