Brave Exkaizer Team

There are not many online facts I could find with regard of this mecha anime.   Very uncommon mecha show that anyone hardly knows (including myself, which is sad to say the least).

All my googling efforts ended nowhere until I later discovered that they were actually far more popular in Asia, than it was in European, USA, South America and Oceanic countries.

It’s fair to say  the content was more geared to suit Asian audiences.   After searching its material via Google Trends (and reading this link from Wikipedia.org), I could be right.  Here’s the following excerpt from Wikipedia.org

“Brave Exkaiser is a Japanese animated television series that began in 1990, created by Sunrise under the direction of Katsuyoshi Yatabe, and is the first of the long running Yuusha or “Brave” metaseries funded by Takara and produced by Sunrise. The story takes place on a present day Earth that was secretly visited by a group of space police led by Exkaiser who were chasing after an evil gang of energy beings called The Geisters (led by Dino Geist). Upon arriving on Earth, Exkaiser and his team called the “Kaisers” put their spirits (Similar to Sparks of the Transformers mythos) into vehicles all over Japan so that they could convert them into transformable bodies for themselves.”

Here’s the intro theme.

Some pics from the series

Exkaizer Hero Crew

Brave Exkaizer wall poster

Exkaizer

And here’s the list of heroes and villians.

Our Heroes

Exkaizer – Our Hero Intro

King Exkaizer

Dragon Exkaizer

Great Exkaizer

Dash Max

Sky Max

Drill Max

God Max

Blue Raker and Green Raker

Ultra Raker

The Villians

The Four Geists

Dino Geist – Ringleader of Geists

Lots of uncanny resemblances with Transformers G1 animated series. Here and there. In fact, it is said that they’re the new designs of Transformers G1 and they’re meant to showcase the “enhanced” design aspects of Transformers that were superior. Because of this enthused marketing ploy Takara wanted to do so much, that’s why it’s part of that long lineage of super robot series during the 90s.

Very intriguing.

Well, that’s all for now. I’m sure there’s plenty of facts to go I’m keen to find out why the series was only good amongst Asian audiences in the far east.  More will be posted in the future.

If anybody out there who knows better about the Brave series, feel free to guest post here.  I’m looking forward to hear your thoughts on it.

Voltron Lion - Armed and ready to defend the Universe

Synopsis:

Another childhood favourite from the 80s. As mentioned from Wikipedia, the story revolves a team of 5 young lads piloting 5 powerful lion robots, each with different unique abilities whose purpose is to serve and protect Planet Arus from the evil clutches of King Zarkon, ruler of the planet Doom.  The story revolves how 5 young men dispatched by the Galaxy Alliance were supposedly to do some space exploration as part of the mission, however led them in a war-torn planet.  They were later captured by King Zarkon’s men and taken back to Planet Doom for enslavement and King Zarkon certainly takes a huge interests in ensuring every planetary conquest he seeks will result in having human enslavement counts increases.  The lads broke free, escaped on one of the enemy ships and flew back to Planet Arus, sought refuge in castle Arus and piloted the 5 lion robots to form the greatest defender of the universe, known (which we all know so well) as Voltron.  Voltron, a combined robot with 5 lions each acting as its limbs to give us a giant robot that faces any evil monsters King Zarkon’s dispatches and ultimately destroys them (and succeeded in defending Planet Arus).

The epic sounds of Voltron opening music theme/transformation sequence thrills me to the bones! :)

Here are the list of the Voltrion Lions’ heroes, mecha and villians (as sourced from Wikipedia.org)

Characters:

Keith Kogane : Commander and leader of the Voltron Force, who pilots the Black Lion that forms the bulk of Voltron. Keith wears a red uniform in the original series, and a black uniform in Voltron: The Third Dimension. Keith is a quiet individual who spends much of his time pondering his decisions, thinking up new strategies, and simply being a leader. He also has a hobby of reading books. He can often be found doing so either in the pilot’s lounge, or in his room. He seemingly cherishes Princess Allura and is thought to be somewhat protective of her; his worst fear, according to Voltron: The Third Dimension, was that she would be forced to marry the evil Prince Lotor. In the “Devil’s Due” comic series, Keith originally ran a dojo prior to being recruited by Hawkins.

Lance: Second-in-command of Voltron, who pilots the Red Lion that forms the right arm of Voltron. Lance wears a blue uniform in the original series, and a metallic red uniform in Voltron: The Third Dimension. He is a tall man, both wiry and wily, Lance is always cracking jokes and teasing others whenever he gets the chance. He is the only one in the group who contests any of Keith’s commands. He is a ladies’ man and a great pilot, though reckless at times. In the “Devil’s Due” comic series, Lance was forced into the mission to Arus due to his criminal record.

Pidge: Pidge is the youngest and smallest of the group; he pilots the Green Lion that forms the left arm of Voltron, and wears a green uniform. His home planet Balto was destroyed by nuclear missiles from King Zarkon. Pidge graduated from the academy at a young age, and his specialty is science. Like the others, he is well-trained in martial arts, and uses his size and agility to his advantage. Pidge is not afraid to speak his mind, especially to the villains. His heart is often in his words. Pidge has a twin brother, Chip, who is a member of the Vehicle Voltron Air Team.

Sven: Sven, a Norwegian pilot, was the original second-in-command. He piloted the Blue Lion and wore a black uniform at the very beginning of the series. In Episode 6, he was badly injured during an attack by Haggar, and was sent away to the planet Ebb to be healed. He was killed in the Japanese version, with his younger brother appearing later in the series. Ebb was attacked and raided by Lotor’s Forces and Sven was captured. The prison ship on which he was transferred accidentally crashed on Planet Doom where Sven went into hiding becoming a hermit within the caves. He eventually encountered Allura’s cousin from the Planet Pollux, Princess Romelle, who had been sent to the slave mines after she rejected Lotor’s advances. During Sven’s time on Planet Doom he witnessed Zarkon and Lotor’s cruelty to their slaves, which drove him to the point of madness. He recovered thanks to Romelle’s emotional support and helped her escape Doom. Sven was later reassigned to the Planet Pollux with Romelle and her brother Prince Bandor. Sven eventually fell in love with Romelle, though he was reluctant to pursue his feelings because he felt he was unworthy of her. Sven was always very quiet and reserved, and spoke only when he had something important to say. Though he may not show it, he is a very emotional person, and his heart is always leading his mind in any decision. Sven does not appear in nor is he mentioned in Voltron: The Third Dimension. Although Sven no longer pilots the Blue Lion on a regular basis after Episode 6, he continued to be featured as a pilot for the Voltron Force in the opening credits of the series while Allura appears in the closing sequence. Sven does pilot the Blue Lion into combat alongside his colleagues on one more occasion, however, during the second season episode, “Who’s Flyin’ Blue Lion.”

