Mazinger Z: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''[[Expository Theme Tune|Koji can]]'' <br />

''[[Bragging Theme Tune|swim in the sky]]''<br />

''[[Humongous Mecha|In his robot-man]]''<br />

''[[Title Drop|Mazinger Z!]]''|[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZdLO1Oehpo The theme song]}}

Considered to be [[Trope Codifier|THE granddaddy]] of the [[Super Robot Genre]], ''Mazinger Z'' is the first entry of the ''Mazinger'' trilogy. The first manga version was serialized in ''Shueisha Weekly [[Shonen Jump]]'' from October 1972 to August 1973, and it later continued in ''Kodansha'' TV Magazine from October 1973 to September 1974. In December 1972, the anime version premiered on Fuji Television. The TV series ended September 1, 1974. A second manga series was released alongside the TV show, this one drawn by Gosaku Ota, which started and ended almost at the same time of the TV show.

Along with his brother Shiro, Kouji takes Mazinger, reaches the Photoatomic Research Institute directed by Juuzou's former right hand man Dr. Gennosuke Yumi, who practically adopts the boy. Eventually he's pitted in a continuous battle against Dr. Hell, presented in a good ol' [[Monster of the Week]] fashion.

* ''[[New Mazinger (Manga)|New Mazinger]]'': It was going to be a Mazinger series especifically made for the American market, but only one single volume was published in 1988 by First Publishing. The setting is an post-apocalyptic Earth after one hundred fifty years of constant war. Every armies use gigantic [[Power Armor|Power Armors]] to battle. One of them -called Mazinger- is piloted by Mayor Kabuto. In one battle he is transported to a parallel world inhabited by giants.

* ''[[Manga/Mazin Saga|Mazin Saga]]'': In this series Mazinger is not a [[Humongous Mecha]] but a mystic armor that turns the wearer into a giant. Three volumes were published in 1990, and other six in 1997.

* ''[[Manga/Z Mazinger|Z Mazinger]]'': In this version, Earth was invaded for a race of [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] were mistaken by gods. However, the most powerful alien warrior -named Zeus- rebelled against them and defeated them. Several centuries later they return and attack Japan, but Kouji Kabuto finds the robot of Zeus, and he accepts fighting on Zeus stead, renaming his robot to Z-Mazinger. [[Go Nagai]] wrote it in 1998, and it lasted five volumes.

* ''[[Mazinkaiser (Anime)|Mazinkaiser]]'': Following the success of ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'', and the Mazinger Z upgrade Mazinkaiser created for the series, this anime received a retelling in 2001 as an OVA series, ''[[Mazinkaiser]]'', which introduces said mecha into the Mazinger canon. The OVA also featured the characters from the second of the trilogy, ''[[Great Mazinger]]''. [[Go Nagai]] published an alternate one-shot in 2001, but in 2003, was published one volume adapted the OVA history, written by [[Go Nagai]] and drawn by [[Naoto Tsushima]].

* [[Armed Legs]]: Mazinger-Z had one rocket on each foot to propel it underwater, but Kouji also used them to fight. Usually he blast with them a ¨Mechanical Beast's face to force it to release Mazinger.

* [[Armor-Piercing Slap]]: Kouji, being a tactless [[Idiot Hero]], finds himself in the receiving end of these rather often.

* [[Attack of the 50 Foot Whatever]]: Many [[Robeast]] could switch sizes (the first was Baikong 09). Also, in an early episode [[Big Bad|Dr. Hell]] built a size-changing ray and turned [[The Dragon|Baron Ashura]] in a giant with it.

* [[Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other]]: Kouji and Sayaka. Although in the original manga they got along well, the anime series took their [[Belligerent Sexual Tension]] up to eleven -- and some of their fights were legendary. However, you always had moments where they stopped to get mad, bicker and insult each other and showed they cared for each other very much.

