NTV- World Records Program- Robot Battle – February 27th
This week’s Robot Battle segment was between Cutie Honey and Metallic Fighter. Cutie Honey was a very popular manga character that was recently featured in a full length movie.
The Cutie Honey robot was designed by the Nakamura family based on their previous robot competitor.
Marika Nakamura, 9 years old, was the robot operator during the earlier competitions, and was also a participant in the Robo-One Jr. event.
The Cutie Honey robot was 48 cm. tall, and weighed 2.2 kg. The Nakamura’s watched the Cutie Honey movie on DVD numerous times, and not only matched the robot’s costume to the movie, but were also able to replicate the moves.
During the Robot Battle competion, the actress that played Cutie Honey in the movie operated the robot, but was coached by the Nakamuras.
Metallic Fighter was slightly shorter than Cutie Honey at 40 cm, but weighed 2.5 kg – slightly heavier.
Metallic Fighter was also a competitor in the Robo-One events, and I’m sure will compete again this year when it takes place on the weekend of March 19/20th here in Tokyo.
Metallic Fighter is extremely flexible, and easily performs handstands.
To add a little humor to the event, they had Metallic Fighter propose to Cutie Honey. Of course, she rejected him, which was the lead up to the battle.
From a specifications perspective, the two robots seemed pretty well matched. So it was obvious that winning the battle would depend on strategy and the skill of the operator.
Early in the match Metallic Fighter managed to dump Cutie Honey.
And then he followed up with a real surprise when his arm reached around behind, caught Cutie Honey off balance, and tipped her over.
Cutie Honey fought back, and managed to win the next round flipping Metallic Fighter over.
I’m still very impressed by the speed and movements demonstrated by these robots. Ignoring for the moment the costumes and drama, the technology is really amazing. Metallic Fighter was definitely robot-like in his movements, but Cutie Honey matched the body moves of her movie counterpart almost perfectly, and just as smoothly as if she were a real human being.
You might also enjoy:
- TV: Robot Battle Takes It To The Next Level
- Robot Battle – NTV – Sunday, February 20th
- Robots Battle on Prime Time TV
- Robot Battle Makes Prime Time
- Robosapien Choreography Program – Some Thoughts