Princess Allura: Princess Allura of the planet Arus is the ruler of the Kingdom of Altair, as well as de facto ruler of the entire planet, and is also the object of Lotor’s affections. Daughter of the late King Alfor, Allura inherited her father’s authority on his death and is commander in chief and head of state for the planet Arus, and thus Commander Keith’s superior. However, later she takes over for Sven as the pilot of the Blue Lion that forms Voltron’s right leg, and defers to Keith during operational engagements. Allura wears a pink uniform in the original series, and a metallic blue uniform in Voltron: The Third Dimension. Though a bit naïve, especially with matters of romance, Allura is a strong-willed person, and is very capable of ruling her planet, though some like Coran and Nanny tend to doubt this ability. She is capable of invoking the dead, particularly her father, the late King Alfor. In The Third Dimension, Allura later learns special mind skills that could allow the Voltron Force to control the Lions without having to be in the cockpits, and also helps the others to learn it as well. She also has feelings for Keith.

Hunk: Hunk is the strong-man of the group, piloting the Yellow Lion that forms Voltron’s left leg. He is shown wearing an orange uniform in the original series, and a metallic yellow uniform in Voltron: The Third Dimension. He may look tough and mean, but has a soft heart, especially when it comes to children and puppies. He is never late for a meal. Though his friends tease him about his appetite, most of Hunk’s bulk is muscle. It is revealed that he eats “-’Fruit Loops’ (almost) every morning”.

Voltron Mecha:

Black Lion: Piloted by Commander Keith. Piloted by Allura in one episode. Unlike the other Lions, the Black Lion did not have a “closed” hangar. Throughout the series, it was assumed that the Black Lion’s hangar was located on the large tower fronting the castle, which was previously occupied by a winged lion statue which hid it. When the Black Lion was first activated, this statue crumbled apart to reveal it, and the Black Lion folded its seldom-used wings. In Voltron: The Third Dimension, it is shown that the winged lion statue literally morphs into the Black Lion when the lion is launched, meaning that this statue is nothing more than a disguised form of the Black Lion.

Red Lion: Piloted by Lance. by Princes Allura in one episode since Lance was using the Blue Lion to find the cure for the deadly flowers. The Red Lion’s hangar was located inside a volcano near the castle.

Green Lion: Piloted by Pidge. Piloted by Keith in its first launch, before the Black Lion was recovered. The Green Lion’s hangar was located in a forest near the castle.

Blue Lion: Piloted by Sven up to episode 6, and thereafter by Princess Allura (although Sven would return to pilot the Blue Lion on one more occasion in the second season episode “Who’s Flyin’ Blue Lion?”). Piloted in one episode each by Keith, Coran, and Nanny together, and a replacement pilot (who turned out to be an agent of Zarkon). Piloted once by Lance when he went off to a distant planet to find the cure by which to heal the Princess. Lance piloted the Blue Lion because the planet had a special magnetic field that only the Blue Lion could overcome. The Blue Lion’s hangar was located underneath the moat that surrounded the castle.

Yellow Lion: Piloted by Hunk. The Yellow Lion’s hangar was located inside a cave located in a desert near the castle. In Voltron: The Third Dimension, its hangar was redesigned to resemble a sphinx-like form instead of an ordinary cave.

Villains:

King Zarkon: King Zarkon of the Planet Doom is one of the rulers of the Drule Empire, though by no means the absolute ruler. He is constantly using others as scapegoats for his own failure, including his son Lotor. In the Japanese version, however, he is the evil ruler of his own Empire, without anybody controlling him. Where as he was killed off the japanese version of the series finale, Zarkon resurfaces in Voltron: The Third Dimension, having redeemed himself prior to his final defeat, and became a member of the Galactic Council. His redemption, however, was a ruse by which he and his son worked together to take over the alliance.

Prince Lotor: Prince Lotor is the son of Zarkon. He dislikes his father greatly, and wishes to rule in his place with Princess Allura by his side, to whom he has developed a strong and obsessive attraction. So powerful are his feelings that he is unable to even destroy a holographic image of Allura. Lotor also has an even stronger hatred with Keith, because he’s seen Allura’s love towards Keith. Because of Allura and Keith’s love, Lotor is more determined to kill Keith than any other Voltron Force member. Lotor is a very sly, smart, smooth, powerful man, who exudes force and emanates what seems to be pure evil, except when Allura is around. In Voltron: The Third Dimension, Lotor was mortally wounded in the final battle, and was converted into a cyborg after he was placed in prison. However, he escaped and perpetrated his revenge on the heroes, though he still has feelings for Allura. In the “Devil’s Due” comic series, Lotor met Allura while they were children during Zarkon’s invasion of Arus. In the comics, Lotor follows a warrior’s code of honor and sees all non-Drule life forms to be inferior.

Witch Haggar: Haggar the witch is the one responsible for creating all of the Robeasts Zarkon uses. She is notorious for using her dark magic to cast hypnotizing spells over people. Though she was once good and beautiful, she is now evil and ugly. It was Haggar who was responsible for originally splitting Voltron into five components in the American version. In the Japanese version, she is hinted to be King Zarkon’s mother thus making her Lotor’s grandmother where she was killed in the end for revealing Lotor’s true maternity. In Voltron: The Third Dimension, Haggar went into hiding after the final battle, but rejoined Lotor in his conquest schemes. They strike a deal in which, if Lotor conquers the universe, she gets the magic of the lions while he gets the universe and the lions themselves. In the “Devil’s Due” comic series, Haggar had no part in Voltron’s origin story, replaced by an ancestor of Zarkon’s, though she is well versed in it. She also attempt to brainwash Sven under Merla’s wishes

So what is about Voltron became such a cultural phenomenon during the 80s got entire North America so crazy about these mechanical feline that seemed to woo in the youngsters of all ages?