* [[Brain In A Jar]]: The [[Body Horror|Kedora]]. [[Ken Ishikawa]] one-shot "The Relic of Evil" revealed that {{spoiler|the Mykene controlled his [[Robeast]] by grafting the brain of a soldier taught to destroy all no Mykene civilizations into a parasitic organism, and it fused with a robot, giving the Mykene soldier complete control.}} They would show up later in ''[[Shin Mazinger]]''.

* [[Brainy Brunette]]: Professor Gennosuke Yumi and his daughter, Sayaka. Yumi is a [[Badass Bookworm]], and although Sayaka is an [[Action Girl]], she is pretty smart and knowledgeable.

* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: The original manga penned by [[Go Nagai]] broke the fourth wall several times. In one of the first episodes [[The Hero|Kouji]] gets forced to kill a [[Mook]] in self-defense and he suffers s [[Heroic BSOD]] thinking he is a murderer... until another character calms him down stating he was only defending himself and he is the main character and [[The Hero]], so he did no wrong. And in [http://manga.animea.net/mazinger-z-chapter-3-page-61.html this page] Count Brocken complains Kouji is a [[Combat Pragmatist]] and yells the main character should not fight dirty and the fans will cry. Kouji was not impressed.

* [[Breast Expansion]]: In a rare, non-human example Aphrodite A once got this. Kouji thought it would help to fight a flying mechanical beast (Gelbros J3). [[It Makes Sense in Context]].

* [[Breath Weapon]]: Rust Hurricane. Mazinger blows a jet of particle-charged wind from its mouth grill that corrodes the enemy into nothingness. Many Mechanical Beasts also had breath-based attacks, usually expelling out fire, acid or even poison.

* [[Bridge Bunnies]]: Photon Atomic Enery Research Institute [[Bridge Bunnies]] were a male trio and [[Man in White|wore white uniforms]]. They performed the ordinary functions of [[Mission Control]], collecting and interpreting data and reading it to [[The Professor]] or the pilots of the [[Humongous Mecha]], as well as sending them orders or receiving their messages.

* [[Calling Your Attacks]]: And HOW! Heck, arguably, Kouji MADE the trope.

* [[Canon Immigrant]]: Mazinkaizer, from [[Super Robot Wars 4]].

** It was inverted AND [[Deconstruction|deconstructed]]. Even although it is unclear every button and lever's function, EVERY ONE has a very specific function, and you can NOT simply press a random button and expecting Mazinger Z does whatever you want in the time. The first time Kouji activated Mazinger in the original manga, he nearly demolished one half city because he kept punching random buttons as trying figuring out how handling the damned thing. The same thing happened in the anime series, with the variation of it did not happen in one city. Even so, Kouji nearly got his little brother killed.

* [[Conveniently an Orphan]]: Kouji and Shiro's parents died on a laboratory accident {{spoiler|but in reality only their mother died}}. Sayaka has also lost her mother.

* [[Cool Airship]]: Guru, Count Brocken's aerial fortress. It appears for first time at the episode 40.

* [[Cool Bike]]: Kouji is a [[Go Nagai]] main character. [[Go Nagai]] main characters ride bikes. Sayaka and Boss also ride bikes.

* [[Delinquents]]: The [[Moral Guardians]] of the era didn't like Kouji, because he skipped school and used rough language.

* [[Despair Event Horizon]]: Kouji crossed it during the Mazinger-Z vs Great General of Darkness movie. After several Mykene Warrior Monsters have easily destroyed four major cities (Paris, London, New York and Moscow) they strike Tokyo. He launches Mazinger-Z to fight them... and he barely walks out of it alive. The Warrior Monsters easily rip his mecha apart and turn Tokyo into burning ruins as he is unable make anything to stop them. Back in the Institute, he learns MORE Warrior Monsters have visited while he was away. His [[Home Base]] is in ruins, Sayaka and Boss' [[Humongous Mecha]] have been destroyed, and worst of all, his little brother got hurt cause collapsing ceiling and is in coma. Later, Kouji was sitting on -the remains of- his room, and he cried as he said he knew he could not win and he was going to die in the next battle. Sayaka, who was eavesdropping, also cried as hearing him.

* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: Done by Kouji Kabuto in the Mazinger-Z vs Devilman movie, when he {{spoiler|beats the crap out of an army of demons}} as piloting his [[Humongous Mecha]].

* [[Disguised in Drag]]: Done by -of all people!- Baron Ashura at least twice (in episodes 7 and 36). He/she disguised like a woman to manipulate a mob or frighten nosy people away one of his/her operations. Fortunately he/she was a shape-shifter, so it was not so hard looking like a woman how it would be to him/her (on the grounds of Ashura being half-male, half-female). It overlapped with [[Creepy Crossdresser]] since it was pretty squicky -and eerie-.

* [[Give Me a Sword]]: In ''Mazinger-Z vs Great General of Darkness'', Kouji has been defeated by the Mykene War Beasts, his [[Humongous Mecha]] is utterly trashed, it barely functions, and its weapons are useless. [[Big Damn Heroes|Then Tetsuya shows up piloting Great Mazinger]], and as he begins to deliver a sound beating, he throws one of his swords at Mazinger-Z saying "You can use this" ([[Throwing Your Sword Always Works|and conveniently and intentionally impaling a Warbeast]]). Kouji catches the sword, and even though his [[Humongous Mecha]] is barely capable to move, he still manage to destroy one of the Mykene War Beasts, and he impales the Mykene commander was leading the squad. The sword was returned to Great Mazinger afterwards, along a heartfelt "Thank you".

* [[Giving Someone the Pointer Finger]]: Kouji ''loves'' doing this.

* [[Gratuitous English]]: The Toei dub has theme songs sung entirely in English by famed anime singer Isao Sasaki.

** Though not nearly as gratuitous as the version Ichiro Mizuki did, which was pretty much nonsensical.

* [[Dude, She's Like, in A Coma|Honey He's Like In A Coma]]: Sayaka kissing a comatose Koji at some point.

* [[Hot Springs Episode]]: In chapter 8 of the original manga, Kouji and his friends spending a while on a hot springs resort in a mountain. That episode was noteworthy because Mazinger-Z did not show up and it had a very funny Kouji/Sayaka moment in the hot springs (with a double [[Luminescent Blush]] included).

* [[Hoist By His Own Petard]]: Dr. Hell designed a Mechanical Beast (Spartan K5) resembled a [[Gladiator|gladiator]] but it was a pacifist refused attacking unless provoked. Baron Ashura decided testing it against Mazinger Z, but Kouji actually {{spoiler|befriended it.}} Enraged, Ashura ordered several Iron Masks {{spoiler|putting a time bomb on Spartan K5 to blowing it up.}} Later, Spartan was accidentally goaded into attacking Mazinger Z and [[Curb Stomp Battle|UTTERLY BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF IT]]. It was about of delivering the final blow when {{spoiler|the bomb went off.}} Kouji and his friends felt sad. Hell and Ashura threw a fit.

** In episode 27, Ashura captures Aphrodite A and scans it in order to learn how building a photong engine. He hands over the records to an Iron Mask and commands him go and hand them out to Dr. Hell. Though, a Kikaiju -that had been deployed by Ashura to delay Mazinger Z- is returning to base right on that moment, and steps on the Iron Mask, killing him and ruining the records.

* [[Home Base]]: The Photon Atomic Research Institute was the heroes's base where they kept the [[Humongous Mecha]] and all tools they needed to repair them and upgrade them. Originally it was a civilian use building -a laboratory researched the newly discovered Photon Atomic energy-, but Dr. Hell pretty much forced them to make some modifications (such like installing a [[Beehive Barrier]]). Over the half of the series, [[The Hero]] and his little brother moved to the Institute, making the example even more literal. [[Big Bad]] Dr. Hell had two [[Supervillain Lair]]: Bardos Island And Hell Island. Both of them counted like [[Elaborate Underground Base]], [[Island Base]] and [[Mad Scientist Laboratory]].

