Page 140 of the Super Robot Encyclopedia

Today's update is kind of random.


Page 140: Hades Project Zeorymer, an obscure series from the late 80s, brought into the spotlight after two Super Robot Wars games it was featured in. There, Zeorymer was very powerful, had an ominous song, as well as original mecha designs. Apparently, it's based on an adult manga, which led to the cutting out of some of the hotter scenes. I chose this page mainly because I liked the series a lot back when I watched it. It should be notable that this is the first time I used the book itself for the translation, and it was much much quicker than usual. ^_^

I'd like some feedback on the white font I used to cover the shadow. Was it OK? Is it readable? I'm curious because it wasn't there in the original.

I've bought the Super Robot Encyclopedia

In the meantime, I've found the book on Play-Asia. Here are some pics of it:


The book is larger than expected, and the illustrations are indeed very rich. According to the cover, there are some 296 pages in it, so I'm impatient to get back to working on it, now that I don't depend on the scans anymore. From now on, translations will take less, because the text is crystal clear in the book itself. Lovely!

Page 44 typo

Thanks to trejo, I noticed that I'd forgotten to add the last part of Grendizer's summary. Here's the edited page:

Pages 43-45, 57 and 59-65 of the Super Robot Encyclopedia.

Finally, an update. Sorry for the delay.


Page 43: Great Mazinger's Data Compilation page.


Page 44: UFO Robo Grendizer and its pilot movie, The Great UFO War. It certainly took a lot to translate.


Page 45: Steel Jeeg. This page is an older edit, done back when the 2007 remake reached episode 13.


Page 57: The introductory page to Progress. Doesn't take a genius to guess whose fault it is for "the rise of the real robot". This is an older page.

Page 58 is in the first post of this blog.


Page 59: Second page about Mobile Suit Gundam. More info about the series. Please correct me if I messed up the part about the Magnet Coating.



Pages 60-61: Trider G-7. This time, it's about a rich kid fighting against aliens. This series showed up in Shin Super Robot Taisen and Super Robot Taisen GC/XO, which are not fond memories, despite their uniqueness. The former has full-sized sprites of the robots (as opposed to the usual Super Deformed style) but has awful loading times. The latter has 3D graphics (as opposed to ... oh, come on, you can figure this out), but is awkward when it comes to melee attacks and details. These are older pages.


Page 62: God Sigma, who is to show up in the upcoming Super Robot Wars Z. Note that the big bad is a lady. This is an older page.


Page 63: Baldios, who is to join God Sigma in SRWZ. It has an ... interesting ending, but not as interesting as the next one. This is an older page.



Pages 64 and 65: Ideon. This one gave Tomino his "kill'em all" fame, and most likely gave Anno some ideas for Evangelion. This, too, has been recently subbed, so you should see for yourselves.

Phew. Next update will be smaller, because Data Compilations are a pain in the ass. Just looking for the staff is murder on your brain.

Pages 41-42 of the Super Robot Encyclopedia

Uploading two pages, of which one is brand new.


Page 41: The introductory page to Data Compilation. This page has the first airdate for basically every mecha anime (or anime containing any robots) from each chapter. This one will need a version 2 after I finish the other pages.


Page 42: Mazinger Z. Each of the series with their title written in white on the introductory page gets a black-and-white page with character and mecha designs, as well as staff airdates. This page was supposed to be done months ago, but my file got corrupted back then, so I had to start from scratch. It wasn't pleasant. Anyway, Data Compilation pages take much longer to translate and edit, so I'll probably upload one such page at a time, along with some regular ones. From now on, it'll be rather hard to post them in order without doing so very rarely.

Next time, I'll be posting Great Mazinger and (maybe) Great UFO War / Grendizer, along with pages from chapter 3, Progress (the introductory page 57 and pages 59 &c)

Pages 26-40 of the Super Robot Encyclopedia

Phew. Now uploading 15 more pages of the Encyclopedia, 9 of which are brand new.


Page 26: Groizer X, another Go Nagai series. The only thing I knew about it was that it showed up in a Mazinkaiser promo, where other Go Nagai series show up as well. This page also features Machine Blaster (known in Italy as Astro Robot), a show which, according to Wikipedia, was slightly unsuccessful due to shows such as Com Battler V or Gaiking dominating among audiences. Still, remarkable for the original finisher move.


