Koji can swim in the sky
He can fly beneath the sea
In his robot-man
Mazinger Z!
Considered to be one of the granddaddies of the
Super Robot genre,
Mazinger Z is the first entry of the
Mazinger trilogy.
Mazinger Z tells the story of young
Hot Blooded Idiot Hero Kouji Kabuto, grandson of a genius professor named Juuzou Kabuto. The Professor secretly built a
Humongous Mecha named Mazinger Z, to battle the forces of evil - led by his rival gone
mad, Dr. Hell. Unfortunately, Juuzou gets assassinated quickly, but he still manages to inform Kouji about his creation. The Professor tells him to take over, but warns him that he could become "a God or a Devil" with its power.
Along with his brother Shiro, Kouji takes Mazinger, reaches the Photoatomic Research Institute directed by Juuzou's former right hand man Dr. Gennosuke Yumi, who practically adopts the boy. Eventually he's pitted in a continuous battle against Dr. Hell, presented in a good ol'
Monster Of The Week fashion.
Following the success of
Super Robot Wars, and the Mazinger Z upgrade Mazinkaiser created for the series, this anime received a retelling as an OVA series,
Mazinkaiser, which introduces said mecha into the Mazinger canon. The OVA also featured the characters from the second of the trilogy,
Great Mazinger.
Made by
Go Nagai, who would later inspire the creation of ANOTHER granddaddy of
Super Robot anime:
Getter Robo.
In the US,
Mazinger Z was aired under the title
Tranzor Z as a response to the popularity of
Voltron. It was later given a shorter, but more faithful dub run commissioned by Toei.
A new series,
Shin Mazinger Impact! Z Chapter, began airing in April 2009.
This series features examples of:
- Action Girl (Sayaka was among the first action-geared ladies in Japanese anime)
- All Your Base Are Belong To Us (The Institute is a preferred attack target)
- Armor Piercing Slap (Koji, being a tactless Idiot Hero, finds himself in the receiving end of these rather often)
- Badass Biker (Kouji)
- Battle Couple (Sayaka and Kouji, at their best)
- Biker Babe (Sayaka)
- Big Eater (Kouji and Boss)
- Boobs Of Steel (Aphrodite A's "Oppai Missiles".)
- Bragging Theme Tune
- Calling Your Attacks (And HOW! Heck, arguably, Kouji MADE the trope)
- Canon Immigrant (Mazinkaizer, from SRW.)
- Chest Blaster ("Breasto Fire!")
- Clingy Jealous Girl (Sayaka, sometimes. The most egregious example, though, is "Minerva X", a Sentient Mecha that loves Mazinger Z and is openly jealous of Sayaka's Aphrodite A)
- Cross Over (With the Devilman anime in a movie.)
- Distaff Counterpart ("Aphrodite A" and "Diana A".)
- Delinquents (The Moral Guardians of the era didn't like Kouji, because he skipped school and used rough language)
- Enemy Civil War (Brocken and Ashura openly hate each other and compete for Dr. Hell's approval)
- Ensemble Dark Horse (Go Nagai originally made this simply to blow off steam while writing the horribly depressing Devilman manga and directing the anime. Z blew Devilman out of the water in terms of popularity.)
- Enthusiasm Versus Stoicism
- Everythings Better With Spinning (The Big Swing Rocket Punch, one of Mazinger's most infamous Finishing Moves, is simply Kouji having Mazinger spin its arms around, to build up major momentum, before launching its fists. It's several times more powerful than the normal Rocket Punch.)
- Eye Beams ("Koushiryoku Beeeeeeeeeam!")
- Excited Episode Title (All of them, but the most memorable has to be Kouji Kabuto Dies In Lava! Guess what DOESN'T happen in that episode. That one was so infamous that it was spoofed in the Gekiganger 3 OVA.)
- Fem Bot (Aphrodite A, Diana A, Minerva X. Mazinkaiser ditched the latter two and gave Sayaka her own version of Great Mazinger's Fem Bot, Venus A.)
- Germans Love David Hasselhoff (The Spanish loved it so much that they built a statue. No really
. To be fair, it was going to be a part of an amusement park that was never built, but still...)
- Giving Someone The Pointer Finger (Kouji loves doing this)
- Gratuitous English (The Toei dub has theme songs sung entirely in English by famed anime singer Isao Sasaki.)
- Though not nearly as gratuitous as the version Ichiro Mizuki did, which was pretty much nonsensical.
- Gonk (Boss)
- Heroic BSOD (Sayaka, after Aphrodite A is destroyed. She even almost drowns herself in a lake when she thinks she's hearing Aphrodite calling out to her from there)
- Heroic Sacrifice (... Just one too many. Specially in the Mazinkaiser movie. Subverted brilliantly by Boss at an early stage - self-destructs the Boss Borot, but shows up a short while later asking "Why do I have to die for you, Kouji!?")
