Great Mazinger



Great Mazinger is the second entry of the Mazinger trilogy.

Several millennia ago, a powerful civilization named Mykene thrived in the Greek island of Bardos. To defend their island from invaders, they employed metallic giants that blasted tongues of fire from their chests. However, an earthquake destroyed their island and the Mykene disappeared. For a long while it was believed they perished right then, but it was false. In reality they were forced to seek shelter underground, and a lot of them grafted their heads into powerful mechanical bodies to survive. However they longed to return to the surface again and getting the sunlight, fresh air, and unpolluted water back.

Many centuries later, Dr. Hell and Dr. Kabuto conducted research on Bardos and through different means both of them reached the conclusion that their civilization was still alive. Dr. Hell decided on allying himself with one them (which would be a bad move). Dr. Kabuto suspected the Mykene were preparing to return to the surface and take it back from humans and he decided to start taking precautions.

When his son and his daughter-in-law were mortally injured in a laboratory accident that went awry, he turned his son into a cyborg to keep him alive and revealed to him his plans and his fears. Kenzo Kabuto agreed to work secretly to prevent the Mykene invasion.

After the ending of Mazinger Z, Mazinger Z was easily destroyed by the Mykene Battle Beasts. Kouji and Sayaka went to study in America, leaving the defense of Earth on the hands of Tetsuya Tsurugi and Jun Hono, two combat-pro orphans who are slightly Darker and Edgier compared to Kouji and Sayaka. Piloting Great Mazinger -an upgrade to Mazinger Z, built by Kenzo, Kouji’s Not Quite Dead father, by improving upon his father’s plans- and Venus A, Tetsuya and Jun go to battle the Mykene Empire, led by the Emperor of Darkness, and eventually Tetsuya becomes the Worthy Opponent of The Dragon, The Great General of Darkness.

Considered Darker and Edgier than his predecessor, ‘’Great Mazinger’’ was less successful and less popular among fans, nonetheless, despite of it has more angst and character development. ‘’Great Mazinger’’ was followed by the next -and final- entry of the trilogy, UFO Robo Grendizer. There was several Crossovers among it and other Go Nagai series –such like ‘’Getter Robo’’ and ‘’UFO Robo Grendizer’’-, and the two main characters reappeared in ‘’Mazinkaiser’’.

A Character Sheet is now in construction.

This series features examples of:
"Tetsuya: "Jun was a very special person to me! GUILLOTINE KICK!""
 * Abusive Parents - Parents As People: Kenzo Kabuto. He almost died cause a laboratory experiment gone wrong, but his father saved his life. However both of them thought When this was revealed Kouji was too glad to hold a grudge, but Shiro took a long while until he could forgive him. Also, Kenzo had no troubles slapping Tetsuya when he thought his adoptive son was crossing the line. All of it finally bit everyone's butts at the end of the series.
 * Abusive Precursors: The Mykene Empire.
 * The Ace: Tetsuya. Both in series and pretty common in Super Robot Wars, he is considered like this.
 * Some Super Robot Wars Yonkoma stories have treated with that. This, for example:
 * Or this: ,
 * Ace Pilot : Tetsuya, considering the fact that he is a well trained combat pro, this is pretty logical.
 * One of the Super Robot Wars manga takes this Up to Eleven. He is such a good pilot that he can handles an army of Mycenean beast and its high class general with only a little help of Venus in a short time. In fact, he is so much of an ace that Egret Fehu considered Tetsuya to be an Ultimate Lifeform, being described as the soldier that humanity sought to achieve and, as a result . SANGER ZONVOLT sees the result of Great fighting with an expression that implies fear on his face.
 * The best part of it? While the Egret Fehu part is debatable, all of this(him defending the South Atalia base with Venus) is canon. And this is a story set before the event of Alpha Gaiden.
 * Advanced Ancient Acropolis: The Mykene inhabited the Greek island of Bardos. Their technologic level was miles ahead of any other culture of the same time, and the rest of the world would need millennia to catch up. However, one earthquake shook their island and destroyed their cities, and they were forced to seek shelter underground. They founded another civilization Beneath the Earth, but on the surface the only remainder left of their presence were abandoned, decaying ruins, and old legends about the Humongous Mecha they used to defend their land.
 * All Your Colors Combined: The Mazinger trilogy series have extensively played with this trope:
 * In Great Mazinger, the is won when Mazinger, Great Mazinger, Aphrodite A and Venus A combine their strongest attacks to bring Cool Airship Demonika down.
 * In UFO Robo Grendizer, Mazinger-Z, Great Mazinger and Grendizer combined all of their attacks in one manga scene to destroy a Vegan Starship. And in one of the movies, Grendizer and Great Mazinger combined their Chest Blaster attacks to destroy a Saucer Beast.
