Discotek Media Licenses Shin Mazinger for 2015!

The cover isn’t final, but the announcement is! Discotek Media, the people who license all the cool, old anime, live action Japanese movies and also that one box of GCCX, have announced that they’re bringing over Shin Mazinger over sometime in 2015. You can now get a full on copy of the first real foray into classic super robot territory in years. More support means that we may actually see a Shin Great Mazinger one day. I know I’m delusional, but super robots!

Keep an eye out on Discotek’s store.

“With a Little Focus, I Can Fire Missiles out of My Eyes!” Super Robot Girls Z First Impressions

I mentioned when this show came up before that this is must be what it feels likes to be a fanboy. Were you to describe this show to me in passing assuming I know nothing about the source material, a group of three girls fight a group of monster of the week girls who attack them at the behest of crotchety set of eyeballs in their house with inane fanservice because there has to be so people will buy the figures, I’d probably punch you for wasting some of my braincells. Hell, I’m not sure I don’t want to punch someone even being familiar with the old shows in question, and yet here we are. Not only am I actively watching the show, but I’m actually going to vouch for it. Somewhat.

Super Robot Girls Z is a madcap set of cartoon shorts centered around moe anthropomorphized versions of characters and robots from the various properties in Toei’s vault initially seeming to be born out of the idea if it’s not up a skirt or down a blouse, no one wants to see it. There’s not really any other reason to make the Castle of Black Iron and it’s progeny into vaguely teenage girls with schoolgirl skirts, but Toei actually seems to be trying to make this series of zany cartoon shorts a series of zany cartoons. If you took out the normal style OP and replaced it with something like:

with the logo replaced with one of the girl’s faces, I could see this being the quick short that plays before the Mazinger feature film. The gags are quick, punchy slapstick like a building falling over like it’s a big block of jelly, or silly visual gags like Great Mazinger cutting up Doublas’s laser causing it to fall apart like a chopped zucchini, or both like Garada or someone getting blown backwards into the Jack and Mary King Burger Stand that subsequently explodes while Jack yells in his particular version of English.

That’s also a nice point the show has in that the side references don’t feel overwrought. We don’t linger on the King Sibling Burger Stand while the show elbows us going, “Huh? Huuuh?!” It’s there and gives you a quick chuckle, then it’s time to move on. The third episode blends these together all quite well. The girls are on a fishing boat for a throwaway reason and get to experience a few fishing gags like the shrimp mechanical beast girl being pecked at by passing gulls all at the behest of enormous fishermen who all look like someone tried to make a meat sculpture of a person but couldn’t bring themselves to break down the symmetry of the original meat cube. It makes a good contrast off the waif sized main characters and is a worthwhile visual gag, and this would be the best of the 3 shorts that have been put out.

Would be, but this potential for cartoon goofiness is in a constant tug-o-war with the other side that comes with the moe territory. Does the show stick to being a series of quick, funny shorts, or do we throw off all pretension of making something with potential entertainment value and shove some tits in the audience’s face? After the first two episodes were reasonably mild, even having a panty moment that actually felt a bit like an old style underwear gag where the character is just embarrassed because their underwear has some silly print, I was ready to let my guard down. The third episode starts with all the girls being shown off in swimsuits, but my teeth weren’t quite on edge. It wasn’t until we get underwater and Grendizer starts getting molested that I had to make sure no one was about to come in and ask if I’d like some tissues or a sock because there is no joke. We don’t even get the incredibly easy breast missile joke they could have made. It’s just a teenage anime girl getting her butt rubbed and her tits squeezed into the camera because the show is worried you might be distracted if it doesn’t keep a death grip on your libido.

So the show is half and half. There’s some legitimate laughs to be had in the gags, and the animation is actually all right in some places. If you’re a fan of the grandaddies of super robots, then there’s some good references that are decently used without feeling like your love is being exploited for easy YouTube hits. But there’s also the dark side where you just know that at least one of the candies you got from trick-or-treating at the Toei house is going to be half Tootsie Roll and half dog shit. It’s just that they’re the only ones giving out that one candy by Go NaWonka that you really like, so you can’t help but want to ask. Whether or not you can stomach the show comes down how much you’re willing to put up with for some super robot themed fun.

