I’ve been meaning to provide my insight review of Mazinger Z DVD review since I got its DVD copy since June 2009.
For the past 4-5 weeks, after watching its series half-way through, I’d say everything’s a great fascination to me. Nothing short of disappointments to be found, other than the mere fact it’s a mecha show that was released on air more than 30 plus years ago. I still find myself dumbstruck asking this numbing question “Why of all mecha anime they had during the 80s did I not come across this one first before the others?†Clearly, it’s a revolutionary genre which sparked off several chains of super robot shows I watched such as Voltron, Transformers, UFO Robo Grendizer , Danguard Ace, etc.
That’s still a mystery to me why it never broadcasted in my hometown of Malaysia. One day I’ll find out that reason…
But enough about me and quibbling. Onwards to the main task at hand.
My initial thoughts about Mazinger Z were exactly the same as I would think for other mecha anime I watched in the early 80s. They got atypical good-guys-vs-bad-guys element to the plot and it never tires the traditionalists such as myself when watching them over and over again. Good guys with their powered-up set out the mission to protect Earth from evil forces of mechanical monsters or robots that threatens the very existence of peace and tranquility for the planet. Only this time, this one is more refreshingly raw and original.
We start off with our main protagonists here, Kouji Kabuto, who is said to be very hot-blooded, gets very eager to jump into upcoming battles with mechanical monsters, ready to fight them off with everything he’s got in order to save people from the evil clutches of Dr Hell, Kouji arch-nemesis, whose sole ambition is world conquest. We learned that his grandfather was the scientist who used to work well with Dr Hell as colleagues in the archaeological exploration of the ancient ruins of Greece, and they discovered the military secrets of the Greek civilization for keeping invaders at bay using Mycaene giants which are also called mechanical robots. When Dr Hell betrayed the colleagues and his grandfather, Dr Kabuto, he killed everyone except Dr Kabuto, who managed to escape alive by a tail of whisker by jumping on the lone boat and sailing far away from Dr Hell. Dr Hell got away with his evil deeds and Dr Kabuto, from then on, gave his life dedication to this super robot construction project whose purpose is to thwart the evil plans of Dr Hell for good. However, later in the show he died in the early part of the show as Dr Hell’s henchmen successfully disposed of him by blowing up his secret lab in the basement. Kouji witnessed the whole thing and was in complete grief that his grandfather was caught in this heated battle with a very dangerous enemy, and his last words to Kouji was that “It’s a shame I could not see you ride on Mazinger Z after I gasped my last breathâ€. This is truly sad. This impacts Kouji for the rest of his life and that probably explains why he’s always so hot-headed whenever he hears any mechanical monsters that try to threaten the peace and tranquility of his home country, Japan in every Mazinger Z episode. He never once wanted to step away from the opportunity to fight, especially if it’s justice he seeks. Very common trait of a hero wanting to set things straight with villains that there’s no room for enemies to prosper. And you always get the sense that he will never say a ‘no’ for every challenge Dr Hell wanted to give him relentlessly.
Later on, I learnt more interesting facts about how Kouji tried to pilot his mecha for the first time. And the series dedicated the first 5-10 episodes just to see how he managed to control his robot’s simple movements such as walking, running and landing his rocket punch on the enemy. There were some really funny scenes of this and I didn’t know whether Go Nagai was intently trying hard to infuse the viewers to comprehend the struggles Kouji gets when learning to ride his robot as compared to riding a motorcycle or a car. As if the viewers were ‘educated’ to understand that controlling the car’s movements can never compare to the likes of controlling robots when you’re dealing with 50 different controls to operate. Along the way, we starting to see how Kouji develops friendships with allies he meets along the way and they assisted him to fulfill his objectives as well. In the midst of all this, Kouji gets pretty settled in Dr Yumi’s lab and soon we started to recognize the infamous scene where the pool opens up and Mazinger comes up rising from the pool and Kouji’s hovercraft also known as ‘Pilder’ lands on top of Mazinger Z’s head, acting as Mazinger’s brain (see below).
