Magma Taishi

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Magma Taishi is an interesting look at early Super Robot manga. While having many derivative elements found in the earlier Tetsujin 28, Magma Taishi finds it's own flavor and develops a unique style separate from other Super Robot manga. While the designs of the characters leave something to be desired, their personalities are well fleshed out with strong identities and unqiue roles to fill in the plot.

Many modern readers might view the mangas plot as simple, but at the time Magma Taishi was fairly complex with high level themes laced throughout the manga in typical Tezuka fashion. However, this manga was not actually done by ... Tezuka. He came up with most of the ideas, and early volume work, but the art was nearly done entirely by his assistants who took over much of the writing duties by the 2nd and 3rd volume. That doesn't detract from the narrative structure much as the artists clearly follow through even more on Tezuka's ideas, but it does give the manga a strange "non Tezuka" flavor. The manga lacks some of the more whimsical aspects typical of Tezuka's works, as well as the fluidity of movement in art that Tezuka was known to have mastered.

Overall Magma Taishi is a bit of a relic, but I would have to be favorable in any rating given it's pseudo-pioneering nature. Chapter 18 and 19 especailly ring out clear as some of the earliest influences on series like Gundam, especailly War in the Pocket which features many similar plot elements. While it doesn't follow through much on these ideas, few older manga did and were rarely intended as the long, plot driven arcs that modern manga has come to represent. I would recomend the read to anyone who enjoys older manga, and can appreciate some of the rougher edges.