 * In the first episode of Mazinkaiser, Mazinger-Z and Great Mazinger used their Chest Blaster weapons in combination to melt a Mechanical Beast to slag.
 * Great Mazinger and Getter Robo have also combined their attacks in several movies.
 * The Super Robot Wars games have exploited this. When several of the Go Nagai mechas show up in the same game, they are given combination attacks. It is usually called Final Dynamic Special, and it is always impressive:.
 * Alliterative Name: Tetsuya Tsurugi, Kenzo Kabuto.
 * Always Chaotic Evil: The Mykene play with this trope. The Warrior Monsters are Humongous Mecha with the head of a Mykene soldier implanted in the giant mechanical body. Since the soldiers are indoctrinated to attack and wipe out anything non-related to the Mykene civilization, the trope is justified. On the other hand, the commanders of the army display different personalities and even honorable qualities (specially Ankoku Daishogun), and even though they are not portrayed like good, they are not portrayed like proud of being evil, but like a proud race of warriors want to return to the surface world after being forced to living underground for millennia.
 * Animal Mecha: The Mykene Empire army was split in seven armies. Five out of those seven armies were named after the animals their mechas resembled: mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes and insects.
 * Armed Legs: Great Mazinger has two attacks based around this, the Knee Impulse Kick (a retractable knee spike) and the Backspin Kick (a cutting blade in the lower leg).
 * Arrogant Kung Fu Guy : Tetsuya, mostly a Jerkass on daily basis, who always make sure that you know that he is a Combat Pro, both by his attitude, and his performance at battle.
 * Badass: Tetsuya. That is NOT debatable. Great General of the Darkness is also an absolute badass. During his duel with Great Mazinger, he beat the crap out of the giant robot, and in fact And in a promotional material featuring all Go Nagai robots, he single-handedly crushed all of them -minus Shin Getter Robo, Grendizer and Mazinkaiser-, and the slaughter didn't stop until Shin Getter Robo and Grendizer showed up.
 * Beehive Barrier: The Fortress of Science used a Beehive Barrier to protect the facility when under attack.
 * Beneath the Earth: The Mykene. Their civilization thrived in the Greek island of Bardos millennia ago. An earthquake destroyed their island and forced them to seek shelter underground. They lived below Earth for millennia, building their cities in networks of subterranean tunnels and caverns and grafting their bodies into Humongous Mecha to survive. Unlike fromn other examples from this trope they did not strictly harbored a grudge against humans... but they did not like them, nonetheless.
 * Berserk Button: Unless your name is Jun Hono or Kenzo Kabuto, do NOT EVER slight Tetsuya's skills.
 * And don't even try to hurt or threaten Jun or Kenzo, as a Mykene Battle Beast found the hard way.

"Kenzo: "He’s crying. My son is… My son…!"
 * Several Mykene Battle Beasts found the hard -and extremely painful- way.
 * In an arc of the Gosaku Ota episodes, a Corrupt Corporate Executive thieved Great Mazinger's plans to produce and sell his own Humongous Mecha. One of his imitations managed to defeat Great Mazinger (by preventing Tetsuya from docking). When Kenzo, Tetsuya and Jun tried to convince him to stop building Humongous Mecha, the man told they were just jealous of his robot was stronger than Great Mazinger. Tetsuya inmediately lunged at him, shouting he had NOT lost.
 * Big Bad: Emperor of Darkness.
 * Bigger Bad: He played this role in the first series.
 * Big Creepy Crawlies: Overlapping with Animal Mecha, one whole host of the Mykene Empire army were bio-mechanical, massive insects. Their commander, General Scarabeth, resembled a gigantic rhinoceros beetle.
 * Big Damn Heroes (Tetsuya's forte. Even his debut was a Big Damn Heroes moment in the final episode of Mazinger Z, where, fresh off beating Dr. Hell, a new, more powerful army appears and promptly whups Mazinger Z. When all hope seems lost, the brand shiny new Great Mazinger shows up on scene and proceeds to hand the new enemies their butts. Tends to happen a lot in the remakes, generally kicked off with a nice, big Thunder Break).
 * Black and White Morality: At first sight the Mazinger trilogy seems belonging to this trope since the the heroes are mostly good guys and the villains tend to be CompleteMonsters, but in reality the morality in these series is more greyish than it seems. Dr. Hell became mad after having endured years of abuse, insults and mockery from everybody -including his parents- since he was a little kid, and even when he made a good action, he usually got beaten and scorned. Great General of Darkness wanted taking over the surface world because the Mykene civilization had been forced to live underground for millennia and he wanted his people enjoyed again things humans take for granted -such like seeing sunlight and breathing fresh air-. Emperor Vega began invading other planets because his own homeworld was dying, and several of his henchmen were WellIntentionedExtremists wanted establishing a benevolent dictatorship because they genuinely believed Earth people would be better off. And, frankly, humans in the Mazinger trilogy often acted like utter bastards and forced the heroes to ponder why they bothered.
