God Mazinger (ゴッドマジンガー, Goddo Majingā), also known as Majin Densetsu (魔神伝説) is an anime, manga and novel series created by Go Nagai. Initially it was to going to be the sequel to Mazinger Z, but the idea was scrapped in favor of creating Great Mazinger and UFO Robo Grendizer, and the concept was fully reworked until it had nothing to do with the original series (still, it is counted between the Mazinger series). The TMS-helmed anime aired in 1984 in Nippon Television with 23 episodes. The manga was originally published in tankobon format by Shogakukan in 4 volumes published in 1984. The novelization was published in 1984 and lasted 10 volumes. The three of them share the same basic premise but have a different story.
Hibino Yamato/Yamato Hino is a Japanese Ordinary High-School Student one day begins to see visions of a strange world and feels something is calling him to a place named Mu. Frightened and confused, Yamato thinks that he had hallucinations.
However Mu is a real place, an ancient kingdom located in another dimension and whose civilization reminds of the ancient Greece and Rome.
The Kingdom of Mu is ruled by King Muraji and his daughter Princess Aira, and it is being attacked by the Dragonia Empire, ruled by Emperor Dorado and his son, Prince Eldo. His army of dinosaurs is assaulting the borders of Mu, and it is a matter of time until they overcome the defenses of the kingdom. Mu has a powerful weapon: God Mazinger, a gigantic stone statue. It is said the ancient god stands ready to defend the population of any threat. Unfortunately, it is sleeping and it only can be awakened by the chosen one.
Finally the dinosaur army breaks through the borders and invades the kingdom. Like a desperate, last-resort measure, the king and his court pray before the statue of the god Mazinger to find the chosen one: a brave boy whose name is Yamato.
Back on Earth, during a thunderstorm, an inter-dimensional portal opens before Yamato, and a lightning bolt strucks him, dragging him into the parallel world where Mu is located. Suddenly the statue of the god relives. A luminous beam covers Yamato, and he is absorbed into the body of the statue. God Mazinger begins to move and defeats the invading dinosaurs, making the army flee.
Yamato joins the court of King Muraji, becoming the champion of the Kingdom of Mu, always ready to repel the attacks of the evil Dorado and his fearsome dinosaurs.
God Mazinger had not too much success, and it is little known among Mazinger fans. However it has shown up in other media. Its most prominent appearance happened in the "Dynamic Super Robots Taisen" clips that were included at the end of the DVDs of Shin Getter Robo vs. Neo Getter Robo.
In the Mazinger Angels manga, there is a saga dedicated to God Mazinger, where Princess Aira appears controlling a female version of God Mazinger and with the help of Jun Hono defeats the Mykene Empire Army menacing the kingdom, after Jun and Prof. Nonaka accidentally end up in the Kingdom of Mu. It is later with the help of Aira that Venus A becomes Queen of Gold.
This show provides examples of:
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Yamato is a way nicer person in the anime than his original manga counterpart. For starters, he does not harass his high school crush (actually getting dumped by her, instead), is protective of his younger sister and is immediately willing to fight for Aira Mu's cause.
- Amazon Brigade: Yoname commands a unit of identical-looking haughty female fighters in swimsuits named "Shamans". While dangerous and Always Chaotic Evil, the girls are no more than Cannon Fodder for the heroes to slaughter with impunity, with several of them even foolishly dying by jumping straight into their swords.
- BFS: The blade of God Mazinger. Unlike other Mazinger-named robots, it is his ONLY weapon.
- The Call Knows Where You Live: Literally. It went to another world to find Yamato.
- Drop Dead Gorgeous: The protagonists slice and dice several scantily-clad henchwomen throughout the series, with an increasingly higher brutality that artbook commentary implies to have been intended as erotica
. It culminates in their leader Yoname being horribly impaled, slashed in half and dying naked as her body vanishes. - First Church of Mecha: God Mazinger is the protector god of the kingdom of Mu.
- Foreshadowing: Subtle, but clearly there. In the anime version, Yamato's unnamed high school crush rejects his love confession, disgusted after seeing him "fight like a barbarian" during a rugby match. Immediately giving the audience a glimpse of what Yamato's role in Mu would be like.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Both Yamato AND Mazinger wield one. As noted above, it is Mazinger's only weapon.
- The High Queen: Aila Mu is the teenage queen of Mu, being kind, compassionate, and rather charismatic for her age. She's also Yamato's love interest.
- Hot Blooded Sideburns: Yamato has them, as is the standard for Go Nagai protagonists.
- Humongous Mecha: Well, more "Humongous Moving Statue", but it functions pretty much the same.
- In Name Only: It is named Mazinger, and official material (the Mazinbible book, published in 2002) counts it among the Mazinger series, but it has no relation with the original series.
- Inconsistent Spelling: Hibino Yamato or Yamato Hino?
- Jerkass: At times, Yamato can be a real asshole, to put it very mildly. He is, however, also very caring torwards his friends and wants to protect Aira and her kingdom.
- No Name Given: The first Shaman who appears in the series is mentioned by Yoname to be named Mitsume. All the other identical-looking assassin girls are never named.
- Physical God: God Mazigner is a divinity resembling a stone statue.
- Prophecies Are Always Right: It was foretold when a threat befell the kingdom, the chosen one would appear to awaken God Mazinger, and it would protect the kingdom. Guess what happened.
- Related in the Adaptation: Kaoru is spared from being a victim of Yamato's lust - as well as from circumstance - by instead being turned into his younger sister in the anime adaptation. The latter version proves surprisingly helpful on several occasions.
- Shapeshifting: The Shaman girls can transform into animals. One transforms into a dinosaur, another one turns into a large crow and then three of them combine into a giant centipede.
- Shoulders of Doom: God Mazinger. They are big and even reinforced with studs.
- Whole Costume Reference: Those sexy sling bikinis the Shaman girls are barely wearing? Producer Shunzo Kato brought materials from Space Adventure Cobra and asked character designer Satoshi Hirayama to use those as references for those henchwomen. The first prominent character wearing this in Cobra is the unnamed blonde executioner lady who is brutally killed by the protagonist while he's joking about being James Bond. This means there is a link from the eroticized violence on women in God Mazinger to James Bond fighting the scantily-clad Bambi and Thumper in Diamonds Are Forever (in a scene that, ironically, ends with the agent comically dunking their heads under water without outright drowning them).
- Would Hit a Girl: Yamato and his comrades have no qualms about killing the Shamans with extreme prejudice, with an intentional emphasis of how cold-blooded they are to do things like lassoing a woman in a high wall by the neck to crush her head against the ground. Yamato himself kills 9 of them throughout the series.
