As one of the earliest Super Robot manga, this work established most of the defining traits of the Mecha genre. Mazinger was constructed from Super-Alloy Z by Professor Juzo Kabuto, who designed it as a weapon to combat the Mechanical Beasts of the villainous Dr. Hell. Following his grandfather's death, Koji Kabuto assumes the role of Mazinger Z's pilot and proceeds to battle Dr. Hell and his associates. This series was the first to introduce the concept of a pilot operating from within a Mecha, a convention that all subsequent series have adopted.