Yoshiyuki Tomino the creator of Mobile Suit Gundam is synonymous with bringing the real robot revolution in anime. But before that series was made Tomino created the revolutionary Invincible Super Man Zambot 3. While Zambot 3 is nowhere near as well-known as many of Tomino’s other works, its influence on his later shows is undeniably. Like many of Tomino’s shows Zambot 3 is a flawed and somewhat troubled show but one that sticks with the viewer after they experience it. This is not a review but more of an examination of the value of Zambot 3 to a modern audience.
Tomino is known not only for his own body of work that stretches back to episodes of the original Astro Boy TV series but also for how his ideas go on to influence plenty of other shows thereafter. Zambot 3 is important to Tomino’s history and mecha shows overall spanning even into the 2000′s. Like many a show that was ahead of its time things don’t always go smoothly and believe me Zambot 3 is far from a masterpiece, but it’s important to appreciate its going out and doing something exploratory.
The story seems like the standard fair 1970′s giant robot show outline. The Gaizok are invading the earth with robotic monsters called Mecha Boosts who are commanded by the ruthless Butcher the Killer. The Mecha Boosts can only be defeated by Zambot 3 piloted by Kappei Jin and his two cousins using technology from the planet Beal that was wiped out by the Gaizok. But the main twist is that instead of being welcomed as heroes the people of Earth condemn the pilots of the Zambot 3 and blame them for anything and everything related to the Gaizok invasion.
The families of each pilot also play major roles in the series which seems rather uncommon in robot shows. People both civilian and otherwise are central to the themes and the series very rarely takes the happy ending approach. I have to wonder why Zambot 3 is only 23 episodes long, it is such a strange number! But thankfully it is a complete story. Though quite a few of the episodes can be chalked up to monster of the week, there is usually some hints of matters to come. It is also too easy to dismiss episodes because of the many themes and issues that are popular or tropes nowadays forgetting Zambot’s time period.
Narutaki & Hisui VS. 2009 is in part an award show, in part an exercise in humor and snark, in part a challenge, and in part a love letter to everything great this year. We picked several categories and each of us picked titles, characters, and people who we felt best summed up our feelings on the year. Take a peek into what we thought on the anime and manga of 2009 and the people who bring it to us. Feel free to suggest new categories and challenge our picks.
