5 replies to this topic

[Anjian]

Mazinger Z kicked off the hero in a giant robot genre in Japan 45 years ago, and that event is now to be celebrated with a movie. For all the big robots that came and went, Mazinger Z remains among the most bad ***. Its not clear if the movie is live action or animated.

http://corp.toei-ani...tail.php?id=558

http://www.animenews...versary/.111497

Can't beat the premise of trying achieving global domination by building a bigger, badder robot one after another until you succeed. That's where the super robot comes to stop this from succeeding.

Anything from Gundam to Evangelion to Voltron to the Transformers, started when Mazinger Z became a mega hit in Japanese TV back in 1972.



After 92 episodes, Mazinger Z had sequels, such as Great Mazinga, UFO Grandizer, and Mazinkaiser. Go Nagai had other robot series, such as Getta Robot and Steel Jeeg, and also other non robot series, such as Devil Man and Cutey Honey.

[Lily from animove]

after the success of Pacific Rim, that genre could now be considered movieworthy and be more considered for real movies..

[Akhri Mala]

Always loved Mazinger - I watched when it was broadcast in the US in the 80s as Tranzor Z.

[Anjian]

Mazinger Z isn't the first giant robot in Japanese TV. The first was Tetsuojin Nijuhachi, or Iron Man 28, better known elsewhere as Gigantor. Gigantor was a success in a way it helped establish the Japanese anime industry --- talking about the 1950s to 60s here.



Gigantor though isn't manned though. Its controlled remotely like we do with a drone. It has no weapons. Its only made with a super hard something, and smashes its opponents in head long attacks with its fists, not unlike Superman. Thus it differs considerably from the anime mecha of today.

Mazinger Z is the protoype for anime mecha, and you might even say, as the granddaddy of all mecha.

The most important definition is that the mecha is manned and piloted. Thus there is a synergy between man and mecha, which you don't get with remote control, and the mecha becomes an extension of the hero. By being an extension, the hero also suffers (sometimes horribly) if the mecha is damaged, as if the pain the mecha feels is transferred to the pilot. That also makes for dramatic effect on screen.

Unlike Gigantor, Mazinger Z has OP weapons which is also another characteristic of the super mecha.

Mazinger Z, or for that matter, practically much of Go Nagai's mecha and other anime series (Devil Man and Cutey Honey for exampel) differs from other mecha series even today, is that its also more visceral. Somehow, despite all the death shown in mecha anime throughout the years, you don't want combat to be too physical. Hence you do a lot more shooting and blowing up, aka Gundam, Macross etc,.

But in Mazinger Z and other Go Nagai mecha, they can rip off arms and smash an opponent's head with it. Or you take a smaller robot and smash that robot into another robot's head. Or swing them around and smash them into a mountain. Giant drills are another, good for ripping opponents open.



In addition to rocket punch blowing holes through opponents --- another signature weapon of the Go Nagai mech --- there are axes and heavy swords, as well as electrocution. Another favorite weapon of Go Nagai is the boomerang that slices opponents in half.



Cutting boomerang also shows up in Go Nagai's Cutey Honey series.



The one thing you don't see in a Go Nagai robot is guns. Machine guns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, and all sorts of other puny stuff that tends to sanitize violence. No, when it comes to destroying the enemy robot, it must be done with 'feeling', like a kick through the head, a punch, a drill through the torso or an axe through the head.

Steel Jeeg. This one has Elvis as its pilot.


UFO Grandizer


Compared to these, the Transformers look pretty tame. All the kids in Japan and Asia gets to watch these in the mornings and afternoons. Heck when the competition are all the American cartoon stuff --- Batman, Superman, Marvel comics, GI Joe, Scooby Doo, these robots blew away everything. Disney? Forget it.

Go Nagai's creations also has a feeling of Gothic and Heavy Metal that you rarely see in an mecha series, particularly from Sunrise, which had dominated the genre and filled it with J-Pop. Villains are hideous mad scientists gone extra mad, creating one monstrous giant robot after another. There is no mistaking they are absolutely and unashamedly evil, not some bishounen having emo issues.

[Lily from animove]

Anjian, on 06 February 2017 - 11:12 PM, said:

loads of stuff that smells like anime mecha nerdism knowledge

wow

the only reason why I know what Mazinger Z is, is a coversong from Lily



I watched tons of cartoons in the 90's but I am not sure if those ones were shown in germany.

Edited by Lily from animove, 07 February 2017 - 02:52 AM.

[Anjian]

I hope you did not miss the great anime from the '60s, '70s and the '80s. It was a great time. Anime exploded into the world, and they were magical.

And the singers were phenomenal.

Horie Mitsuko