As you know from the previous installment here, Mazinger Z was quite revolutionary. It also had a number of unused ideas Go Nagai opted not to include because of various reasons. One of them was the idea that the Mazingers would actually be a series of jets that combined together, which would later be used to kick-start another of his long-running series, Getter Robo.
Coming out in 1974, Getter Robo's premise differs radically from Mazinger Z. In the Getter Robo continuity, Professor Saotome has, after years of research and development, harnessed the power of the power-providing evolution-inducing Getter Rays as the energy source for the three Getter Machine jets. The red one, Getter-1, is designed for maneuvering in sky and space mainly; the one with the drill, Getter-2, is meant for functioning on the ground and under it; and lastly the one with the tank treads, Getter-3, serves for underseas duties.
The plan for this is to use the Getter Machines for space exploration... but tragically that will not happen. Because for countless millennia, the ancestors of the dinosaurs have been waiting underground, hoping for a time when they could retake the Earth. Just as they plan to kick-start their invasion, they discover someone has harnessed the power of what REALLY killed the dinosaurs, Getter Rays. Getter Rays are lethal to most life forms in sufficiently large quantities, and reptiles happened to be particularly vulnerable to them.
During a test flight of a prototype Getter, the Dinosaur Empire attacks and destroys the prototype and the Saotome Research Institute's test-pilots. Soccer athlete Ryoma Nagare, at the lab to visit Michiru Saotome, the professors daughter, realizes something has to be done, and begs the Professor to let him use the actual, combat-capable machines to defend the Earth. Together with local loner Hayato Jin and the portly captain of the school's Judo team Musashi Tomeo, they resolve to work together to battle the Dinosaur Empire and defeat them. In the meantime, Michiru pilots the support craft Lady Command to refuel the Getter machines and provide additional firepower.
And of course, you needed a tagalong kid, so Michiru's little brother Genki covered that problem.
Now, the original anime *seriously* watered down the gritty nature of the manga. In both continuities, we had our three pilots, but they were radically different. In the manga, Ryoma was very aggressive whilst Hayato was a cunning and ruthless madman, and they were both mainly doing it because they wanted to get in Michiru's pants. Originally in the manga, Professor Saotome piloted Getter-3 himself, but when the anime aired and Musashi was well-received by the audience, Go Nagai added him to the manga as well.
Due to the runaway success of Ninja Science Team Gatchaman and its teen drama, known in America as Eagle Riders, Battle of the Planets, or G-Force depending on the localization, Getter Robo also had some drama in it as well. Including the infamous sequence when Hayato kills a guy by kicking a soccer ball into him numerous times. Or early on, when Musashi had to cope with his fear of reptiles. ^_^
The series ran for 52 episodes, culminating in the Dinosaur Empire being provided the ultimate siege device from the alien Hundred-Demon Clan. With conventional tactics against the behemoth proved useless, the team resorted to using the Getter machines to deliver a bomb powerful enough to destroy the creature. An unnoticeable and minor defect in the Getter-3 machine causes the plan to fail, resulting in the destruction of the three Getter machines, and all seems hopeless until Musashi bravely pilots the Lady Command on a suicide mission, which manages to just *barely* succeed at the cost of his life. In the ensuing explosion, the Dinosaur Empire was snuffed out.
Getter Robo stands out for a number of interesting features. For one, Musashi's skill in Judo lent him expertise in using the Getter-3 machine which would often emulate his fighting style. This would be an inspiration for the motion-capture machines of later series like Daimos and G Gundam. It was also the first time a Super Robot came equipped with a drill, which would later be done a *lot* in Gurren Lagann. And Getter-1 came equipped with an axe, which would become the iconic weapon of all the Getters.
Just like Mazinger Z before it, Getter Robo was followed by an immediate sequel, known as Getter Robo G.
Getter Robo G (the "G" stood for "Gundam". LOLZ!) came right afterwards. Suspecting another attack, Professor Saotome pours his energy into developing a superior machine with ten times the strength of the original Getter Robo, and the end result is G. Once again outfitted with three separate machines, they easily are meant to be superior versions of the previous ones. Getter Dragon could use two tomahawks at the same time, in addition making a "longer", two-handed varient. Getter-2 had to rely on firing its drill as a missile which put a severe limit on its ammunition, while Getter Liger stores its missiles inside itself. And Getter Poseidon possessed actual legs in contrast to Getter-3's treads.
The only problem was... who to pilot it?
It wasn't until Professor Saotome's young son Genki was walking in the park one day that he discovered a heavyset guy who ended up provoking the ire of the Judo and Kendo teams, while managing to overpower them all with generally more "peaceful" actions and mannerisms. This man was Benkei Kuruma. After a bit of convincing by Genki and company, Benkei decided to join up with the Getter Team, taking over for Musashi.
