barton.elsie - 2017-05-12 16:22:48

the ending is amazing

tyree11 - 2014-07-18 05:33:25

MutekiChoujin Zanbot 3 is one of those shows that if you have heard of it, it iseither because a.) you have heard of its ending or b.) you are a fan ofYoshiyuki Tomino. If it is option B, then you are probably familiar withYoshiyuki Tomino's potential to have a dark side regarding his characters'fates and themes explored. Zanbot 3 is only worth talking about in regards towhat entails Tomino's dark side in this anime. There will be vague spoilers,but nothing to outright ruin the show.

Deconstruction is a highly overused word in this day and age,especially in anime fandom. Partially because people think calling a show suchautomatically makes it better, and also because of how many shows people thinkare deconstructions. Given unlimited editing power, anyone can nest up in sometucked away page of TV Tropes where they are free to tell you why theirfavorite show is a deconstruction without any judgment. It's not likedeconstructions never existed and it's not as if they are not made anymore; trueexamples of them are just a lot less common than people like to think.

Zanbot 3 is a true deconstruction. It may even be the firstdeconstruction. Unfortunately, beyond such high claims, it is not a good show.In this case, the deconstructive aspects are mostly intertwined with the show'sstory. What is the show's story? Aliens invade Earth, a plucky child isenlisted by his grandfather to pilot a combining robot and defeat whatever foethe aliens send against them every episode. Sound familiar? I just described alarge majority of super robot shows. The deconstruction comes into play withthe implements of aliens invading Earth. The anime gleefully depicts all thehumans that die at the beginning of every episode when the bad guys are showingoff their new monster of the week. Once the monster is finally defeated, thestatus quo does not magically kick back in. Casualties are high, many peopleare without homes or food, and there is genuine fear. That fear is channeledinto distrust towards those involved with the combining robot. Sure, at the endof the day they always defeat the monster, but at what costs?

What I described above makes Zanbot 3 sound a lot better than itactually is. The biggest problem with the show is that no matter howinteresting and disturbing the real world effects above are, they are stillconfined to the standard trappings of a 70's super robot show. The destructionand hatred always take a backseat to showing off the newest monster, the robotcombining, the first attack never working, whatever character gets the centerstage for that episode, the robot ultimately defeating the monster, and so on.It's all very trite. Then in episode 18, a new angle to the deconstruction isadded, and it is disturbing. The villains decide their standard monsters theysend out every episode aren't effective enough, so they begin to do somethingthat I will not spoil. What would be a fantastic development of realism in theshow feels like a giant jump in logic. Yes, you can see how the villains wouldeventually reach the point of doing such a thing, but if sending monsters outevery episode is point A, then episode 18's development is point Q. There is nogradual progression and it isn't subtle in the slightest. Their time would’vebeen better spent having the general distrust of the townspeople towards thepeople associated with the robot grow into something more as the series went onrather than remaining at a constant level. Then there's the ending. The one partI knew about the show going into it. Having not been enjoying the show much upto that point, I was hoping at least the massive downer I was expecting wouldbe cathartic as I saw the characters I loathed suffer. If you know about theending, or you think you know the ending, it is probably different from whatyou expect. There is some suffering as anticipated, but it's handled awkwardly.The ultimate message the show gives in the final episode makes it feel that atthe end the staff suddenly said, "Wait, are we even allowed to make a showthis dark? Maybe we should think things over, scale things down a little".Suffering aside, the ending feels like it betrays what muddled and constrictedthemes were established throughout all of the previous episodes in order to endon a not so dark note. I'd be more likely to compare the ending to that ofGurren Lagann's rather than Tomino's more infamous finales. While it wastreading unknown waters for a show to attempt a deconstruction at the time,only so much lenience can be given; it's very heavy handed in its execution andat heart is still an average super robot show. Keep in mind the poor attemptsat a deconstruction actually raised the show's story score.Without any of that, I could have literally described the plot in one sentenceand utterly disregarded it. STORY: 5/10