 * The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In: It happened several times.
 * Boss Subtitles
 * Bragging Theme Tune
 * Brainina Jar: The Kedora. Ken Ishikawa one-shot "The Relic of Evil" revealed that  They would show up later in Shin Mazinger.
 * Breath Weapon: Great Typhoon. Great Mazinger blows a jet of wind from its mouth grill to blow the enemy away. It is similar to Mazinger's Rust Tornado, but without the rust effect. Many Warbeasts also had breath-based attacks, usually expelling out fire, acid or even poison. One of the seven armies of Mykene Empire (the Reptilian Warbeasts) specialized in this kind of weapons.
 * Brother Sister Incest: This is an example where the issue is avoided due to them being adoptive siblings. Tetsuya and Jun were two orphan kids Prof. Kenzo Kabuto adopted. So they technically are family and in fact grew up together. However they are not related by blood at all, so nobody seems minding they are the Official Couple, and the issue is never brought up.
 * Not Blood Siblings
 * But Not Too Foreign (June combines this with But Not Too Black.)
 * Butt Monkey (General Hadias's role in a nutshell, he only gets to use three of his warrior beasts in the entire series while the other six generals use much more and multicapable robotic types pretty much take over the second half of the show (although they are shown much earlier). However, he is the only general in the show to hold his own against the Mazingers in the final showdown).
 * Similarly in Mazinger Z vs. The Great General of Darkness, Dante is the only spectral type warrior beast while the other six classes have two members.
 * Hadias and his warrior beasts get better treatment in the Super Robot Wars games though with Mamirez being the only spectral type not to appear in one to date.
 * If he's not potrayed for his status as The Ace or Ace Pilot Tetsuya Tsurugi in Super Robot Wars 4koma is this. Any single hole within his character is played for laughs.
 * Canon Immigrant (Great Mazinger later gets featured in the alternate retelling of the first of the trilogy, Mazinkaiser)
 * Caped Mecha: Great General of Darkness, obviously.
 * Character Development (The characters of Mazinger Z had only the basics of this, but the ones of Great get a bit more fleshed out.  )
 * Chest Blaster: Breast Burn
 * Classical Mythology: It has an increasingly important role in the trilogy. Dr. Hell finding several Humongous Mecha in the underground mazes of a Greek island has its basis on the Greek legend of, the giant man of bronze that protected Creta. Gorgon's Robeasts resembled gods, heroes and creatures found in the Greek myths. And in later retellings of the story (Z-Mazinger and Shin Mazinger), Mazinger-Z turns out to be and Emperor of Darkness becomes
 * Climactic Volcano Backdrop: One battle between Great Mazinger and Marquis Janus took place in Janus' Volcano Lair (in Gosaku Ota manga). As Tetsuya battled Janus and her troops, the volcano erupted and vomited lava, rocks and cinders, walls crumbled down and the place collapsed around them.
 * Clothing Damage: Jun Hono suffered from this more often than Sayaka (much to her disliking).
 * Combining Mecha: The Mecha Expansion Pack Augment type. Great Mazinger is powered by a little aircraft (Brain Condor) docking on his head. And later it got a second Jet Pack, the Big Booster.
 * Convection Schmonvection: Right like in the first series, many battles happened near volcanoes or IN volcanoes, and Tetsuya was protected from the asphyxiating heat, toxic fumes and other dangers by Great Mazinger's.
 * Cool Airship: Mykeros and Demonika, Mykene Empire flying fortresses and airborne carriers.
 * Face Ship: Demopnika's frontside resembled the square, long snout of a mammalian beast. Mykeros had multiple faces built along its entire perimeter in reality were gates to launch the Robeasts.
 * Crossover (Out of all 70's anime based on Dynamic Productions mangas Great has the biggest number of crossovers - one with UFO Robo Grendizer, one with Getter Robo, one with Getter Robo G and one with Getter Robo G and Grendizer at the same time).
 * Cyborg: Prof. Kenzo Kabuto and Archduke Gorgon. And if you keep in mind the Warrior Monsters were bio-mechanical Humongous Mecha were controlled by the brain of a Mykene soldier grafted into it, then you have to that series' Robeasts were giant cyborgs.
 * It is both played straight and subverted:
 * It is played straight with Kenzo. His sons, Kouji and Shiro grew up believing their parents had died cause a laboratory experiment that went wrong. It was not a bad reason, even if it was somewhat weak because Juzo was also building another Humongous Mecha and he raised them, even if he hired a maid because he was nearly always absent.
