{"id":3599,"date":"2015-07-17T14:53:12","date_gmt":"2015-07-17T14:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/?page_id=3599"},"modified":"2023-02-28T22:23:22","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T22:23:22","slug":"ambassador-magma-manga","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/?page_id=3599","title":{"rendered":"Ambassador Magma (Manga)"},"content":{"rendered":"
Also known as\u00a0\u30de\u30b0\u30de\u5927\u4f7f (Maguma Taishi)<\/h5>\n
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\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
English Title:<\/strong><\/td>\nAmbassador Magma<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
In English?<\/strong><\/td>\nNo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Japanese Title:<\/strong><\/td>\n\u30de\u30b0\u30de\u5927\u4f7f
\nMaguma Taishi<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Type:<\/strong><\/td>\nOngoing Serial<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Original run:<\/strong><\/td>\n1965\/05 – 1967\/08<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Published in:<\/strong><\/td>\nShonen Illustrated<\/em>
\n\u5c11\u5e74\u753b\u5831<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Published by:<\/strong><\/td>\nShonen Gahosha<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Volumes:<\/strong><\/td>\n3
\nMT-186<\/a> | MT-187<\/a> |\u00a0MT-188<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Originally serialized in Shonen Illustrated<\/em>\u00a0from May 1965 to August 1967, Ambassador Magma<\/em> (1965-67) is Osamu Tezuka’s most recognizable entry in the\u00a0long line of “giant robot” or mecha<\/em> stories in Japanese manga adventures,<\/p>\n

What it’s about<\/h2>\n

Mamoru, the son of newspaper journalist Atsushi Murakami, wakes up one morning to find that he and his family have traveled 200 million years back in time.\u00a0 Looking out their window they see dinosaurs walking around outside their house.\u00a0 The mysterious Goa<\/a> appears before them and reveals that it was he who sent them back into the past in a show of his power.\u00a0 Proclaiming that he will soon take over the earth, Goa<\/a> dares Murakami to report his plans in the paper.<\/p>\n

\"magma-manga01\"<\/a>

Mamoru meets Magma<\/p><\/div>\n

When Mamoru returns to the present, he is visited by a giant robot named Magma<\/a> who asks him for a photograph of the ancient world.\u00a0 He transforms himself into a rocket and brings Mamoru to a volcanic island where he meets Magma’s wife Mol and the man who created the world, the aptly-named “Earth”.\u00a0 Magma<\/a>, along with his son Gam, who, strangely enough, looks almost exactly like Mamoru, have been created by Earth to defend the planet against threats from outer space – Goa<\/a> being chief among them.<\/p>\n

Magma<\/a> then gives Mamoru a whistle he can use to call him and the other rocket-men whenever he is in trouble… which is handy because Goa<\/a>‘s planetary invasion begins as transforming aliens known as “humanoids” begin to replacing key members of society in an attempt to subjugate the human race.<\/p>\n

Oh, and if that’s not enough, Goa<\/a> has the Devil Garon<\/a> waiting in the wings…<\/p>\n

What you should know<\/h2>\n

As even the most casual of manga fans know, “giant robots” (a.k.a.\u00a0mecha) are a long established and one of the most popular genre of Japanese manga adventures. \u00a0However, it is one of the few manga genres that Tezuka himself didn’t really popularize himself – an honour that is generally accredited to manga artist Mitsuteru Yokoyama and his series\u00a0Iron Man No. 28<\/em>\u00a0instead. \u00a0Still, never one to shy away from a popular concept,\u00a0Ambassador Magma<\/em> (1965-67) is Tezuka’s most well-known entry into the genre … even though he does<\/em> try to distinguish his living “rocket men” from their robotic cousins.<\/p>\n

\"magma-manga02\"<\/a>

Magma in action<\/p><\/div>\n

As with many of Tezuka’s manga works, at its core, Ambassador Magma<\/em> (1965-67) is a story of transformation – illustrated primarily by Magma<\/a> being able to transform into a rocket, Goa changing into a reptile, and, of course, the humanoids changing into everybody! The “shape-shifting alien” was a much used and well-loved part of Tezuka’s plot-device bag of tricks, and unsurprisingly the humanoids who appear in this story are analogous to the\u00a0human clones found in his earlier series\u00a0Zero Men<\/em> (1959-60)<\/a> and again, much later, in Neo-Faust <\/em>(1988).<\/p>\n

Of course the recycling of good ideas doesn’t stop there. \u00a0Sharp-eyed readers may also notice that\u00a0Koedamarine (an assassin sent by Goa) seems to be a\u00a0prototype for\u00a0Bolbok, the\u00a0monstrous plant with a dark will, that later appears in The Three-Eyed One<\/em> (1974-78)<\/a>. \u00a0In fact, according to mangaka<\/em>\u00a0Kosei Ono, plants usually have a direct and crucial role to play in\u00a0Tezuka’s stories about transformation (“Collected Manga Criticisms,” vol. 1, Heibonsha, 1989, pp. 67-103).<\/p>\n

It is also interesting to note that\u00a0Ambassador Magma<\/em> (1965-67) seems to have benefited from the “before-glow” of\u00a0Phoenix<\/em> (1967-88)<\/a>\u00a0– a series which was just just ramping up as\u00a0Ambassador Magma<\/em> (1965-67)\u00a0was coming to a close. \u00a0Instead of just a straight-up sci-fi “super-robot” slugfest, Tezuka incorporates a significant amount of creation-mythology\u00a0into the overall structure of the story. \u00a0By having the being Chaos (the creator of the universe) refuse to simply side with Earth (the creator of the planet Earth) because he’s the “good guy”, we can see the early stage exploration of what constitutes good and evil within the greater context of the laws of the universe – a concept which Tezuka would of course explore much more fully in his masterpiece,\u00a0Phoenix<\/em> (1967-88)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Finally, fans may be interested to note that \u00a0– arguably on the strength of the Magma<\/a>\/Garon<\/a> battles alone – that a few years after\u00a0the serialization of Ambassador Magma<\/em> (1965-67) came to a close, Magma would go on to appear in the\u00a0first color tokusatsu<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(i.e. “live action with special effects”) television series.<\/p>\n

What else you should check out<\/h2>\n

Check out the link below for chapter summaries and more detailed original publication information on Ambassador Magma<\/em> (1965-67)\u00a0serialization in Shonen Illustrated<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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\"Ambassador<\/a><\/div>

Ambassador Magma (Shonen Illustrated)<\/a><\/h3>
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nShonen Illustrated (\u5c11\u5e74\u753b\u5831) , published by Shonen Gahosha, was home to several of Osamu Teukza's serialized works. Although relatively popular in the 1950s - featuring such works as The Cactus Kid \u00a0(1951-54) , Cyrano the Hero (1953) , and Supe...<\/div><\/div>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally serialized in Shonen Illustrated [\u5c11\u5e74\u753b\u5831] from May 1965 to August 1967, Ambassador Magma (1965-67) is Osamu Tezuka\u2019s most recognizable entry in the long line of \u201cgiant robot\u201d or mecha stories in Japanese manga adventures,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3627,"parent":9225,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,166,296,50,155,339],"class_list":["post-3599","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manga","tag-adventure","tag-mid-career-works","tag-ongoing-serials","tag-sci-fi","tag-shonen-illustrated","tag-shonen-manga","has-thumbnail"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P6vZWu-W3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3599"}],"version-history":[{"count":52,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13915,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3599\/revisions\/13915"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}