From Left to Right: Hikaru, Maria, Jun and Sayaka
Mazinger Angels (マジンガーエンジェル, Majinga Enjeru) is a
Humongous Mecha manga series. It is both a
Crossover of the
Mazinger series and a spoof of
Charlie's Angels. Written by
Go Nagai and drawn by
Akihiko Niina, it was originally published in Kodansha's Magazine Z, starting in 26 June 2004 (#2004-08) and ending in 25 November 2006 (#2007-01). It was compiled in four tankōbon. A sequel was released in 26 December 2007 in Magazine Z as well, called
Mazinger Angels Z (マジンガーエンジェルZ), which features the original designs for Mazinger Z and Grendizer, called Energer Z and Gattaiger, as well as Kikunosuke Abashiri from
Abashiri Ikka. It was compiled in two tankōbon.
Twenty Minutes In The Future, technology is advanced enough to fabricate humanoid robots. Most of them are relatively tiny and used for mundane tasks like security service, but some of them are used to commit crimes. Sayaka Yumi (from
Mazinger Z), Jun Hono (from
Great Mazinger), Hikaru Makiba and Maria Grace Fleed (from
UFO Robo Grendizer) are members of a secret organization / private investigation agency investigates and solves crimes related with mechas and cyborgs. Each one of them pilots a
Humongous Mecha to fight back the giant robots they run into during their cases: Aphrodite-A, Venus-A, Diana-A and Minerva-X. Their identities are kept secret and the general population only knows their team's name: the Mazinger Angels.
As they solve case after case, Sayaka and her team start suspecting most of them are linked: someone is backing several criminals, psychopaths and miscreants with mechas for furthering some sinister purpose. A person perfectly willing destroying whoever stands in his way. And they are standing in his way...
Mazinger Angels is noteworthy because the cast is exclusively formed by the female main characters of the Mazinger series. They were several of the first
Action Girl in anime, but several storylines in the original series involved scenarios where
The Hero had to
save or
rescue the
Action Girl to show how
Badass he is. Here they never show up, so the female leads are free to show their badassery without getting dragged down with
Faux Action Girl or
Distressed Damsel scenarios or being
Overshadowed by Awesome.
This series also highlights the sex appeal of both the characters and the mechas, sometimes similarly to the way
Agent Aika's shows the female characters.
Most recently, two original soundtracks were released as part of the series. They contain several new original melodies for the series, including a TV-sized main theme of Mazinger Angels, as well as several musical arrangements of melodies from several series of
Go Nagai, including all the Mazinger related series and several other anime TV series such as
Devilman and
Dororon Enma Kun.
- A-Cup Angst: Sayaka and Hikaru find themselves wanting compared with Jun. In one scene, they are having a shower, and Jun gets nervous because they are staring at her very focusedly. Then they look over themselves and sigh in resignation.
- Not that they're exactly lacking (and Sayaka more than makes up for it in Z), as the picture above shows. It's just that Jun is, well, Jun.
- Accidental Pervert: SOMETIMES it is accidental. Sayaka and her team do not appreciate it one or other way.
- Action Girl: ALL of them.
- Faux Action Girl: Averted. Sayaka, Jun, Hikaru, Maria, Honey are some of the earliest Action Girls in anime, but back in the seventies they were often placed in situations where they needed to be rescued or saved. This does not happen here.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Boss and his boys are a whole lot less Gonk than normal. As is detective Ankokuji, who actually gets promoted to a possible love interest for Jun.
- Alien Invasion: By the Vegan Empire in Mazinger Angels Z.
- Angels Pose: Sayaka, Jun and Hikaru make it on the very first page
. - Badass Biker: Sayaka, Jun and Hikaru. Hikaru also doubles as Badass horse Rider.
- Bifauxnen: Kinnosuke, as long as you don't look below her shoulders...
- Big Bad: Dr. Hell in the first series, the Vegan Empire in the sequel.
- Big Damn Heroes: Several of them. The first one was performed by Daisuke, Hikaru's pet to save Hikaru and Maria.