You can watch the show subbed here. I’d usually not do this, but Toei is putting the show on YouTube for free anyway, so I don’t see any harm. The next episodes aren’t supposed to be out until February, so until then.

Robot Girls Z Toei Channel PV

This must be what it feels like to be a fanboy. Deep down, I know this show isn’t going be worthwhile. I’m justifying it to myself entirely by saying, “Well, it doesn’t outright offend me, so I guess it’s ok. I guess.” But I can’t help it because super robots. I mean, there’s going to be a Getter one and Jeeg one and a Gaiking one and a Gakeen one and a Baratak one. How many out there even knew what those last two were without having to look at the links? So I can’t help but want to watch it while also recognizing that this is a really stupid thing.

Outside of that, the show is going to run on Toei’s online channel as a series of ~10 minute shorts. It’ll be packed to the gills with super robot references that Toei has the rights to and is likely to be a long form toy commercial. That doesn’t make it that different from most other robot shows, so that’s not a big deal. I’m frankly surprised that the animation looks like they put some effort into it. I guess being a series of shorts means they can stretch that money further. If it stays as a zany, slapstick comedy and the fanservice is kept under control, it should at least be harmless.

Robot Girls Z will begin in January.

The World has Ended. Shin Mazinger Zero Volume 1 New Scans

The choice to become a god or a devil. No, there is no choice. A machine would never choose to become a devil that would bring the world to ruin. But you can take control of it, and then what will you become. Can you make that choice? Are you even capable of becoming something other than destruction itself?

Shin Mazinger Zero is a manga that started a few days after Shin Mazinger Shogeki! Z Hen started airing and is a totally unrelated story other than the name and the basic premise of being a retelling of the original Mazinger Z story by a new author with updated art. It’s written by Yoshiaki Tabata and drawn very well by Yuuki Yugo, the duo that brought us Akumetsu. Seriously, the art is one of the big draws for this because, well, look at it.

In the future, a fully autonomous Mazinger Z, “a devil god with an artificial brain,” has destroyed the world. All that remains are barely recognizable ruins laying upon seas of ash and one man: Kouji Kabuto. He wallows in regret that he didn’t try to pilot Z but is given another chance to tame him by Minerva X, a humanoid android in this continuity. She sends him back, only in spirit, to a time before all this destruction so he can tame Z and save the world and the robot she loves, and she’ll do this as many times as it takes to get it right.

The story is huge love letter from a Dynamic Pro fan. Wrapped up in the story of Mazinger, you’ll find themes from Getter to Devilman to the uncountable amount of the sexy stuff in later volumes. Being a Dynamic Pro fan, the little touches to get all those in there puts a smile on my face. Mazinger fusing with Kouji in the cockpit blurring the line distinguishing them as separate beings is very Getter, and Kouji being consumed by his hatred and sorrow so that the power he would command to be humanity’s savor turns him into the greatest force of destruction for all things is pretty much what happens to Akira in Amon. It’s cool to see these applied to Mazinger because they’re cool themes already and now they get to be alongside and sometime fused to create totally sweet Mazinger moments. Kouji can’t do Rocket Punch outside Mazinger, can he? Fuck you guys, I’ll just throw my arm you severed at you. How’s that for Rocket Punch?

But some of these themes don’t mix, and it causes some problems with the tone. The first story we have is a very Devilman kind of dark with people being cut in half and heads of loved ones being ripped off to really fuel your disgust at the violence, but some of these scenes come right off goofy moments. The art goes all anime cutesy while Sayaka fawns over Kouji saving her by punching a machine gun robot in the face, and then suddenly they’re confronted by someone mocking them with Kenzo’s head. And later we get this page:

Juuzo apparently came up with or later appended to the name Mazinger a ridiculous and largely meaningless acronym like this was Gundam SEED or something. It would be funny in a 70s anime kind of way where you could get away with things like this by yelling “SCIENCE” at the top of your lungs, but this is coming off Sayaka being stripped, demeaned, and mocked as a way of putting Kouji in a desperate mindset. That itself is also really uncomfortable, but it fits into this idea of making you disgusted with the violence before you, so I want to think it’s supposed to be. But that comes off that other goofy moment and leads into this one, so the tone flickers back and forth leaving you unable to get your mood grounded.

