Mazinger Series

"I'm the one who decides Mazinger can become a god or a devil! Koji Kabuto! And this power... It's the power to defeat bastards like you!"

The Mazinger series started in the 1970s, and gave anime its first piloted giant robot. Initially starring Koji Kabuto alone, the Mazinger franchise has given rise to a number of reboots, spinoffs, and sequels; SRTMOO uses Mazinger Z Infinity, which follows directly from the classic 1970s timeline that also includes Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger.

Mazinger Z Infinity

It has been roughly a decade since Koji Kabuto and Tetsuya Tsurugi defeated Dr. Hell, the Mycenaean Empire, and many of the forces of darkness that have plagued mankind since Dr. Hell found the resources of Bardos Island. Koji Kabuto... has chosen to run from his responsibilities under the guise of losing himself in his research. While his work has done much good for the world, with Photon Power ascendant as a clean energy source that has led to prosperity, a new complication has arisen: a massive Mazinger found beneath Mt. Fuji. Koji turns his eyes to it as a research subject -- but he's not the only one; waiting in the wings is none other than Dr. Hell, back from the dead yet again...

Integration Notes

The following are some of the key points that may differ or otherwise figure into Mazinger Series canon as interpreted on SRTMOO.

• Koji's fight against Dr. Hell -- and the subsequent battles against the Mycenaean Empire -- was not a lonely one (though Tetsuya's was, at first); the Mazinger Corps has worked alongside Universal Century Gundam's Anti Earth-Union Group and Getter Robo Series's Getter Team, the Brave Series's Gutsy Geoid Guard, and even, briefly, Universal Century Gundam's Titans forces.
• Photon Power is not yet powering the whole world; it does, however, power all of Free Japan even at partial capacity, and provides secondary power generation for several other places in the world as part of Free Japan's international concessions after Getter Robo's destruction of Britannian New Yark.
• Getter Robo's NISAR is the primary manufacturer of the Ichinana, Infinity's mass-production Mazinger unit; the Ichinana is available to OCU, Londo Bell, and NERV.
• The Mycenaean Empire is connected to content from the Brave Series, Macross Series, Martian Successor Nadesico, and Kotetsushin Jeeg. More details will be made available to characters who need to know this information as part of their day-to-day play.
• Dr. Hell himself is extensively connected with Full Metal Panic!'s Amalgam; the SRW games made this connection during FMP!'s debut, and it turned out to work extremely well with the new concepts presented in Infinity.

The following are some notes on what's not integrated concerning the Mazinger series:

• This is a Classic TV Series-centric integration. Accordingly, for the most part, content from reboots and alternate continuities, such as Shin Mazinger, MazinSaga, Mazinkaiser SKL, or Shin Mazinger ZERO, is not integrated. We encourage mining this content for cool ideas and designs, but anything more than that should be treated as if not integrated (see Post-Hoc Integration).
• Of particular note regarding the above: A telling of Mazinger events more heavily influenced by Shin and Shin ZERO explicitly happened in another universe; elements of these tellings can accordingly be dripped in through content dealing with that. If we get a Mazinger cast particularly excited by Shin/Shin ZERO/vs. Ankoku Daishogun elements, we'd be happy to work with them to speed up or highlight the process.
• While we're generally using the television continuity, we have opted not to integrate UFO Robo Grendizer. Grendizer has always occupied a somewhat shaky place in canon, due to Go Nagai's regrets about its troubled production, and Mazinger Z Infinity makes no meaningful reference to it. It is open to post-hoc integration, however!

Mazinger Series Jargon

• Gennosuke Yumi
• Great Subterranean Empires
• Isle of Bardos
• Japanium
• Kikaiju
• MIDAS
• Mycenae Empire
• NISAR
• Photon Power
• Photon Research Institute

Development Trivia

The following are some fun notes about the design process that got us here.

• Mazinger Z Infinity was a relatively late addition to the theme, and its release actually solved a lot of design problems we were having! It dovetails very well with Shin Getter Robo vs. Neo Getter Robo and a post-Char's Counterattack Universal Century Gundam, and its exploration of possibility handshakes with Gundam Unicorn in particular in a very pleasing way.
• Super Robot Wars T's use of Mazinger Z Infinity inspired a lot of the design decisions about how to place Mazinger in the broader timeline, and indeed some of the timeline as a whole. We wanted to encourage a similar dynamic of the 'relatively young old-timers' as was seen in T, but with a slightly more tragic, more melancholy air, hence the choice of Gundam Unicorn and Shin Getter Robo vs. Neo Getter Robo instead of Char's Counterattack and Getter Robo Daikessen.