Category: Editorials

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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June’s Final Denouement: Not-America, you are the villain!

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SPOILERS FOR PLUTO


I finished Pluto rather recently and subsequently listened to a number of podcasts about the series. The series has a number of twists and turns in its narrative as well as a bevy of themes and symbolism to discuss if you so desire. As Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki made the story their own they modernized it in many ways while also maintaining many of the messages of old. One of the things that everyone seems to recognize but I haven’t heard as much discussion on is the new and very clear anti-American view presented in the thinly veiled guise of Thracia that wasn’t in the original story.

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The Manga Counter-Revolution

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hisuiconIf you have attended a number of industry panels at the major anime conventions in the last few years you will remember an insistence on there not being a manga bubble. The rapid growth of the U.S. manga industry was the natural pace of a maturing market and that while there might be a slowing of growth there would not be a crash. And here in 2010 we see the end of Go! Comi and CMX, layoffs at VIZ, and uncertain futures for Del Rey, Tokyo-Pop, and Aurora. It seems there has been a manga crash after all.

Over the last few years there have been major changes in both the anime and manga industries of the U.S. While the anime industry was (is) unstable, the manga industry had been on a steep incline with more and more companies entering the market and a huge library of titles gracing shelves. But maybe manga was just playing catch up to its older brother.

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