Well.. Pretty much everything.

Its story telling.  Impressive cast of characters and mecha.  Unique monsters (or Robeasts) Voltron mecha gets to face. The way how the plot captures our imagination and makes our excitement all very electrying!  It couldn’t get any better than this I realise.

There’s further hidden truths or secrets about Voltron I never realised before whilst googling it for quite some time now.  Especially this series was originally created in Japan (produced by Toei Animation under the name of Beast King GoLion) and suggested it was far more violent and has more bloods and gore.   And it suggests plenty of human cruelty acts as human slavery is the strong theme behind the series.  And how World Events Production (WEP) decides to censor and edit the entire show, rebrand it to the American audience as a different product altogether.  It intrigues me a lot and that’s something I’ll look forward to writing more about sometime in the near future.

But for now. Let’s embrace of what appears to be one of the best cartoon import series that was ever produced in our time.  I thank WEP and Toei Animations for making this happened.

One of my favourites (or everybody favourites, if you lived through the 80s) of all time. It was one of my first favourite mecha shows to watch other than Macross.

Who would have thought this long-line of Japanese toys made by Takara (aka Takara Tomy as of 2006) were reused or rehashed in this cartoon version that everybody get so much craving for? Having to learned that Takara’s toylines range Diaclone and Microman series were scooped up by Americans when American toy maker Hasbro came to see Takara at the Tokyo Toy Show in 1983. They were keen to have their toylines range because they were impressed how their scale models were designed to include humanoid figures to sit/drive in them and they’re able to transform into humanoid forms. Since Hasbro bought the rights to their product lines, the company and its key people began their marketing heavily on these as one major toy line range, hence the name “Transformers” was born. So what this evolution possible?
What started was that Takara made Microman toylines that were based on one of Japanese cyborg anime series called Henshin-Cyborg 1. The series’ popularity spawned many of these 3-inch cyborg models are that tiny many kids grew to like them so Takara made one of many great commercials on these such as below.

After its success, Takara made another spin-off of Microman series (using the same toy design development) which you have miniature size vehicles that are transformable into humanoid figures. Since then, Takara had made a number of Diaclone TV commercials in the early 80s such as this (featuring Optimus Prime in its formative days).

There are a number of countless Diaclone commercials featuring other familiar Transformers characters such as Ironhide, Ratchet, Bumble Bee just to name a few. And that’s probably the reason why Hasbro made a wise decision to have them and reinvented them into a branch so people in my generations would never forget how and why it was considered as one of the great childhood cartoon stories that’s ever produced of all time.

Henceforth, Hasbro decided to give us two distinctive factions.

Autobots Logo

Decepticon Logo

The story sets in a far away distant planet called Cybertron, and the two forces are battling out for the greater control of the planet. Autobots were fighting for peace and justice whilst Decepticons sought for power, domination and control. The battle was fought for many millennia. Several millennia later, the Autobots wanted to come up with an ultimate strategy that will end the war with Decepticons. They want to start the space exploration to find raw source of energy that will help them accomplish that goal. However, little did they aware, the plans were eavesdropped by Decepticons and so Decepticons decided to ‘join’ the exploration in their own space ship as well. Soon, once both of them caught up with each other, the intense fight took up in the Autobot spaceship. Next few brief moments, their spaceships made a collision course into the Earth’s stratosphere and Autobots crash-landed onto a volcano. All of them remained lifeless.
Four million years later, they were revived again as new technologies were invented. And Autobots and Decepticons learned to adapt the Earth’s environment and began to transforming into all sort of vehicles. Later in the series, the battle between the two forces ensues and once again the war of the Transformers resumes…
They are two great leaders of the two factions.

We have Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, seen as very honourable, compassionate, strong, pragmatic, possess strong leadership qualities and a very wise leader.

Then we have Megatron, Leader of the Decepticons, leader of the Decepticons, seen as the tyrant, vile, cunning, evil, greed for power and seeks for interplanetary domination with the final quest of eradicating all the Autobots in all galaxies, starting from our solar system.

And then you have the Autobots and Decepticons teams who follow their respective leaders, all of them share one purposeful goal of winning the Transformers war. With an impressive cast of characters, we see a large array of Autobots and Decepticons, each has a unique characteristics when they transform from robot mode into humanoid mode and vice versa.

Autobots

Dinobots

Aerialbots

Decepticons

Insecticons

Constructicons

Combaticons

Since the series ran for 98-successful episodes between 1984 and 1987, numerous toy production lines came out from the series and many new Transformers series came out such as Headmasters, Beast Wars, Machine Wars, Robots in Disguise etc etc. Transformers franchise really became a serious hit for many kids around that time and they just flocked to their toy stores like crazy buzzy bees sucking out all the last boxes of Transformers toylines to bring them home. I was like that one of them. All of the Generation Mechs were, I’m sure.

Transformer’s popularity was its raw power of attraction that has kept people for talking about it for years and generations, even after the series ended. And now we have several websites that are dedicated to these such as Transformers.com (by Hasbro), IDW Publishing, TransformersClub.com, Botcon.com and several other unofficial fansites more to come.

We’ve seen the two latest Transformers movies that’s recently came out towards the end of first decade of 2000 since Transformers: The Movie back in 1986.

And to remind ourselves that have seen Transformers G1 and recall those four seasons of episodes, here are their intros. (If you haven’t, then sit back, relax and watch the intros and I would put a recommended suggestion you get its DVD/Blue ray release.

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

I remembered after the entire series ended at its fourth season, the continuity of Transformers saga went on but it was divided into a couple of streams, and one of them was produced in Japan, where they gave us The Headmasters, Super-god Masterforce, Victory and Zone. They were broadcast mostly in Japan/Asia in the later years. Looks like I have another Transformers subcategory to write into my list of mecha chronology. It’s going to be a long while.

In the meantime, let’s us rejoice the fact what is to one of the best childhood cartoon series that’s ever produced, throughout our lives. For the past, the present and the future. And it’s all thanks to this one little figurine that turn Takara’s and Hasbro’s imaginations into a reality. A reality that results in achieving incredible scale of critical success to its franchise.

