Category: Anime

Invincible Super Man Zambot 3: The Birth of Minagoroshi no Tomino

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hisuiconYoshiyuki 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.

hisuiconThe 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.

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #088

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I rewatched the beginning of the Raoh Gaiden TV series and then finished it off. It stays pretty much insane and hilarious all the way through as we learn the story of Raoh before the beginning of Fist of the North Star’s main plot. We follow him through his first upheaval and declaration as king as he builds an army, meets Kokuoh-go, imprisons Toki, and bests many foes. Though it doesn’t have as much fighting as you might imagine since Raoh pretty much wins every time within 5 seconds. The exception to this is the last fight between Raoh and Souther but clearly that can’t end with either one’s death! There are new characters for Raoh’s story including some love interests, yes for real, not that Raoh every engages in such romantic actions. This becomes doubly funny with the ending animation seemingly implying this series has a really romantic slant. Reina as one of the ladies is hard to swallow as never being talked about in earlier works considering she is both Raoh’s childhood friend and a general in his army. The series is about Raoh so of course it is entertaining and of course I enjoyed every minute, but I don’t think it will appeal to anyone who doesn’t already have this feeling in their heart!

hisuiconI decided watch one of the cornerstones of shojo history by taking on the 115 episode beast that is Candy Candy. After 25 episodes it is obvious why this is such an influential and celebrated work. Candy Candy is the story of the spirited tomboy Candice White who starts life as an orphan with nothing but her good nature to her name. She tries to keep in contact with her best friend Anne and find the Prince of the Hill who won her heart. She is thrown into adversity after adversity including the various machinations of the family that adopts her. Whenever it seems like the plot is going to drop into a predicable formula they will shake things up by doing something like sending Candy to Mexico. I have to say the end of this arc is quite surprising. If this is any sign of things to come I will say Candy Candy is anything but predictable. I feel a little bad for Archibald and Stear because they are really cool gentlemen who are obviously in love with Candy but everyone including them know they are always just going to be in the friend zone. I am very curious to see what the next 25 episodes have to offer.

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“Crash Sayla Mass” is the creepiest thing ever.

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We already did an overview podcast of Mechademia which included the third volume but we didn’t get to every little thing that we found interesting. Since this collection included the first Gundam essay so far, we thought we would pull it out for discussion (plus there is no way we couldn’t take a minute to say how creepy that sculpture is). It features a translated essay, Gundam and the Future of Japanoid Art by Takayuki Tatsumi, and then a response from the translator, Christopher Bolton.

When we were on the Manga Out Loud podcast Ed Sizmore discussed the idea that in academia the progress and exchange of ideas is facilitated by follow ups on establish papers. In the spirit of promoting an academic mindset  in the anime and manga communities we decided to take a stab at writing out own response to one of the articles instead of just doing a review of the third book. Gundam and the Future of Japanoid Art discusses how the novel Starship Troopers influenced Gundam and in turn influenced the way authors view the relationship between man and machine in fiction. The translator then wrote a response in which he talks about his recollection of the Gundam Generating Futures exhibit where Tatsumi’s article originally appeared in the catalog for.

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