 * It is subverted with Kouji and Shiro's mother in the original series. In episode 90 from Mazinger Z, their mother appeared in the Institute, revealing she was alive and asking meeting her sons before telling them why she let them believe she was dead during years. Shiro was happy of getting his mother back, but Kouji was distrustful.
 * Danger Room Cold Open: The Fortress Of Science was equipped with one of these. It appeared for first time in episode 3, and the scene showed Jun dodging rounds of machine gun mounted on the walls as Tetsuya her training and gave -or better said, barked out- advice.
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy : The Mykene. Oh god the Mykene. Not only most of them are a good fighter and thinker, they know that the biggest weakness of Great Mazinger, is the fact that it is a piloted robot. This resulted in Near Villain Victory for the Mykene as early as the third chapter.
 * Darkest Hour: In the anime it happened in the last episode: the Mykene bombarded the Fortress of Science, Kouji and Tetsuya were forced to fight separately, Tetsuya was defeated  and Prof. Kenzo Kabuto  And in the Gosaku Ota episodes it was worse AND It Got Worse.
 * Nevertheless, in that same manga the Darkest Hour happened in one of the last arcs: Great Marshall of Hell blackmailed the Government into destroying the Fortress of Science, Great Mazinger and Venus A. The Fortress was blown up to bits and crumbled into the ocean, the heroes were forced to flee and hiding, and while they were seeking a shelter and lying low, the Mykene army conquered Japan.
 * Death From Above: Great Marshall of Hell fabricated a massive lens of ice orbited around Earth and worked like a Kill Sat by focusing sunrays in one single point and blasting it with a massive, hot-melting heat ray. It appeared only in one of the manga continuities, though.
 * Destructive Saviour: When Tetsuya, Jun and Boss fight against Warrior Monsters... usually the battlefield gets destroyed. And if it happens in one city... there is no much city left to speak of in the wake of the battle. However one Gosaku Ota episode showed if Great Mazinger did NOT stop the Beasts, there would be not even ruins left: the planet would be turned to nothing but rubble littering the scorched land.
 * Detachment Combat: Tetsuya several times detached the Big Booster off Great Mazinger's back in midair so it flew towards the enemy and impaled it.
 * The Determinator: Tetsuya. Not matter how hurt he is or how badly damaged Great Mazinger is, he will NEVER give up (because in his mind giving up would mean he would let his surrogate father down). A Super Robot Wars Manga plays with it, showing he can not care less if he is outnumbered or hurt.
 * Tetsuya: That's right... It's fine if you tell me... to fight... I'll keep answering with the same answer... MAZIN GO...
 * Disappeared Dad:
 * Distracted By the Sexy: Just how many times Boss ran into an obstacle because he saw Jun walking by and he stopped looking forward while he walked?
 * Doing in The Wizard: In the Mazinger versus Great General of Darkness, a prophet warns Boss and his gang -and later Kouji and his friends- about the inminent Mykene invasion. It turns out that
 * The Dragon (Great General of Darkness (aka Ankoku Daishogun). Co Dragons include Archduke Gorgon, Minister Argos, the Seven Mikenese Generals (mostly Julicaeser), and Marquise Janus (Gorgon's successor after .)
 * Dr. Hell as the Great Marshal of Hell takes over his position starting in episode 36 after.
 * Doomsday Device: Great Marshall of Hell loved to design and build them -right like he did . One of those devices -appeared only in the Gosaku Ota manga- was a giant, ice lens orbited around Earth and worked like a Kill Sat.
 * Elaborate Underground Base: Seeing Supervillain Lair example below.
 * Eldritch Abomination: Several of them showed up in the trilogy, often overlapping with Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: Great Emperor of Darkness (Big Bad from Great Mazinger), Gilgilgan (of the Great Mazinger vs Getter Robo movie), Grangen (of the Great Mazinger vs Getter Robo G feature), Dragonsaurus (of Grendizer, Getter Robot G, Great Mazinger: Kessen! Daikaijuu movie), the Bigbad of Super Robo Retsuden (a Crossover penned by Ken Ishikawa featuring the most popular Humongous Mecha of Go Nagai)... and in the Shin Mazinger Zero manga
 * Everyone Can See It:Tetsuya and Jun. Unfortunately, Tetsuya was even more oblivious than Kouji. How oblivious? He thought Jun would replace him with Kouji in spite of: Jun barely knew Kouji; and she had spend the whole series trying Tetsuya noticed her.
 * Lava Adds Awesome: One of the weapons of Marquis Janus' Island Base was an artificial volcano built on the island could vomit rocks and lava when Janus needed.
 * Expository Theme Tune: "I am great! I am Great Mazinger!"
 * Face Revealing Turn (Marquis Janus)
 * Falling Into the Cockpit: Averted. Tetsuya and Jun were taught to pilot their machine wars by Professor Kabuto before their first enemy engagement.
 * Fem Bot: Venus A, Jun's Humongous Mecha. Diana A also reappears in the final episode.