Microman toylines

Foreground: Shinji Ikari (front); Rei Ayanami (back, left); Asuka Langley Shoryu (back, right) with their Evas in the background

From what I read online about this, is that this anime came out with an incredible big bang when it reached hundreds and thousands of TV screens throughout Japan via TV Japan’s television network. It’s helmed as the greatest ground-breaking form of mecha anime in the mid 90s that no ordinary people would expect to see. Meaning this is not one of your average mecha anime where good-giant-robots-come-out-to-save-the-day-from-the-monster-terrorizing-your-regular-neighbourhood format and each week there’s always a new monster featured in each new episode, as that’s part of the tradition of every mecha program we all watched like Mazinger Z, Getter Robo etc etc. Rather, the theme of the series ‘breaks’ itself away from that classic style of mecha genre and set a new and yet unconventional design of a robot which is neither a super robot, nor real robot. In fact, it’s more of a ‘fusion’ between the two forms, to put it more technically accurate.

The series is said to be “a commercially and critically successful, influential, and controversial Japanese anime that won several animation awards in the Japan Media Arts Festival including the prize for best animation”. It was so good that it’s recognized as one of the great mecha anime classics of all time after the awards were received. It sure was very impressive that they’re amongst the anime greats when considering the many controversies it had to face with its grave depictions of teenage boys/girls suffering severe cases of clinical depression(which the author Hideaki Onno personally experienced before making this film), several biblical references used throughout the series (eg the cross beam emitted after mecha monsters unleash the attacks on our heroes’ robots) that cause the big divide in the Jews/Christian world, and characters experiencing social and emotional problems that later introduces the psychological harm not only to the characters themselves, but also the viewers as well, as this influences children under 15 who have not reached emotional and mental maturity to cope with the graphic details that the main characters are experiencing, hence can lead to long-term permanent damage to their psychological wellbeing, not being supervised properly. Very perplexing indeed.

Nevertheless, onwards to the synopsis of the film. The year is 2015 and we have three main heroes of the series as depicted at the start of this post. They are the three chosen “Children” to drive their own mecha which deviates a lot from other usual mecha mainstream we’ve seen in the past recent years. And they’re on the mission to stop the threatening forces of the “Angels” whom wrecked havoc upon the world since the “Second Impact”

Shinji Ikairi

Eva 01

Shinji iKari, the main child star of the series, introduced as the ‘Second Child’. Seen to be very socially inept, very withdrawn, always lacking of self-confidence when facing tough challenges on the fields of battle whether at home, school or even against the Angels. Always have the tendency to run away from problems that he couldn’t handle. His mecha is Evangelion 01 (code named Eva01). It comes in purple color and its main traits (shown throughout the whole series) were of his ‘berserker’ nature. This ‘temperament’ of Eva gets triggered only when he’s in a losing battle against the Angel and the outcome of who’s going to lose was obvious. But just when you think all hope is lost for our young friend and his compatriot, the purple giant managed to turn things around to his advantage after completely taking the opponent apart. Piece by piece. Said to be born one of the original Angels that first appeared before the Second Impact on Earth. It has genetics properties of Adam and Lilith.

Rei Ayanami

Eva 00

Rei Ayanami, our second main child star, has great beauty complexion with silver blue hair comes with a seemingly very introverted personality like Shinji, however she appears to be not friendly often so rarely interacts with anybody. Thus she does give everybody the cold feet whenever she refuses to react in a certain way a normal person would do when having a great conversation with someone else. Despite this, she’s nothing short of proving her great prowess in handling her own EVA, which is why she’s called “First Child”. Her Eva is codename EVA 00. It’s said to be the prototype EVA ie the first EVA ever produced before they were signed off for mass production (hence the codename 00). Eva 00 comes with one eye Cyclops, comes in orange colour, usually. Nothing much is said to describe its true origins compared to the Eva 00. Nevertheless, it’s proven plenty of valor in combat when facing Angels as it’s handled well by a very capable pilot. Unlike her counterpart, Shinji, who hesitates and doubts more often than he should in his attacks when he’s plenty of sometimes easy chances to win several battles in this war.

Asuka Langley Shoryu

Eva 02

Asuka Langley Soryu, is the “Third Child”, who’s the complete opposite of Rei. A young woman who comes from Japanese and German descent, whose language skills as bilingual comes as no surprising manner. And said to be child genius as some sort when she obtained a university degree before any children ever hit their puberty soon. She’s born in a family of professors and scientists, whose mother, Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu, was part of the Evangelion Project and she assisted in working with Eva 02 Unit development project. She comes as an extroverted person, so she’s very outspoken and aggressive in making blunt and sometimes intrusive comments on people’s mediocre achievements and how she always has high regard of herself and look down on other people, trying to prove that she’s unmatched. Her Eva 02 is considered as the first Production Eva, ie is the first time it’s used for actual combat so it’s equipped with many various armour pieces throughout the body that Eva 00 and Eva 01 do not normally have such as its mouth and legs. It’s expected to handle any type of combat situations using various weapons at their disposal.

Together, our three brave young heroes are embarking on a quest to eradicate all the Angels that come to Earth in order to prevent another apocalyptic end to the planet Earth, aka “Third Impact”. They were selected by the secreat oganisation ‘Nerve’ as they’re the chosen ones and they’re only ones capable of piloting the mechas due to the high synchronisation rate with machines ie they’re able to get along with the Evas well. Their mission to defeat Angels would be possible without the help of these five people.

Misato Katsuragi

A colonel amongst the ranks of the officers in Nerve, whose love affair on her day-to-day job of focusing issues at hand when giving orders to the EVA team to fulfill many tasks in defeating the ever-menacing Angels. She’s a professional military strategist that would soon see herself move up the ranks amongst other officers and many of them do realize the value she’s provided in terms of strong leadership and making sharp judgments on tricky situations. On the other side of her life, she is very unskilled cook, prefers takeaways, tv dinners, large quantities of beer cans/bottles that comes with no limit, and smokes aplenty. A difficult atmosphere for Shinji and Asuka to live in for sure as she’s their acting guardian during the course of their mission.