Getter Robo G also introduced the first genuine "desperation attack" in the Super Robot franchise; the Shine Spark. In the Mazinger franchise, all its attacks were pretty much "use them when you want to", and you were just as likely to see Kouji open with one as end a fight with one. In Getter Robo G, however, there the Shine Spark was reserved for ending particularly tough fights, where Getter Dragon would energize itself with all of the machines' Getter Rays before dive-bombing the enemy and pulling up at the last second. Apparently, all the energy it had stored would keep flying straight and crash into the enemy. It obviously inspired the Metroid technique of the same name.
The status quo also got shook up a bit near the end when Hayato got captured, prompting Michiru to take over piloting Getter Liger, and proving herself to be just as good as him. The group also met a few members of the Hundred-Demon Empire that they managed to convince to help them, mainly Koucho Ki who piloted the Tekken Butterfly and some other guy that piloted the Tekken Oni.
Anyways, at long last the Clan was defeated and the day was saved, and that was the last of it.
Or at least the original Go Nagai draft.
Go Nagai had a few assistants, one of them being Ken Ishikawa. Ken helped him out with monster designs in Mazinger Z, and proved a *huge* help when drafting up Getter Robo and its scenarios and in fact is credited as one of the series's creators. In 1990, he got the approval from Go Nagai to make a new manga series called Getter Robo Go, set in an alternate continuity.
Getter Robo Go's story is interesting. It revamps the final days of the battle against the Dinosaur Empire, wherein Musashi makes a bold and daring last stand to try to save New York City, only to be forced to destroy Getter-1's core to defeat the Empire there at the cost of himself and the city. Afterwards, a ban is put on Getter Radiation and all is thought well... until the Dinosaur Empire returns five years later.
*EDIT*: Having read the Shin Getter Robo manga, I have learned this is false. That manga, a prequel to Getter Robo Go, picks up not long after Getter Robo G and explains that Ryoma and Hayato, having seen the horrors of what Getter Rays are capable of, decide to go their separate ways and avoid using it for the defense of humanity. Getter Robo Go also makes an appearance in it.
Now, this didn't matter to Gou Ichimonji, a local streetfighter, until through a series of events he ended up leading him to become a pilot for the new Getter Robo Go, a machine that didn't run on Getter Rays and could thus be allowed to fight the Dinosaurs again. And who created it in the first place? Why Hayato Jin, now resigned to being in charge of the overall operation due to an old injury that keeps him from piloting.
The story proved very successful, and got an anime under the same name.
Unfortunately, in spite of a kick-ass opening, the story was mangled and butchered, and even through it ran 50 episodes, is pretty much derided by the anime continuity. Bummer.
But there was still hope, at least for the manga was today is still considered one of Ishikawa's greatest works. It ran for seven volumes, and due to the introduction of the super-powerful Shin Getter Robo which was introduced in the last few volumes, sparked interest in a prequel after it appeared in Super Robot Wars 4.
Shin Getter Robo was explained to be a powerful machine many times stronger than Getter Robo G. The manga version of it, told in a two-volume series, had it up against the insanely mighty time-manipulating massive insects of the Andromeda Flow Country. Shin Getter Robo was up to the task though, capable of moving at the speed of light, cutting black holes in two, spamming powerful attacks for hours on end with no visible decrease in performance, and pretty much making God-Modding look *cool*... until you realize that the Andromeda Flow Country is so much more powerful than anybody else that the Getter Team's faced you NEED a machine that can cut black holes in half just to stand a
chance of winning.
Afterwards came the manga story Getter Robo Ark, taking place MANY years after Getter Robo Go, and featured Ryoma's son as one of the protagonists. In addition, the bitter remnants of the Dinosaur Empire had at long last made peace with humanity, and so we got a half-human/half-dinosaur pilot too. The Andromeda Flow Country was back again and tougher than ever, but the Earth responds with the colossal Getter Ark, which again makes God-Modding look *cool*.
The popularity of the mangas, in addition to the original Getter team's appearance in every Super Robot Wars up till that date sparked the interest in another alternate continuity for an Audio Drama, known as Getter Robo: The Moon Wars.
The Moon Wars told of the battles humanity waged against the terrifying Invaders, creatures that could assume any shape and assimilate any life form into themselves. In fact, Getter Rays made them
stronger in small-enough quantities, but if you feed them enough, they'd die of over-evolution... kinda like cancer. Long story short, the Invaders kick the bucket, but Michiru dies a pointless death in a testing-mishap for Getter Robo G and the professor goes insane. Fun.
The popularity of the drama caused Dynamic Productions to produce an OVA sequel to it, known as Shin Getter Robo: Last Day of Humanity, known in America as Getter Robo: Armageddon.
Ten years after the Moon Wars, things aren't looking so great. Ryoma's in jail for killing Professor Saotome, little Genki's gone autistic over the fact he watched Ryoma kill the Professor... and then the Invaders come back. Bummer.
Turns out Professor Saotome's *not* dead, but was spamming the Omniscient Morality License of his to develop the most powerful Getter to date!... not counting Getter Ark. By combining hundreds of Getter G machines together, he has Getter Shin Dragon, a towering robot with the power to bring about the world! Or not. The story was a little clunky because the directors kept getting switched around.