 * Final Battle: It varies depending on if we are discussing the Go Nagai manga, the anime series or the Gosaku Ota manga. In the anime version, The manga versions are similar, but there is a very important difference in the Gosaku Ota version: Tetsuya
 * Finishing Move: Technically, the first proper one of Super Robot Genre is Thunder Break. Unlike his predecessor, Thunder Break serves as both Tetsuya's most used and iconic weapon, and his finisher against most of his opponents.
 * Giant Equals Invincible: Played straight.
 * Giant Flyer: The division of the Mykene army commanded by Birdler were all giant, bird-like mecha.
 * Giant Robot Hands Save Lives: It happens several times. Also, in the Nagai Heroes e-manga, Diana A -piloted by Sayaka- saved Jun's life when she got thrown from a flying fortress.
 * Giving Someone the Pointer Finger (Great's trademark pose when using Thunder Break)
 * Good Scars Evil Scars: Kenzo Kabuto has a scar runs along of the left side of his head, atopping right above his eyebrow.
 * Good Wings Evil Wings: Great Mazinger had two sets of wings: two red metallic wings unfolded from its back, and Big Booster (a grey Jet Pack docked its back. Big Booster wings were triangular and grey-colored). Several squads of the Mykene Empire army were formed by animal-shaped, bio-mechanical Robeast (such like the Avian army or the Insect army), so it was usual seeing Monster Warriors equiped with wings of bat, bird or insect.
 * Greek Mythology: (Pretty much the theme of the main villains).
 * Heroes Prefer Swords: Tetsuya was the one introduced the trope (combined with Dual Wielding!)in mecha shows.
 * Hidden Depths: Tetsuya appears to be a simple superior and arrogant "second Koji" at first sight. After some way through the series, his character begins to be shown to be MUCH deeper than what it is at first, including a Deconstruction of the same character Archetype that he introduced in mecha shows. Consider that most of this pages entry are about Tetsuya and his characterization and you get the idea.
 * Home Base: The Fortress of Science was the place where the heroes lived and their HQ to fight the Mykene Empire. It stood out in sea beside the Japanese shoreline and it could submerge -doubling like an Underwater Base-. Some parts of the building could detach off the remain and work like a submarine or a flying carrier. Mykene Empire Home Base was necessarily an Elaborate Underground Base because they were a civilization lived underground.
 * It also was parodied. In the second episode, Boss' gang were looking for a Home Base for his Humongous Mecha. When finally they found one, Boss was pretty angry it was nothing but a rundown shack with one wall crumbled and holes on the roof.
 * Island Base: Marquis Janus' Home Base was at once a Cool Ship (it was mobile and could swim or dive underwater), an Island Base (it was shaped like an island) and a Volcano Lair (an artificial volcano had been built in the center).
 * Volcano Lair: Like noted above, an artificial volcano had been built in the center of Janus' Island Base. Its eruptions could be set off and stopped at will. Often it was used to blast Great Mazinger with a rain of hot-molten rocks, debris and volcanic cinders in order to slow down its advance or hinder Tetsuya as he battled.
 * Underwater Base
 * Honor Before Reason: Tetsuya is very hotheaded, and he will always refuse running away even when it would tactical sense making so. Great General of the Darkness also wanted challenging Great Mazinger to a solo duel to redeem his tarnished honor.
 * And then it got deconstructed and It Got Worse.
 * If It Swims It Flies: Great Mazinger was also equipped to fly and swim, and faced the same problems its antecessor.
 * Impaled With Extreme Prejudice: Big Booster was a Jet Pack with a huge, retractable metal spike. One of the Tetsuya's favorite moves was throwing the Big Booster suddenly and impaling his enemy when it was flying.
 * Inferiority Superiority Complex: Tetsuya, very much. When you suspect your adopted sister will dump you for someone she barely knows, and at the same time get mad if someone questions your skills, you know you have this.
 * Its Personal: Fighting the Mykene army was not a personal matter for Tetsuya... until died. THEN it became personal right away. In the Ota manga chapters, Tetsuya has a personal grudge against Marquiss Yanus after
 * Jet Pack: Great Mazinger had a red Jet Pack folded from its back, and a second Jet Pack (Big Booster) docked with it. It was grey, with wide triangular wings, and was equiped with a spike to impale Robeasts. Venus-A also had an attachable Jet Pack, right like Mazinger-Z.
 * Kill Sat: Great Marshall Of Hell's giant lens of ice.
 * Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: Mazinger mainly used beams and rays, but Great Mazinger forfeited the Eye Beams and replaced them with swords and a boomerang.
 * Latex Space Suit (The pilot suits)
 * Lost Technology: The Mykene technology. It was seen for first time when Dr. Hell foudn an army of giant robots in the island of Bardos.
