The Demo Site

originally posted October 2, 2005

By NinjaJack

"Oh no! It's the Zords!"-Goldar Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie

Whether you like to call them Zords, Mechs, Gundams, Evas, MegaDeuces or Giant Robos, the Super Robot is an icon the whole world recognizes.

Starting with TESTUJIN 28 in 1953 children fell in love with the idea of a hero piloting a weapon of mass destruction down major city streets

In 1972 Gô Nagai's creation MAZINGER began the whole idea of jumping inside a super robot and piloting instead of using a remote as with Tetsujin 28. By the end of this landmark decade came the advent of the story driven robo series with the introduction of the evergreen we love to call Gundam. Both Gundam and Mazinger series forged the idea that the pilot was not only to one driving but he was the soul of the machine.

The 80s brought bad taste in clothes and the Transformers who transformed and
rolled into the hearts of children worldwide.
And I don't care if you think robots are "teH suX" now, you were one or knew one of those kids when Transformers first hit. A new dynamic was introduced, living machines that thought for themselves and had their own sense of right and wrong.
The eighties also brought us Voltron and Robotech, two cult classics.


Of course this isn't Pleasentville and everyone on God's green earth sure as certain do not agree on everything. And when it comes to robots on TV you' will find folks on both sides of the fence.


"They get in the way of the story" "Awesome, you mean they can actually combine?"
Above are just a few of the random quotes that seem to spew up whenever a new robot is introduced in ANY series. Lets dissect this just a wee bit and get a better understanding of the basics of this divider among fans.
Why do some people hate the sight of a ten story wrecking machine?
Well lets see it's a machine for starters, machines have no emotion. They destroy without remorse, like the RIAA.
Honestly how many buildings have been crushed both here in the states with Power Rangers and in Japan with all the Robo Anime and Sentai? I bet you can't even begin to think of the estimate.

Lots of explosions and running, and the screaming and the running and the screaming,

"It'`s a waste of budget and time!"
the people who hate giant robots cry out for stories over more scenes of random stock footage.

Take Ishimori Shotaro-San's Kamen Rider Tokusatsu series for instance, it has no mecha aside from a few super vehicles over the years. But the stories in Kamen Rider are still some of the most drawn out and dramatic of the Henshin genre.

As I have already noted above , Giant Robots use quite a bit of stock footage, some people just don't want to sit through the same "BIG O! SHOWTIME!" sequence over and over and over again. The very idea that sometimes producers will actually speed up the sequence when the robot is called more than once in an episode shows that even they know in the end they just really want to sale the toys.

Is that it, is the hatred of the Giant Robo really just a scapegoat? Is the giant robot a simple weapon like a sword or a jetpack? Or is it just the true face of the show`s true purpose to only sale toys that stares us in the face and therefore must be dealt with?

But now one might ask a question as to why do other people LOVE the robots?
"Because they blow stuff up!" a fan might say, but because Rocky had one great line in his Ranger days, when he saw the Shogun Zords for the first time "Yeah, they are awesome alright." We like the big bots because they're cool. Ah but that doesn't get down to the nitty gritty does it?

What purpose do they serve? They're just giant walking pieces of metal.
The purpose is simple, these robots sometimes will take on symbols of justice just as rightfully as their pilots embody.

Looking a the Gundam Wing series would Wufei had been so hell bent on Great Justice if he was not piloting the Shenlong?
Is Optimus Prime any less of a great warrior because he's ten stories tall?
The question I ask isn't if there is a need for giant robots or not. But is it possible to have a great show where Story+Robots coexist?