Gendo Ikari

A chief commander of Nerve, the head honcho who masterminds the entire operation of the Eva Research and on the ultimate quest to resume work on the Human Instrumentality Project to create humans as if they were done by the works of God, just like the Book of Genesis. He’s notably seen to be cold, mean and completely distant towards his son Shinji whenever they looked at or passed each other. As if he’s treating him like a complete stranger. Sources indicated that he’s so cunning he would perform any means by hook or by crook to achieve the success he seeks. Even at the expense of not affording to show any care for people around him. Especially Shinji.

Ristuko Akagi

Major scientist at Nerve whose specialist skills were military repairs, enhancements, and maintenance on the Tokyo-3 city’s defence system. She’s very intelligent and bright that she’s proven very capable in analyzing different states on data within MAGI (the supercomputer which she developed) that controls Nerv and suggests any resolution on technical faults under extreme pressure. One interesting fact about her involved with all this is that her mother Naoko Akagi, was romantically linked with Gendo Akari during the development of Nerv many years ago. But it was later found that Gendo intended to use her for his sole aim to succeed in getting the Human Instrumentality Project done. Ritsuko is said to have a brunette, like her mother.

Kozo Fuyutsuki

Gendo Ikari’s right hand commander of Nerv. Formerly a professor at Kyoto University, whose subject interest is mainly meta-biology. How he ended up with being Gendo’s right hand man was that Gendo’s deceased wife, Yui Ikari, was Kozou’s mentor and the sponsor for the human science project she took. Along the way after Gendo married Yui, Gendo and Kozou travelled to the ruins of Antartica and Kozou learned the hard truths that Gendo’s association with Seele is a serious threat to mankind existence and after event of Second Impact (which Seele’s initiated) Kozou saw little choice to reject Gendo’s quest for creating a new future for the mankind after what Gendo has shown Kozou the full capabilities Salee could do. Kozo accepted his ‘invitation’ inevitably.

Ryou Ikaji

Said to be Misato’s ex-boyfriend of 6 years, also bit of a playboy with his dashing good looks for any young innocent girls that he could hook with while working inside Nerv hub. He works as triple agent. He works for the Japanese government to track any activity within Nerv so they could make informed decisions on whether Nerv is seen to be ally or a much greater threat to the humanity on the whole and take any appropriate actions to deal the matters at hand. At time, he has his own personal agenda to sort out which has no bearing on his missions during the series to discover the truth behind Human Instrumentality Project, Nerv and Seele.

My final question still remains unanswered on the whole thing. Is this show considered to be an epic genius or an utter revolt of the 90s mecha shows? Unfortunately, I could not reach an conclusion to have an answer and it’s up to the general masses what they think of the whole thing. Some people say it’s fabulous and it’s deserved self-worthy praises. Some people say it’s not and it should be censored, otherwise they will received receive backlash from the smaller sector of the society who believe the anime company, Gainax, has created an abomination of its Christian symbols used throughout the series. So we have a strong divided opinion here.

But, without a doubt that it’s not your usual mecha program (like I used to know) where there’s a usual weekly routine of new monster featuring to attack the neighbourhood. It’s far different from the norm and it’s shifted into this whole new paradigm of science vs religion debate, which I find it difficult to comprehend both of them crossed over each other like that. We see how characters developed, each of them have their own difficult struggles with interpersonal relationships with people around them, including themselves. The story revolves around deep psychological thoughts of every main character that had difficult relations with their parents. Much like Shinji’s with his father for a start. Their portrayal of their struggles throughout the film were subject to controversial viewpoints that children under 15 could suffer mental harm due to several scenes that proved disturbing for the general audience to bear and such works should be banned or (at least) censored, and that argument is sure debatable. Despite this and the clear evidence of several biblical references usage from the Book of Genesis throughout the series’ story development, it’s made a great impact on the anime community and it’s not usually a negative one. Nor it’s a positive one either.

Rather, the series was likened so much by the public that the people pay special tribute to the show for its ultra uniqueness by making subtle references of the film into their works everything from musical influences, movies to video games etc over the years. It may take a while to get used with the theme as I’m not into metaphysical and psychological thrillers myself but as long as it’s got the mecha anime in a special way, then it’s alright. Since then, several reincarnations of the series were made during the last couple of years of the 2000 era so obviously fans of new and old are eager for its comeback to the big screens.

An epic that comes with twisted proportions, can hold this much appeal.  Stay tuned for more info on its myths, beliefs, data on the monsters the Evas faced in the series ,aka as Angels.

After Go Nagai’s great success with Mazinger Z, he went ahead to pursue making another great super robot classic series. And this time, it is about having three air units that can “combine” into a robot. In three different ways. I keep thinking of myself “Oh, really? How on earth could they design something like that?”. So I questioned my doubt. And my curiosity grew as I researched and found out the truth further on how three futuristic warplanes have the capability to ‘transform’ into 3 different robots, with each of them can perform unique functions that’s different to one another.

Though it’s part of Go Nagai’s signature, the majority of the credits go to Ken Ishikawa, Go Nagai’s protege. He was the one notably contributed the ideas on making Getter Robo series a running success after so many years since its Getter Robo days, including several re-incarnated series during the 90s and 00s like Shin Getter Robo, Neo Getter Robo, Getter Robo G, New Getter Robo etc. It ran as part of the manga series with its main publisher, Shonen between 1974 and 1975, covered in 5 volumes. It was later converted into TV series and it become another great mecha anime sensation again, for Go Nagai.

The original Getter Robo Gang with Getter-1 in the background

Getter Robo story begins with a story with a brilliant scientist by the name of Professor Saotome, who invented the three planes that come with hidden special abilities of thwarting the evil plots of their nemesis, Dinosaur King, from Dinosaur Empire. The special planes are powered by Getter Ray, a rare source of energy ray obtained from outer space, which were originally used for deep-space exploration of solar systems, galaxies and beyond. However, this scientific project was called and “redubbed” for far more important use as Earth’s greatest defense against the might of the invading Dinosaur Empire whose attempts are nothing short of evil ambitions to take over the world, for they claim to be the ‘true rulers‘ of Earth since they existed several million years ago.  As the story unfolds, we learned that Professor Saotome went on a hunt for three pilots who are capable of riding such scientifically sophisticated machines. So a talented martial artist(Ryoma Nagare), a delinquent loner(Hayato Jin) and a judo expert(Musashi Tomoe) were called upon to take up such honorary task to defend the Earth, and they learned the secret powers of their Getter planes.

