Aphrodite A

(sometimes romanized as Aphrodai A) is a female mecha from the Mazinger Z anime and manga series, created by Go Nagai. It was the first giant robot in the genre to resemble the female anatomy.

She was named after Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty.

History

The robot was created by Dr. Yumi (Dr. Kabuto's apprentice) and since it was originally built for peaceful uses at first it didn't feature any weapons; eventually it acquires the ability to fire missiles from its chest, this was called the Oppai Missile System (Oppai is a Japanese slang term for breasts). Aphrodite was the first female mecha to have this kind of weapon.

Despite the fact it was made of the same alloy as Mazinger (Chogokin or Super-Alloy Z) it usually suffers substantially greater damage from attacks. Regardless of these shortcomings, in several opportunities she provides help in battle, and even destroys three Mechanical Beasts in the anime, Gumbina M5, (Chapter 49), Yubrin T9 (Chapter 56), and Giant F3 (Chapter 58). Her missiles also cause the unintentional destruction of Minerva X.

In one of the most memorable chapters, her infamous breast missiles win Mazinger a battle, when Mazinger (not yet able to fly, as its Jet Scrander upgrade had not yet been built) was unable to destroy the aerial monster Gelbros J3. Sayaka was infuriated when she discovered her robot had, without her consent, been equipped with supersized breast missiles that totally ruined the elegant lines of Aphrodite. Kouji...
Read More