The Holy Trinity of Leiji Matsumoto (Star Blazers), Tetsuo Yoshida (Battle of the Planets), and Go Nagai (Tranzor-Z, Grandizer, Gaiking) were responsible for for me growing up immersed in anime in late 70s through early 80s.
I was saddened that I didn’t get to see any Space Pirate Captain Harlock or Brave Raideen until many years later.
One reason why these cartoons often failed at “the universe has no up” is because it is much easier to draw spaceships parallel to each other and pan over them than it is to draw them changing in size as they go towards and away from the camera, although this too was done, albeit sparingly, and at minimal framerates. They often relied upon some wonky false perspective of having ships at different angles, but moving linearly in relation to the camera.
