Pure TokyoScope Podcast 154: UFO Robo Grendizer! Bear Attacks in Japan! RIP Tomonobu Itagaki!
Patrick Macias and Matt Alt bring you pop culture direct from Japan!
FULL EPISODE! This time on the PURE TOKYOSCOPE Podcast, authors Matt Alt (Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World) and Patrick Macias (Mondo Tokyo: Dispatches from a Secret Japan) celebrate the 50th anniversary of UFO Robo Grendizer, the 1975 anime series that became a global sensation! Also, RIP to Ninja Gaiden creator Tomonobu Itagaki, and a brief history of fatal bear attacks in Japan!
Join the Pure TokyoScope Patreon!
You’ll get access to the full episode, bonus content, our Discord server, and an archive of past episodes. Head over to Pure TokyoScope Patreon to subscribe today!
SHOW NOTES
Patrick’s Halloween Costume
Shibuya Declares War on “Nuisance Halloween” With Tough New Rules and Hachiko Statue Lockdown
The Anime Business - Jerry Beck on Lensman (also Akira), Streamline Pictures and Anime in Theaters
Tomonobu Itagaki, Director of Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden, Dies Aged 58
Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball Commercial (2003)
Ninja Gaiden II: The Way of the Warrior Xbox Live Documentary 2008
Japan Delays New Bear Attack Movie After Real-Life Incidents Mirror Its Story
The 1915 Sankebetsu brown bear incident
Remains - Beautiful Warriors, aka Yellow Fangs (1990) director Sonny Chiba
Kuma Arashi by Akira Yoshimura (1977)
UFO Robot Grendizer (aka America’s #1 Babysitter)
Grendizer Launch Sequence
That’s a UFO! The Flying Saucer trailer (1975)
Matt Alt in Figure Oh magazine with the Grendizer 2025 Jumbo Machiner
Grendizer Jumbo Machinder Spacer (1976)
New Show Sponsor: The Shogun Warriors!
Sign up for the Pure TokyoScope Patreon! You’ll get access to full episodes, bonus video content, our Discord server, and an archive of past episodes.