Getter Robo battles with Dinosaur Empire

This robot series was helmed as the first Super Robot anime in history that produced a groundbreaking concept of merging (or combining) units into one super robot. And not only one type of super robot can be formed but in three types! Each robot is unique in its own way to handle different situations/struggles our Getter heroes face in the heat of battle. I was pretty dissapointed the fact I remembered back in the early 80s as a kid there was Getter Robo G whose licencing rights were bought by American company Force Five Series and later relabelled as the Starvengers and I couldn’t comprehend why is that Getter Robo was never queued to broadcast in Malaysia before Getter Robo G. Was it because of no money, or demand for Japanese robot was nonexistent? It’s a mystery to me. Nevertheless, it’s good to know that after all these years I finally know the truth behind the great legend of that is Go Nagai’s Getter Robo.

Anyway, I digress. The concept of combining units is this (at least in Getter Robo Universe). Getter Robo has 3 transformations, Getter 1, Getter 2 and Getter 3.  The three planes are named Eagle (red plane), Jaguar (white plane) and Bear (yellow plane). Getter 1 transformation goes with Eagle jet, Jaguar jet and Bear Jet, in an order.  Getter 2 transformation goes with pushing the previous order ‘up’ having Jaguar first, Bear second and Eagle last.  And lastly Getter 3 transformation goes with pushing Getter 2’s order up having Bear first, Eagle second and Jaguar last.  Here’ the illustration

Getter 1 Transformation – In this order

Eagle + Jaguar + Bear = Getter 1

Getter 2 Transformation – In this order

Jaguar + Bear + Eagle = Getter 2

Getter 3 Transformation – In this order

Bear + Eagle + Jaguar = Getter 3

The 3 Getter Robo come with unique and amazing fight capabilities when facing tougher mechanical monsters dispatched by the Dinosaur Empire with notable signature attacks. Getter 1 being very agile with its Tomahawk, Getter 2 with its highly-powered drill arm that can penetrate on any type of surface, and lastly Getter-3 with its overly-stretchy arms that extend up to several hundred metres in range to grasp any opponent to do a ‘throw’ ie Hammer Throw (as Musashi’s a judo expert). And they’re all come together along with Professor Saotome’s support and his children, Michiru and Genki Saotome to thwart the evil attempts of Dinosaur Empire’s conquest for Earth domination.

And so there lies a question I’ve been meaning to ask myself about. Was Getter Robo considered as the first “Transformer” ever in the history before the prime days of Transformers G1 that took over USA and the rest of the world? Well. Yes and no, depending on how you look at it. Facts gathered that even though Getter Robo succeeded in combining three units into one large unit, and its morphing capabilities into 3 robots suggest transformation is the valid description for this. However, another angle pointed out that a true Transformer is really a robot that puts itself in disguise of any object, be it cars, radios, trucks, construction equipment or even your Iphone! They can transform into robots that hold all the properties of their respective disguises, which shapes their robotic appearance. It makes you think logically Transformers do what they always do best. They always put into disguise. And they can always transform back to being robots again. Whereas Getter Robo can’t. It couldn’t fit in this category because the three units were not ‘transformable’, separately. So there’s no way Getter Robo is truly the first Transformers, so to speak.

But then again, you could also argue that if Getter Robo did not introduce this ‘morphing’ capabilities in its series, then it would have not inspired other countless super robot anime artists who incorporated this element into their own robot shows and continue to thrive their imagination to take place. Meaning, the Transformers as we know today oughta give plenty of credit to Getter Robo for bringing its own existence, doesn’t it? I really do believe it should. After all, you’ll come to know there are other startling facts behind the Transformers that the Japanese did invented the Transformers, whereas USA was responsible for the branding behind the titular name (and the catchy opening music).

Later on, I’m planning to add further interesting details about the series in regard of the plot and character development, once I get the original classics on DVD release in my hands.  More to come.

One of the great anime legends of all time.  Such story.  Such epic.  Such fascinating story that comes with great scenes of robot-planes fighting scenes with a bit of love triangle that involves our young pilot hero, Hikaru Ichiyo who’s caught in between two women that are very important to his life.  The series captivated my former childhood’s heart and soul, at that time.  It had everything that any classic anime could attest to.  It became a grand masterpiece that any mecha fan in my time would consider as their past time favourites.  A fabulous series to watch and cherish for many years to come (which resulted a number of websites which brought up by several Macross fans all over the world to commerate them such as MacrossWorld.com and a Wiki site that looks into Macross’ universe in greater depth).

For most of you are probably aware the fact that this series has two versions of plots ie it’s catered for two countries’ audiences only.  We have the Original Macross which was geared for the Japanese mainstream public (and other Asian nations), and then we have the English version which it was retitled as ‘Robotech Masters’ that targeted for the USA market. Solely.  So how did such a great program like this ended up in two different continents of the globe with different titles yet the visual content and character development are the same?

Well.  Before we unravel the details behind this confusion, let us take the journey back to the early 80’s when robot anime became a boon for Japan (and the rest of the world).  A young Japanese student named Shoji Kawamori, who always wanted to get into animation industry to show his artistic talents and gifted-story telling abilities whilst he’s still studying in Keio University.  At the time, it was a major difficult path for him to take as he’s studying and working on the story development of Macross at the same time so expectations and responsibilities soon overwhelmed him on a day by day basis.  Nevertheless, he pushed on and decided to take this mission, as if it were a destiny for him.  During those early years of the 80’s, it wasn’t certainly easy.  But he succeeded it.  With his long time university friend, Haruhiko Mikimoto, they both worked together studiously to deliver its great epic of drama.  This success didn’t not come with one simple iteration they both worked on.  Clearly, a lot of determination and preseverance made this possible.  Getting a large mixture of geo-political warfares, a complex triangle-love romance, incredibly fast-paced robotic-plane technology, heartfelt songs/music and several memorable twists of humour was the grand scale of plan they had in store for us.  As a avid fan, I would drop my had and applaud them with great sincerity.

