(Image from Mazin
World.)
The Pre-Cambrian layer
of anime in the Philippine cultural landscape had Mekanda Robot, Daimos,
Mazinger Z, UFO Grendaizer and Voltes V. (And Balatack, and Danguard Ace, but
they were on Channel 9.) One thing they had in common was the token girl.
Token girls could fight, but only so
far. They got crushes on the non-token boys, who got dibs on the fancier mecha.
(Jamie Robinson’s Volt Lander turned into feet.) Token girls squealed a lot.
They always got into trouble and had to be rescued, even if they knew a couple
of martial arts moves.
Aphrodite A was a
knock-kneed big-breasted robot who ran like a girl and was always tripping over
buildings. She was supposed to help Mazinger Z, but she only possessed two
weapons: the left breast missile and the right breast missile. After those two
fired, not only was she defenseless, she was slightly
off-balance.
I hated having to identify
with her, but she was all we girls had. Erika screamed “Richaaaard,” mostly, and
Mekanda wasn’t too interesting to watch, and Catherine in UFO Grendaizer was
always mooning when Bryk was around.
At
least Aphrodite A fought. She never won. But she sacrificed her breasts almost
every episode.
After her, we got Candy
Candy and Ron-ron the Flower Girl.
Ruined, I tell
you.