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.