Anime Veterans Reflect on Golden Age and Bet on Amano's ZAN at Expo Panel
The panel positioned ZAN as a project backed by industry legends who shaped mecha anime, while also offering a rare reflection on the toll of the medium's most celebrated era.
Reporting from 1 source: Anime News Network.
At Anime Expo 2026, a panel of veteran creators including Ryōsuke Takahashi and Tōru Yoshida discussed the history of mecha anime and the influence of Moriyasu Taniguchi. The panel also touched on the upcoming ZAN project by Yoshitaka Amano. Takahashi shared memories of working with Osamu Tezuka during the 1980s 'Golden Age' and warned against overwork.
Moriyasu Taniguchi, the director of Armored Trooper Votoms, was absent from the panel due to an injury, leaving the discussion to his longtime collaborators. Producers Hiroaki Ikegami and Tatsuyoshi Matsumoto joined Takahashi and Yoshida to trace the lineage from Dougram and Votoms to the current generation of animators trained at Taniguchi's Anime R studio. Matsumoto noted that the studio's influence is well known in Japan but largely unknown in the West. The panel also served as a platform for the recently announced ZAN, Yoshitaka Amano's new anime project, which the veterans are backing.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.