Page 27: A larger image of Groizer X, as well as info about UFO Senshi Daiapollon and Gowapper 5 Godam. Rather interesting that Daiapollon destroyed enemies from the inside and that Godam has the first female leader (although from what I've seen, she had an awful lot of lipstick. Then again, I mistook one of the pilots for a chimp. You'll see for yourselves) and that it uses karate moves. Too bad the design wasn't too helpful.



Pages 28 and 29: Magne Robo Ga Keen, successor to Koutetsu Jeeg among the Magne Robo series. Also aired in hispanophone countries under the name of El Supermagnetron. Features a man and a woman turning into plus and minus Magnemen and robots respectively. Most surprisingly, Pluyzer and Mighty don't combine into Ga Keen, but are in fact weapons. Neat.



Pages 30 and 31: Gasshin Sentai Mechander Robo. This series is maybe remarkable for the fact that the robot can only function for a while, at least until the Omega Missile attacks him. Also, I found it amazing that it uses a flexible metal to change sizes. That's Japan for you!


Page 32: Danguard Ace, featured in Jim Terry's Force Five. Is quite similar to the later Gunbuster in several aspects. Also interesting that the robot shows up quite late. This would be seen in Dancougar as well. The page also features Ginguiser, a robot powered by magic. Ironically, the title robot itself is horribly blocky. Made by the creators of Machine Blaster.


Page 33: Voltes V (pronounced "Five"). This series aired in Spain, Italy and the Philippines. In the latter country it gained a large fanbase, which led to its reairing and redubbing even after former president Ferdinand Marcos banned it for "dumbing down the children". Ironically, this series happened to bring a lot of depth to the genre, especially with likeable characters like Prince Heinell. This is the second series in the so-called "Nagahama Romance Trilogy", named after director Tadao Nagahama, whose series introduced a lot more character development than predecessors.


Page 34: Balatack. Unexplainably, this is the third of the "Magne Robo series", at least according to Japanese Wikipedia. At any rate, this a robot remote-controlled by ESP-ers. Nobody can accuse producers of lack of imagination, that's for sure.




Pages 35, 36 and 37: Zanbot 3. This is a super robot series directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, who starts showing what would later be his trademark plot devices. The show has recently been subbed (all 26 episodes of it), so go and check it out. It's notable that the robot was built around the 19th century, which explains the armoured warrior design. Also, this series might be the inspiration for Daitarn 3, who is sun-themed.


Page 38: Daimos. The third part of the "Nagahama Romance Trilogy", offering us a compelling story of love and war. Here you'll find the love story of Kazuya and Erika, a tribute to Shakespeare's undying Romeo and Juliet, and definitely not the last of these tributes in mecha anime. Also, the series features a karate-using robot. Awesome!


Page 39: Daitarn 3. This show also aired in Italy, where it became very popular. Featuring cool doesn't-look-18-to-me rich James Bond tribute Haran Banjou fighting against the Meganoids, created by his father Haran Souzou. One of the possible inspirations for The Big O later on.


Page 40: The last page from part 2 Awakening, featuring Daltanias (named after D'Artagnan), Daikengo (a robot with fangs) and Gordian (inspiration for Machine Robo: Revenge of Chronos).

Next update will not feature pages 41-56, because the Data Compilation contains, well, a lot of data such as voice actors, staff and various details about the mecha series (even Kabuto Kouji's favourite food!). The next update will start from part 3, whose main representant is Mobile Suit Gundam. Stay tuned for more.

Pages 6-25 of the Super Robot Encyclopedia

Time for a larger update. Today, I've uploaded 20 pages of the Super Robot Encyclopedia, of which one (page 6) is new.

Page 6: Astroganger, a robot series preceding Mazinger Z, about a robot made of living metal. Giant robots from Japanese movies up to 1972 are also featured. Gatchaman (Battle of the Planets) fans should be pleased to find their favourite series in the lower right corner.

Page 7: Intro to Awakening, the second part of the book. Again, I'll have to review both translation and editing one day. It's one of my earliest translations, so bear with any idiosyncrasies you might find within. On the other hand, note that both Mazinger Z and Getter Robo are featured. That is due to the fact that earlier robots, such as Iron Man #28 and Astroganger, relied on hand-to-hand combat, while Mazinger Z and company had fancier weapons, the now classic eye beams, swords and heat beams (and breast missiles, oh my!).