** [[Island Base]]: Like noted above, Dr. Hell had two [[Island Base|Island Bases]]: Bardos, an ancient Greek island full of underground mazes and labyrinths where he found an army of [[Humongous Mecha]]: and Hell Island, an island near from the Japanese coast where he moved later in the series. It was a barren, rocky islet. A low mountain rose in the center, and several giant faces had been carved on its slopes. Baron Ashura's submarine fortress Salude doubled like [[Island Base]] and [[Cool Ship]].

** The Dynamic Heroes e-manga featured [[Mazinger Z|Kouji, Sayaka]], [[Great Mazinger|Tetsuya, Jun]], [[UFO Robo Grendizer|Duke, Hikaru, Maria]], [[Getter Robo|Ryoma, Hayato, Benkei]], [[Devilman|Akira Fudo]] and [[Cutey Honey|Honey Kisaragi]]. There was enough hot blood in that crossover to fill an ocean.

* [[Hotblooded Sideburns]]: But of course!

* [[Idiot Hero]]: ... And for ''this'', too.

** If we're seeing how he actualy fights, both in anime and the manga, Koji is FAR from being a [[Idiot Hero]] instead more of a [[Genius Bruiser]]. He purposefuly gives up only to attack his enemy with the Pilder AND saves the day, and in other moments, he grabbed one of his enemy, and throw it to the other when they attacked resulted in the destruction of said enemy with bare hands. Its a pretty awesome not to mention genius feat on itself. Of course, with Mazinger being such a powerful robot, most of the time his battle consist of direct brute force than planning.

* [[Impaled With Extreme Prejudice]]: In the ''Mazinger Z versus Devilman'' feature, {{spoiler|Mazinger-Z cut Silene's wings off during one aerial battle. She fell towards the ground below and was impaled through her stomach by the sharp branches of a dry tree.}} Also, one of the Mechanical Beasts, Toros D7, had a huge metallic spike on the front side to ramming the enemy and impaling it.

* [[Improbable Aiming Skills]]: One of the Dr. Hell's Mechanical Monsters (Jenova M9) can shoot down anything as far as one hundred kilometres away. [[Complete Monster|Baron Ashura]] decides trying its aim shooting down a passenger plane.

* [[Kick the Dog]]: Sort of averted. Baron Ashura is not above of pettty acts of cruelty, but usually [[Pragmatic Villainy|he does them with a purpose in mind.]] Still, some of those acts include: hitting children on the head to knock them out, blowing up the wheelchair of a paralytic little girl to prevent her from running away, ordering one of his Iron Masks to kill a little cub whose mother had just got killed...

* [[Kid Hero]]: Kouji Kabuto was sixteen when began the series. Sayaka, Boss, Nuke and Mucha were the same age, and Shiro was roughly ten-years-old.

* [[Latex Space Suit]]: The pilot suits for both male and female characters.

* [[Lava Adds Awesome]]: Mazinger-Z's [[Home Base]] was located on the foot of Mount Fuji. Such a perfect setup was used for animating many battles and squirmishes would have been less cool without the [[Climactic Volcano Backdrop]], the characters brawling around a [[Lava Pit]] or soaring above Mount Fuji's crater. In one episode, Dr. Hell attempted to set an eruption off to bury the Photon Research Institute beneath tons of lava. In another episode, Mazinger-Z was tossed into a volcano. In the [[Gosaku Ota]] manga episodes, [[The Dragon]] Baron Ashura's master plan involved to set volcanic eruptions off throughout Japan...

* [[Lava Pit]]: Several [[Robeast|Mechanical Beasts]] were fought beside or over lava pits on the crater of a volcano -usually Mount Fuji-: Aeros B2 and B3, Holzon V3 -in one of the manga versions-, Debira X1... And in one episode, Kouji was dumped in one.

