Mazinger Z - Reception and Influence

Reception and Influence

Mazinger Z helped to create the 1970s boom in mecha anime. The series is noteworthy for introducing many of the accepted stock features of super robot anime genres: the first occurrence of mecha robots being piloted by a user from within a cockpit, the mechanical marvel that is the world's only hope, forgotten civilizations, power-hungry mad scientists, incompetent henchmen, lovable supporting characters (usually younger siblings, love interests, or friends of the hero), the scientist father or grandfather who loses his life heroically, and strangely clothed, eccentric or physically deformed villains (the intersex Baron Ashura as one example). Mazinger Z was also the first show to feature a female robot (Aphrodite A, piloted by female lead Sayaka Yumi), and a comic-relief robot made of spare parts and garbage named Boss Borot (which ended up suffering severe damage in nearly all of his appearances), after its pilot, brash yet simpleminded gang leader, Boss.

The peculiarity about this super robot, differing from the ones in earlier robot manga, is that Kouji the pilot has to fly a smaller separate vehicle to combine with the robot (in Mazinger's case, the head). In comparison, previous robots were either autonomous (like Tetsuwan Atom/Astro Boy) or remote-controlled (like Tetsujin-28). An activation code is used to summon the robot and another used to actually activate it("MAJIN GO!" and "PILDER ON!" respectively). This typically signaled the start of an action sequence, and this method is still used in anime such as GaoGaiGar or Koutetsushin Jeeg.

Manga and anime historians see the Pilder-Robot combination as the origin of the "transforming robot" genre, because it marks one of the first published examples in a manga of two distinctive vehicles forming a specific entity. This is often interpreted as the root of later series like GoLion, called Voltron, Defender of the Universe in the United States, the Transformers, and the giant robots in the Super Sentai Series (the basis for Power Rangers). Mazinger Z is not a vehicle that transforms into another shape, yet it requires the smaller vehicle to get going. This idea may have inspired the Core Fighter in Mobile Suit Gundam and the entry-plug in Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Another characteristic is seen in the unusual use of Mazinger's formidable weaponry: Kouji would always announce with a shout the name of the super-power or attack he was about to use, including eye-fired energy beams, melting rays from the chestplates, gale-force winds, and the famous and oft-copied "Rocket Punch" attack. Most of these simple gimmicks were later incorporated in most of Nagai's robot series, and widely imitated in many other mecha shows. Although the roots of announcing the weapons can also be traced back to Toei's 1968 tokusatsu series, Giant Robo, whose US title was Johnny Sokko And His Flying Robot, or even the way the heroes of chambara eiga and television used to announce their sword techniques before cutting down their opponents.

However, the most notable characteristic that the show brought to the super robot genre was the relationship between machines and humans; Go Nagai established from the start the premise that machines and humans could act as one, and interact between each other. Since Kouji piloted the robot from the head, he acted as the robot's "brain," and almost every time Kouji would move, laugh, or suffer inside its cockpit, the robot would act the same, mimicking its pilot. Additionally, some minor characters included were cyborgs, that could act like humans, showing feelings and emotions (even crying). These ideas were used repeatedly in many similar shows (Grendizer, another Nagai work, would have the pilot suffer injury to his own body where the robot was attacked).

In terms of plot, despite being simplistic in its portrait of good and evil characters, the show was able to stay fresh with young audiences with an irresistible mix of action, horror, comedy, and drama, sometimes all in one single episode. Some of them (especially after the introduction of the Boss Borot), were heavy on slapstick and jokes, even to the point of making fun of the hero and the villains; others carried strong melodramatic touches (this characteristic of heavy satire humor and melodrama were in fact staples of almost all of Go Nagai's creations in manga, even before their adaptations to the small screen). We also have a change in the concept of main female characters (already seen in Harenchi Gakuen, later reinforced in Cutie Honey), who were until then modeled after the "quiet, sweet, compliant" Japanese ideal: Kouji's partner and love interest Sayaka Yumi is tomboyish, loud and stubborn, very unlike the traditional heroines. Kouji Kabuto was not your usual hero of the time— he was a crass, arrogant, impulsive and hot-headed ne'er-do-well—who was the polar opposite of the virtuous Japanese males in the media. While Kouji's very outrageous and abhorrent behavior was very appealing to young boys, it was the bane of many establishment organizations, such as the Japanese PTA.

Later sequels of the franchise share many characteristics of the Japanese tokusatsu heroes as well as 1970s kaiju films. The team-up anime Grendizer & Getter Robo G & Great Mazinger vs. The Giant Sea Monster is very similar to tokusatsu films like Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster. Mazinger Z also spawned the parody series, Panda Z, also by Nagai, in which the main characters of the original series are replaced by anthropomorphic animals. Mazinger also appears in the comedy OVA CB Chara Nagai Go World, where the main cast of the series is turned into super deformed parodistic alter-egos who are then sent on a wild caper across most of the Nagaian oeuvre (with encounters with Devilman's demons, Getter Robo, Violence Jack and others).