Please just ignore this if you haven't watched Great Mazinger, even though it's a 51 year old show!
After finishing an unrelated robot show (Zeta Gundam), I was reminded that I really love human characters. "Humans are complex", "humans are inherently contradictory", "our flaws and insecurities are not easy to get over", there's no fucking way I can talk about this without sounding pretentious. But applying "muh humans" logic back to Great Mazinger, Tetsuya - whom I was already invested in trying to defend, because I like him and his robot a lot but his show not only had some weak episodes (unlike Toeizinger) and had a depressing ending that put many people off (and the only follow-up we got for that I saw was SRW30 where Koji has no ill will over it?) - really is a slightly complex character and this garners more sympathy from me.
Treating the show as something intelligent and consistent, because Toeizinger Z never treated its viewers like idiots, Tetsuya's well-adjusted enough to give Shiro good advice about accepting his father, and bonds with Shiro as an older brother even prior to Kenzo's reveal. But he himself absolutely cannot handle some latecomer hot-shot taking away the one thing he valued himself for, and worries that he'll be thrown away since he and Great were just stand-ins compared to the actual son (and Z) who's just as capable as he is. But then he comes to his senses, and after Kenzo suffers fatal wounds for saving Tetsuya, he affirms to Koji that Tetsuya is a son to him as well. At no point does Koji ever blame Tetsuya or hold ill will against him. Like, Z had no weak episodes (Pygman's the worst offender as being unusual but they were still acceptable and fun), but Great definitely did. But you also get way more character moments, even aside from Jun and Tetsuya's issues, you have some mini arcs with Shiro getting closer to his father, who's a consistently warm person. Great is a Great show.
https://files.catbox.moe/0kukk3.webm