 * Luke I Am Your Father: Throughout the series, learnt  in reality was their
 * Luminescent Blush: Sometimes, for Jun or for Tetsuya when he was not busy playing the Chaste Hero.
 * Made of Indestructium: Just like Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger is made of Japanium, a rare metal can be found only in Japan. However Mazinger Z is made of Super Alloy Z whereas Great Mazinger is made of New Super Alloy Z, which is even sturdier and tougher.
 * The Man Behind the Man: In Mazinger Z, Archduke Gorgon was apparently a Dr. Hell's ally. In the last chapters we learnt he was a Dragon With an Agenda was working for a Bigger Bad, Great General of Darkness/Ankoku Daishogun. Likewise...
 * In the Mazinger-Z versus Great General of Darkness movie it is said the legions of Mykene Warrior Monsters are commanded by Great General of Darkness. He seems to be the supreme leader of the Mykene Empire. In first episode of Great Mazinger we learnt he is the supreme commander of the Mykene army, and he is under the orders of the Emperor of Darkness (also known like ).
 * Make My Monster Grow: Marquis Janus- could change size when needed. However usually she turned her Humongous Mecha into human-sized, so maybe it inverts the trope.
 * Mid Season Upgrade: Great Mazinger got the Big Booster (a Jet Pack increased its speed and was endowed with a retractable spike could be used to impale enemies with) relatively late in the series.
 * Missing Mom: Both, Tetsuya and Jun are orphans and their adoptive father was a widower, so that...
 * Mission Control: Prof. Kabuto and the Fortress of Science's Brigde Bunnies provided assistance Tetsuya and Jun in their battles.
 * Near Villain Victory: This series provides several examples. Two of them stand out:
 * In the Gosaku Ota manga episodes, Great Marshall of Darkness sucessfully blackmailed Japanese army into destroying Great Mazinger and the Fortress of Science. The army bombarded the Fortress and stormed into the place before blowing it up completely, and the heroes were forced to flee and lie low for a while. Meanwhile, Mykene army conquered Japan.
 * In the last episodes of the anime and Gosaku Ota manga, the Mykene army struck the Fortress, and attacked Mazinger-Z and Great Mazinger separately. Kouji and Tetsuya nearly got killed, and The generals of the Mykene army laughed. Five minutes later they were not laughing.
 * Perhaps, to show how Darker and Edgier this series is, the first chapter of the manga that Tetsuya started becoming the main character already have this. Jun is kidnapped and become a hostage, resulted in Tetsuya being unable to attack, and even if he can, he cant see well thanks to the snowstorm. Its the victory for the villain for sure, had Boss didn't interfere during the fight.
 * Not So Different : Proud of their skills as a warrior, protecting their kinds, yet prefer to show their superiority in combat towards their enemy, admires someone who can math their own skills, and many more to list. Yes, the only difference that Tetsuya have against the Mykene generals, especially Ankoku Daishogun is the fact that he is Human.
 * This get elaborated in Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden, where Tetsuya laugh in happiness after knowing that the Mykene is alive and he can fight them at that time.
 * OOC Is Serious Business: Tetsuya is serious, grim-looking and moody, and he seldom smiles. So when he grins, everyone freaks out and dons Oh Crap stares. Mainly Warrior Monsters, since it usually means they are about of dying horribly and painfully.
 * Orcus On His Throne: The Emperor of Darkness. He never left his throne in the Underworld, not even when
 * Papa Wolf: It is arguable if Kenzo was or was not a good father. It is not arguable when one his older biological son was about of being killed he sent a Humongous Mecha after the people was harming him. And when his adoptive son was about of being killed, he blew his assailant up. Therefore, you do NOT want to threaten the lives of his sons.
 * Parental Abandonment
 * Precision Guided Boomerang: Great Mazinger's V-shaped, red chestplate that shot a heat wave was also a boomerang could slicing through a whole Robeast easily.
 * Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Mykene. Many of them were warriors highly proud of their skills and eager for testing them, and their Robeasts were made by grafting into the body of a Humongous Mecha the brain of a soldier indoctrinated to fight and exterminate all non-Mykene civilizations.
 * Razor Wings (Great Mazinger's Great Booster).
 * Red Oni Blue Oni: Tetsuya and Kouji. Surprisingly, Kouji is the blue one, since he had matured somewhat in America and tried thinking strategically(not to mention having quite a lot of combat experience), whereas Tetsuya's jealousy turned him rash and impulsive.
 * Robeast: The Warrior Beasts.
 * Robo Ship: Great Mazinger and Venus A.
 * Rocket Punch: Atomic Punch, later combined with This Is a Drill in form of Drill Pressure Punch.
 * Power Fist: And its fists are reinforced with cutters run along the forearms.
