Sayaka Yumi
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| Sayaka Yumi | |
|---|---|
| Mazinger character | |
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| First appearance | Chapter 01 (anime version) |
| Created by | Go Nagai |
Sayaka Yumi was the heroine of the manga and anime Mazinger Z. She was a bit hot-tempered and tomboyish, and had a habit of clashing with the story's hero, Kouji Kabuto even though she had a romantic interest in him.
She's voiced by Minori Matsushima in the original series and Great Mazinger, and by Ai Uchikawa in Mazinkaiser. (The voice actor for her American counterpart in Tranzor Z, Jessica Davis, is unknown.) In the Italian dub of the original series, Sayaka is voiced by Liliana Sorrentino, and her Spanish voice actress is Gloria Gonzalez.
[edit] History
Sayaka appears at the beginning of the series, actually saving Shiro with her robot Aphrodite from being unintentionally killed by Mazinger, piloted by Kouji, who didn't know how to control it at the time. She provides him with the first hints on how to use the robot, so he can handle it properly and defeat his first mechanical monster.
Sayaka herself can be considered a landmark character in the evolution of gender roles in anime. She was one of the first female characters in the genre to regularly take an active role in battles and conflicts, rather than be relegated to the sidelines once fighting began or merely offering non-fighting support. She was strong-willed, but also brash, stubborn and tomboyish, usually hiding her attraction to Kouji by arguing with him - a far cry from the traditional "nice girl" role usually given to sympathetic females in anime prior to Mazinger Z, and practically the prototype for the Tsundere character archetype. In fact, the relationship between Sayaka and Kouji was often tempestuous, and on at least one occasion (Chapter 52) the two even had a physical confrontation over a misunderstanding, yet their feelings for each other were genuine and they would always make up in the end (often by annoying each other all over again). While the Sayaka from the original Mazinger Z manga was somewhat more lady-like and less confrontational, she still had a temper and quite the will to fight back whenever she needed it.
Sayaka would get the chance to help fight the story's monsters with her robot Aphrodite A, although more often than not she was unable to make much of a difference, as Aphrodite was not originally designed for combat. A recurring plot thread would see Sayaka constantly lobbying for upgrades to Aphrodite to make her more effective in battle, only to have her requests largely ignored (although Aphrodite did gain the ability to fire missiles from its breast components). Once, during Chapter 52, following injuries to Kouji that she blamed herself for, Sayaka actually piloted Mazinger in a battle situation, but being unfamiliar with Mazinger's controls she was not much more effective than she usually was with Aphrodite.
Approximately three-quarters through the story (Chapter 74), Aphrodite was destroyed, Sayaka sacrificing her robot to save Kouji and Mazinger from a deadly attack by one of Dr. Hell's mechanical monsters. Afterward, Sayaka received a somewhat stronger robot, Diana A, which unlike Aphrodite was designed with combat in mind.
Sayaka has skills with motorcycles, and hence she is given a special one called the Scarlet Mobile to control Diana; she rides her bike over a beam shot from the robot's head to place it there, turning it into the mecha's cockpit in a manner similar to the Pilder vehicle piloted by Kouji to control Mazinger Z. (It is worth noting that series creator Go Nagai had originally intended for Kouji to link up with Mazinger via a motorcycle component, but changed it to a flying vehicle reportedly to avoid comparison to Kamen Rider. With the Scarlet Mobile and Diana A, Nagai finally got to use this idea.)
As is a common theme in Go Nagai's giant-robot series, Sayaka is shown to have a special bond with the mecha at her control, as if they were extensions of her own body. Both Aphrodite and Diana tend to reflect Sayaka's mood and mannerisms in their "body language" while she is piloting them. A more extreme example of Sayaka's connection to her robots can be seen in Chapter 75, where she is shown to be despondent over the loss of Aphrodite and even tries to drown herself while following a vision of the destroyed mecha into a lake.
Following the defeat of Mazinger Z in Great Mazinger, Sayaka flies with Kouji to the United States. She would return with him later in the series, to help destroy the Mikene Empire.
[edit] Other Versions
- In Tranzor Z, the Americanized version of Mazinger Z, Sayaka's name was changed to Jessica Davis, and she was rewritten as a cousin of Kouji Kabuto (renamed Tommy Davis in this dub).
- In the Mazinkaiser OVAs Sayaka is the pilot of first Aphrodite and afterwards a modified version of Venus A, the classic companion of Great Mazinger, whose traditional pilot was Jun Hono.
- Sayaka appears as a main character in the Mazinger Angels manga series, in which she once again pilots Aphrodite A.
[edit] Trivia
- In two episodes of Devilman, Sayaka (or at least, a girl very closely resembling her) makes a brief cameo. (Episode 27 and 33)
- One of the villain's captives in the second episode of Shin Cutie Honey (1994) is a young woman nearly identical in appearance to Sayaka.
- Sayaka and Kouji are the only characters who have appeared in every incarnation of the Super Robot Wars series of games (with the exception of the first, which had no human characters).
- Sayaka was to become the 4th spazer pilot in the mecha series UFO Robot Grendizer. But character developer and co-plotter of the series, Shingo Araki, opposed Gô Nagai and designed brand new a character that did not appear in the Grendizer manga: Maria Grace Fleed, younger sister to Duke Fleed, the main character in Grendizer, soon becoming a fan-favourite in the latter part of the series.
- Daddy Yankee mentions Sayaka and Mazinger in the reggaeton song Machucando.
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