Best Sci-Fi Anime of 1981

In *Urusei Yatsura*, Ataru Moroboshi is an ordinary high school student cursed with terrible luck and an incorrigible tendency to flirt with every girl he sees. When the Oni, an alien race, invade Earth, Ataru is unexpectedly chosen to face one of them in a symbolic competition. To his surprise, the contest is nothing more than a game of tag, and his opponent is Lum, the daughter of the Oni leader. Lum, who prizes honor above all, is tricked into losing when Ataru snatches her bikini top. Confusion erupts when Lum misinterprets Ataru's promise to marry his girlfriend, Shinobu Miyake, believing it was meant for her instead. Delighted by this prospect, she moves into Ataru's home, leveraging her status as an alien princess. Now, Ataru must juggle his crumbling relationship with Shinobu, keep Lum content, and continue his relentless habit of chasing after every girl he encounters.

Amid the continuing war, Amuro and the White Base crew make their way to the Earth Federation's base at Jaburo, encountering fresh adversaries and overcoming major challenges. They join Operation Odessa, a campaign intended to liberate Earth from Zeon's control. As they endure the hardships of combat and forge new partnerships, Amuro begins to realize his own potential as an enigmatic Newtype.

In the Daicon III Opening Animation, an unnamed girl observes the Science Patrol's aircraft as it lands. A masked figure emerges from the craft and hands her a cup of water, telling her to water a radish. She eagerly takes on this task but is quickly attacked by a series of enemies, including monsters, mechas, and starfighters. The animation follows whether the young protagonist can protect the water and reach the radish. In the Daicon IV Opening Animation, an older version of the same girl appears, now wearing a Playboy Bunny outfit. She battles a wide range of legendary foes from across the universe. The action is nonstop, featuring lightsaber duels and riding the mystical sword Stormbringer. Set to Electric Light Orchestra's "Twilight," this sequence serves as a grand tribute to science fiction, bringing together numerous recognizable characters in one dazzling spectacle.

In Dr. Slump, an eccentric scientist builds Arale, a remarkably strong, cheerful, and thoroughly illogical android girl. The two reside in Penguin Village, a location known for its bizarre occurrences, such as a pig in a top hat crowing at daybreak.

Golion, a powerful sentient robot, abuses his great powers by attacking and killing creatures known as Deathblack Beastmen, boasting that no one could defeat him. A divine space being punishes Golion for his arrogance and abuse by separating him into 5 different lion robots. In the year 1999, a group of 5 young men return to Earth after a space voyage, only to find it ravaged by nuclear war. After encountering the alien race known as the Galra, the 5 youths end up on the planet Altea, and learn that the 5 lion robots that Golion was split into are in hibernation in various parts of Altea. Somehow, they must reunite the lions and form Golion, the only hope for the human race.

Even after the destruction of Andromeda, their mechanized homeworld, the machine empire continues expanding its influence, turning Earth into a war zone. Tetsurou Hoshino, who once journeyed on the Galaxy Express 999, now joins other humans resisting the mechanical takeover. When the 999 returns to Earth, Tetsurou gets a mysterious message from Maetel, his former travel companion, telling him to get back on the train. Fighting through enemy forces to reach Megalopolis station, he barely boards the departing train. But this trip brings fresh obstacles: Maetel is missing, a threatening "Ghost Train" appears, and the 999's final stop remains unknown. Along the way, Tetsurou confronts the enigmatic black knight Faust and learns the machine empire's most hidden truths.

Set on the colonial planet Deloyer, the narrative follows a small squad of guerrilla freedom fighters known as the "Deloyer 7" or the "Sun Fang" team. Following an unexpected coup, the planet's elected Governor transforms into a dictator, enforcing martial law with the backing of Earth's Federation. In their struggle to break free from the Federation's influence, these rebels launch an uprising against the Federation's Combat Armors, utilizing their own unique machine, the Dougram, as their primary weapon.

In the year 1999, Amamori Hajime is an ordinary elementary school student who spends his days studying and goofing off with his wild friends. But one day, while his father is testing a piece of equipment he's been developing, something goes wrong and the device explodes, taking the family home with it. Now left without parents, Hajime is taken in by his uncle, an astronomer. At his uncle's observatory, he encounters a girl he's seen before and has a bit of a crush on. He learns that her name is Yukino Yayoi, her parents run a ramen shop in town, and she happens to be his uncle's assistant. What luck! But Yayoi is not quite who she appears to be. She has a reason for working with Amamori-san at the observatory. She is the Millennial Queen (Sen-Nen Joou), chosen by her home planet, LaMetal, to travel to Earth and assist in preparing for the possible end of that world. What could trigger such a catastrophe? LaMetal follows a highly elliptical orbit that brings it extremely close to Earth once every thousand years. When the two planets draw near, the Earth reacts with all manner of natural disasters. Though she was selected with the goal of protecting LaMetal in mind, Yayoi's own plan is to evacuate as many humans as she can to LaMetal, so that if Earth is destroyed, they can still survive. However, there is one figure determined to thwart her scheme: the leader of the Millennial Thieves. Why is he so set on stopping Yayoi? And how does he even know about the Millennial Queen in the first place?

In the thirty-first century, Ulysses is responsible for the death of the giant Cyclops while saving his son Telemachus and other children. However, the ancient gods of Olympus are enraged and vow a harsh punishment: Ulysses must journey across the universe of Olympus with his crew frozen in time, searching for the Kingdom of Hades. Only when he locates the Kingdom of Hades will the curse be lifted from his crew, allowing him to return to Earth and his beloved Penelope.

