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On October 19, 2026, Tatsunoko Production kicked off its “65th Anniversary Year” leading up to the studio’s 65th anniversary. The actual 65th anniversary of its founding falls on October 19, 2027, and the company is designating the two years starting today as its commemorative period.
Starting the party a full year early is the first interesting thing here. We tend to assume an anniversary is something you set off on the day itself, but Tatsunoko has declared that it will spend two straight years saying thank you. The fact that a pile of its own titles hit milestones in 2027 feeds into that decision too.
Sure enough, 2027 marks 60 years since Mach GoGoGo (known in the U.S. as Speed Racer) first aired, 55 years for Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, 50 years for Time Bokan Series: Yatterman, and 35 years for Tekkaman Blade. The company’s anniversary and its shows’ anniversaries are arriving in one big bundle.
For my generation, Gatchaman and Yatterman were direct hits, and I remember being glued to Tekkaman Blade when it originally aired. Learning that was 35 years ago made me a little dizzy. Let’s go through what was officially announced and the full lineup of titles with anniversaries in 2027.
What is the 65th Anniversary Year? Reading the period and the intent from the official announcement
It’s an initiative that frames the two years from October 19, 2026, as a commemorative period and turns them into two years of thanking the people who have supported Tatsunoko Production.
Tatsunoko Production Co., Ltd. will celebrate the 65th anniversary of its founding on October 19, 2027. To mark this, we are designating the two years beginning today as our “65th Anniversary Year,” and we will spend those two years expressing our gratitude to everyone who has supported Tatsunoko Production.
Source:Tatsunoko Production official site
Alongside that, the company pledges to deliver the very best entertainment to the children living today, and to the adults who were once children. Tatsunoko Production was founded in 1962, and its slogan is “Dreams for the children of the world.” Still holding that line 64 years later is, honestly, impressive.
The phrase “the adults who were once children” is doing real work. The audience that watched Tatsunoko’s shows live now spans people in their 50s through their 70s, with the crowd that came in via reruns and streaming layered on top. I read the two-year window as a design meant to reach that wide span of viewers in sequence.
Which titles hit anniversaries in 2027? All 12 in one list
2027 isn’t just the company’s 65th; it’s a year where milestones for past productions pile up. From 60th anniversaries down to 35th, 12 titles in total have anniversaries.
| Milestone | Titles |
|---|---|
| 60th | Mach GoGoGo, Oraa Guzura Dado |
| 55th | Kashi no Ki Mokku, Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, Kaiketsu Tamagon |
| 50th | Time Bokan Series: Yatterman, Ippatsu Kanta-kun, Fusen Shojo Temple-chan |
| 45th | Time Bokan Series: Gyakuten Ippatsuman |
| 40th | Akai Kodan Zillion |
| 35th | Tekkaman Blade |
Looking down that list, I let out a low whistle. Mach GoGoGo’s 60th is a card you can play worldwide once you factor in how popular Speed Racer is overseas, and Gatchaman’s 55th is a flagship that has been reinterpreted over and over, live-action and reboots included. As for Yatterman’s 50th, given how commercially strong a character Doronjo is, it could easily become the center of the merchandise push.
Personally, the one I’m most curious about is the 40th anniversary of Akai Kodan Zillion. It aired in 1987, an oddball built around a light gun as part of a tie-in with Sega, and it’s one of the Tatsunoko titles that rarely gets dusted off. As a Sega guy, I’d love to see them pick this one up in its 40th year.
That said, as of October 2026 there has been no official announcement about what will actually happen with any given title. All we have so far is the list of anniversaries.
What about commemorative merchandise and collaborations? A call for partner companies, too
In step with the 65th Anniversary Year, Tatsunoko Production is soliciting partner companies for commemorative merchandise, collaborations with stores and venues, and various promotional projects.
Putting that call out at the same time is a practical move I like. If you try to run an anniversary program entirely in-house, the scale is capped from the start, but opening merchandising and retail tie-ins to outside partners makes the ceiling unreadable. Which also means, at this point, nobody knows how far any of this will spread.
Tatsunoko Production has done this before, with a 55th anniversary best-songs collection and a Gatchaman collaboration with Victorinox Japan among its past product tie-ins with outside companies. With that track record, the number of projects that end up riding this two-year window should be considerable.
To keep up with the news, three channels will cover it: the NEWS section of the official site, the official X account (@tatsunoko_pro), and the Tatsunoko Channel on YouTube.
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Summary: October 19, 2027, is the 65th anniversary, and the commemorative period starts today
On October 19, 2026, Tatsunoko Production launched its “65th Anniversary Year” leading up to the studio’s 65th anniversary. That anniversary falls on October 19, 2027, and the two years starting today are designated as a commemorative period for thanking the people who have supported the studio. Tatsunoko Production was founded in 1962, and its slogan is “Dreams for the children of the world.”
The titles with anniversaries in 2027 are: Mach GoGoGo and Oraa Guzura Dado at 60; Kashi no Ki Mokku, Science Ninja Team Gatchaman and Kaiketsu Tamagon at 55; Time Bokan Series: Yatterman, Ippatsu Kanta-kun and Fusen Shojo Temple-chan at 50; Time Bokan Series: Gyakuten Ippatsuman at 45; Akai Kodan Zillion at 40; and Tekkaman Blade at 35 — 12 in all. The studio has also announced its call for partner companies for commemorative merchandise, store and venue collaborations, and promotional projects.
Starting a year ahead of the anniversary and turning two years into the commemorative period is, I think, the correct call. If 12 titles hit milestones in 2027, throwing all of it at a single day would be more than anyone could digest. Putting out the partner-company call first is presumably meant to buy lead time for merchandising and retail tie-ins. The one unsatisfying part is that no concrete projects have surfaced yet — though flipped around, that means there’s real fun in not knowing what the next two years will produce.
The fact that Tekkaman Blade is turning 35 knocked the wind out of me. …Well, the shows have aged exactly as much as I have.
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