Going into my first 70's anime, I was expecting the animation tobe rough. My expectations were apparently not low enough, though. Cynically onecan argue that no animation from the 70's will hold up to today's standards andnitpicks. Early works of Miyazaki and Dezaki buck that statement, but it'sfutile to go looking for further exceptions in the super robot genre of allplaces. It is not a matter of whether the animation is bad, it is a matter ofhow bad it gets. Character designs are frequently off model, characters lapseout of proper perspective while moving. It should be worth noting just how muchstock footage this show has. There's the 15 second or so sequence of pluckychild and his dog getting into their robot, then there's the 15 second or sosequence of the robot combining with the others to form the titular mech, theneach weapon or special attack gets a 3-4 second clip. The biggest offender isan episode where they use one 15 second clip twice throughout the episode, theother one twice too-- once regularly and once in reverse, and then all theother special attack clips thrown in there too. Lots of still frames are used.The Zanbot 3 and other monsters demonstrate as little movement as possible.When they do, it doesn't look good. If they are fighting in the air, it justlooks like they are fighting on land but with the ground removed and filled inwith a sky background. Zanbot 3 has nothing to offer in terms of animation.

Actual artistic aspects fair slightly better, but still notwell. Character designs are mostly harmless; none offend, but none stand outeither. It's worth noting that the show shares the same character designer asMobile Suit Gundam. Two of the pluckly child's comrades in this show reappeardesign-wise in MSG 0079, one as the Guncannon pilot, and another as a childcrew member. The main villain's appearance is... interesting (will be touchedon in the Characters section). Overall, the robots are wholly unremarkable interms of design. The combined form's crescent moon design on the head wasapparently cool enough to receive homage in Gurren Lagann if that meansanything. Uncombined or combined, they are still just ugly masses of red, blue,and yellow that form another mechanical face in the never-ending lineup oftitular 70's super robots. Whatever monster gets sent after the heroes everyepisode is ugly as hell, and usually stupid looking. For a show that wants todepict the horrors of a town getting attacked by aliens every episode soseriously, the beasts look don’t live up to the part. The usual thought processis 1. take an animal 2. make it look robotic 3. give it an unnatural color 4.add a bunch of spikes to it. This results in most monsters of the week lookingmore like rejects than anything else. The backgrounds are mostly standarddepictions of a 70's Japanese city. There are some occasional countrysides andoceans. The images of destruction are interesting, but not skillfully renderedenough to cause any sort of awe. The interior of the enemy ship is different,but mostly feels weird for the sake of being weird. In the final episodes,there are some usages of psychedelic backgrounds. It isn't a visually daringshow. The animation by itself is plain awful, but being coupled with theartistry redeems the score slightly. ANIMATION: 3/10

Muteki Choujin Zanbot 3 being a 70's super robot show, its soundis what you expect. There's the theme song that consists of a suave man loudlycrooning the titular mech's name and making vague statements about bravery. TheED is a more somber tune, but along the same lines. Plot events for everyepisode are synchronized with a specific song. There's the preparation song,the danger song, the defeat song. The music is very typical. The sound losespoints however in the voice acting department. I am not one to usuallycriticize performances in a language that I cannot understand, but the pluckychild main character's voice is a special kind of annoying. It easily breezespast all the strange loli shrieks and tsundere deliveries in voice acting hellthat I've witnessed in my lifetime to be one of the most grading performancesthat I've heard. The show does not go out of its way to paint the maincharacter in a positive light, but there is no way the voice actor choice was meant to be intentionally bad. SOUND: 4/10