- Blondes are Evil: Marquiss Janus. The Gamia triplets would also count, but they are robots, so they are only doing what they are said to.
- Subverted with Honey Kisaragi. She is a heroine in her own right.
- Brainy Brunette: Hikaru.
- Breath Weapon: Mechanical Beast Gusios Beta III vomits a stream of highly-corrosive acid is able to melt metal. Iron-Z has the traditional Mazinger-Z Rust Hurricane.
- Brick Joke: Honey shows up to a costume party dressed as Cutey Honey. In the finale, it turns out Cutie Honey is her mech.
- Broad Strokes: Z's connection with the original Mazinger Angels.
- Broken Bird: When Hikaru found Maria, she was unable trust anybody due to past experiences. And this was before her dog got accidentally killed and she believed her only friend was one of the culprits. And this before she got her memories back and remembered where she was from and what had happened to her home.
- But Not Too Black: Jun hono is half-Asian, half-black. She combines this with...
- Professor Nonaka is also half-black.
- But Not Too Foreign: Her father was a black man.
- Calling Your Attacks: Being a Mazinger show, of course the main characters do this the whole time.
- Chest Blaster: Minerva-X's Breast Fire and Aphrodite A's Heart Breast Fire. Venus and Diana also have an attack similar to the Rust Hurricane, but with variable temperature rather than corrosion.
- Combining Mecha: Energer-Z combines with its Mid-Season Upgrade to form a spaceship.
- Cool Down Hug: Maria was completely berserker, refusing listening to the girls until Maria approached her and hugged her.
- Crossover: This manga crosses over three Mazinger series.
- Distressed Damsel: Usually averted.
- Demoted to Extra: Hikaru in Z is pretty much a background Mythology Gag.
- Epic Flail: Aphrodite-A has Breast Maces.
- Even the Girls Want Her: Kinnosuke, oh so very much. One girl even flat-out states It'd be okay if it were her.
- The Faceless: Their boss is never seen and their name is never revealed.
- Fanservice: Brought to ridiculous extremes.
- Fem Bot: Aphrodite-A, Diana-A, Venus-A, Minerva-X.
- Five Woman Band:
- Giant Equals Invincible: A giant robot only can be fought with another giant robot.
- Giant Robot Hands Save Lives: Several times.
- Gender Flip: Take your ordinary Crossover mixing together most of Go Nagai Humongous Mecha series (Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger, UFO Robo Grendizer, Getter Robo). Now removes the male characters and swap the titular mechas with the Fem Bots that show up in those series.
- Go Nagai
- Heroines Prefer Swords: Aphrodite, Diana and Venus are equiped with one sword -the Mazinger blade-, sheathed into their shins.
- Hot Blooded: It is a Go Nagai manga. Even if Kouji, Tetsuya, Duke... are missing, the girls more than make up for it.
- The author also counts. In the afterwords of a volume she declared she PUT HER SOUL in her work.
- Hot Blooded Sideburns: Again, this a manga of the former Trope Namer.
- Hot Springs Episode
- Humans Are Bastards: Maria's opinion until Hikaru befriended her.
- Humongous Mecha
- Kid Hero: The four leads are teenagers and still attend high school.
- Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: Mazinger Angels' mechas' main weapons are missiles.
- The Kid with the Remote Control: Maria can control Minerva-X telepathically, but she needs using a helmet so the strain does not harm her brain.
- Latex Space Suit: Mazinger Angels' pilot suits.
- Lovely Angels: The entire team.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Hell.
- Made of Indestructium: Of course, all Fem Bots are made of Alloy-Z, but during the Hot Springs Episode, Aphrodite-A got reinforced with a special alloy to endure Gusios Beta III's acid weapon.
- Man Behind the Man: In the first chapter, the Mazinger Angels confront a couple of thieves (the two persons Baron Ashura was before dying and being spliced together). Genre Savvy Sayaka declares there are no way two petty thieves such like them could have got the resources for that operation, and bluntly interrogates them about their backer.
- Mascot Mook: Garada K7 and Doublas M2 make still another appearance in this series. The later one gets upgraded to King Doublas.
