THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE.
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Disclaimer: this is a full-on fan-service movie. If you are not attached to the famous Mazinger figure or Kabuto Koji, there is absolutely no reason to watch it. (and I mean the original Z/Great saga, not the 2000s "modernization").
As for the others? You get almost everything you could have wished (back then): first and most obviously, a relatively "wiser" Koji (though it was hard to swallow even if he was adult and that we already saw slight behaviour evolutions before), redesigns of the mazingers, apparitions of most kikaijû, Hell and his main servants, Boss' team (that was unexpected for me, especially to see their goofing around integrated to the scenario), bonding confirmations between heroes. (maybe Shiro piloting a "mazinger" for some ? XD)
Lots of nice things/action (with an opening action sequence in America featuring Tetsuya in his Great Mazinger) and pretty shiny drawings (still close enough to the "old style") with mediocre animation (3D animation for combat was far better handled than 2D animation in the normal scenes) and a lot of bad CGI integration (CGI itself was certainly good in most action scenes) for a rather dull movie. It suffered from the classic syndrom of the mcguffin mysterious (movie) girl triggering the chain of plots but being uninteresting/useless most of the time. The new eponymous giant robot was kind of a letdown too, despite the title I wasn't expected yet another mazin.
There were a few attempts at elevating the speech (reminiscent of post-95 mecha series) but they were all awkwardly aborted in favour of the ever present "fan-service". On the other hand, it was at times hard to ignore the "modern" touch (especially the movie girl's mind).
Strong product placements.
Enjoyment: 4/5, thanks to the theater viewing (probably just a bit more than a "okay" experience without the big screen and overall explosive sounds)
Score: 6/10
Please, no Grendizer complaint, ok?
edit: wow, are there no french or italian people here? XD (though we were only two in the theater room I visited)
@EcchiGodMamster As in "it only exists for Mazinger Z fans, to please them and deliver them what they wanted", citing the original with no attempt at inviting any other new people. Etc... (I think I listed a non exhaustive list of the movie's gifts)
As for sexual / female body fan-service, there was strangely a lack of it for a Mazinger thing (and even more for a Nagai's property) if I remember well enough. Like I implied, it's not memorable. |