Earlier I said that most of the show'sdeconstructive elements are intertwined to the story. Those that aren't arefound within the characters, but similar to the story, they are not utilized totheir full potential and feel clumsy. Yes, Neon Genesis Evangelion thoroughlycovers why it is psychologically not a good idea to let children operaterobots, but Zanbot 3 takes a completely different route. I was reallyfascinated by the concept introduced in the early episodes of just how stupid,and dangerous it is to let a plucky child pilot a mech that in essence is a fewtiers short of a WMD. He is hot blooded hero through and through, he will nevergive up, is that a good thing? The main character continually lets emotions getthe better of him, disobeys orders at the cost of the mission's successchances, and all around is a pretty terrible person, inside or outside therobot. I was actually surprised by how the show displayed such traits early on,and was hoping that it would lead to the plucky child screwing up big time. Itnever does. The anime tries to tell you that a 10 year old boy powering a giantrobot is a bad idea, but never is able to prove why. It tells you what badstuff could happen while the main character is sucking at hisjob, but he never actually fails and never has to accept any consequences. Theother good-aligned characters are much less interesting to talk about. They'reall there to help the robot function in some aspect. They aren't atrociouslywritten, but are all very one dimensional. Most people related to making therobot work get an episode in the limelight where they receive their entireamount of character development for the series. That development is usuallyvery minimal and has little effect on future episodes. The main villain (bymain, I mean gets the most screen time) is a 10 foot tall overweightmetrosexual turquoise goblin named Killer The Butcher. And they want you totake this show seriously. If the description of the villain isn't absurdenough, he is the main comic relief of the show. A show like this has no reasonwhatsoever to include comic relief. Sure, early episodes of NGE have comedybefore things go off the deep end, but good ol' Killer The Butcher is still beingwacky in episode 20. He does not evolve as a character, he becomes moredesperate as the anime goes on, but this doesn't not make him dynamic. Thecharacter who gets the most development in the show is someone who isn't eveninvolved with keeping the robot in shape or helping the villains. He's a cousinof the plucky child. His change follows a normal and visible route, and iswholly acceptable. It's refreshing to see one character change, but he istangential to the plot at best. A combination of being bad from the get go andhaving wasted potential, the characters are one of Zanbot 3's biggest weakpoints. CHARACTERS: 3/10

Even if there was scenario in which Zanbot 3 was a good show, Ifeel that saying you enjoyed it is like saying you enjoyed Grave Of TheFireflies. The content present makes it not a show meant to be entertaining,but one to perhaps impact the viewer or make them think. Sadly the super robotformula present in it still wants you to think the show is entertaining. It isa conflicting and bad-tasting mix. Although I had serious problems with theshow, and it was not meant to be enjoyed, I still wanted to see where the showwould go. How far deep down the rabbit hole of despair. So I guess you couldsay it kept me coming back. The pacing is a killer too. What plot it tries toportray has to be fitted around the standard monster of the week dreck. I thinkit would've done this show a huge benefit to GASP... not fight a monster for anepisode?!?!? Take some time to develop the characters, let that war is hellfeeling sink in. In many ways the anime is a prototype to what would beexplored in the original Mobile Suit Gundam. As with most prototypes ofsuccessful things, it has become forgotten as anything but a footnote on thesuccessor's history. Most of the problems the show has can be traced back to itbeing held back by its placement in the super robot genre. Maybe the world wasn'tready for a deconstruction. The studio sure wasn't. Whereas NGE had two decadesworth containing hundreds of mecha genre shows to dismantle and realisticallyindite, Zanbot 3 basically had 6 years and Mazinger Z. You gotta give them a littlecredit for making due with what they had. ENJOYMENT: 4/10

Muteki Choujin Zanbot 3 is interesting at times, but notremotely enough to void all the problems and flaws that the show has. If you'reinterested, I'd more recommend reading a spoileriffic summary of the show'splot to understand its historical significance in the realms of Gundam anddeconstructions. If you really still want to take the plunge into this, I'drecommend beforehand that you know of Yoshiyuki Tomino, understand how 70'ssuper robot shows work, are able to tolerate bad 70's animation, and have aninterest in deconstructions. But if I were you, I wouldn't bother.

OVERALL: 4/10