 * Hand Blast: Great Mazinger's Thunder Break. The Humongous Mecha gathered lightning bolts from the atmosphere and blasted its enemy with it. Tetsuya came up with a bunch of variations: Great Mazinger shot a continued stream of electricity from its forefingers, launched lightning bolts from its open palms -or fingertips-, powered up its sword with it...
 * Sadistic Choice: It happened several times.
 * In one of the Go Nagai manga chapters a Warrior Monster was holding Jun hostage. Tetsuya did not dare to attack the Monster, but Prof. Kabuto ordered him throwing his doubt out and attacking (in spite of Jun was his adoptive sister, Battle Couple and Love Interest).
 * In the Gosaku Ota episodes, Great Marshall of Hell -Big Bad's second The Dragon- blew up one city and threatened with destroying Tokyo as well, unless the Japanese Government destroyed the Fortress of Science and all Humongous Mecha stored there.
 * Shock and Awe : Thunder Break, which is a directed lightning strike from Great's pointer finger. And later, Double Thunder Break which uses both hand to direct the lightning strike.
 * Combined with Awesome but Practical, Thunder Break is possibly one of the strongest attack of Great Mazinger, and also the one with most uses. Throughout the series, its the single move with most variaty of uses in Mazinger trilogy.
 * Sibling Team: Tetsuya and Jun, being adoptive siblings, combined this trope with Battle Couple. Also, Tetsuya and when they fought together.
 * Sizeshifter: Marquis Janus could change size, although she -and her Humongous Mecha- became smaller instead of bigger (Justified since she was a spy and by dwarfing her mecha to human size she could blend between humans), so maybe it invers the trope.
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Even though it is darker and more cynical than Mazinger Z, this series is still plenty idealistic. Only mustering all of their courage, heroism, unwillingness to give up and belief in the humanity, he heroes were able to carry forward and win.
 * Speech Impaired Animal: Bakarasu was a raven ("Bakarasu" roughly means "Dumb crow") Boss and his gang used as a lookout or a messenger. In return, Bakarasu mocked Boss, annoyed him and drove him mad. Bakarasu strangely could talk -and laugh, usually at Boss-, and theoretically it worked alongside Boss, Nuke and Mucha, but in reality it did whatever it pleased. It only had one appearance in Mazinger Z (episode 69), but he showed up in several Great Mazinger episodes.
 * Stock Shout Out : An inverted example. Reference and shout outs to Great Mazinger is pretty overused in suceeding anime.
 * During one arc of the Gosaku Ota manga, Tetsuya had to fight nine Mass-Production Great Mazingers were invading the Fortress of Science. Considering he is an arrogant Hot Blooded Ace Pilot with huge confidence issues, is not a bad guy -he may be even nice- but is a jerk when he is angry... Does it remind you of anyone else?
 * Super Robot Wars (Appears in all of the games except Shin Super Robot Wars, Super Robot Wars K and Super Robot Wars Z 2)
 * Supervillain Lair: since the villains were an subterranean empire, their base was Emperor of Darkness' palace, and it counted like an Elaborate Underground Base.
 * Sword Fight: Great Mazinger was the first Humongous Mecha used swords like weapon (even before Voltes V or Go Lion). Tetsuya was quite profficient using them, and he even did Dual Wield. Naturally he had several sword duels throughout the series, the most famous and most fondly remembered against Badass The Dragon Great General of Darkness.
 * Tagalong Kid: Shiro Kabuto, right like in the original series.
 * Take Over the World: The Mykene were an ancient civilization had been forced to survive underground for millennia. Big Bad and Physical God Emperor of Darkness and The Dragon Ankoku Daishogun wanted to return to the surface world and let their people enjoy sunlight, fresh air and clean water, and they thought take over the world was the only way to achieve that.
 * The Team Normal: Boss and his gang -Nuke and Mucha-, right like they were in the original series.
 * Technician Versus Performer : Koji and Tetsuya has a dinstinct way to pilot their own Mazinger. Koji is the Technician, who uses his weapons in normal way, such as Mazinger's Photon powered Eye Beam as a long range weapon, pure brute force and combine it with Combat Pragmatism. Tetsuya is the performer who combines his own Combat Pragmatism by using Great's wide arsenal of weapon in an unorthodox way, such as using Thunder Break as weapon infusion, Swords as Lightning rods, more directed version of Thunder Break, his surprisingly weird way of handling swords, and covering Great with the heat energy of Breast Burn(which later adapted in Super Robot Wars Alpha by Mazinkaiser for Kaiser Nova).
 * Telescoping Robot: Great Mazinger stored one sword into each shin, several cutters blades along its legs, and the buckle-like glass adorning its midsection in reality was a hatch opened up to launch a missile from. Oh, and two wings and a Jet Pack unfolded from its back.
