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Dr. Hell holding the Bardos Wand.
Which. in the English subtitles, it is referred to as a "crabstick" |
The Mecha genre of anime consists
of many series. It seems that just about every major studio has gotten in on
the craze. One of the series that Toei animation put out in 1972 was Mazinger Z.
It was based on a manga by Go Nagai and was brought to TV by director Tomoharu
Katsumata. The series tells the story of Kabuto Koji, a rebellious teen with an
attitude who must pilot the Demon Z (Mazinger Z) a mecha created by his
grandfather. It ran for 2 years and 92 episodes. The first of the episodes was titled
“The Birth of the Miraculous Robot”. In the first episode, we learn
the
backstories of many of the characters. We are introduced to the villains of the
series, Dr. Hell and his first lieutenant Baron Ashura. Dr. Hell commands an
army of Mechanical Beasts with the power of the Barbos Wand , a Magical staff that allows them dominion over all the robots in
the Mechanical army. We also see Kabuto Juzu (Koji’s grandfather) has just
discovered Super Alloy Z, an extremely durable metal created from Japanium, a
new element that Dr. Kabuto discovered in the base of Mount Fuji. In the end of
the first episode, Dr. Kabuto is killed by Ashura, and Koji runs off in the
Demon Z to stop them from destroying Japan.
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| Baron Ashura, the half-man half woman. |
This episode has
many conventions of a mecha anime introduction. We meet an evil villain who is
shown trying to take over the world. Dr. Hell’s name is a clear reference to
the Christian underworld, and the demons that live there, which is interesting
since Dr. Hell creates his own minions. As for Ashura, I was unable to find a
reference in their name, but they are an extremely interesting and progressive
character for the time that the series is from. Baron Ashura’s origins are not
discussed in the first episode, however, according to a Mazinger Z wiki page
about the character, “he/she was originally a separate man and woman who fell
in love.” The relationship was not allowed, and the two lovers were buried
alive together. The tomb that held them collapsed, destroying half of each
body, and they were found by Dr. Hell who had them sewn back together so they
could work as his loyal minion. As a typical loyal minion, Ashura will do
anything to repay Dr. Hell for saving their life. They are constantly trying to
stop Kabuto Koji from saving the world, but are rarely successful, and when
they are, they are not successful for long. The truly interesting part of their
character is the fact that they are for all intents and purposes a non-binary
character. Although they are two people made into one, the two halves work
simultaneously. Having a character like this in a popular TV show can
effectively help to normalize this kind of character to young children. The
acceptance that despite who they are they can still play a major role in the
series was extremely progressive at the time.
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Sayaka confronts Koji after the out of control
Devil Z almost kills his brother |
Another
similarity to the other mecha anime that we watched in class was Kabuto Koji
himself. As the male main character of the series, you saw that he is a bit arrogant
and full of himself, similarly to the main character of Macross, Hikaru.
Another theme that Mazinger Z has in common with Macross, but differs from many
other mecha anime, is that Koji is unable to control Demon Z at first. He
decides the best course of action is to press random buttons on the console
until something happens, and ends up sending the Giant robot into a sort of
rampage mode where it begins to chase after Kabuto Shiro. Both shows squash the
idea that a character can just pick up the controls to a large robot and
instantly know how to control it. In the end of Mazinger Z, we are introduced
to a character named Sayaka, who commands a more feminine looking mech. She
gets the Demon Z to calm down before it has a chance to kill Shiro. It seems a
bit obvious even from her first appearance, but Sayaka eventually becomes Koji’s
girlfriend. Unlike the love interest in Macross, Sayaka seems much more
capable, in fact, where Minmay Lynn from Macross is a damsel in distress,
Sayaka turns this idea on its head by using her expertise piloting a mech to
save Koji.
Like many other
series from this time and genre, Mazinger Z shares many conventions with the
hundreds of other series simply trying to make money off the popularity of the
mecha genre at the time. It caters to the young boys that the genre is most
popular with using action packed fight scenes, a relatable main character, and
a villain that the hero can always foil. However, like many of the better series at
this time, it also tries to push the genre and use the studio’s previously
established popularity to take risks with its story. Most of these progressive
ideas were thought up by the creator of the manga, but the studio decided that
it could take a chance and use their influence to showcase these ideas.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazinger_Z
http://mazinger.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
