The final installment of the 12 Moments in Anime 2009, the gift that will finally stop giving today.
There are a few things to which you can attribute my fandom. Chalk it up most notably to Evangelion, the “show that made a million fanboys.” Before that, my interest was spurred on by ultraviolent Kawajiri’s OVAs like Ninja Scroll and Wicked City. Before that, the dark atmosphere of Vampire Hunter D fascinated me.
But before all of that, before I was even old enough to have the slightest idea what “anime” was, I watched cartoons on TV. Now, in the days before “japanimation” became something that companies could sell, the name of the game was adaptation, usually of 10-20 year old shows. And the adapters got everything wrong. They renamed the shows to some stupid nonsense (involving the word “Star” and a verb, usually). They threw Macross in a pot with some Mospeada and Southern Cross and stirred until it curdled into Robotech. And they replaced any lines that they didn’t feel like translating with random yelling and screaming. After all, who cares what them Japs wrote in the first place — it’s just some dumb kid’s show from the country where they make our radios (Contrast this with the aforementioned 90s, when “AUTHENTIC ANIME FROM JAPAN” is here and it’s NOT FOR KIDSSSSSS).
But occasionally, they were right. Yes, “Tranzor Z” is a dumb name. As is Deviline. And Dr. Demon is far less threatening than Dr. Hell. But what’s really important? The giant fucking robot that comes out of a waterfall and tears the shit out of bad guys, occasionally getting upgrades along the way. That’s what’s important. And on Saturday mornings, I sat transfixed as Tranzor Z did just that. I didn’t know or care how old the series was by that point, or what the names of the characters should have been. I was glued to the TV regardless.
So Shin Mazinger Shougeki Z-Hen’s first rocket punch, circa episode 3, wasn’t just an amazing moment. It was a moment of time travel. Time travel that Imagawa himself was obviously partaking in (and milking). Shin Mazinger is full of these moments. After all, it’s specifically built using all the parts you remember and love (some of them upgraded), without all the parts you didn’t like, and then constructed at 20 times the size of the original just so the impact isn’t lost on your cynical adult mind. It’s the Gurren Lagann principle: Its Gainax creators wanted to transport viewers to their childhood by increasing the scale to match your own widened picture of the world. And they did a great job, but they lacked the specificity of Imagawa’s angle. This is childhood, and this is hands down the greatest moment in anime 2009.
…ROCKETOO PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANCHE!!!
Word. Despite how my own childhood was dominated by a different super robot (Voltes V), the rocket punch was unforgettable. I mean, I forgot all about the rust hurricane, the photon beam, and the breast fire… but the rocket punch? NEVAR FORGOT.
Now if you’d check out Voltes V you’d know the absurd wonder of the Ultraelectromagnetic Top (the attack that the greatest local band in our history named their debut album after: Ultraelectromagnetic Pop by the Eraserheads).
I will have to check it out, although another old-school update (Giant Robo OVA) beckons first.
I agree Mazinger was the best 2009 series overall.
I grew up with Mazinger (which in Spanish was always Mazinger, I never heard of any Tranzors!!), then somewhat later came Transformers G1 and Voltron. I wonder what Imagawa could do with those last two.
The mind boggles at the possibility. I would much rather see the Imagawa Transformers than another Michael Bay version.