Minerva X

Minerva X ミネルバ　X
Creator	Go Nagai
Profile
Weapons	Koushiryoku Beam (Photonic Beam), Breast Fire, Rust Hurricane, Rocket Punch
Construction	Super Steel
Energy source	Atomic Energy

Minerva X is a fictional mecha from the anime and manga series Mazinger Z, created by Go Nagai. Within the story, Minerva X was designed by Professor Juzou Kabuto, but its plans were stolen and it was built by Doctor Hell. Minerva X only appeared in the thirty-eighth episode of that series.

She was named after Minerva, the Roman goddess of crafts and wisdom.

History

Designed many years ago by Professor Juzou Kabuto, Minerva X was intended to be a partner to his greatest creation Mazinger Z. As such, Minerva X has a highly similar body design to Mazinger, as well as having many common weapons. However, the plans for this machine were stolen by Doctor Hell, who later built it in an attempt to destroy Mazinger Z.

Unfortunately for Hell, Minerva X's artificial intelligence made it totally loyal to Mazinger, and it quickly defected to the Photonic Labs' team. However, the AI in Minerva made it view Mazinger in a romantic light, causing it to become very jealous and resentful of Sayaka Yumi's Aphrodite A, another "lady robot". Sayaka herself was quite scared and even disturbed by this fact. In the meantime, Doctor Hell sent Archerian J5, a Mechanical Beast, to eliminate Minerva, as it was no longer any use to him. During the ensuing battle, Minerva took damage that caused it to lose its "conscience", making it go berserk. Professor Yumi hurriedly worked on a way to bring Minerva back under control, but Kouji had to stop her from destroying the city. He first attempts to restrain Minerva, but when it attempts to destroy a nuclear plant, Sayaka is forced to attack, mortally damaging it.

Mazinger installs Professor Yumi's control system, restoring Minerva's consciousness just before it dies in Mazinger's arms. Afterwards, Kouji and Sayaka give Minerva a burial at sea, hoping that it will rest in peace.

Statistics

In Professor Kabuto's original designs, Minerva X was planned to use the same Photonic Energy reactor and Super-Alloy Z as Mazinger Z. However, since Doctor Hell lacked these technologies, the version of Minerva X that was actually built used inferior materials. Had it been built to specifications, Minerva might have been an equal for Mazinger in terms of combat performance.

• Power Source: Atomic Energy (Planned to be Photonic Energy)
• Armor Materials: Super Steel (Planned to be Super-Alloy Z)
• Dimensions:
  • Height: 18 meters
  • Weight: 18 tons
  • Chest Circumference: 10 meters
• Performance
  • Walking Speed: 50 km/h
  • Running Speed: 360 km/h
  • Swimming Speed: 20 knots
  • Length of Step: 6.8 meters
  • Maximum Jump (Distance): 20 meters

Weapons and Attacks

• Koushiryoku Beam (Photonic Beam)/Eye Beam: Like Mazinger Z, Minerva X can fire beams of energy from its eyes. However, since the version of Minerva X that was actually built lacked a Photonic reactor, the actual composition of its eye beams is unknown.
• Breast Fire: Again like Mazinger, Minerva's red chest fins acted as giant heat sinks, which could also release the stored thermal energy in a powerful blast. Interestingly, Minerva X was unable to stand the heat generated by Mazinger Z; if the two came too close, Minerva would emit coolant from its eyes, giving it the appearance of crying.
• Rocket Punch: Identical to Mazinger's attack.
• Rust Hurricane: During Dr. Hell's tests, Minerva is shown from the back using her rust hurricane on dummy mechanical beasts. However, she does not make use of this attack during the rest of the chapter.

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  Minerva X using her breast fire.

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  Minerva X firing Photonic Beams.

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  Minerva X firing her rocket punch.

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  Minerva X using her rust hurricane during a test conducted by Dr. Hell.

Other media

• Minerva X also appears in Akihiko Shinmei's manga Mazinger Angels, a sort of parody/homage to Charlie's Angels starring the women of the Mazinger series as secret agents. Minerva X is a powerful, mentally-controlled machine that is deemed a "wild horse". However, when the young psychic Maria Grace Freed believes that the Mazinger Angels accidentally killed her dog Duke, her anguish causes her powers to connect with Minerva X and leads to a battle between the four mecha. Eventually, it is revealed that the Angels' organization saved Duke, and Maria joins the team as the fourth member. It is noteworthy that while the original Minerva X could not fly, the Mazinger Angel version can, by transforming into "Sirene Mode", a reference to the avian demon from Nagai's Devilman series.

• In Yoshiaki Tabata's ongoing manga Shin Mazinger Zero, Minerva X returns in a personified android form. So far, she follows a similar role to her classic predecessor: designed by Juzou Kabuto and finished by Doctor Hell, she was intended to command a division over Baron Ashura. However, she quickly changed sides to that of Kouji and Mazinger Z soon after meeting, revealing to Ashura that it nor Doctor Hell had control to begin with, as designed by Juzo. Furthermore, her narrative has implied that she has existed through a continuous time loop, having experienced nearly 2800 timelines where the world has ended. She is equipped with a portable photon engine and seems to be capable of similar super robot abilities to the original Minerva X, shown using Rust Hurricane in her introduction.

• Minerva X has appeared in several games in the Super Robot Wars series of video games, notably Super Robot Wars Advance for the Game Boy Advance and Super Robot Wars 64 for the Nintendo 64. In several of these games, Minerva X can be spared its fate, becoming a regular member of the player's roster. When this happens, Minerva is apparently fitted with a cockpit which allows it to be piloted like the other members of the Mazinger mecha family.

• In the novel Ready_Player_One by Ernest Cline, Minerva X is an available robot avatar form for one of the players to employ in the book's climactic battle.

See also

• Mazinger Angels

External links

• Minerva X appearance on Mazinger Z 38th episode (part 1) at YouTube (Spanish)
• Minerva X appearance on Mazinger Z 38th episode (part 2) at YouTube (Spanish)
• Minerva X appearance on Mazinger Z 38th episode (part 3) at YouTube (Spanish)