Who Digs Giant Robots?

I thought I'd make my first real post about what I've been obsessed over the most lately, Giant Robots, Super Robots specifically. My interest in heroes of the technological nature started with three separate cartoons if I remember correctly. The first was Iron Man, on the Marvel Action Hour which also featured a great Fantastic Four cartoon that for whatever reason just didn't interest me as much. I don't know what it was about Iron Man, maybe I just didn't find other heroes all that believable. Cosmic Rays weren't going to turn me into a Stretch Armstrong and getting bitten by a radio-active spider would probably give me cancer instead of allowing me to stick to walls. Iron Man however was born of technology, an armored suit that gave an otherwise ordinary man incredible powers. That I could buy, that I believed in, and Iron Man became my favorite super hero from that point on.


Next came The New Adventures of Gigantor on the Sci-Fi channel. At this point I didn't even know what anime was, or Japanimation as my friends and I originally called it, and just saw the show as any other normal cartoon. There was really nothing shocking or out of the ordinary for American television and it could have easily passed as your average cartoon. Gigantor (Known as Tetsujin-28 back in Japan) was my first giant robot, and my first foray into the Super Robot genre. Every episode was predictable with young Jimmy Sparks and his remote control commanding a mechanical behemoth to pound the living hell out of whatever giant robot was unfortunate enough to be the villain of the day. Though simplistic and silly, I was young and impressionable and Gigantor hammer punched his way to my heart. I just recently got to see a bootleg of this series again (since sadly no official DVD exists) and I was surprised by how much I actually remembered about this show. It struck the same cord as Iron Man (coincidentally Tetsujin-28 is Japanese for Iron Man-28), technology seemed the most plausible way for me to dream about super powers which probably branched off into my interest in science fiction in general. The impression this show left and the idea of fighting the forces of evil with a giant mechanical titan stayed with me for a long time, and was only strengthened by a brief obsession with Saban's Power Rangers like most male children my age. Despite not being as complex I still think Gigantor is cooler than the Megazord.


The third and final reason for my giant robot obsession was Robotech. Cartoon Network wasn't carried by my cable network for very long before the block called Toonami was created (It was much better in its original form than it is today). Robotech had been around for a while before then, but this was the first time I was able to see it. I know you otaku out there are screaming, "But it's three bastardized anime that are inferior in their Robotech form." I understand all that but for nostalgia purposes, the Robotech version of Macross is what influenced me, not the original (Which I also enjoy but that's not the point right now). I don't feel like explaining what all that means here so check out the wiki if you don't know what the heck I'm mumbling about. Despite Toonami showing another Super Robot show in the form of Voltron it was Robotech that caught my interest, the first Real Robot show I was ever exposed to. The soap opera like story telling was different than anything Western animation had provided me with thus far. Robotech challenged my beliefs in hero archetypes. This was a cartoon where no one was perfect, the bad guys weren't outright evil, and the goodguys sometimes lost or even died. This was mind-blowing for me at the age I watched it, almost incomprehensible. The action was fast and vicious and anything could happen to anyone. The robots themselves were as vulnerable as any other war machine instead of the invincible techno-gods I was used to (and the fact that they transformed into cool jet fighters didn't hurt either). After Robotech my love for all kinds of robot heroes flourished, in the hope of recapturing some of the magic I felt watching those earlier shows.

So let this post serve as a warning, if I ever get bored you might find me writing some reviews for robot shows or video games and rambling on about rocket punches and invincible super alloys.