Mazinger Z

Director
Yugo Serigawa
Production
Fuji TV, Toei
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
46 episodes
Year
1972

Mazinger Z TV Boxset 1 Region 2 (Japanese)

By Stephen Lerch
9th Aug 04

Mazinger Z TV is a 92 episode series originally airing in Japan from December 12, 1972 until September 1, 1974. It was originally a Manga story by Nagai Go (known for many super robot greats of the past, and some present), adapted to Anime. This review covers the first box set, which contains episodes 1-46 on 8 discs. All names are in Japanese order (family name first).

Short Synopsis:

The story begins with Dr. Kabuto Juzo making known his discovery of a new alloy, Super Alloy Z, made from a new element called Japanium, which can only be found in crust of Mt. Fuji. After making his discovery known to the world, the great Dr. Kabuto retires to his mountain home.

Dr. Hell desires this alloy/element for his evil purpose, which is basically to take over the world, which will be used to create his Kikaiju (mechanical monsters). Dr. Hell sends his minions; the Tekkamen led by the half man half woman Baron Ashura, to the Kabuto residence (not Dr. Kabuto's residence, but that of his grandchildren) to discover the whereabouts of Dr. Kabuto's mountain home. The Tekkamen attack the house, kill Kabuto Kouji's maid and learn of the mountain home's location.

Kabuto Kouji, Dr. Kabuto's grandson, follows after the fleeing attackers with his brother Shiro, only to arrive too late to stop the Tekkamen from destroying Dr. Kabuto's home, killing the Dr. in the process. Before the Dr. dies, he tells Kouji of a super robot he has created in secret using the Super Alloy Z… this robot is known as Mazinger Z (it as created as Dr. Kabuto knew of Dr. Hell and his evil schemes). According to the Dr., Mazinger Z can become a devil or a god, depending upon the will of the pilot. Kouji jumps into the pileder and takes Mazinger Z for an unsteady walk to Photon Lab where his grandfather used to work.

This is where we meet Professor Yumi, Yumi Sayaka and the 3 scientists who built Aphrodite A (Ace), which is a robot piloted by Yumi Sayaka.

After discussing the fate of Dr. Kabuto, all the parties involved agree to take on Dr. Hell and prevent his plan for world domination from coming to fruition.

Episode after episode Dr. Hell creates a new kikaiju (mechanical monster) that Baron Ashura (eventually Count/Baron Broken as well) sends in many different missions, targeting many different objectives, with the purpose of destroying Mazinger Z, Aphrodite A (Ace) and Photon Lab which are the only things standing in his way in the path to world domination.

Mazinger Z has many attacks in his arsenal, from rocket punches, missiles, rust hurricane, breast fire and more with which to attack and destroy the kikaiju. From the beginning to the end, Kouji implements various new attacks, along with variants of standard attacks, in an effort to be triumphant once and for all over Dr. Hell and his followers.

Video:

The transfer to DVD on this series is nothing short of astounding. The DVD bit rate is between 8.2-9.2 the duration of the discs. No artefacting, no compression blocking, no rainbows, in short, no problems with the way the DVD was encoded.

I believe new masters were created for this release; the film restored and cleaned up. There are instances of dust/dirt and an occasional film defect, but overall, being the age that it is, this is truly a beautiful transfer that defies logic. The time, care and effort Toei put into releasing this on DVD really shows how much they wanted to give fans a near perfect Mazinger Z release.

Audio:

You have one option here, Stereo 2.0 Japanese language, and no subtitles.

Due to the age, I noticed a single spot in the audio that was missing. It's a short clip, about 2-3 seconds at most, that goes absolutely soundless. It's during a section that contains no dialog so the absent bit isn't missed. I have a feeling this was just a single area of the film that simply was unsalvageable. This is forgivable and quickly forgotten, all things considered. I believe the show was taken from a mono mix and redone into stereo, though I am unable to verify this fact.

Music is typical 70s music. You have vocal tracks for the opening, ending and a couple of other notable areas in the show, one such area being the launching of the Skurander Jet.

Other than the single drop, audio/dialog is well done and mixed well.

Extras:

The video extras are to be seen upon the final disc in the set. On disc 8 there are Japanese commercials for some of the toys. The disc also contains the radio commercial (audio only) spots aired on the radio. Limited in terms of video extras, but nice additions to the set nonetheless.

The extras contained in the box are a replica of a document used by the animation team to make sure everything was done according to plan. There is also another ‘Mazinger Z Special Booklet’ with information on the mecha and pilots. This set also contains a do it yourself paper Guri (Ghoul) ship replicated from the show. Guri (Ghoul) is the ship piloted by Count/Baron Broken during the show. One final extra is a reissue of a Mazinger Z license card.

Packaging:

Tremendous.

What you receive when purchasing the full box set is all 4 discs packed in a highly attractive cardboard box. The cardboard and artwork are high quality. The artwork consists of several of the mechanical monsters shown during this set along with Mazinger Z, Aphrodite Ace (or A) and Baron Ashura.

The individual keep case artwork follows the style of the outer box, with scenes being depicted from the episodes contained on the 2 discs in each case. The interior artwork has artwork from the series in it as well, done in multiple shades of different pastel colors, giving the clear keep cases a similar color to the interior when viewed from the outside, which is an interesting side effect.

Final Analysis:

I love this show. Super Robots are something that I've been a fan of since a child, and what I have here is arguably one of the greatest Super Robot Anime ever created, also notably the first to feature a robot actually piloted, not remotely controlled, by a human.

My first taste of the series was quite a long time ago, in the early 80's, when the Americanized (edited and shrunk in terms of episode count) version, Tranzor Z, began to air. Considering how old I was at the time (younger single digits), I never realized Tranzor Z was adapted from Anime, nor did I realize the show was easily 10 years old when airing in the US for the first time.

The show takes 3 things a lot of people can enjoy, giant monsters, robots and fighting, and mixes them together as giant robots piloted by humans fighting giant monsters.

Fans of super robots cannot miss this classic, as it is hugely popular world wide (it made 97 or 95 in a poll in 2002 of most popular Anime in Japan. No small feat given the show was 30 years old!) and an integral piece of super robot history. There are Spanish adaptations, Italian adaptations and Arabic adaptations that I know of, all of which were popular in their time. The only place I can think of where the show didn't get the respect or following it deserved was the United States.

High quality set all around and highly recommended.

Score: 10

-- Stephen Lerch 9th Aug 04

Mazinger Z Images