Invincible Superman Zambot 3

A little background on how i found this old school gem, there was a magazine that talked about all of Tomino's work before gundam, this was one of those anime's. I was reminded of this little article by watching Gurren Lagann (GL takes some themes and mecha designs from this) So after some searching i finally found this. And was it worth it. The story starts out as your basic monster of the week sort of super robot anime, but each episode explores how these fights effect the population and how they react to the pilots themselves, the show gets more intense with each episodewith what i would call a perfect ending. For its time the animation is very good too. So if your looking for a great old school anime that really isn't well known, give this show a try.

If folks wonder where famous Gundam director Yoshiyuki Tomino got his infamous moniker of "Kill Em All", Zambot 3 is an obscure, yet notable, mecha title that first showcased Tomino's habit of creating high kill counts with mecha titles he would direct. A fairly standard entry in the "super robot" mecha genre at a glance, Zambot 3 focuses on the efforts of the Jin family who learn they are descendants of an alien race whose home planet was wiped out by the Gaizok race. Seeking to protect Earth from destruction, the Jins utilize the alien technology left behind by their ancestors to combat the Gaizok. Onthe surface, Zambot 3 would seem to have some of the typical tropes of the "super robot" mecha genre. You have a giant mech and a couple battle vehicles that can combine together to form a more powerful mecha which are all piloted by talented teenage pilots. All the episodes follow a "monster of the day" story style where the Gaizok unleash a new Mecha-Boost mecha to wreck havoc on Earth until Zambot 3 and the Jin family step in to combat them. However if you look deeper, Zambot 3 does have a number of story elements that made it stick out from other mecha anime during its time period and have become standard elements factored into creating later mecha titles. While past anime would have their titular mecha and its pilots accepted by the masses at the start of their title, the Jin family are not immediately accepted by humanity in combating the Gaizok threat as they are seen as being the main reason by many for the Gaizok invading Earth. The battles between Zambot 3 and Mecha-Boosts leave a good deal of collateral damage that still lingers as the series progresses and the aftermath of this is highlighted with civilians left homeless thanks to their homes being wiped out from the Jin Family and Gaizok conflict. There are also a few points where human civilians or military personnel attempt to sabotage the Jin family's efforts against the Gaizok because of the negative perceptions they have on them. The show subverts the depiction of its main hero being seemingly flawless and level-headed in his actions. While main lead Kappei is a capable mecha pilot, the immaturity of his age is believably highlighted in this series as he often jumps into things without thinking his actions through, behaves recklessly in piloting the Zambo Ace and Zambot 3 during early episodes of the series, and his cockiness in being a mecha pilot often will rub the human populace the wrong way. This, combined with the mentioned collateral damage from his fights with Mecha-Boosts, complicate public perception to the Jin family's efforts of heroism against the Gaizok. And finally, the series has a high kill count resulting from the conflict between the Jin family and Gaizok. While at first coming as the result of collateral damage or Mecha-Boost attacks, the conflict gradually gets more intense in later episodes when the Gaizok make human bombs out of their captives, Gaizok leader Killer the Butcher thinking of killing humans as a sort of game, and the Jin family find themselves having to make sacrifices in later episodes in dealing with the Gaizok threat. Setting aside the praises, Zambot 3 still does carry a number of weaknesses that effect its quality somewhat. Many characters in the series lack much in the way of fleshing out as they either get tacked on with a character type or exist only to compliment some element of the series proper such as being a family member or controller of one of the pieces of alien technology used by the Jin family. The explanation that the series provides as to how Kappei and his two young cousins become capable of controlling the advanced alien technology used for their mechas is a bit of a stretch and reeks of lazy convenience. Also as this series came out in the 1970s, the animation is quite dated and was obviously made on a limited budget with the number of reused frames, occasional drawing errors, and other shortcuts employed during the time period that may turn off fans of more recent anime from checking this series out. Still in spite of these flaws, I would at least recommend checking out Zambot 3 at least once due to how ahead of its time it was for introducing new story elements of the mecha genre that have become standard for more modern entries of it and being the earliest title where Yoshiyuki Tomino earned his "Kill Em All" moniker from his overall direction of the series.

