Trivia / Mazinger Z

• Banned in China:
  • Mazinger Z was aired in the Philippines in the 1970s alongside Voltes V and Daimos until they were ordered off the air by President Ferdinand Marcos, without reaching their finales. Voltes V and Daimos came back after Marcos was gone, but Mazinger Z has never returned to this day (yet the later Shin Mazinger did air there, but that's not the same).
  • The series also started being broadcast in Spain in 1978, gaining instant and overwhelming success, but it was pulled off the air in January 1979 due to complaints regarding the show's violence and other questionable content. Only thirty-three random episodes had been dubbed — and one of them was never broadcast — and Spanish fans had to wait until 1993 to see the series aired again.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: In the Spanish dub, Kouji's infamous Rocket Punch line was translated as "¡Puños Fuera!" ("Fists Out!") instead of "Puño Cohete", and Sayaka's Oppai Missile attack was traslated like "¡Fuego de Pecho!" ("Breast Fire!"). However, a huge chunk of the Spanish-speaking fandom is downright convinced she originally said "¡Pechos Fuera!" ("Breasts Out!") despite of the fact that she never said that line.
• Cash-Cow Franchise: The Mazinger franchise, since its inception in 1972, has spawned one dozen of different manga versions, sequels, spinoffs, crossovers, video games and toys, and it's shown no signs of slowing down even as the 21st century rolls on.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: In Spain, sixteen-year-old male teenager Kouji Kabuto was voiced by voice actress Julia Gallego.
• Follow the Leader: Super Robot Genre shows like Tetsujin 28 already had their own success, but it was Mazinger Z that solidified the concept of piloting a robot (via a cockpit within its head, rather than remote control) and started a revolutionary trend that attracted toy makers and captivated children. Such influence would eventually lead to all sorts of landmark works that keep said genre alive and relevant to this day.
• Franchise Zombie: The original anime series was supposed to wrap up at episode 57. However, the series was so wildly succesfull it was continued for other thirty-five episodes. And then two movies were made. And two sequels. And more movies. And crossovers. And spin-offs. And reboots. And remakes. And Go Nagai has stated he has got offers for a Mazinger-Z live-action movie... Tropes Are Not Bad however as the series is still popular and Mazinger makes appearances to this day.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: In Japan? Rarely a problem! Outside of Japan? Hoo boy:
  • Mazinger Z was broadcast in Spain in 1972. However, only thirty-three random episodes of the first season were dubbed before Moral Guardians forced to pull the plug, and only thirty-two episodes were aired, with the last dubbed episode not being broadcast. IVS released several tapes, recopilating twenty-four of the episodes aired by RTVE1. For fifteen years buying, renting or borrowing those few tapes were the only way Mazinger Z fans could watch the series (and only a tiny chunk of it!) In 1993 the whole of Mazinger Z and part of Great Mazinger were broadcast (and UFO Robo Grendizer also was aired later) with their Latin American dubs, but both series never were released in tapes or DVD, and if you had not recorded the episodes or you did not know someone could lend you his/her tapes, you were out of luck. Finally in the late nineties, several movies featuring the most famous Go Nagai Super Robots were released in tape, and in the 00's a group of fans uploaded and shared both series and UFO Robo Grendizer online. However, the original Spanish dub of many episodes is still missing since they were never released (fortunately, some fans recorded several episodes and kept the tapes for THREE decades. Thank to them part of the lost dubbing job was recovered). Given the fights and disagreements between Dynamic Planning and Toei prevent the original anime series from being aired or released out of Japan, sharing the tapes or downloading the episodes online is the only way Spanish-speaking fans can watch the Mazinger trilogy.
  • Before Tranzor Z, there was allegedly a Hawaiian English dub of Mazinger Z that was aired in (obviously) Hawaii and (not-so-obviously) the Philippines up until episode 30. Then there's also the Questor^note now known as Telesuccess Productions Philippine English dub of the series that finished the undubbed episodes not covered by the Hawaiian dub, which has since been lost to time after President Ferdinand Marcos banned that anime along with Voltes V and Daimos in the Philippines during the 1970s.^note Yes, the dubbed Mazinger Z in the Philippines was a Frankenstein-like combination of the Toei-produced Hawaiian dub and local Filipino dubbers finishing the rest. Perhaps the legal snag of having some of the episodes made by another company might have something to do with Mazinger not being part of 1990s anime renaissance in the Philippines care of GMA Network.^note Thankfully, the rare dubs can be found archived here.
  • The only way most Anglophone countries could watch the anime in it's original form were for a while the infamous Hong Kong "crabstick" subtitles. It's since been averted for Zetto and Great thanks to Discotek Media and their DVD/SDBD releases. Grendizer is, as of 2022, however, still stuck in the realm of the now-christened "crabsticks", apparently due to some legal snag between DynamicPro and Toei.
  • Averted in Mexico, when the full series was released in DVD recently, along with Shin Mazinger.
• Late Export for You:
  • The original series got a really long time to finally reach in Brazil. Firstly, the 2009 reboot was partially dubbed in 2012 for interested companies, but anime in general was really in a bad phase in the country at the time mainly because of the end of the local version of the TV network Animax, and TV channels in general weren't interested in anime because of financial issues or because of how media portrayed anime in general, and few on-demand streaming platforms existed at the time.