** And one of the [[Death Traps]] in Hell's Island was a [[Lava Pit]].

* [[Made of Indestructium]]: An early Anime example. Mazinger Z is made with Alloy Z, an alloy made of Japanium, a rare metal can be found only in Japan. Dr. Kabuto discovered the metal and built Mazinger Z with it, thinking Mazinger would become indestructible. Throughout the series, the mecha got hit by giant monsters, missiles, bombs, got burned and electrocuted, got dumped in lava and doused in acid... and even though it got damaged every so often, the Alloy Z endured all of that {{spoiler|until the last chapter,}} and kept Kouji alive. Several times Dr. Hell and [[Co-Dragons|his dragons]] would try and get their hands on a sample of Alloy Z to build his [[Robeast|Robeasts]] with it because Mazinger's armor was too tough to break it, shatter it or dissolve it easily. The concept of chogokin ("Super Alloy") became so pervasive and widespread all Super Robots followed Mazinger were made of chogokin, and it baptised one whole toy line.

* [[Mad Scientist]] (Dr. Hell. In some versions, Dr. Juzo Kabuto as well)

*** There's another case in Lorelei, Shiro's first love, whose father was a very aloof foreign scientist who's also [[Covered in Scars]]. {{spoiler|And then we learn that not only she's a [[Robot Girl]], but her father is killed and begs her to have revenge. [[Tear Jerker|It ends up in tears]].}}

* [[Mad Scientist Laboratory]]: Dr. Hell's lab, installed in his base. It was barely seen in the series, though. Dr. Kabuto's lab in the original manga also counts.

* [[Nintendo Hard]]: The [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System|SNES]] game. One single life. Very sparse recovery items. No 1-Ups. No continues. No password system. No save system. If you die, you have to start again from the beginning. Get fun.

* [[No Endor Holocaust]]: Averted. The show has no troubles showing how much death and destruction would cause a humongous war mecha rampaging through the land or a battle between giant robots in a highly-populated city, and often Kouji has to suffer the consequences of it.

* [[Not Hyperbole]]: In the first episode, Dr. Kabuto tells Kouji who pilots Mazinger-Z has the potential to become a god or a devil. Such like later retellings and versions of the history (especially ''Z-Mazinger'' or ''[[Shin Mazinger Zero]]'') have proved, Dr. Kabuto was *NOT* exaggerating.

* [[Not Drawn to Scale]]: The applied scale is not consistent at all. There are plenty examples of it: In episode 10, Dian N4 grabbed skyscrappers and moved them to elsewhere with one of his hands, and they seemed so big like the buildings they were carrying. Later, though, he was just so tall like Mazinger-Z (18 meters).

** On the other hand, [[The Dragon|Great Marshall of Hell]] from ''[[Great Mazinger]]'' was more careful about using it. Seemingly he learnt his lesson {{spoiler|since he was a resurrected Dr. Hell}}

* [[Not So Different]]: Both the original series and its sequel use this trope: In ''[[Mazinger Z]]'', both Dr. Hell and Juzo Kabuto are geniuses (and the original manga, both of them are [[Mad Scientist|Mad Scientists]] with different views on the humanity and on what their talents should be used for); in ''[[Great Mazinger]]'', [[The Hero|Tetsuya Tsurugi]] and [[The Dragon|Ankoku Daishogun]], both are honorable and powerful warriors think of each other as a [[Worthy Opponent]] and share several characteristics with each other, which explains their mutual respect.

** In episode 61, Lorelei, a little girl his little brother was infatuated with, fused with a [[Robeast]] and challenged Mazinger-Z. She could not be split from the robot, and if Kouji fought, he would kill her and would break his brother's heart. {{spoiler|Finally Kouji had to fight, and Lorelei died.}}

* [[Say My Name]]: "NO! KOUJIIIIIII!!!" "Sayaka... SAYAKA!!!!!!!!!" Kouji and Sayaka often yelled each other's name [[Battle Couple|when one of them was in danger]]... or when they were pissed off at each other... [[Belligerent Sexual Tension|which happened often]] since they were the prototype of couple formed by an [[Idiot Hero]] and a [[Tsundere]].