Long story short, the Invaders take hold of the UN and launch a nuke at Shin Dragon. Hayato, the newly freed Ryoma, and Saotome's clone/son Gou (different continuity for the guy) step in and use Shin Getter Robo to try to stop the nuke, but the overlords of the Invaders, Stinger and Cohen, intervene and the team is just seconds too late. Getter rays bathe the Earth, beefing up the Invaders and killing off most of humanity.
The series starts up again thirteen years later. The few survivors in Japan, including Benkei Kuruama and his adopted daughter Kei (later revealed to be Genki Saotome who repressed all her childhood memories... and YES, in this continuity, they said Genki was a girl raised as a boy), along with a jovial guy by the name of Gai, find themselves in a wasteland where only the Invaders hold sway.
Well, except for a mobile military force led by Hayato Jin.
After discovering Shin Getter Robo, the surprisingly unaged Gou, Kei, and Gai work to use it to defend humanity and track down the missing Shin Dragon, which has the power to either snuff out the rest of humanity or save us. Along the way, Ryoma returns and the Getter G team of Ryoma, Hayato, and Benkei eventually take over piloting Shin Getter while the new kids use the revived Shin Dragon, all leading up to the climactic battle in space against Stinger and Cohen for the sake of humanity.
I watched Armageddon and I liked it. It had a lot of action and good fights in it, plus the first introduction of Black Getter Robo. All the episodes are on Veoh, if you want to watch them.
But after that came the desire to redeem Getter Robo Go. A year after Armageddon, a four-part OVA was released retelling the story of the story of this new Getter, now referred to as Neo Getter Robo.
Shin Getter Robo vs. Neo Getter Robo (and NO, they DON'T fight at all in this. Most Go Nagai works that feature the "vs." in the name are merely crossovers) retells the colorful and dynamic story of the manga version of Getter Robo Go in condensed form. It's still very good; I've watched it and they really make the most of those four episodes. There's not much I can say about the premise changing except just one thing.
Texas Mack. Texas Freaking Mack.
Texas Mack was the whole "coyboy American" Super Robot originally present in the manga continuity of the original Getter Robo. Its pilot, Jack King, fit in with the gritty and dark atmosphere by being a borderline jerk and racist. Due to the nature of the story, nobody really had a problem with that, especially since the original manga has yet to be brought over to the states. But it's in Shin vs. Neo that he really shined, as this goofy, Engrish-spouting moron who was just so silly you couldn't help but like him. Most Super Robot Wars game tend to use this incarnation of him. And why not? See for yourself!
These various continuities and sub-continuities enjoyed popularity in various Super Robot Wars games, mainly where some amalgamation of the original manga and anime continuity were used, although Shin vs. Neo was used in the Game Cube SRW GC and the X Box remake XO along with SRW Reversal. Armageddon was also featured in SRW Destiny and the real-time game Another Century's Episode 3.
Then in 2005, they made an attempt to make a new Getter Robo continuity capturing the dark nature of the original manga. It was ironically called New Getter Robo.
It incorporates a lot of the manga's original material, like Ryoma and Hayato's mannerisms, and Professor Saotome piloting Getter-3 at first until they find... Benkei Musashibo. Yep, rather than have Musashi and then kill him off, they combined the two Getter-3 pilots together into a hedonistic and lazy-ass Buddhist monk. It works in context here.
The enemies THIS time are not the Dinosaur Empire, but the evil and mysterious Oni... similar to the Hundred-Demon Clan but portrayed much more malevolently. The action sequences were pretty cool and the art had a nice retro feel to it, but I honestly think the OVA tried to do too much. I mean, there's this whole little arc they could've gone without dealing with traveling back in time to a steampunk feudal Japan, for instance. The series would've been fine without it! The way the camera panned around also was something I was upset about... it wasn't done in the right way.
It's... hard to explain.
Anyways, New Getter Robo has yet to appear in any SRW games. And speaking of which, no, I will NOT be posting all the different games with different robots here. That would take too much time. The number of clips I'm showing anyways borders on murder as it is! Pretty much I'm just going to show *one* exhibition of each of the different models.
First up is the original Getter in its SRW D incarnation.
Then Neo Getter Robo... which actually appeared in a SRW *before* the Armageddon continuity did. The sound is *slightly* out of sync.
Then Getter Robo G in the new Super Robot Wars Z.
And lastly Getter Shin Poseidon/Liger/Dragon's attacks in Super Robot Wars D... sound will be out of synch again.
And Shin Getter Robo's from Super Robot Wars W.
*sigh* This took a longer time to make than most of you will spend reading it. That's the hard thing about this. *checks list* Oh crap. UC Gundam's next. That's going to kill me.
This post has been edited by MorriganAensland: Jan 22 2009, 8:45 PM
Super/real Robot Franchise Of The Week, A labor of love, for my beloved genre
Dec 10 2008, 9:35 PM
