Sheltered Weaklings (Takashi Kono, 1953) [+]

Anti-pollution poster (Kenji Ito, 1973)

Against the introduction of nuclear weapons into Japan (Kinkichi Takahashi, 1960s)

Anti-war poster (Kenji Iwasaki, 1960s) [+] // Give Us Back Man (Tsunehisa Kimura, 1969) [+]

Poster for exhibit in support of Vietnamese women and children (Makoto Wada, 1968)

"Not what I had in mind" (Tsunehisa Kimura, 1968)

Posters by Shigeo Fukuda

Environmental pollution (Shigeo Fukuda, 1973)

Environmental pollution (Shigeo Fukuda, 1973)

Environmental pollution (Shigeo Fukuda, 1973)

Environmental pollution (Shigeo Fukuda, 1973)

Victory (Shigeo Fukuda, 1989) [+] // [+]

Remembering for the Future (Shigeo Fukuda, 1989)

Human rights (Shigeo Fukuda, 1989)

Hiroshima-Nagasaki 50 (Mamoru Suzuki, 1995) [+] // [+]

Hiroshima Appeals (Yusaku Kamekura, 1983) [+]

Peace in Jungle (Gan Hosoya, 1968)

Goodbye whale (Mamoru Suzuki, 1994)

No More War (Kazumasa Nagai, 1970)

Human Rights - Living Together (Kazumasa Nagai, 1989)

Peace (Kazumasa Nagai, 1989)

Kōrakuen Jumbo Pool, 1973

Growth - Life Science Library, 1966

Toshiba IC, 1967

The Mind - Life Science Library, 1965

Expo '75 - International Ocean Exposition, 1975

The Cell - Life Science Library, 1966 [+] // Window 5 Exhibition, 1969 [+]

We Clean Smokers (Poster for Prince Lighters), 1975

Kazumasa Nagai Exhibition, 1968

Asahi Steinie, 1965

Kazumasa Nagai Exhibition, 1968

Architecture as Space, 1966 [+] // Kazumasa Nagai Exhibition, 1973 [+]

Cat and Mouse, 1969

We Clean Smokers (Poster for Prince Lighters), 1974

Graphic 4, 1974

gq, 1974

Lilycolor, 1974

Lilycolor, 1974 [+] // Lilycolor, 1974 [+]

We Clean Smokers (Poster for Prince Lighters), 1974

We Clean Smokers (Poster for Prince Lighters), 1974

Kazumasa Nagai Exhibition, 1975

Identity, 1976

Persona, 1973

gq, 1973[+] // gq, 1974 [+]

Adonis, 1976

Prince Lighters, 1974

Prince Lighters, 1974

Identity, 1976

No More War, 1970

[Source: Posters by Kazumasa Nagai (published by Kawade Shobo, 1976)]

Here are some scans of the manga covers (from the mook Yokoyama Mitsuteru Manga Taizen).

July 1956

September 1956 [+] // October 1956 [+]

February 1957 [+] // April 1957 [+]

August 1957 [+] // October 1957 [+]

November 1957 [+] // December 1957 [+]

April 1958 [+] // November 1958 [+]

June 1958 [+] // December 1958 [+]

March 1959 [+] // July 1959 [+]

August 1959 [+] // September 1959 [+]

April 1960 [+] // June 1960 [+]

July 1960 [+] // August 1960 [+]

October 1960 [+] // November 1960 [+]

December 1960

March 1961 [+] // August 1961 [+]

November 1961

January 1962 [+] // May 1962 [+]

February 1962

September 1962 [+] // December 1962 [+]

August 1962

February 1963 [+] // April 1963 [+]

November 1963 [+] // December 1963 [+]

January 1964 [+] // July 1964 [+]

January 1965 [+] // March 1965 [+]

September 1965 [+] // October 1965 [+]

The Missiler, 1970 [+]

Giant Shocker Machine, 1975 [+]

Space colony, 1980 [+]

Crawler, 1968 [+]

