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


Kamen Rider
1971
country: Japan
Takeshi Hongo is a promising young man with a passion for motorcycle racing. However, his dreams are suddenly ruined when he gets kidnapped by Shocker, the evil secret organization planning to dominate the world. After being remodeled into a cyborg, Takeshi escapes and swears to protect the world from the inhuman monsters.


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.


New Japan Pro Wrestling
1972
country: Japan
New Japan Pro-Wrestling is a Japanese promotion founded by Antonio Inoki in 1972. Owing to its TV program aired on TV Asahi, it is the largest wrestling promotion in Japan and one of the largest in the world.


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.


Mr. Kinpachi in Class 3B
1979
country: Japan
A legendary television series and cultural asset, Mr. Kinpachi in Class 3B is famous for putting many social issues on the front burner of the public conscious over its long run, as filtered through the emotionally volatile lives of third year middle school students. The heartfelt relations between a devoted schoolteacher, Kinpachi Sakamoto, and his unique students have won the show high praise for several decades. Whether due to the pressures of exams, family relations, teachers and friends, graduating middle school students navigate a turbulent hormonal sea of “hope” and “frustration”, constantly shaped by the social environment of the times. Standing as a beacon in the storm and emitting messages of hope for each generation is one Japanese teacher, Kinpachi Sakamoto, who has come to be adored and admired by a nation through the adventures of Class 3B.


Himitsu Sentai Gorenger
1975
country: Japan
A powerful terrorist organization known as the Black Cross Army threatens to destroy the Earth, with only the defense organization EAGLE (EArth Guard LEague) able to oppose them. In retaliation, Black Cross Army destroys multiple EAGLE headquarters across Japan, killing all but five people. Now, these five remaining EAGLE members are called to form a secret, powerful team known as Gorenger, the only force left that has a chance to stop the Black Cross Army and their evil leader, Black Cross Führer.


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.


Abarenbo Shogun
1978
country: Japan
Set in the 18th century, the show follows the Shogun Yoshimune, who likes to disguise himself as a low-ranking samurai and go into his capital of Edo to see the life of the common man, as well as to seek out and punish evildoers who would hurt his citizens. He is aided by Magistrate Oo'oka and a vivacious fireman, Tatsugoro, as well as a rotating cast of other recurring characters. Along with Zenigata Heiji and Mito Kōmon, it ranks among the longest-running series in the jidaigeki genre. Like so many other jidaigeki, it falls in the category of kanzen-chōaku, loosely, "rewarding good and punishing evil."


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.


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.


Battle Fever J
1979
country: Japan
Five agents stand against the evil organization Egos. They fight incorporating dance moves from all around the world! This was the first time giant robots appeared on the Sentai series.


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.


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".


プリンプリン物語
1979
country: Japan
No overview available


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.


Dokaben
1976
country: Japan
No overview available


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.


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.


Kogarashi Monjiro
1972
country: Japan
Monjiro was born into a poor farm family in Mikazuki Village, Nitta County, Ueshu, and abandoned his hometown when he was 10 years old. He has been traveling aimlessly with a long toothpick in his mouth. Monjiro avoided getting involved in anything, but wherever he went, he ended up getting involved in incidents


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.


Hissatsu Shigotonin
1979
country: Japan
Nakamura Mondo was relegated to a post in Hachioji from the Minamimachi Bugyōsho and he has retired from professional assassin. But one day he was ordered to return to the Minamimachi Bugyōsho. Shikazō worked behind the scenes to get Mondo back to the Minamimachi Bugyōsho. Shikazō asks Nakamura Mondo to kill a man, once Mondo refuses but he is blinded by big money and eventually take the offer. Mondo restarts killing villains again with Kazarishokunin no Hide and Nawate Samon.


J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai
1977
country: Japan
Cyborg warriors were created by the Special Science Investigation Squad to bear nuclear, gravitational, magnetic, and electrical forces. They fight the crime empire known as "Crime".


Swordsman With the Torn Umbrella
1974
country: Japan
Set in the Edo period, Kanou Toshu studied medicine in Nagasaki and lives on the outskirts of Senju-juku . He is also a master of the Mugai Ryu sword style. Although he has skills in medicine, he is also a big drinker and often drinks all day and falls asleep, or drinks at night and does not go home. He does not charge for treatment and medicine costs from poor patients such as tradesmen and farmers, but occasionally he'll buy their produce or drink with them. When he senses injustice by the rich and powerful, he takes matters into his own hands and doles out justice as he sees fit.


Monkey
1978
country: Japan
Buddhist priest Tripitaka and his three disciples Monkey, Pigsy, and Sandy, travel from China to India to fetch the Buddhist scriptures. They have been sent by Buddha, and getting these scriptures will bring peace to the people of the world.


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.


Professional Killers
1972
country: Japan
A shikakenin was an under-the-cover trade that undertook killing in Edo. Hanemon of Otowa, an agency that introduced laborers and maids, was also one of these. Katsugoro Iseya was a timber dealer who had come in as a client. His target was the constructions magistrate Hanno, and the Tatsumiya who sipped on the benefits. Hanemon who had a stong code towards killing, where he would only kill those who do no good to be in the world, accepts this request. Baian Fujieda, a needle doctor would carry out the killing. However, the professional killer Baian fails to bring down Tatsumiya. Hanemon then looks to another shikakenin, the ronin Sanai Nishimura for the role. Although Sanai's ability with the sword is good, he lives poorly in a tenement, and accepts this commission on the condition that it is kept a secret from his wife and child. Here, they close in on Hanno and Tatsumiya again...


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.


Vicky the Viking
1974
country: Japan
Vicky is the only son of Halvar, the formidable viking chief. Vicky renounces violence but nevertheless he is able to convince the seasoned viking warriors to take him along on their voyages. In dangerous situations, where their bravery and force are not quite enough to master the situation, the wild-eyed warriors learn to rely on Vicky's cleverness.


Kamen Rider Stronger
1975
country: Japan
Shigeru Jo joins the evil organization Black Satan after the death of his close friend and mentor Goro Numata. He, promised power, and fueled by a desire for revenge, undergoes surgery to become one of Black Satan's super warriors. However, Shigeru knows that Black Satan were in fact the murderers of his friend; he was using Black Satan in order to gain new powers. The newly powered up Shigeru escapes from the Black Satan headquarters before they can brainwash him into following their campaign of evil and becomes Kamen Rider Stronger. While escaping from Black Satan, Stronger meets Yuriko Misaki another cyborg warrior created by Black Satan who has the ability to transform into Electronic Wave Humanoid Tackle. Together they fight the evil Black Satan and later the Delzer Army to restore peace in Japan.


Kusa Moeru
1979
country: Japan
The story chronicles the life of Hōjō Masako during the Kamakura Period.


Getter Robo
1974
country: Japan
From deep within the Earth's surface, the Dinosaur Kingdom make their move to wipe out mankind and conquer the planet with their mechanical dinosaurs. After a prototype Getter Robo is shot down by a mechanical dinosaur, the Saotome Research Institute decides to use the real Getter Robo, which is combat-capable. Due to a lack of pilots in the institute, Ryo Nagare goes to his college to persuade martial artist Musashi Tomoe and outcast Hayato Jin to join him and pilot the Getter Machines to combat the new threat and protect mankind.
1970s television grew markedly more socially engaged, with sitcoms and dramas taking on subject matter the previous decade wouldn't touch.
Japanese television is dominated by anime and the dorama — short, tightly-run seasons that rarely outstay their premise. Anime in particular has become one of the most globally exported forms of television there is.