That’s footage from the first Taekwon V movie back in 1978. It was recently announced that this ever popular Korean anime mecha hero would be getting a live action adaptation next year. Here’s some test footage.
Go Nagai called. He wants Mazinkaiser back.
With last week’s Friday ACE coupled with recent news that I’ll cover in a second, I’ve been meaning to do a quick rant about my feelings about the seemingly never-ending plagiarism claim war.
DISCLAIMER: No I’m not trying to trash talk about Korea by posting this so please don’t flip out or anything if you are from Korea and/or a fan of Taekwon V.
Taken from Anime News Service a few years ago:
In a September 22nd interview conducted by the Kuki News, Kim, now 65, addressed recent claims appearing on Japanese internet message boards, blogs and forums that the content was copied from similar Japanese animation works. “I grow melancholic every time the story of plagiarism is heard” he said……
….The creator uses the metaphor of a car in relation to the debate. “Imagine the way a car looks in your head. If seen from a long distance, all basically have 4 tires and a body.” “If seen up close, each design can appear unique.” “To tell the truth, people in Japan have mimicked German car designs.”
He adds that in the strictest sense the story contained in Mazinger Z was not of 100% original composition, when Mazinger first appeared in 1972 cartoons featuring giant robots had existed as many as 20 years beforehand.
Yeah, let’s look into that last claim shall we?
The first robot anime could be considered Tetsuwan Atom/Astro Boy but the credit for the anime that comes close to being mech related really goes to Mitsuteru Yokoyama’s classic, Tetsujin 28, brought out to the states as Gigantor back in 1963. This robot was controlled via remote by the young protagonist and didn’t display any advanced fighting techniques of the sort apart from GIGANTOR SMASH!! and the like.
Mazinger Z first came out in 1972, the anime following shortly right after the manga. This is the first ever instance of the protagonist actually piloting the robot as nobody had done so beforehand. Sure Astro Boy and Tetsujin were around but it was of his own design and concept. Don’t believe me? Check out this excerpt from a manga that explains how he came up with it here and here.
You could even go farther back than that into American science fiction and even then, robots always obeyed the will of their masters, had a will of their own like Astro Boy, or were controlled by remote.
Either way you look at, Mazinger Z’s impact on anime can never be measured as it set the stage for numerous classics to come. I mean come on, can you imagine the likes of Gundam 00 having their Mobile Suits controlled by wristwatches. That’s not to say that somebody else wouldn’t have come up with the idea sooner or later but to say that Mazinger wasn’t 100% original is a bit of a stretch.
The piece du resistance of this is according to the Wikipedia page (the information of which should probably be taken with a grain of salt):
The Japanese giant-robot anime Mazinger Z….was popular in South Korea at the time of Robot Taekwon V’s creation….
Right. And going on, the entry does state that the creator wanted to make a hero for Korean kids. No problems there but with that many striking design homages, you need to actually own up to it. What makes it worse is when you see the sequels and the plagiarism argument gets heated up three ways from Sunday.
So with all this info, let’s look at that timeline.
1952 - Astro Boy manga
1956 - Tetsujin 28 manga
1963 - Astro Boy and Tetsujin 28 anime
1972 - Mazinger Z manga and anime
1976 - Taekwon V
Let’s get this clear: Astro Boy is the first major robot manga back in the 50’s. Tetsujin 28 is the first non-piloted robot manga and anime and it comes on in the same time period. The concepts of Mazinger Z STARTED with Mazinger Z and went on to inspire nearly everthing afterwards. Just because Go Nagai wasn’t the first person to come up with the concept of robotics, he’s suddenly the one in fault?
Now I’m sure some of you are reading this wondering why I’m making such a big deal over an obvious small thing. I’d be willing to let this go if:
A.) Kim’s comments didn’t come off sounding like Marvel’s law suit against Cryptic Studios over the concept of Superheroes having claws…
B.) He didn’t just end that particular claim with a thinly disguised “JAPAN IS WRONG!” statement that’s the equivalent of throwing 9/11 into a conversation to get a point across or answer a question.
What I hate even more is that Taekwon V, which actually has something of a slick design, has been used in numerous indie political parody/propaganda comics as this avenging angel of the Korean people. I remember reading this really graphically violent one years ago that still gives me the chills thinking about it. It’s like any chance of me actually getting to sit down and enjoy anything to do with it is close to nil at this point, it’s like not being able to enjoy Superman because you know he’s being used as symbol for America in Iraq.
What makes this worse is that, yes, I will crack jokes about Taekwon on occasion but I know deep down that getting any further involved gets me to the core of the altercation which is still at its core Korea against Japan. I know anything said in this blog won’t make a lick of difference in that respect but honestly, you guys seriously need to figure out a way to sort this out and soon before the US gets involved and fucks it all up.
(Actually, for all of our sakes, how about just not doing anything too drastic until Bush is out of office.)
Yes, Japan did some nasty things to Korea during the war but it’s over and done with. Either try to make an attempt to shake hands, make up, move on and stop holding onto grudges while passing on the hatred to your kids or just shut up. Please.
Oh and don’t make anymore crap like this:
So in short: Yes, Taekwon V is a big homage ripoff of other shows and there are those that’ll say otherwise until the cows come home but please don’t use it as fuel for an actual war. And don’t try to kill me/hack into this site/send me death threats because of my opinion, okay? I’ll be your best friend?
Holy crap, I’ve gotten into slight political commentary over a war between two cartoon robots. I really need some sleep…