This is only at first, though. Once we’re past this, is all Devilman style until the end of the volume. It’s largely consistent outside of that hiccup. That hiccup is just at such a key point in the story that it really stands out. The rest is still fun while being at times terrifying like the fight against Garada and Doublas. Also, it contains the most jacked Dr. Hell since the Mazinkaiser OVA.

It’s worth checking out at least one volume. You can get the translated Volume 1 here.

Super Robot Girls Z First Episode Preview and Full OP

Information about this one has been pretty sparse. I don’t remember how long ago it was we got the first PV of it. You’d think they’d be all over giving us new info because it’s absolutely the kind of thing that makes you cock an eyebrow and go, “Huuuh?” Maybe that’s different fan demographics, though. This was definitely from a special held on it, though I don’t know anything else about the special.

Super Robot Girls Z has caused many western super robot fans to stare at it vaguely going, “Why this and not Great Hen?” Moe-ing up our favorites from the 70s in place of having Tetsuya Tsurugi in his modern adventure to fight off the Great Emperor of Darkness is not a pleasant proposition on its face. All in all, though, it looks like it could be ok. A property like this, especially considering the links to Go Nagai, is rife with the chance to make the big moe dollars by just cutefying robots and giving us lots of fanservice, but it actually looks like they’re going to a decent level of effort from these videos. The OP has some interesting callbacks to to the source OP, especially the original Isao Sasaki Mazinger Z theme, and as fanservice goes, I’ve certainly seen far worse. The girls are wearing outfits that are reminiscent of the robots’ and mechanical beasts’ designs and aren’t particularly skimpy or anything. I think the inclusion of the little Go Nagai self doodle is cute, and the way of using Pilder On was also kinda funny. I don’t know that I really wanted to see Baron Ashura’s butt, but I thought the same during Z Hen, so whatever. I’m very, very wary, but willing to give this a chance to be ok I guess. What I’m saying is that where Ashura’s skirt gets flipped? I expected that to be the whole show, and because it wasn’t that, it’s coming way under my stupid moe crap par rating, so maybe it’ll be something.

Super Robot Girls Z will run in January. We’ll see then.

Strike Mazingers Trailer Number 1

This. This exists. It’s going to be a 9 episode series of 10 minute shorts featuring exactly what you see, moe anthropomorphized versions of the big time Mazinger franchise characters from the three main robots to Baron Ashura and various Mechanical Beasts, Garada and Doublas being who we see here.

This is weird. I don’t totally know how to feel about it because this is a moe anthropomorphization of Super Robots, and that’s dumb. Strike Witches was a stupid show from concept to execution that survived by managing to throw a few bones to WWII Era war machine enthusiasts . Taking that concept and putting it on classic super robots is not a positive or particularly appealing thing. I am not enthused by seeing these weird almost panties butt shots from Miss Mazinger or the flat out panties from Doublas right after seeing an x-ray of her jaw shattering.

On the other hand, it’s animated well. This is both a positive and a negative for the show because looking nice is nice, but I can’t get it out of the back of my head that this is good animation used for inane and at times creepy pandering and not, say, Shin Great Mazinger. I didn’t like Shin Mazinger quite as much as everyone else did, but it was a good show and a rallied a lot of old fans together. Someone else brought up that this wouldn’t be so aggravating if it was the side show, but this is replacing the main show.

There is a reference to Jack and Mary King, though, and I can’t hate that. This is only a small snippet for now. Maybe new trailers will bring better news.

Aim for Surpassing God or Devil of the Heavens! Mazin Lagann Buster!

A little bit ago back in October, there was a new set Soul of Chogokin figure set of Gurren Lagann and Gunbuster. The best thing about these is that their parts were interchangeable with each other and with some older Chogokin figures, so you’d get awesome things like this.