Zambot 3 is an absolutely buck-wild anime about a squad of kids piloting mecha and learning about the true horrors of war! Death, terrorism, refugee crises, war crimes, PTSD, the whole nine yards! All the while featuring a catchy and upbeat theme-song which *totally* does not lend itself to some serious tonal dissonance the longer the series goes on! Our main protagonist, Jin Kappei, is introduced to us with a motorcycle chase that culminates in an anchor-wielding duel with the leader of a biker gang. Said duel is immediately interrupted by a giant tentacle kaiju, and instead of running Kappei decides to wrestle the damn thing.This is all in the first third of episode one, and he has yet to even set foot in a mech. To say the kid is off the rails would be an understatement. Kappei turns out to be the descendant of alien refugees who landed on Earth in order to escape the evil Gaizok, who as misfortune would have it, are now looking to destroy Earth as well. The Gaizok are led by Killer the Butcher (excellent name) an eccentric warlord who gets a serious kick out of death and destruction. Killer the Butcher is great, his clownish antics only look more deranged the more morbid his tactics become, and boy do they ever get dark! For the most part Zambot 3 is a monster-of-the-week style series in which Kappei and company fight a new kaiju sent by the Gaizok to eradicate them and the rest of humanity. While it is a bit episodic feeling at times, there is a steady momentum to the plot. That city that was caught in the middle of a kaiju fight last episode? Well all of those people actually died or lost their homes, so now there's a vagrant crisis with people trying to escape to safety. For such an old super-robot show it tackles a lot of themes that feel fairly ahead of its time. Our characters deal with the pressure of having to protect humanity despite being children. The villains resort to underhanded tactics that simple robot fights can't solve. Even though they're the heroes, the protagonists ARE partially to blame for the threat even coming to Earth when it did. While it does have a decent amount of plot intrigue, the show is quite rough around the edges and is really showing its age. At many points it feels like the network wanted a light-hearted robot show, but the director wanted something that'd scar the children watching it for life, leading to moments where it feels like the show is playing tug of war with itself. The fights, while fun and ALWAYS ending on a unnecessarily large explosion, do feel a bit on the formulaic side. This is sorta standard for series of its era however, and depending on your tastes it won't be much of an issue. On the audio side the one thing that bares mentioning is Kappei's voice actress, who is famous in Japan for playing the beloved character Doraemon. Unfortunately I have no attachment to Doraemon or his voice, and Kappei essentially uses the same exact voice; which is shrill and a bit on the annoying side. You get used to it, and the actress does pull out a solid performance when she has to get emotional, but it makes the character feel a little too cartoonish for the type of show they're in. Everyone else is fine on the voice-front, and the music is solid enough for the time. In terms of animation its about what you'd expect. Lots of goofy off-model shots. Frames where you can see dust on the lens. Plenty of reused animations. Its pretty decent for the time all things considered, but the visuals are not the selling point. Zambot is worth watching for the curiosity. The story that feels both dated and ahead of its time. The tone that ping-pongs between cartoony and gut-punchingly brutal. This series is the first full anime directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, the godfather of Gundam, and it really shows. In many ways it feels like a prototype for his later attempts at expressing the horrors and cruelty of war with kids piloting giant robots, and while that may make it sound like its been invalidated by those later, more successful attempts, I think Zambot's still worth watching for the insanity of it all. The show's only 23 episodes, and I greatly enjoyed my time with it. If you want some old school robot action featuring tonal whip-lashes like no other, check out Zambot 3, its a wild time. A strong 7/10.

At first glance, it looks like another classic super robot show from the late 70s. You’ve got a giant combining robot, alien invaders, and kids as pilots. Sounds like the formula for adventure, right? But almost immediately, Zambot 3 makes it clear: this is not a power fantasy. This is a tragedy. The main character, Kappei Jin, might be the most sufferable protagonist I’ve ever seen. He’s just a kid who wants to fight to protect Earth, but instead of being hailed as a hero, he and his family are cursed, blamed, and hated by the very people they’re trying to save. Every time he stepsinto Zambot, it’s not about glory or heroism; it’s about survival, pain, and sacrifice. And the cruelty doesn’t stop there. Zambot 3 relentlessly shows the consequences of war on children, families, and ordinary people. There’s no clean victory. Every battle feels like another step closer to despair. By the time you reach the final episodes, it feels less like you’re watching a robot anime and more like you’re witnessing the destruction of innocence itself. That’s precisely why this show hit me so hard. If we compare it to the real world, it rings true: no matter how much someone sacrifices to protect others, people can still misunderstand, resent, or even condemn them. That painful irony is what makes Zambot 3 stand apart from so many other mecha shows of its time. And yet, through all the suffering, Kappei survives. That ending mattered to me. After everything he endured, it was almost shocking that he lived, but it didn’t feel like a cheat. It felt like a slight, bitter, but meaningful victory: a reminder that even in the darkest tragedies, sometimes one light refuses to go out. Zambot 3 isn’t for everyone. It’s raw, unforgiving, and often brutal to watch. But for me, that’s precisely what makes it a masterpiece. It pushed the boundaries of what anime could say in the 70s, and in many ways, it paved the way for series like Ideon and Evangelion. 10/10