Friends
As our hero gains confidence in making full use of Mazinger Z’s fighting abilities, so are his new found friends and allies growing their confidence in him defending the earth from evil forces of Dr Hell. We have Professor Yumi and daughter , Sayaka Yumi, who always prepare to give advice to Kouji whenever he’s in any imminent danger, even though at times Kouji appears to be not interested in listening to the things Sayaka says about his reckless and sometimes boastful behaviour which could lead to further troubles ahead, unnecessarily. Sayaka Yumi, like Kouji Kabuto, who also programs her own robot, Aphrodite A, to engage in battle, but lack the necessary firepower in order to sustain any ‘practical’ damage on the enemies. Aphrodite A is useful in several occasions where Kouji/Mazinger Z could not handle things themselves. We have three amazing scientists, best working colleagues of Professor Yumi, who assisted Kouji a lot in his quest for peace and justice, by regularly reviewing, analyzing and enhancing Mazinger Z’s fighting capabilities. They’re really indispensable bunch! Then we have our big former-foe-but-turned-to-a-friend-of-Kabuto-Kouji, Big Boss and his two sidekicks, who respects Kouji a lot when he’s in the battlefield when facing tough opponents. But on the ground level, Boss’s envy on Sayaka’s love interest on Kouji, is really apparent that he would take every step to prove his affections for her is better than Kouji. After all, Kouji did seem at times getting pretty cheeky and arrogant about this achievements with Mazinger Z, Sayaka’s taking the short end of the stick for the credit and Boss did try to take advantage of this so things would come out favourably for him.
Enemies
When there’s hero in need to the rescue, there will certainly be villains that stirred up the troubles. There’s no other greater evil than Dr Hell(first inset), the evil-doer who started this whole world conquest vision (starting from Japan), using the ancient technologies of the Mycanae empire, along with his most loyal subordinates, Baron Ashura(second inset) and Count Brocken(third inset). Together, they will bring a huge force of army that’s very menacing that they can completely dominate the entire world with his fleet of giant robots, if it wasn’t for Mazinger Z( that keeps on thwarting them everytime). Very focused individual, trying to devise several strategic ways to eliminate Kouji, Professor Yumi and Mazinger Z during the series Z, but only to result in failure in misery. Baron Ashura, his most trusted subject, earlier who follows every Dr Hell’s instructions to create destruction and despair amongst citizens of Earth (or Japan in this context) and executes them without question. His loyalty and dedication to his master, Dr Hell is almost admirable that it reminds you how soldiers were at that time WWII occurred, they’re willing to put their lives at stake in order to fulfill their commands of the commanding officer, just as he’s willing to give his life to Dr. Hell. Throughout the series, we see him struggling to defeat Mazinger Z, Baron Ashura was seen humiliated and defeated that we have Count Brocken, who’s surfaced to replace Baron Ashura and Ashura’s seen demoted. Both of them are not getting along together because of this tension for Dr. Hell’s appraisal’s for one’s achievements. Count Brocken, a cyborg with floating head seems to be a very calculative and devious (just like all villains) with a Nazi-complex (the uniform was give away), tries to prove he’s far superior to Ashura when it comes to fighting Mazinger Z with results Ashura struggles to achieve.
Mechanical Beasts
There’s so many mechanical beasts this series introduced (I’m still half way through them) and I think it requires a different post to dedicate this topic. However, if I were to give a review on this, I would say they are very pretty impressive. Especially considering it’s an official fact that this one sets out the standard for all mecha shows to feature new monsters or villains every week, dubbed as ‘monster-of-the-week’. Every mechanical beasts that come out to battle Mazinger comes with any unique abilities to deter Mazinger and eventually destroy him as part of its attempt everything from boomerang sickles, giant monsters inspired from Ancient Greek times, flying monsters to light-saber-enhanced scythe, etc. Here’s a brief list of Mazinger’s villains.
Overall comments
Looking at the whole series so far up to this point, I find it very good and it delivers what a mecha anime ought to be ie weekly monster feature, battle cry weapon commands eg Rocket Punch, male hero gets robot that’s invented by his father scientists, used it to serve the purpose of protecting mankind etc. This ‘formulaic’ approach works very well for Mazinger Z and that probably explains why Go Nagai deserves full credit for this and receives so many honorary awards after so many years in anime business. I highly recommend it to people who’s truly into this subgenre and very passionate about their favourite mecha shows of the past (which Iam) and learn its historical influence which contributes the growing number of mecha/super robot shows in the past 30 years.  I’ll give a rating of 4.5/5.
