General Ligern

Infobox animanga character
name = General Ligern
series = Great Mazinger


caption =
first = Chapter 01 Great Mazinger TV series
(anime version)
last =
creator = Go Nagai
voiced by =

nihongo|Wild Beast General Ligern|猛獣将軍ライガーン|Moujuu Shougun Raigaan is a fictional character, a supervillain and warrior from the anime and manga series Great Mazinger. He was commander of the Mammalian Battle Beasts, one of the Seven Armies of the Mikene Empire.

According to his profile included in the Mazinkaiser VS the Great General of Darkness OVA, Ligern(name coming from Liger) is the most vile of the Seven Generals and is unpopular even among his fellow Generals. This is mostly due to his tendency to steal their thunder in attempts to make himself look good. It was apparently only the skill he has in whipping his troops into bloodthirsty frenzies that prevented the Great General of Darkness from killing him personally.

History

Like the other members of the Mikene Empire, General Ligern survived beneath the surface of the earth in the form of a hideous Warrior Beast. Possibly thousands of years old, he and the other Generals plotted their eventual return to the surface world they once ruled under the supreme command of the mighty Great General of Darkness.

Their chance came when an ambitious megalomaniac named Dr. Hell usurped their technology and created his Mechanical Beasts in order to conquer the world. At first content to let the upstart human do the dirty work for them (and very likely planning to overthrow him once he succeeded), the Generals quickly realised that the surface world was not completely helpless when Mazinger Z proved capable of repelling attack after attack. When Dr. Hell was finally vanquished by Mazinger, the Great General finally ordered a full scale attack.

Ligern's Mammalian Battle Beasts were the mobile land unit of the Mikene Empire's Seven Armies and were among the first of the Mikene forces to battle Mazinger Z. After Mazinger's defeat, the unexpected appearance of the even more powerful Great Mazinger put a stop to the Mikene Empire's plans and eventually Ligern met his death at the Super Robot's hands.

Other appearances

General Ligern also reappeared in the Mazinkaiser OVA Deathmatch! Mazinkaiser VS the Great General of Darkness and has the dubious honour of being the only one of the Seven Generals to be killed by human hands (rather than at the hands of a mecha like Great Mazinger or Mazinkaiser).

He led his Mammalian Battle Beasts to a remote base in Siberia, where Archduke Gorgon, the Great General's personal assassin, had tracked the pilot of Mazinkaiser Kouji Kabuto. Despite knowing the Great General had ordered Gorgon to slay the youth before he could activate the powerful robot, Ligern attempted to steal the Mikene officer's thunder by attacking the base.

This eagerness proved to be his downfall, as Professor Morimori (one of the professors accompanying Kouji and Sayaka Yumi) launched a suicidal missile attack that killed him and completely obliterated the Mammalian Battle Beast Army. Ligern himself was killed when a missile ripped his body (and face) in half before detonating.

Gorgon, on the other hand, survived and later attacked Kouji again in Japan.