  • Some years later, the reboot spawned on Netflix at the region, but with a dub completely different from what was intended to be and with a somewhat questionable voice acting. It didn't take too long for that series to be out of license in that region.
  • Afterwards, in 2016 (44 years after the series' release), the original series got a dub produced by Toei themselves, but it took four years to be officially released there also through Netflix. Before that release, the movie Infinity was released on cinemas with the same cast of the series.
  • America got a fully subtitled and uncut release in 2013 courtesy of Discotek Media.
• Magnum Opus Dissonance: Go Nagai created Mazinger Z as a side-project while working on Devilman, a much Darker and Edgier series that he was passionate about, even as it took such a toll on him that he made Mazinger to blow off steam. While both series went on to become pop cultural staples in Japan, Mazinger wound up becoming more popular than Devilman abroad, to the point there are counties where the former is a pop culture icon while the latter is virtually unknown.
• Marth Debuted in "Smash Bros.": Mazinger Z 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. Thankfully that's not the case nowadays, and Mazinger is mostly seen as a Cult Classic there. Grendizer also technically beat Mazinger to American shores but due to name changes and the like nobody really noticed until years later.
• Missing Episode:
  • In Spain thirty-two episodes from the first season were broadcast. The first season was fifty-seven-episodes long. They were aired out of order for no apparent reason, too.
  • A few episodes, mostly early ones, were skipped in Italy before the series was completely interrupted.
• No Export for You:
  • This is a specially moronic instance of this trope sounds scarily similar to what has happened in France with UFO Robo Grendizer. Mazinger Z was emitted in 1978 and pulled out due to Moral Guardians after barely emitting thirty-two episodes of the original ninety-two. Thirty-five years later it still is popular enough licensers consider releasing the DVDs would be profitable. However, due to legal disputes between Dynamic Planning and Toei Animation, the series can not be licensed for TV broadcasts or DVD releases out of Japan. Selecta Vision has managed to publish Shin Mazinger -and made money of it- and have mentioned they would like getting Mazinkaiser licensed, and the original manga made by Go Nagai together with the Gosaku Ota version have been legally published (the Go Nagai version twice), but releasing the original series is pretty much impossible right now. The Spanish and Latin American fanbases are very NOT pleased.
• Foreign Dubbing:
  • The Mexican voice actor Jesús Barrero voiced Kouji Kabuto and is mainly known for voicing youths like Seiya, Yamcha (first voice), Impmon (and Beelzemon), and even Emperor Kuzco. Then he became the second voice of Peter Griffin. He voiced immature characters till his last days.
  • Let's not forget him as Professor J and Dekim Barton from the Gundam Wing dub.
• Rerun: In Spain it was braodcast for first in 1978. It was rerun for second time in 1994.
• Recycled: The Series: In 1975 Toei Animation produced a Super Robot Genre movie called Uchu Enban Daisenso. Go Nagai, who did the designs of characters and mechas, liked the concept so much that he decided to recycle and improve his designs and create a new series based on the movie and set in the Mazinger Z universe: UFO Robo Grendizer.
• Role Reprise: In the Mexican Spanish dub of the Infinity movie, most of the voice actors from the remastered version of the TV series reprise their roles in the film. This is especially interesting because the remastered version used a very different cast from the very first dubbed version, who was dubbed in both the U.S. (mainly Los Angeles) and Cuba, unlike the Japanese version of the film, which use a very different cast as well from the TV series.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Sayaka Yumi from was one of the first Action Girl and Tsundere with a lead role in Anime, and she and Kouji did the Belligerent Sexual Tension bit before no one else. However, she was Put on a Bus at the end of the series. The Bus Came Back again at the end of Great Mazinger, but after the end of the series she was Put on a Bus again. She was to become the 4th spazer pilot in UFO Robo Grendizer, but character developer and co-plotter of the series, Shingo Araki, opposed Go Nagai and designed a new character that did not appear in the Grendizer manga: Maria Grace Fleed, younger sister to Grendizer main character Duke Fleed. Maria soon became a fan-favourite in the latter part of the series. It is... interesting speculating what might have happened if Sayaka and Maria showed up in the same series (both of them being hot-tempered, Hot-Blooded Tsunderes liked the same boy. And Sayaka was a Clingy Jealous Girl to boot).
  • Kouji Kabuto wore a Scarf of Asskicking and used a bike to dock on Mazinger Z in Go Nagai's early designs. However, Kamen Rider premiered before Mazinger Z, and Go Nagai removed and changed those elements because he didn't want people to think he was ripping off another show.
  • Another Go Nagai series, God Mazinger, has nothing to do with the original series. However, it was meant to be the sequel from Mazinger Z. However the idea got rejected, Great Mazinger and UFO Robo Grendizer were made instead of, and years later a God Mazinger anime was made, but removed any connection to the original series.
  • During the late 1980s, there were plans to make an OVA remake under the title: Dai-Mazinger. However, due to copyright issues with Toei at the time, the project was cancelled.

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