- Honey He's Like In A Coma (Sayaka kissing a comatose Koji at some point)
- Hot Blooded (Koji is the posterboy for this)
- Idiot Hero (... And for this, too)
- JAM Project (Both openings and endings to the Mazinkaiser OVA and movie, and the movie insert song... and the band's original founder, Ichirou Mizuki, sang the original Mazinger Z opening, too)
- Latex Space Suit (The pilot suits for both male and female characters)
- Mad Scientist (Dr. Hell. In some versions, Dr. Juzo Kabuto as well)
- Manly Tears (Kouji has often cried these)
- Marth Debuted In Smash Bros (Mazinger was beaten in export to France by UFO Robo Grendizer, and since Kouji appears in that show as well, when Mazinger came over it was seen as a cheap imitation. Grendizer also technically beat Mazinger to American shores but due to name changes and the like nobody really noticed until years later.
- Meaningful Name (Professor Kabuto describes the titular mecha as being powerful enough to make its pilot a devil - "Ma" in Japanese - or a god - "Shin". This is also the first line in Mazinkaiser's first theme song.)
- Also, "Kabuto" means "helmet" in Japanese, alluding to the way Koji activates Mazinger by landing his Jet Pilder on it's head like, you guessed it, a helmet.
- Monster Of The Week (All the time)
- Ms Fanservice (The busty yet brainy twins Lori and Loru, from Mazinkaiser. Sayaka also wasn't free of this; just watch the 4th OAV.)
- Names To Run Away From Really Fast (Dr. Hell. Enough said)
- No Indoor Voice (Seems to be a pre-requisite of any Hot Blooded, and Kouji isn't the exception)
- Obviously Evil During his time overseeing a research team, despite his blue skin and "somewhat telling name", the scientists didn't seem to suspect Dr. Hell might just be evil.
- Power Crystal
- The Professor (Sayaka's father, Dr. Gennosuke Yumi. Also the trio composed of Sewashi, Nozori and Morimori. Dr. Kabuto is sometimes this, overlaping with Mad Scientist in the manga and Mazinkaiser.)
- Psycho Supporter (Both Ashura and Brocken)
- Rocket Punch (Trope Namer ("Roketto Paaaanchi!"))
- Sacrificial Lamb ( "MORIMORI-HAKASEEEEEEEEE!!!!")
- Show Some Leg (The 4th Mazinkaiser OAV, as mentioned)
- Slap Slap Kiss (Koji and Sayaka. Sometimes literally.)
- Stay In The Kitchen (A good part of the Slap Slap Kiss comes from Koji saying this and Sayaka flipping the middle finger at him. Or better said, giving him an Armor Piercing Slap.)
- Super Prototype: averted. Mazinger Z was lacking a lot of its special features at first and regularly had to be upgraded and re-outfitted with new equipment. As it turns out, the real Super Prototype is MazinKaiser...
- Averted throughout the OVA, though. Shin Great Mazinger and Mazinkaiser are explicitly stated to be the finished models, they're predecessors are the prototypes.
- Super Robot (May not have started, but certainly defined the genre)
- Super Robot Wars: All of them. The only ones that may technically not count are the ones that do or will use the reimaginings Mazinkaiser or Shin Mazinger.
- Tagalong Kid (Shirou)
- Takahashi Couple (Koji and Sayaka did this even before Ranma and Akane)
- Tear Jerker (Several scenes in the Mazinkaiser movie, specially the horrendous deaths of Lori and Loru. And before that, either the Minerva X episode, Sayaka's guilt after Koji almost dies, the episode with Robot Girl Lorelei, Dr. Morimori's death (in ANY media), and/or Sayaka and Koji's goodbye scene in hte first Mazinger movie)
- The Dog Shot First Inverted. In the Mazinkaiser OVA, Doctor Hell dies because his base exploded while he was trying to escape. When Go Nagai penned the Mazinkaiser manga, Kouji shoots him in an abrupt, albeit iconic and stylized, sequence.
- Those Wacky Nazis (Count Brocken and his Mooks.)
- Trope Codifier (When people talk about any Super Robot, this is what they inevitably measure it against)
- Tsundere (Sayaka, one of the first anime lead girls to have these qualities. Her type varies: she's a Type A in the original TV series, but switches to Type B in the manga and in Mazinkaiser.)
- You Have Failed Me (amazingly averted with Dr. Hell, who admittedly can grow frustrated at the failings of his subordinates and punish them, but never kills anyone for trying their hardest and failing. Worst he did in the Mazinkaiser OVAs when Baron Ashura failed one too many times was throw him in a jail, and that was partly because Ashura had gone over his head. And even then, when he saw how determined Ashura was to make it up to him, Dr. Hell let him go anyways.)
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