Mobile marine airport, 1980 [+]

Tokyo volcano, ca. 1965

Attack Boy, 1970 [+]

Undersea super tunnel, 1981 [+]

SHADO-mobile, ca. 1970 [+]

UFO, ca. 1970 [+]

Solar City, 1982 [+]

Thunderbird 1, 1964 [+]

Thunderbird 2, 1964 [+]

Thunderbird 3, 1964 [+]

Thunderbird ships, 1964 [+]

Rikishi Boy, 1970 [+]

Frog car boat, 1961 [+]

Baron car boat, 1961 [+]

Highway rescue boat, 1981 [+]

Space train, 1981

Moon bus [+]

Air car [+]

HariHari, 1970 [+]

Sea monster battle, 1954 [+]

The Mole (Jet-Mogura Tank), 1968 [+]

Thunderbird 6 - Sky-Ship 1, 1968 [+]

Thunderbird Mars Explorer - Zero X, 1967 [+]

Proteus Bluebird CN7, 1963 [+]

Long John - Spirit of America, 1963 [+]

Earthquake, 1979 [+]

Guardman Robot, 1970 [+]

* * * *

Edit: A few more images. (Thanks, Franz!)

Underground metropolis, ca. 1980 [+]

World Space Force, 1982 [+]

Horizon Car, ca. 1960 [+]

Ark of Space, 1968 [+]

Robot workers [View full image]

In the coming Robot Age, assembly lines will be manned by tireless robot workers. Once the robots start building newer and better versions of themselves, the need for human factory workers will cease to exist.

Robot nanny [View full image]

Autonomous robot nannies will care for the kids when mom is busy. In addition to singing and playing games, these gentle robots will breastfeed babies and cuddle them when they cry.

Surgical micro-robots [View full image]

Surgical micro-robots that navigate the human body will usher in a new era of medicine. Equipped with lasers and tiny hands, these miniature machines will be able to perform delicate operations inside the body (such as replacing damaged blood vessels with artificial ones), reducing the need for open surgery.

[Images via: Tokyo Scum Brigade]

- See also: Computopia: Old visions of a high-tech future

[View full image]

"Death Battle with Robot Kong," an illustration by Takashi Minamimura, features a cutaway diagram of Robot Kong, also known as "Mechani-Kong" in the US version of the cartoon and in the 1967 spin-off film "King Kong Escapes." Built to defeat King Kong, the 50-meter tall remote-control robot is powered by a 200,000-kilowatt nuclear reactor and can shoot laser beams from its eyes and poison gas from its nose.

The accompanying text describes Dr. Who's sinister plans to capture King Kong, place a mind-control helmet on his head, and use him to hijack ships and rob banks. He estimates King Kong can carry about 100 million yen in cash in his giant paws.

[View full image]

Appearing in the same issue of Shōnen Magazine is a schematic illustration by Takayoshi Mizuki entitled "Secret Pyramid Base," which shows Dr. Who's secret base inside one of the Giza pyramids in Egypt.

The pyramid is equipped with advanced military hardware, including 3D radar, jet launchers, recoilless guns, flamethrowers, rocket launchers, and military tanks that burrow underground. Dr. Who monitors all the action from a wall of TV screens in his room at the center of the pyramid. The base is powered by a nuclear reactor in the basement and surrounded by giant ant-lion sand traps.

Situated nearby is a giant nuclear-powered Sphinx Tank. King Kong battles a variation of this weaponized Sphinx in an episode of "The King Kong Show." (Watch "The Jinx of the Sphinx.")

The diabolical Dr. Who and Mechani-Kong also appear in the 1967 film "King Kong Escapes," which was an adaptation of some of the cartoon episodes.

In the film, King Kong is captured and hypnotized by Dr. Who, but he eventually snaps out of it and escapes to Tokyo. Dr. Who sends Mechani-Kong after him, and the two end up in a battle to the death atop Tokyo Tower.

