lafayette.bosco - 2016-01-20 08:07:12

To have the power of either God or the Devil himself. What does it truly mean to be given the choice to either save or destroy humanity? What unrelenting pressure it must be called forth to be humanity's last bastion of defense from true, unrelenting evil, over and over again, knowing that a single failure will doom the world?

On it's surface, Mazinger Z isn't really about that stuff. Well, the first two things are pretty surface level for the manga, but Koji never really struggles, or really even comprehends the idea to do so here. However, despite it being the poster child for the Super Robot genre, and especially the idea of the "dumb as rocks who gives a shit" part of the Super Robot genre, there's something, part tangible, part difficult to explain that makes the story as endearing and, to use a less meme-like version of the word, epic as this one.

Okay, that's a bit of a far shot to call this an epic. I think part of it is that anything with 100 fucking episodes with even the tiniest bit of continuity feels more fulfilling than it would otherwise. But there's good stuff, really! There's some funny moments, there's some cool moments, and there's some things that came out of left field for me. Characters showing more depth than I expected, scenes that seemed really to respect the characters (Boss is the fucking best and everyone knows it), and even a surprising willingness to change the status quo.

Am I saying this show needed to be 92 episodes? No, of course not. But to say it's just another monster of the week snooze-fest (Toei's Devilman, for example) would be incredibly disingenuous. It's no roller-coaster ride, sure, but there are quite a few moments where it dares to take itself seriously, if even just a bit, and in it's own way, and you can't help but feel a grudging respect for what it's accomplished in our time with the characters.

To be a real fact-based hard-hitting reviewer for a moment, I'll say: The animation is like, pretty typical for the 70's, I think? Maybe better? Devilman vs Mazinger Z looked really good in comparison so I don't know if that's a compliment to that or an insult to this. It doesn't look lazy. Usually.

Sound wise- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmdgQyKESII here is a song about how much a man loves his robot wings called a "Scrander." Is there anything else left to say? (No, but if there were, it also has some episode exclusive musical tracks, which makes the episode in question a bit cooler than it would have been otherwise.)

A lot of my opinion seems to have this recurring ghost like wail of "good for it's time, at least!" ominously being chanted against the background. Does it necessarily hold up? Kind of? To be completely honest, we don't make shows like this any more. Gurren Lagann is less of an evolution of this genre as it is a different take, which doesn't serve to take any validity away from the original. And there aren't any other shows, at least that I've seen, that has the same formula that accomplishes the same things as well as this does. While Boss is a character trope, is there any better Boss than Boss?

(No.)

Look, I'm not even sure if you should watch this. I can't even say to watch a certain episode count first to see if you'll enjoy it, because the way it wraps up the story, and the numerous beats that stack on top of each other down the line, are what really gives perspective to what exactly there is to like about this. So yeah, fucking dive in and watch all 92 episodes, then I'll take your opinion. And if you like it?

Well, have fun waiting until someone translates Great Mazinger.