Pages 8 and 9 (remember, Japanese books are paged from right to left): On the first page we have Mazinger Z with all his aforementioned weaponry. This image shows Z after its final upgrades, which mainly consists of more weapons and the Jet Scrander, its crimson wings. Fans of the show and Super Robot Wars will notice that there seems to be a fairly large supply of missiles (placed in the abdomen). For those who don't know, in Super Robot Wars, Mazinger Z always has 99 ammo for his Missile Punch (which is among its weakest weapons in the game).
On the other page are Mazinger Z's stats and story. I might reedit it one day, since this was made before I started using Photoshop. Long live MS Paint! I'd like to thank the crew at MundoMazinger, a Spanish-language fansite dedicated to Mazinger's various incarnations. Their episode-by-episode screenshots helped me translate some of the info from later part of the text. Wonderful stuff. Here are the screens for Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger. Enjoy!

Pages 10 and 11: Getter Robo, the very first combining robot. Not only could it combine, but it even had 3 forms, according to the order of the components. This concept was so popular that it gave birth to many spin-offs and homages. Getter Robo is the joint work of Go Nagai and the late Ken Ishikawa. This book contains all Getter Robo spin-offs up to 2004.

Pages 12 and 13: First one is a homage to the three Mazingers, especially to the first piloted super robot, Mazinger Z. On the other page are its two sequels, Great Mazinger (Il Grande Mazinga in Italy, Gran Mazinger in Spain and other hispanophone countries) and UFO Robo Grendizer (Goldorak in France, Goldrake in Italy). Great Mazinger is Mazinger Z's successor. He was first introduced in the last episode of Mazinger Z, saving the eponymous robot from certain doom at the hands of two Mikene Beasts. This introduction was somewhat preserved in the movie version, called Mazinger Z tai Ankoku Daishogun (Mazinger Z versus the Great General of Darkness), except that Z had to face hordes of Mikene Beasts and that Great Mazinger defeats these enemies with Mazinger Z's assistance. Grendizer (which was aired in Romania around 1994-1995) comes as a sort of sequel to the two, since Kouji Kabuto, the pilot of Mazinger Z, returns as a sidekick to alien prince Duke Freed. In the US, Grendizer was adapted as part of Jim Terry's Force Five anthology. Also featured is The Great UFO War, a pilot movie to Grendizer. Screenshots here.

Pages 14 and 15: Yuusha Raideen, a source of inspiration for Rahxephon (unjustly considered an Evangelion rip-off). As a tidbit, Yoshiyuki Tomino, later known for Mobile Suit Gundam and Space Runaway Ideon, worked on this series.

Pages 16 and 17: Getter Robo G, Getter Robo's sequel. Among other things, you'll find out what the "G" stands for (at least according to contemporary sources). Getter Robo G also reached the States as part of Jim Terry's Force Five anthology, under the name of Starvengers.

Pages 18 and 19: Steel Jeeg (known in Italy as Jeeg, robot d'acciaio and in Latin America as El Vengador - The Avenger, being part of El Festival de los Robots, an anthology show, like Force Five), the first magnet robot. This series was remade in 2007 as Koutetsushin Jeeg (Steel God Jeeg). It's notable for the immense amount of tools and weapons, pictured on page 19. Again, these pages were edited with Paint.

Pages 20 and 21: Daikuu Maryuu Gaiking, which was aired in America as part of Force Five and in Latin America as a part of El Festival de los Robots, being called El Gladiador. Both anthology shows used to air their component anime alternatively. What's notable about Gaiking is that it has the very first battleship (the Daikuu Maryuu). The other page has an image of upgraded Gaiking. Note that the Mazinger-like mouth is replaced by a metal plate, meaning it can use the Super-Weapon Head - see page 20 for more info. Sano Hirotoshi does a great job at illustrating the classic robot.

Pages 22, 23, 24 and 25: On the first page, Com Battler V is using the Choudenji Tatsumaki (Super Electromagnetic Tornado), which paralyzes the enemy. On the second page, we see Com Battler using the finishing Choudenji Spin itself, in which it smashes through the enemy. Note that the illustrations are signed Kaneko Kazuma (who worked on Devil May Cry 3, Megami Tensei and Zone of the Enders 3). The third page shows the five components of the Com Battler. The bottom page has the stats and story behind this combining super robot (yes, it's a pun).

That's it for today. I'm going on vacation soon, but it's only for a week. Enjoy these classics of the 70s.