Mobile Suit Gundam, created by Yoshiyuki Tomino in 1979, is a popular anime series that helped to popularize the mecha genre of anime, which features giant robots.

Astro Boy, created by Osamu Tezuka in 1963, is considered the first modern anime and helped to popularize the genre both in Japan and around the world.

The Meiji Restoration in the late 19th century saw the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate and the modernization of Japan.