- The first Saucer Beast fought by Duke Fleed in UFO Robo Grendizer also appears in first chapter of Mazinger Angels Z.
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover: In addition to the obvious stuff from the main three Mazinger series, Mazinger Angels also features characters and elements from such Go Nagai series as Cutey Honey, Devilman, Dororon Enma Kun, Kekko Kamen, Iron Muscle, Garla, God Mazinger, Kotetsu Jeeg...
- Mecha Show
- Meganekko: Hikaru wears glasses in tis incarnation.
- Miss Fanservice: Jun Hono was the main provider of fanservice in the first part. enemies had a tendence to shred her clothers. In Mazinger Angels Z, that role falls in Kikunosuke.
- Not As You Know Them: The villains of the original series show up, but this time they are more normal-looking instead of downright bizarre or creepy: Baron Ashura are two people (right like he/she was originally before Dr. Hell pulled a Reforged into a Minion stunt), Count Brocken's head and body are not split, Archduke Gorgon is a man with a tiger pet, Marquiss Janus has not two faces and she is the aging owner of a host club instead of a witch...
- Ojou Ringlets: Maria sports them, overlapping with Hot Blooded Sideburns.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Averted, for once. Without their male counterparts overshadowing them, the heroines of Mazingerverse can at last prove how badass and awesome they are.
- Panty Shot: Several times.
- Pervert Revenge Mode: Aim your eyes or hands where they do NOT belong, and you will be kicked. Hard.
- The Professor: Professor Nonaka is the designer and builder of the Humongous Mecha. In one scene you can see Kenzo Kabuto from Great Mazinger and Professor Nossori from Mazinger Z, too.
- Ridiculously Human Robot: The Gamia triplets.
- Robeast: Dr. Hell's Mechanical Beasts (Kikaijuu) and Empire Vega's Saucer Beasts.
- Rocket Punch: Have we mentioned this is a Mazinger series?
- Shout Out: There are so many shout-outs to other Go Nagai works that it has its own page. See -and add- examples there.
- Scooby-Doo Hoax: Brocken's plot to keep nosy interlopers away as he mined the mountain in the Hot Springs Episode.
- Stalker with a Crush: Sayaka has one: Naojiro. Boss, Nuke and Mucha does not like that he bothers their friend, but they are unable to stop him. Fortunately, she does need NO bodyguard (and so he was informed by Sayaka as she beat him).
- Super Mode: Minerva-X's Flyin Mode.
- Super Robot
- Super Robot Genre
- Training from Hell: A storyline involved the girls undergoing special -and specially hard- training.
- Thematic Rogues Gallery: The Mazinger Angels use Humongous Mecha to fight Robeast.
- Those Wacky Nazis: Count Brocken was a former Nazi officer in the original series. Here he owns a resorts chain named "The Third Reich". how subtle.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Maria learns her Fleedian heritage in the sequel.
- Torpedo Tits: All Fem Bots -minus Minerva- have regular Torpedo Tits or combine their original Oppai Missiles with the Rocket Punch variant used by the Humongous Mecha from their respective series: Sayaka's Aphrodite A combines it with Mazinger's "Iron Cutter", Jun's Venus A combines it with Great Mazinger's "Drill Pressure Punch" and Hikaru's Diana A combines it with Grendizer's "Screw Crusher Punch".
- The series goes even further than that, especially with Aphrodite. She's used hers to deploy Lifeboats for a sea rescue mission, deployed a pair of hands for a Barehanded Blade Block, and even once launched Breast Rocket Punches.
- Tsundere: THREE of them: Sayaka, Jun and Maria. They were quite famous by that trait back in the seventies. Fortunately, their usual fuses (Kouji and Tetsuya) are not present to set them off. Unfortunately, there are more than enough perverts for making up for their absence.
- X Meets Y: The Mazinger universe (Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger and UFO Robo Grendizer) meets Charlie's Angels.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Hikaru looks the part with the Hime Cut and is the nicest one of them, such as befriending Maria. The inner iron comes out later when she becomes a true Action Girl.
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