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To fight the world's greatest enemy, you need the world's greatest hero.

"It's not about the killing. It's about...family."

Manborg is a 2011 film from Astron6. It follows the story of an unnamed soldier of the Hell Wars, fought and eventually lost by humanity against the infernal forces of Count Draculon. Shot dead after vowing bloody revenge, he is dragged off the battlefield by an unseen party and resurrected with Hell's best robo-technology, turning him into Manborg, humanity's only hope against the demons. With his human allies: Justice, Mina, and #1 Man (who is voiced by KYLE HEBERT), he must confront Count Draculon and end his reign of terror.

Also, the film was made on a budget of 1000 Canadian dollars.

Unlike certain other examples such as The Final Sacrifice, Manborg is well-aware of its limitations and relies on being intentionally terrible in just the right ways. In addition to its intentional failures, it's also full of non-meta humor, to the point that its status as an Affectionate Parody of low-budget sci-fi action movies is obvious.

It can be viewed on demand on Youtube, and the official trailer is here.


Manborg provides examples of:

  • Abhorrent Admirer: Mina would rather die than go out with the Baron.
  • All Love Is Unrequited: #1 Man and the Baron have crushes on Mina, Shadow Mega seems to have some jealousy regarding the Baron's infatuation for Mina, and Mina just...isn't interested.
  • The Atoner: #1 Man was forced to train Hell's armies and had to abandon Justice and Mina to escape, and Dr. Scorpius created Manborg to atone for his mistake of opening the gateway to Hell in the first place.
  • Bare-Fisted Monk: #1 Man is clearly a martial artist in the Eastern style.
  • Big Bad: Count Draculon
  • Blade Below the Shoulder: Manborg has a katana stored in his right arm, which he can partly extend into a sort of punch dagger or fully eject and wield in his hands.
  • Blade Enthusiast: Mina's choice weapons are knives, both thrown and swung.
  • Bolivian Army Ending: Count Draculon is dead, but the forces of Hell are still there. Justice, Mina, and #1 Man still have a war to win. It boarders on Downer Ending after the Wham Line.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: All of the villains except for Dr. Scorpius.
  • The Chosen One: #1 Man thinks Manborg is this and Dr. Scorpius agrees.
  • Crapsack World: The Legions of Hell have taken over the Earth, and enslaved humanity. Most of the human race live in abject poverty, and human experimentation and death games are a common occurrence. Also, there's no Heaven.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Downplayed with Manborg. While he does seem more out of it than he did before, he's more or less the same guy.
  • Delinquents: Justice is pretty much a punk...with an Australian accent.
  • Devil, but No God: Near the end of the film Manborg's brother shows up as a ghost to reveal that heaven doesn't exist.
  • Downer Ending: Manborg kills Count Draculon, but he manages to gravely wound Mina before he dies. Manborg is forced to sacrifice his own life support to stop her from dying, only to learn Heaven doesn't exist as he dies. The rest of our heroes are then surrounded by Draculon's surviving henchmen, and prepare to die fighting.
  • The Dragon: The Baron is capable of matching #1 Man in melee combat.
  • Evil Counterpart: Shadow Mega, being a super-soldier created from infernal experimentation on a human, is one to Manborg. Interestingly, he never has a climactic fight with her. Instead, he fights Count Draculon and she fights her friend, Mina.
  • Evil Cripple: Dr. Scorpius isn't evil, though he was forced to work for Count Draculon.
  • Evil Former Friend: Shadow Mega, though there doesn't seem to be anything of her old self left.
  • Evil Is Visceral: Unlike Manborg, Shadow Mega's modifications turn her into a monstrous-looking demon. Interestingly, they're both examples of infernal science.
  • Eye Scream: The Baron is blind. #1 Man gouged his eyes out during his escape.
  • The Foreign Subtitle: In Germany, it's Manborg: Savior of the Future.
  • For Science!: Dr. Scorpius gives this as his motivation for opening the gate to Hell in the first place.
  • Gun Kata: Justice's favored fighting style.
  • The Hero Dies: Manborg gives up his life support to save Mina's life.
  • Hong Kong Dub: #1 Man's dialogue is dubbed this way...by KYLE HEBERT.
  • How Do I Shot Web?: Manborg has noticeable trouble using his built-in weapons at first, though he improves quickly.
  • Knight Templar Big Brother: Justice is willing to kill Manborg for looking at Mina.
  • Lethal Chef: Only in Justice's hands can boxed mac and cheese be explosive.
  • Line-of-Sight Name: How Manborg gets his name. He first looks at his human hand, then at his robotic hand.
  • Meaningful Echo: The page quote was initially said by Manborg's brother, which Manborg later quotes to Dr. Scorpius's holographic projection. He also initially misunderstands Justice's telling him to hitch-hike (or tries to make a joke of it that falls flat), but later gives Justice a thumbs-up to reassure him that he'll be okay.
  • Mighty Glacier: Manborg is strong enough to fight Count Draculon, tough enough to withstand Count Draculon, and fast enough to...probably be unable to dodge a parked hoverbike (owned by Count Draculon).
  • Not So Harmless: Sure, the Baron's a goofy fumblethumbs when it comes to romantic overtures, but he's able to fight #1 Man by himself and was the one who originally beat #1 Man and forced him to train Hell's armies.
  • One Dialogue, Three Conversations: Manborg talks to two people (the Baron and Dr. Scorpius), both face to face, one after the other...and the three of them each seem to have one side of entirely different conversations.
  • Only Sane Woman: Mina is clearly the only one with a decent amount of sense in her head.
  • The Power of Love: To quote an exchange between the Baron and #1 Man:
    The Baron: What pathetic human desire made you throw it all away? It wasn't love, was it?
    #1 Man: Yes.
    The Baron: (looks down somewhat dejectedly) Oh.
  • Portmantitle: "Man"+"Cyborg."
  • Protagonist Title
  • Reforged into a Minion: Shadow-mega used to be Mina's friend.
  • Rule of Funny: Most of the movie.
  • The Sociopath: Count Draculon commander of The Legions of Hell on Earth. He's a brutal conqueror who is willing to slaughter entire platoons himself and subject humans to forced experimentation.
  • Speed Stripes: Mina and #1 Man are fast enough to get these on a regular basis.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Downplayed with the Baron. For someone as cruel and villainous as he is, the worst he gets with Mina is being completely oblivious to the fact that she'd rather die than date him, and he never threatens her in any way.
  • Training Montage: Justice, Manborg, and #1 Man go through one near the end...in which they do pretty much everything they already knew how to do well and don't get noticeably better at any of it. The only exception is Manborg, who does at least learn how to use his sword.
  • Used Future: Almost everything is grungy and dilapidated after Hell takes over.
  • Villains Out Shopping: The Baron gets flustered whenever speaking to Mina.
  • Wham Line: In the end scene, while Manborg is dying from his wounds, he sees a vision of his brother.
    Manborg's Brother: Hey, bro, it's me, your brother. Remember? I died at the beginning. I just wanted to let you know that I think you did great out there.
    Manborg: (smiling)
    Manborg's Brother: There is no heaven.
    Manborg: (smile fades) No...heaven...?!
  • What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: The Baron clearly has no understanding of human emotions, even though he seems to possess some of them.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Justice is ludicrously afraid...of poor people.
    Justice: That guy's house is made out of newspaper! That means he's p-poor!
    ...
    Justice: I think that guy's got garbage on his head! Oy, mate, take that garbage off your head...he can't even hear a word I'm sayin'...
  • World's Strongest Man: #1 Man is capable of punching demon heads clean off their shoulders!

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