At this time, Shoji Kawamori looked at the Real Robot subgenre for his Macross series.  And it worked out pretty well.  After all, you notably see that a lot of his mecha were designed closely on all of VF plane fighters models. They’re based on the actual XB-70 Valkyrie, a supersonic jet bomber that used in tactical warfare developed by the Americans several decades ago.

The story revolves around a alien spacecraft that landed onto one of the Earth’s shore in 1999 and a special military organisation came to that site to discover this technology was so advanced that it

could prove very useful for the human race as part of global military strategy.  They reversed-engineered the technolgy and gave it a name SDF-1 or “Super Dimension Fortress” Macross.  When this project was completed in 2009, alien in a distant galaxy happened to arrive within the Earth’s solar system and detected heat source of the missing space craft as it belongs to them.  Soon later on in the story, a space war broke out, Hikaru become a better VF-figther pilot and he eventually meet up Lynn Minmay and Misa Hayase in the most unusual relationships, we started to learn bigger truths about the alien encounters.  Aliens know as the Zentradis after capturing humans, they started to believe humans were the ancestors of their race, known as the Protoculture. Meaning that human beings are “the first extraterrestial humanoid civilization in the universe that occurred over a million years ago.  This civilization had proven leaps and bounds in terms of advanced spacy technologies they used/researched to make their race more powerful.  They invented a sub-light travel velocity in time and space continuum.  And 100 years later, Zentradi were genetically modifed thanks to the expanding influence of Proculture spread into wider colonization of the universe.  The show gathered great accolades of fanfares around Japan and Asia all over.

On the other hand, we have the American version ie Robotech, which the production company Harmony Gold had obtained the licensing rights over Macross material along with the other two (Southern Cross/Genesis Climber Mospaeda) and re-edited the story lines and linking all three of them as a chronology that talks in a complete different medium compared to the Original.  In Robotech, the Protoculture was termed

“powerful energy source, a catalyst in genetic engineering, a hallucinatory substance, and the described “lifeblood” of two different races. As the “foodstuff” and the by-product of the Flower of Life, it is used by one race, the Invid, in “finding the ultimate lifeform through the ritualistic eating.” The Robotech Masters also call it “the lifeblood of our existence,” and say their “foremost goal is to control this life force by conquering Earth” — from Wikipedia.org

Whatever that means…  It makes little sense to me how and why Harmony Gold decides to create

such incredibly convoluted plot taking 3 mecha series merged into one so-called ‘chronology’ when in fact they bear no relevance against each other.  They could have just made a direct translation of Macross story (even dubbing!)  and tell things as they are and the story made more sense to common masses of mecha fans out there, so we don’t end up having divided opinions on who’s telling what stories and what. I never figure out why the American company took down this path of producing such translation, other than betting on the possibility of making a unique adaption of it series to call their very own “Macross” saga.  I must say they were doing it pretty well with their little piece of work.

Anyway I must digress. Macross is, without a doubt, considered the greatest mecha classic of our time.  People in my generation would remember how great the film gave us the sense of gravitation and we knew how other programs would find it hard to compete with the show that had this level of magnitude of success in its reins.  The romance, eye candy, the environment, the incredible dog-fight style scenes of robot planes vs Zentradi, the wonderful designwork  of Shoji Kawamori’s VF Fighters, the heart, the politics, etc etc.  And last, but not least, the music and songs that captivated our hearts and minds that render our thoughts to enjoy everlasting tranquility and peace while humanity fights against those that threatens human ideals, and (hopefully) bring an end to war. “Ai Oboete Imasuka” – meaning “Do you remember Love?” in English.  What a great song.

It’s truly gem to hear this over and over again.  I find that its unique quality that today’s mecha anime would find it hard to compete its standards unless there’s new generation of anime artists that could surpass Shoji Kawamori.  It could happen. We just don’t know yet.

Mazinger Z.  Yes, the greatest robot anime of all time in Japanese animation industry as anime industry analysts said.  I heard so much about it from many great accolades of fans(old and new) that the show trully defined its own special subgenre of anime , of that we all  now know as ‘Mecha’. The show’s popularity had grown exponentially over the years between 1972-1974  and many children at the time gave incredibly high ratings for it.  The scale of its popularity is almost comparable to likes of the Beatles’ mania that exploded throughout the 70’s!  But at a much smaller scale, matter-of-factly, within the shores and soils  of Japan. But sources gathered that it became a

Mazinger Attack - Rocket Punch

major hit in Spain and Italy so the show made quite an impact that Mazinger Z is recognized as a symbol of ‘cult’ status just as much as what Beatles did in other specific continents of the world.  Yet, personally I never knew anything about Mazinger until last year when I run into Wikipedia, and looking up for all great super robot shows.  As I read the history on the developments of this genre, I arrived at the conclusion that (hence my post’s title) our infamous anime creator, Go-Nagai, delivered a simple manga produce that turned itself to be the great ‘mother’  of all super robot genre shows in our lifetime so far.  Without it, we would not have seen so many talented anime artists coming out of Japan to produce great mileage of robot series and ever growing fan base of robot anime enthusiasts out there, across the globe.

So what is Mazinger Z, truly?  What is it all about?

Mazinger Attack - Breast Burn

Mind you, I never watched this show in my country of Malaysia while growing up, but I distinctly remembered seeing programmes produced by Go Nagai, but it appeared under a different broadcasting agency called Force Five series.  And I saw the opening credits that went by saying ‘Animation created by Go Nagai’ for the shows of Getter Robo(known as Starvengers) and UFO Robo Grendizer (also known as Grandizer). I was deeply shocked about this because we lacked the public information that Go Nagai was truly

Mazinger Attack - Koushiryoku Beam

the great genius behind these shows and we didn’t have the privilege to watch Mazinger Z which started it all??  It doesn’t make any sense.  How can we supposed to acknowledge his great works of art when the media came and made us to think these programmes were made in USA, but it’s all because of licensing and broadcasting rights USA companies like Force Five Series can take and rebrand the product to get a different name and the kids just watched thinking these are memorable cartoons on Saturday mornings??  I felt my mind’s been plagued by these distortions and I find it sad I only came to know the truth at the later stages of my life.  Tsk…. Tsk….

