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Rabia Gale

alchemical fantasy

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Rocket Punch!

Blogging about cartoons has made me all nostalgic for my own safe, sweet childhood. I was the kind of kid who loved rainbows, ponies, princesses and… GIANT ROBOTS!

I’d get up at 5 or 6 am to watch Transformers (don’t ask why it came on that early–it’s Pakistan). I caught every episode of Voltron—lions and vehicles. I scoffed at the Go-bots–but still watched.

But none of those were my first robot love. Before I’d ever heard Prime say, “Autobots, transform and–roll out!” or seen Voltron put a big X in his enemies with his blazing sword, there was…

MAZINGER Z!

I was 4 when we got our first VCR. Mazinger Z was one of the few videos my family owned (don’t worry, I had the English version). I watched Mazinger Z every single day after I got home from Montessori school–the same four or five episodes over and over again.

I loved Mazinger Z, not for his power, but for sheer dogged determination. He was the solid, reliable kind of robot. The evil robots were the ones who got all the glamorous super powers–they could fly, break the sound barrier, shoot lighting out of their heads, break apart and reassemble. Poor Mazinger got left behind, electrocuted, beaten up and battered. But he never gave up. I loved him because he was the underdog who persevered and won.

Thanks to the ‘net I get a chance to relive a little slice of my childhood. “From his wrists, hands that fly! Launching a rocket punch! From his chest, laser fire! Fighting with light energeeeeee!” Go, Mazinger, go!

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Filed Under: friday fun, TV & film

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Comments

  1. Prue says

    October 7, 2011 at 2:49 pm

    *lol*
    Thanks for the snipped. I missed out completely on this set of cartoons.
    Things from childhood are so special. I didn’t want much TV back then, it was books, and more specifically the pictures. If I see certain illustrations now, I go all gooey at the knees πŸ™‚
    Rupert Bear – especially the fontispieces, and the larger more complex full page pictures, and Mabel Lucy Atwell’s books plus a few more whose author’s I don’t even remember. Ahhhhh *sighs*

    Reply
    • Rabia says

      October 8, 2011 at 4:09 pm

      Heh. I don’t know how far Mazinger Z spread outside of Japan. It definitely made it to the Spanish-speaking world, judging by the number of YouTube videos. πŸ™‚

      Other things that trigger childhood memories– Enid Blyton books, goats, sweet potatoes and mangos, Rainbow Brite…

      Reply
      • Prue says

        October 11, 2011 at 12:23 pm

        Enid Blyton – I’m with you on that one. Not so much on the goats/sweet potatoes/mangoes. For me it was parkin, star-trek, Mabel-Lucy Atwell and Listen With Mother on the radio…and Andy Pandy on the tv πŸ˜€
        What on earth is Rainbow Brite???

        Reply
        • Rabia says

          October 11, 2011 at 12:29 pm

          Rainbow Brite is a cartoon girl who lives in Rainbow Land and brings about spring every year. She has a horse named Starlite, and her underlings are the Color Kids–one for every color of the rainbow.

          Here’s more about her: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Brite

          Reply

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