+ King Kong Escapes - US trailer

[Images via: 昭和の雑誌広告・懐かしモノ]

In 1969, Shōnen Sunday magazine featured a series of illustrated articles entitled "Computopia," which depicted life in a pleasant future pervaded by computers. Here are three illustrations from the series (1, 2, 3).

* * * * *

- Future Classroom

"The Rise of the Computerized School," illustrated by Shigeru Komatsuzaki, takes a peek inside the classroom of the future, where the teacher is an image on a screen and students sit at desks equipped with computers. When the teacher presents a problem, the students input the answer into their computers. If an answer is incorrect, the students use a light pen to make revisions on the monitor until the computer says it is right.

For the purpose of maintaining order, the future classroom will come equipped with watchful robots that rap students on the head if they lose focus or act up. [View full image]

* * * * *

- Future Home

This illustration by Toshio Okazaki, entitled "Computer Life in 20 Years," depicts what the typical household might look like 20 years in the future -- in 1989 -- after computers have become an integral part of daily life.

In this high-tech home, dad chats on the videophone while the wall-mounted home computer spits out a newspaper and the automatic air conditioner cools the room.

Junior's eyes are glued to the 3D TV while an autonomous vacuum robot cleans the floor nearby. A hovercraft floats in the sky outside the window.

Mom performs calculations on a miniature home computer.

The home is also furnished with nifty devices such as an automatic iron, an autonomous wheeled table that keeps food warm, and a kitchen robot that sets the table and takes care of the dishes. [View full image]

* * * * *

- Future Hospital

"The Amazing Unmanned Operating Room," illustrated by Teruya Yamamoto, takes a peek inside the computerized hospital of the future.

In this unmanned operating room, a computer-controlled robot arm is performing a heart transplant with cool precision. The patient's heart has been removed and placed on the adjacent table. Before inserting the new artificial heart, the computer waits for instructions from the human doctor, who is monitoring the procedure on a screen in the next room. [View full image]

[Via: 昭和の雑誌広告・懐かしモノ]

In the 1960s and 1970s, Japan saw an explosion in the popularity of sonosheets -- cheap, flexible phonograph records printed on thin sheets of vinyl. Widely available from a variety of publishers, the most popular sonosheets featured theme music from TV anime, manga and tokusatsu, and they often came packaged inside booklets featuring colorful artwork. The sonosheet boom was short-lived, though -- many companies went under as the market became flooded in the 1970s, and the phenomenon all but disappeared by the 1980s. Here is a small sample of the vast array of sonosheet cover art from that era.

Ultra Q [+]

Batman vs. Iceman

Vampire

Captain Ultra

Batman (front cover) [+]

Batman (back cover) [+]

Ambassador Magma [+]

GeGeGe no Kitaro (front cover) [+]

GeGeGe no Kitaro (back cover) [+]

Falcon of Shidenkai [+]

Kaiki Daisakusen (front cover) [+]

Kaiki Daisakusen (back cover)

Daikaij?sen

Space boy Soran [+]

Thunderbirds [+]

Tetsujin Tiger Seven/ Inazuman/ Diamond Eye

Ultraman (front cover)

Ultraman (back cover)

Henshin Ninja Arashi

Frankenstein [+]

Robot Detective (front cover)

Robot Detective (inside) [+]

Space Monsters

Ultra Seven

[More]

First Love Inferno, 1968 [+]

Keiko's at Marubutsu Department Store, 1967 [+]

Michelangelo's Expression, 1968 [+]

Display Exhibition, 1969 [+]

Untitled, from "Mono Aquirax" [+]

Sailor 21 Gold Fountain Pen, 1968 [+]

"Aquirax Uno Collection" Exhibition Poster, 1968 [+]

Mini Books, 1967 [+]

The images here (and more like them) are from the website of Tara Sinn, who has also posted a 2007 interview with Uno.

A selection of Uno's original posters can also viewed at Kawasaki City Museum as part of the "Graphic Design in the 60s and 70s" exhibit that runs until October 4 (free).

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