Nobody talks about this one. That needs to stop. Three kids and three giant robots saving the galaxy sounds like a formula you've seen a hundred times, but this 1983 Korean film moves with a confidence and visual invention that makes it feel like it invented the formula instead. The mecha design has weight and personality, these aren't generic metal suits, they're characters in themselves. The action choreography understands that giant robots should feel like they have mass and momentum, not zip around like they weigh nothing. Watch it if you want to see where a lot of anime's DNA actually came from, before the genre calcified into its own clichés.

Three kids take on the job of saving the galaxy, and they do it at the controls of giant robots. Made in Korea in 1983, this animated feature is a science fiction action story built around mecha, with the young heroes and their machines standing between the galaxy and whatever threatens it.