Mazinger Attack - Rust Hurricane

But still, I’m glad to say even where I’m at in my life now, I finally get to know what Mazinger Z is thanks to the ever-growing presence of internet that lets you connect people in so many ways.  Especially in the mecha community field.  I’m glad this technology has allowed me to seek the bigger and better picture of what mecha anime industry is going about.  I’ve learnt heaps about this in particular.  Go Nagai pioneered the whole mecha genre inside out and that’s how many animators in Japan could produce several, if not all, successful anime programmes of this genre for last 30 years.  His visual concept of a person ‘piloting’ a robot as if he was riding an aeroplane was a genius idea in the making.  The coolest part of his design is that when giant robots are given special commands for attack, the pilot would yell the attack sequence and the robot will launch them.  And suddenly everybody’s gotten completely bonkers over this and soon many robot shows are following the same ‘format’.  Really ingenious and stupendous. So it would be fair for me to acknowledge that his series also sparked another new mecha subgrene, called “Real Robot”.  Go Nagai  was not involved with any of Real Robot developments.  It was one of other famous Japanese mecha artists and producers by the name of Yoshiyuki Tomino, who’s responsible for converting Super Robot mecha genre into Real Robot genre (click here on his Wiki page for more info). Yoshiyuki used to do a lot of previous work on Super Robot genre for several years before he’s decided to make Real Robot a success with his life-long series of Gundam shows.  Officially, he’s the godfather of “Real Robot” since then.  Thanks to ongoing success of several super robot anime series in the early 70s, 80s this part of animation industry enjoyed, Real Robot became a possibility.  You gotta give plenty of credit for Go Nagai how much impact his Mazinger Z did on Tomino’s works, including others.

One other interesting element I find about Mazinger Z is how so many successful super robot series shared the same element of story-telling Go Nagai had for Mazinger Z ie “father-builds-robot-for-son-so-he-can-ride-it-to-save-the-world-from-bad-guys” part to  having every new enemy robot featured on every episode.  Examples for these are Toshi Gordion, Steel Jeeg, Groizer X , Mechander Robo, Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3, Trider G7 etc.  It’s very refreshing to think back how great every robot anime I watched in those days all shared one common thing.  And that to me that’s the winning formula for making great mecha anime series, all the time.

I’m looking forward to watching the original series from beginning till the end now that I have the copy of its DVD release.

The boy wonder.  Well technically, not a biological one.  A robot made to mimic the life of a 12-year old boy in real life said to the world’s greatest hero for peace and harmony and thwart all evil robots on the earth.  Hence the title of the post.

I was originally hesitant to put Astro Boy (also known as Shin Tetsuwan Atom in Japanese) as part of my ongoing collection of all mecha series I love to keep in my blog, as the word ‘mecha’ supposedly meant a pilot controlling a robot from inside either within a cockpit or its chest.  (Tetsujin 28 is no different, but we’ll get into that point later).

Nevertheless, I decisively reserved this page for this ‘unconventional’ form of robot as this series made a lot of serious contribution to the manga/anime world all over, as we all know that Osamu Tezuka is the creator of the series.

Osamu Tezuka

Osamu Tezuka was hailed the “God of manga” from its sources on IMDB.com.  Several noteworthy anime/manga he created under his belt were recognized publicly in Japan and the rest of the world (including the likes of Walt Disney who once did request Osamu to sign up to do some production work on Disney’s animation).  His Astro Boy was rather interesting.  In terms of its craze and possibly unprecedented popularity.  In Japan, this was the very first manga series produced in the mid 1950s.  It ran for more than a decade.  It was so popular that it became a major hit as aTV anime series later on in 1963 by Mushi Productions.  His other manga artworks did come through as well, as clearly Osamu Tezuka was granting himself as a legendary status of the father of manga artworks for over 4 decades.  So it’s little wonder why Go Nagai has high regards for him when he shared his thoughts on Osamu’s humanitarian ways with the French presses at Japan Expo in Paris in Oct 2008.  (Click here for the interview link.)

Astro Boy Gallery

The series served plenty of credit, if not part of a direct contribution to the existence of mecha subgenre up to this point.  The elements of story-telling is all too common we all hear of late.  Good guys are brought up into this world to rid us the bad guys.  Its been a long lasting tradition that robots are designed by fictional scientists in the hopes to serve the mankind in order to achieve not only better use of science and technology in the right way but also accomplishing humanitarian ways that no military forces in any day of age could possibly do with their own resource.  Think Dr Saotome(Getter Robo, Getter Robo G),  Professor Ochanomizu  (Astro Boy), Dr Kabuto (Mazinger Z,  Great Mazinger, Getter Robo Series, Mazinkaizer), Professor Shiba (Steel Jeeg), Dr. Daimonji (Great Sky Demon Dragon Gaiking) etc etc.  Ironically enough, the AstroBoy comic creator himself was a medical doctor who used his talented surgical hands to bring this ‘fictional’ boy to life, in hopes on bringing great joy and entertainment for everyone of all ages and races.  After all, with Astro Boy’s eternally youthfuly looks along with Pinnochio-esque inoccence and his honest nature that gives the warm feeling that he’s going to help everybody to get through any obstacle in life, why wouldn’t children start to grow liking him, as much as the adults do?  It proves so since its debut 50 years ago.  I faintly remembered watching it so young that time but I guess in my country it wasn’t such a mainstream program every kid would talk about.  So I guess now I’m learning more about it, I’m starting to understand how greatly relevant this is to my personal exploration of mecha chronology over the ages.  It clearly shows its age and times now.

In my opinion, Astro Boy willingness to save every human being on Earth certainly gave Mitsuteru Yokoyama and Go Nagai inspiration to tell us normal folks that robots are used for good as long as they’re driven by the correct pilot, setting out to do things what is right and serve justice.  Giving them the image of heroic characteristic of any superhero character you can think of ie Superman/Spiderman.  But obviously in a different medium that Japan knows.

So without doubt, Osamu’s works has made these talented artists possible for us to enjoy mecha over the last 30 years and I’m sure it deserves its place on Generation Mech’s Journal.com for many years to come.   This is the beginning of it.