** In one manga chapter, Kouji and his friends go to a hot springs resort. However, the area is apparently being haunted by ghosts. Boss is terrified but Kouji does not believe one word of it, so he and Sayaka set to investigate what is happening. Quickly they discover {{spoiler|the ghosts in reality are androids commanded by Count Brocken, one of the [[Co-Dragons]] of Dr. Hell.}}

* [[Seventies Hair]]: Well, obviously. Kouji and Dr. Hell are prime examples of this.

* [[Toei Animation]]: It made the 1972 anime and its sequels.

* [[Tokyo Is the Center of The Universe]]: Subverted. For start with, the Headquarters of the good guys are not in Tokyo but in the vicinity of Mount Fuji. Therefore, the enemy feels not compelled to exclusively target and attack Tokyo. A lot of Japanese cities are destroyed, ships are sunk in ocean, and often Mazinger-Z needed fighting in open sea (and in one chapter of one of the manga alternate continuities, it got deployed in another country). And in the Mazinger Z versus Great General of Darkness movie, the Mykene army struck New York, Londres and Moscow before striking Tokyo.

* [[Torpedo Tits]]: Aphrodite A's "Oppai Missiles".

* [[Transforming Mecha]]: In ''[[Shin Mazinger]]'', Mazinger Z is able to transform into a ''giant fist''.

* [[Trope Codifier]] / [[Genre Popularizer]]: When people talk about any [[Super Robot]], this is what they inevitably measure it against.

* [[Tsundere]]: Sayaka, one of the first anime ''lead'' girls to have these qualities. Her type varies: she's a Type A in the original TV series, but switches to Type B in the manga and in ''Mazinkaiser''.

** She seems to have gone back to Type A in the Shin Mazinger Zero manga, but when she sees Minerva X and Kouji together...

* [[Ugly Guy, Hot Wife]]: In episode 89 we meet {{spoiler|an impersonator of}} Kouji and Shiro's mother. In episode 92 we meet Kouji and Shiro's {{spoiler|supposedly}} late father. His wife was definitely beautiful. He... not so much. Although maybe he was more handsome when he was younger {{spoiler|and he was not a cyborg.}}

* [[Unexplained Recovery]]: At the second-to-last episode, {{spoiler|the [[Cool Airship]] where Dr. Hell was escaping got blown up.}} Whatever got left from him after that explosion surely sank in the ocean. Nonetheless he showed up again in the last season of ''[[Great Mazinger (Anime)|Great Mazinger]]'', 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 [[Big Bad]] and [[Physical God]] 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]]: People constantly blames Mazinger and the Photon Intitute for the destruction the battles between the Mechanical Beasts and Mazinger cause, [[Too Dumb to Live|apparently forgetting]] if Mazinger Z didn't exist, all of them would be dead.

* [[Walking Shirtless Scene]]: Subverted. ''Dr. Hell'' had one of these in ''[[Shin Mazinger Zero]]''. Can you tell [[Fan Disservice]]?

* [[War Is Hell]]: From the opening narration from ''[[New Mazinger (Manga)|New Mazinger]]'' (an one-volume-long alternate manga version published in 1988): "A. D. 220X... Hostilities between north and south grow in fury as savage combat with new and ever more destructive weapons lays waste the once pastoral Earth. The remnants of mankind burrow deep beneath the surface. Their citadels, screened against the deadly bath of radiation, poke through the polluted soil like foul, mutant flowers. Their warriors, encased in giant combat armor against the air that once gave man life, live only to fight, and with luck, to fight again. Today, as every day, the flames of war rage in every corner of the globe. War without quarter. War without end. War for a race that has forgotten all other ways of life."

{{quote| '''Kenzo:''' "He’s crying. My son is… My son…! {{spoiler|Kouji Kabuto…!"}}}}

** Kouji Kabuto wore a [[Scarf of Asskicking]] and used a bike to dock on Mazinger-Z in the [[Go Nagai]]'s early designs. However, ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' premiered before ''[[Mazinger Z (Anime)|Mazinger Z]]'', and [[Go Nagai]] removed and changed those elements because he did not want people thought he was ripping off another show.

