Great Mazinger: Complete TV Series

Great Mazinger was the very first anime series that I ever saw while growing up in Japan. The 1970s and 1980s were the heyday of giant mecha anime, and Great Mazinger was one of the pioneers of the anime art form, and played a major role in shaping what anime has become. I hope to see more series from this era released in this format. There are 8 discs, with 7 episodes per disc. Disc 8 of this set has some toy commercials and an 8mm theatrical short. I noticed that there were some problems playing some episodes on a few of the discs on my stand-alone DVD player, but they played with no problems on my computer's DVD drive.Audio is Japanese only, with the option to enable or disable English subtitles for the episodes. I only used the subtitles for the extra features on disc 8, but the translation quality is very good.(My last paragraph has what some might consider to be a minor spoiler)In the episode dialogue, character names are given Japanese-style, with family name first, but I will write them American-style, with family name last.This series picks up virtually to the day after Mazinger Z ends. With Koji Kabuto and Sayaka Yumi studying in the United States, Tetsuya Tsurugi, Jun Honou, Professor Kabuto and their colleagues step forward to face the Mycenaean Empire and their plans to conquer the Earth. It is Great Mazinger, Venus A, and Boss Borot who stand as the first line of defense against the Mycenaean Empire and their army of Battle Beasts, who intend to conquer the Earth. This series can be watched as a stand-alone series, but it is best understood and enjoyed as the second part of the Mazinger saga. Old friends and old foes from Mazinger Z return to play their roles throughout the Great Mazinger series.Great Mazinger possesses twice the power of Mazinger Z, and has several improvements over Mazinger Z. Just like Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger receives several weapons upgrades throughout the series to cope with the increasingly powerful Battle Beasts. Jun's robot, Venus A, was designed and built from the outset to serve as a partner for Great Mazinger. Boss Borot, from Mazinger Z, returns to join the fray as well.Whereas the Photon Energy Institute from Mazinger Z was a scientific facility whose staff became reluctant warriors, the Science Fortress Institute is exactly what its name says it is. It is armed and equipped to defend itself against attack, and its staff knows exactly why they are there. In several episodes, the Science Fortress Institute trades salvoes of weapons fire against attacking Mycenaean mobile fortresses, like two old sailing warships trading broadsides.Tetsuya Tsurugi is Great Mazinger's pilot. In many ways, he is an older version of Koji Kabuto, an orphan who was raised by Professor Kabuto as a surrogate son and trained from an early age to one day be humanity's champion against the coming darkness. His motorcycle is distinctive, to say the least, and motorcycles like this were a common feature of both Japanese anime and live-action series throughout the 1970s. His female partner, Jun Honou, is much the same. Tetsuya's backstory is not fully explored in this series, but Jun's is explained in somewhat more detail. She is usually calm and mature, but sometimes struggles with personal issues like everyone else. Tetsuya and Jun both have to wrestle with guilt and doubt, but they find the strength and grace within themselves to see it through.Professor Kenzo Kabuto, as his name implies, is indeed the father of Mazinger Z pilot Koji Kabuto and younger brother Shiro, a fact which he hid from his sons until later in the series. His body was all but destroyed in an explosion, but he was rebuilt as a cyborg. His cybernetic body makes him a formidable fighter in his own right, and he defeats at least one assassination attempt with his cyber-enhanced speed and shooting accuracy. Indeed, many of the Mycenaean attacks are planned for the express purpose of capturing or killing Professor Kabuto.Boss, Nukeh, and Mucha (from Mazinger Z) remain as supporting characters. They often are depicted as comedy relief, but they come to the aid of the Science Fortress Institute when it matters - motivated, in part, by Boss' attraction to Jun - and Boss Borot does destroy several Battle Beasts himself. Koji Kabuto's younger brother, Shiro, hangs around with Boss and his pals when he is not at the Science Fortress Laboratory. In Great Mazinger, we see Shiro beginning to take more of an active role, and he even has his own robot, Robot junior, whose baseball bat sometimes proves to be a surprisingly effective weapon when Great Mazinger's weapons prove ineffective.The Japanese names of some of the characters have specific meanings. In Japanese, "tsurugi" means "sword," "tetsuya" can be loosely translated as "made of iron," Jun Honou's last name "honou" means "flame," and Professor Kenzo Kabuto's first name is written with the Japanese kanji characters which mean "sword maker," perhaps a reference to his role in training Tetsuya to pilot Great Mazinger. His last name, Kabuto, refers to the helmet worn by a samurai.Boss' sidekicks, Nukeh and Mucha, also have names with specific meanings. "Nukeh" means "fool," and "mucha" means "crazy" or "silly." A sentient and sarcastic crow named Bakarasu (Japanese for "stupid crow") becomes part of Boss' crew, serving as lookout and messenger, and commenting on Boss' various misadventures. Despite their names, they also prove to be loyal friends to Tetsuya and company and face the Mycenaean onslaught with stubborn nobility.The Mycenaean Empire occupies a subterranean world from which they venture forth to conquer the Earth. Led by the Emperor of Darkness, seven generals who are sentient giant robots dispatch their Battle Beasts on missions of destruction. These generals and their field commanders often plot and scheme against each other, which works to the benefit of the Science Fortress Institute and the human race.FWIW, the series finale of Great Mazinger sets up the following series, UFO Robo Grandizer, which aired in the United States as one of the Force Five anime series. Koji Kabuto appears in Grandizer as a supporting character, but in the Force Five incarnation, his character was named Lance Hyatt.