After a meteor strike, a new energy source called Beamler is discovered, powering the combat robot GoShogun and the teleporting fortress Good Thunder. The Docougar Crime Syndicate, led by the criminal mastermind Neo Neros, tries to learn the secrets of Beamler from GoShogun's creator. To prevent this, the inventor kills himself. Neo Neros then targets the inventor's son, but the boy is rescued and taken aboard Good Thunder, where he joins the crew in their global fight against Neo Neros's forces with GoShogun's aid.

In 1999, humanity has begun expanding beyond the solar system. Emperor Zule, the ruler of the planet Gishin, seeks to conquer the galaxy, which brings him into direct conflict with Earth. As part of his scheme to wipe out humanity, he dispatches an infant named Mars to live among the people of Earth. Mars is accompanied by Gaia, a colossal robot powered by an energy source potent enough to annihilate an entire planet. When Mars reaches adulthood, he is meant to trigger the bomb embedded within Gaia and destroy Earth. However, upon his arrival, Mars is taken in by a Japanese household and renamed Takeru. Seventeen years later, Takeru has developed a deep affection for humanity and refuses to carry out Zule's order to detonate the bomb. Yet the bomb inside Gaia is rigged to explode should Takeru ever die, which would inevitably bring about Earth's destruction. Takeru is endowed with psychic abilities and chooses to enlist in the Earth defense forces, earning a spot in the Crasher Squad, an elite space defense unit. Alongside his comrades, he mounts a resistance against the Gishin invasion. What the Gishin do not know is that five other robots were secretly built alongside Gaia by Takeru's father and dispatched with Gaia to watch over Takeru. These five machines—Sphinx, Uranus, Titan, Shin, and Ra—can be summoned by Takeru whenever Earth is threatened, and they combine with Gaia to form the towering Godmars.

By the year 2111, humanity has spread across the solar system, but lawlessness runs rampant on colonized moons and planets, leaving police forces unable to keep order. To counter this rising menace, Isaac Godonov forms the J9 team, consisting of himself, Blaster Kid, Stephen Bowie, and Angel Omachi. This crew accepts any missions the police won't handle, relying on their robotic ally Braiger for a price. Meanwhile, Earth's Nubia sector concocts a plan to obliterate Jupiter, aiming to create thirty additional planets for human habitation, though this would inevitably cause Earth's destruction.

Dr. Slump has feelings for Ms. Yamabuki but can't bring himself to confess. One day, they come across a videotape left by Dr. Slump's father, which explains how to make a special medicine. Anyone who takes it will fall in love with Dr. Slump. (What a wonderful father!) The recipe calls for Dr. Slump's nose dirt and the tears of King Gyasuka. (How disgusting! Does it even work?) Anyway, Dr. Slump builds a vehicle called PingPong and heads to Under Island, where the Great Evil King Gyasuka supposedly lives. Dr. Slump is so unreliable that he mistakes a hair dryer for a ray gun. But with the powerful Arale and Gaccahn by his side, there's nothing to fear. So, will his wish come true?

In the first episode, young Sho Azuka discovers an enchanted Bible named Superbook in his home. This living book can talk and has the power to send Sho, his friend Azusa Yamato, and his toy robot Zenmaijikake back to the times of the Old Testament.

For his summer homework, Nobita is tasked with investigating the history of his hometown. With Doraemon's help, he uses a gadget called the time camera to snap photographs of local landmarks across different historical periods. Much to their astonishment, the final image they capture shows the legendary Japanese folk hero Momotaro hauling a cart piled high with treasure. Later, Nobita's mother runs into a foreign visitor who shows the children a small picture featuring a figure dressed as a samurai. The image bears an uncanny resemblance to a photograph, and the person in it looks exactly like Momotaro. The foreigner received this picture from his ancestors and has traveled to Japan hoping to uncover the truth behind it. Nobita starts to wonder whether Momotaro was an actual historical figure. Determined to solve the mystery, he journeys into Japan's past alongside Doraemon, Shizuka, Takeshi, and Suneo.

An invasion of Earth comes from the polluted and destroyed planet S-1. Marin, a native of S-1, aids the Earthlings in their fight against the invaders using his super ship, Baldios.

A young boy named Hiro discovers what seems to be a broken lighter in an empty field, a find that completely alters his destiny. That lighter is actually the Gold Lightan, a robot from the Robot Dimension that crash-landed on Earth. When Earth is threatened by the evil robots of Ivalda the Great, Gold Lightan is summoned and transforms into a colossal super robot known as the Golden Warrior. Together with Hiro and his group, the One Pack Rangers, Gold Lightan fights to safeguard Earth from the sinister plots of Ivalda the Great and his armored forces.

In Saikyou Robot Daiouja, the narrative follows Edward Mito, the Prince of the Edon Star, as he journeys across space with his companions: servant Baron Kalkus, Duke Skead, and the ninja Shinobu. Operating under the codenames Bocchan, Suke, and Kaku, they battle for justice and shield the oppressed with the aid of their formidable super robot, Daioja.

The narrative of "21 Emon Uchuu e Irasshai!" focuses on 21 Emon, a young man responsible for operating his family's hotel. As he confronts various obstacles, he gets help from his robot companion Gonsuke and the diminutive alien Monga.

At the young age of 11, the genius Michiru has already earned a Ph.D. in atomic physics from a university in California. Despite her remarkable accomplishments, she yearns for a younger brother and decides to build one herself. The mechanical boy Dotakon is soon joined by their robotic sister Chopiko, and together the trio sets off on a series of incredible adventures driven by Michiru's inventions.