Yasuhiro Imagawa's "Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still"

Giant Robo assists
the warriors of Mount Liang

This retro-futuristic anime, inspired by Mitsuteru Yokoyama's manga of the same title, is set largely in a 2039 China that is simultaneously medieval, modern, and futuristic, where dirigibles, skyscrapers and trains co-exist with Taoist sorcerers and warriors on horseback.

A Japanese child Daisaku Kusama, recruited into the International Police Organization for his unique ability to command a powerful robot, goes to China to support the Beijing/Peking branch of the IPO. There he meets a colorful team of colleagues, many of them based on well-known characters from the Chinese classical novels Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin (aka Outlaws of the Marsh).

Scene from the Ginrei Special DVD

Gen Brothers riding to power plant

Among the IPO's Experts of Justice are:

• Issei, a shapeshifting Taoist priest who, in the left image above, has taken the form of a truck. He is based on the Taoist sorcerer-priest of the same name (Chinese: Yi Qing) in Water Margin.
• Taisou (second from left), another Water Margin character
• Youshi (third from left) (the original Youshi/Yang Zhi was a man in Water Margin but in Giant Robo, she is Taisou's wife).
• Tetsugyu (fourth from left), derived from the Water Margin warrior of the same nickname.
• The Gen Brothers (right image), also from Water Margin.

One of the chief villains is Koumei (Chinese: Kongming), based on the character of the same name from Three Kingdoms Three Kingdoms. In Giant Robo, he carries his trademark feather fan but wears a Western suit.

Dress styles in Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still seem more of a matter of personal expression than uniform cultural norms, as seen in the mixed medieval and modern attire of people on the street of this re-imagined near-future Beijing.

Such mixed aesthetics are characteristic of this anime， as seen in the design of these sealing strips, which combines Chinese brush calligraphy with the international radioactive trefoil symbol. (Paper strip seals have been used in China at least since medieval times.)¹

Notes:

1. Sealing strips on Baidu Encyclopedia