I am a huge fan of classic and pre-digital anime, as well a fan of Go Nagai. I have been waiting a long time for an American release of this series and it is worth the wait! I am still watching the first disc, so i have not watched the complete series, but the quality is terrific.

Love this series. Excellent quality in both visual and sound. Thanks for helping reliving good memories.

Discotek is AMAZING. I wish they would finish "Galaxy Express 999", though.

Mazinger Z wasn’t the first giant Japanese robot anime, but I believe it was the first with a piloted robot. It was an evolution from the controlled robots such as Giant Robo and Tetsujin 28-go and the genre would eventually move to combining and transforming robots. Getter Robo featured three vehicles that combined into a single robot while shows like Combattler V and Voltes V featured five vehicles that combined. Those shows merged the concept of piloted robots like Mazinger Z with the Sentai team started by Gatchaman.Great Mazinger takes place some time after the events of Mazinger Z with a new pilot, Tetsuya Tsurugi. Tetsuya was raised by the father of Mazinger Z’s pilot, Kouji Kabuto. Sayaki Yumi, the pilot of Aphrodite A, has been replaced by Jun Hono. I didn’t realize at first, but Jun is mixed Japanese/African and she’s a bit thicker and darker skinned than most Anime girls. Boss even commented that he preferred Jun over Sayaki because her boobs are bigger. There are a couple of mentions of her mixed ancestry during the series including one of the better episodes, but mostly it’s ignored. Shiro, Boss, Nuke and Mucha all remain from Mazinger Z and add comedy relief.The Mazinger series was started about the same time as Gatchaman but Gatchaman definitely did some things much better. Jun the Swan, from Gatchaman, was an equal member of the team but Jun Hono is clearly inferior to Tetsuya. Mazinger is also very episodic rather than having an evolving storyline. There are some relationships between characters, but they remain mostly static. It’s not as vapid as the Super Friends but the show feels like it’s targeting a younger demographic than say Space Battleship Yamato or Gatchaman. The episodes are very repetitive with one or more battle beasts attacking the base, Venus A is sent out and Mazinger Z is left in reserve, Boss Borot shows up to help Jun because of Boss’s infatuation and the two robots get owned. Finally, Mazinger Z shows up and saves the day. Even many of the same plots are played out over and over again.The villains seem to have no other goal than to attack the Science Fortress Institute over and over again relentlessly. I guess the idea is that once the SFI and Great Mazinger go down, the rest of the Earth will be easy pickings, but it makes every episode feel like groundhog day. I also have to wonder why the enemies can produce two brand new battle beasts every episode but never load up the attack and come at the SFI with 30 or 40 for a guaranteed victory. These are the kinds of thoughts that come into my head when the plots aren’t compelling enough to distract me.Mazinger Z became the template for a ton of Japanese Robot Anime featuring bright animation and an enemy with an endless stream of evil mecha to fight. This is one of the earliest and most iconic anime of the giant robot genre, but I think there are others that are much better. I enjoyed Voltes V a lot more and quite frankly I even found Astroganger to be better. The other problem is that it’s clear that Great Mazinger is now on the secondary market and is selling at a higher than retail price. Maybe they’ll rerelease the series on blu-ray, but I really don’t think it’s worth the high price people are asking for.

Very happy that I finally got the complete series of Great Mazinger. Video and subtitle quality are excellent.

Top notch video quality as well as audio. I am glad that they finally made it to U.S.

DISAPPOINTED BECAUSE THE VIDEO IS NOT IN ENGLISH

Very nice sound and image. Great quality, great release. Would love to have an English version but the subtitles are as good as they can be. Definitely recommend this DVD as well as the 2 boxes for the original Mazinger Z series

昔が懐かしく想い大変良かったです

国内版のDVDが未発売なので購入しました。コスパが最高で満足しています。

DVD8枚組でシリーズコンプ、マジンガーZに続き国内プレイヤーで無事再生、字幕はメニューから消去可。8枚目に特典映像があり8mm映像とジャンボマシンダーと超合金の当時のCM集が入ってます残念ながら特典映像のみ通常の手段では字幕が消えませんでした。同時に商品化されてたロボコンの本物がグレートの超合金を手にいろいろ解説してくれます。しかしアメリカ人に日本の玩具のCM集ってどうなんだろう？w