** Another [[Go Nagai]] series, [[God Mazinger]], has nothing to do with the original series. However, it was meant to be the sequel from ''[[Mazinger Z]]''. However the idea got rejected, ''[[Great Mazinger]]'' and ''[[UFO Robo Grendizer]]'' were made instead of, and years later a [[God Mazinger]] anime was made, but removing any connection to the original series.

** Shiro. His parents died when he was barely a toddler. His grandfather Juuzo took them in, but he hired a maid to raise them because he was barely in home. Several years later, in one single day, Rumi -the maid; he treated her like a a kind of older sister- was murdered, his grandfather was murdered (and Juuzo died right in front of his grandsons), and his older brother Kouji nearly stomps him under the foot of an [[Humongous Mecha]]. We see during the series he is sad because he don't have parents to hang with, and Koji, Boss, and Sayaka are most likely busy fighting a [[Robeast|Mechanical Beast]]. He had a crush on a cute kid called Lorelei, but she {{spoiler|died}}. And in one of the last episodes, {{spoiler|Dr. Hell created a robot looked right like Kouji and Shiro's mother. She managed to convince him she was his real mother and tried to manipulate him to blow up the Jet Scrander. Later he had to shoot her, in spite of he was not sure of she was not his real mother.}} Have I mentioned he was only ten-years-old when the series began? Later, in ''[[Great Mazinger (Anime)|Great Mazinger]]'' Kouji and Sayaka travel to America and he stays in Japan. Several times he complains he finds himself alone, his older brother does not write letters, and he even wishes upon a star Kouji returns soon. Jun tried to act like his [[Cool Big Sis]] because she was real sorry for him. And later in the series, he found out {{spoiler|his father was not dead. And he had let his sons believed during years he was dead.}} And then, shortly after {{spoiler|Shiro forgave him and they made up, his father Kenzo died. [[Killed Off for Real|For real, this time]].}} Also, in ''[[UFO Robo Grendizer (Anime)|UFO Robo Grendizer]]'' Kouji Kabuto shows up, but Shiro does not, so it is fair wondering who was taking care of him. I guess the most obvious answer is Tetsuya and Jun {{spoiler|-since they were his adoptive siblings and they were not underage-}} or Prof. Yumi -since he had been a [[Parental Substitute]] for Kouji and Shiro in the original series. It definitely suckes to be him. Although, on the other hand, [[Iron Woobie|he does not constantly whine about it]].

** Dr. Hell. His parents were poor and his mother was abusing him constantly when he was a little kid, calling him ugly, telling she had never wanted to having him and her life would be easier without him, beating the crap out of him for anything... Meanwhile his father just watched and shrugged off. No child wanted to befriend him either, telling he was ugly and weird. He found a getaway in reading books and started getting exceptionally good grades in school, but the only thing it accomplished was his teachers accused him from cheating and punished him, and his schoolmates had an excuse to berate him and beat him. [[It Got Worse]] when he grew up. He fell in love with a woman but then he found out she was in love with one of the only persons had shown him respect (neither of them had wanted to make harm, but his sanity was already so frayed he genuinely believed they had pretended to be his friends to backstab him). When you look over the facts, he wants [[Take Over the World]] because he is a [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]] thinks making the whole humanity suffering is a proper therapy. So if he would have not got such a crappy childhood and teenhood, he would never have gone [[From Nobody to Nightmare]].

** Mitsuo, a child attended Shiro's school was a fat, shy kid wore glasses. Needless to say, bullies targeted him, and he hardly had friends. Shiro scared the bullies away once, but he told Mitsuo he could not help him and be his friend if he did not learn to stand up for himself. All that piled-up abuse was the reason of he pulled a [[Too Dumb to Live]] stunt.

* [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]]: Dr. Hell yearns for being this!