 * Thematic Rogues Gallery: The Mykene's Warrior Beasts, split in seven thematically-organized divisions: the armies of Superhumans, Evil Ghosts, Mammalian, Avian, Aquatic, Insect and Reptilian Battle Beasts.
 * This Is Unforgivable: Right like his predecessor, Tetsuya was prone to spout this line when he got angry.
 * Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Tetsuya sometimes uses his robot's sword like a spear (the first time he did that was during his first appearance!). However, he holds it overhead like if it was a real spear when he does that, giving more verosimilitude to the action.
 * Token Minority (Jun is a half-black female lead *and* the love interest for the main character, reasonably impressive for a 1970s Japan kids' show.)
 * Tokyo Is the Center of The Universe: Subverted. For start with, the Headquarters of the Fortress of Science are not located in Tokyo on the Japanese shore. Therefore, the enemy feels not compelled to exclusively target and attack Tokyo. A lot of Japanese cities are destroyed, and in the Mazinger Z versus Great General of Darkness, the Mykene army struck New York, Londres and Moscow before striking Tokyo.
 * Tsundere: Mazinger Z had Sayaka, Great has Jun. Both of them have little patience when The Hero goes stupid. Jun, however, also has her own problems to deal with...
 * And this time, Tetsuya himself. He bickers a lot with Jun, but on the inside, he cares for her in more than brother sister manner (they are adoptive siblings in case you forgot).
 * Two Faced: Marquis Yanus has a human-looking face she uses to blend among humans and her true face, located on the "back" of her head. When she wants to switch to her true face, her neck turns one-hundred-degrees and her locks part sideways, revealing a demoniac face underneath it (She seems a demon or a Hanya). It is so nightmarish like it sounds.
 * Unbuilt Trope: Tetsuya is not only similar, he is EXACTLY what Asuka is made to deconstruct, word for word. He is a Hot Blooded Ace Pilot that is so arrogant that anyone that questions his skills will have a trouble with him. That same arrogance also made him bickering with Jun, and Tetsuya Would Hit a Girl even though Jun is both his Love Interest, his Battle Couple, and adoptive sister. On the other hand, he has a massive inferiority complex, and his lacking sense of self worth and constant fear of being replaced became FAR more apparent after Koji's return, which caused so many problems that later resulted in
 * And, much like Asuka Langley Sohryu, he had to pay a very heavy prize to learn his lesson.
 * And in one of the Great Mazinger manga back in the seventies he had to fight nine Mass-Production Great Mazingers... Yes, he is Asuka's template, definitely.
 * The Unfought: The Emperor of Darkness, outside of the Super Robot Wars Alpha games which is odd considering he's the Big Bad.
 * Unexplained Recovery: At the second-to-last episode, Whatever got left from him after that explosion surely sank in the ocean. Nonetheless he showed up again in the last season, his body grafted into a Humongous Mecha. One eyepatch covering his left eye was the only mark of the ordeal he had endured. Little explanation was given other than an statement of Emperor of Darkness had relived him and turned into one of his Warrior Monsters (and high commander of his army). It can may be worth mentioning many Mazinger-Z characters returned in the last episodes from the sequel, so maybe Executive Meddling was involved.
 * Ungrateful Bastard: Tetsuya and Jun had the same kind of gratitude and regard Kouji and Sayaka received for their world-saving efforts. Or even worse. In the manga episodes penned by Gosaku Ota -one of the Go Nagai assistants-, Great Marshall Of Hell During that time they had absolutely NO help to try and keep defending the humankind. They got many insults, though.
 * Unresolved Sexual Tension: Tetsuya and Jun. You would think the issue of them being adoptive siblings would be the main issue, but it is not. Tetsuya is an Oblivious to Love Idiot Hero FULL of issues -he is the Trope Maker for Broken Ace, Jerkass Woobie and Inferiority Superiority Complex in Humongous Mecha anime-, and he is obsessed with piloting Great Mazinger and fighting the Mykene Empire because he thinks if he does not, his life will be worthless and his adoptive father will love him no longer. Hence, he is unable to notice Jun's very obvious advances and flirting. And Jun is a Tsundere with plenty issues herself and little tolerance for oblivious fools. So they keep their Belligerent Sexual Tension throughout the entire series.
 * Use Your Head: Tetsuya is an even bigger of an offender than Kouji with this.
 * Villainous Breakdown: Great Marshall Of Hell -The Dragon of the second season- also had several of them at the end of series, mainly in the Gosaku Ota manga continuity. His expression and subsequent fit when was particularly beautiful.
 * Wham Line:


 * Why Did It Have to Be Snakes (Tetsuya and his hate of birds)
 * Worthy Opponent : Tetsuya and Ankoku Daishogun. And its mutual. Some of the Mycene general also view Tetsuya as a opponent that worth fighting against.
 * : It happened in the last episode to, that went in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge because it.