Looks like the concept was in good hands because this Tamashii interview with Gurren Lagann animation director and key animator Akira Amemiya and another artist/designer for Bandai whose name I can’t translate to save my life shows that they’re interested in making a new figure and maybe a show based on that idea.

It’s a pretty good poster. A lot of the interview talks about design and and drawing, how drawing Gurren Lagann after so many years feels nostalgic, designing how Mazinger parts like the Scrander would be used, even at one point talking about a Mazinger Weapon Set. It’s really cool that this is getting considered because I’ve wanted a Gurren Lagann 70s style team up movie forever.

Yes, like this, but with the above robots and made during a time when studios had money.

If it gets off the ground, you can be sure we’re going to be all over this.

Koshiryoku Sunglasses! Mazinger and Devilman Anniversary Eyeware

People make the weirdest things. Fan things aside, even professionals make the weirdest things. So how do I react when ANN posts a story about Japanese sunglasses company Optical Coolens making sunglasses with Kouji Kabuto/Akira Fudo sideburns and Devilman eye lines and wings for the 40th anniversary of Mazinger Z and Devilman?

(Images © Go Nagai, Dynamic Planning, and Optical Coolens. From the Coolens Facebook page)

I have to react with a new Christmas gift idea for myself. So if any of you reading this are thinking about what to get us, Coolens is taking preorders starting on Monday. Of course, I wouldn’t expect that of anyone out there. These things are going for some really high prices. The Mazinger ones will be $218 and the Devilman ones will be $291. That’s a serious bill for some novelty eyeware. I’m guessing they’ll be a limited run item since it’s for the anniversary.

Scans of Sayaka Yumi’s sweet as- I mean Mazinger Angels.

So it turns out that we don’t know how time zones work and JoJo’s premiered a few hours ago, not a few hours from now. The response I’ve been able to gather so far is positive, so hopefully it’s going to be good when someone gets the chance to sub it. We’ll probably end up doing for that what we did for Aquarion EVOL and just talking about it every two episodes or so.

Until that time, keep yourself occupied with a little of Go Nagai’s sexy times because the recently opened Oppai-Missile Translations is scanlating Mazinger Angels, a re-imagining of Mazinger Z where Sayaka Yumi, Jun Hono and Hikaru Makiba fight off the forces threatening Japan as a Charlie’s Angels like team but with super robots instead of whatever that show had. They even have a Bosley to answer to and get assignment from.

It’s also totally hot. Sayaka is fully introduced with a panty shot and then proceeds to beat up a guy in such a way that she gets another panty shot. No I’m not putting that up on here. But don’t be put off. The manga still has that great robot fun. This first chapter has the girls fighting Baron Ashura who is two separate people this time.

Introducing Baron As and Baroness Hura.

And every Angel gets their own special breast missile based on the rocket punch of the series they came from.

Ultimate Boobie Barrage!

Yeah, I’m also a little weirded out by the idea of tits with drills, spinning knife drills, and axes in them, but robot fun is robot fun. If you’re into that goofy, not to serious, somewhat but not overly sexualized stuff that crazy Go Nagai does, Mazinger Angels may just be up your alley.

Oh, yeah, Diana A, show off that ass. That’s i- I need to stop writing this now.

Happy Birthday Go Nagai!

Today is the birthday of the man we all owe so much too when it comes to the robot genre, the magical girl genre, the… well, anime and manga in general. Go Nagai turned 67 today, so let’s take a little time to honor the man.

Such an innocent face for the man who would go on to write Kekko Kamen.

We personally have a large amount of affection for Go Nagai and his company Dynamic Pro. If it wasn’t for him, anime would be a very different thing. Maoh Dante and Devilman were his first big contributions. It was violent, controversial, scary, and very influential for manga authors for years to come. They really opened up this idea that extreme violence can be shown in manga no matter how much the PTA wants to boycot your nonsensical demons that wear no pants.

No. Pants. Either of them.

Then we have Cutie Honey. While it’s not the first ever magical girl story, it created a lot of the magical girl staples you see in modern works. Transformation sequences, powers by costume, lesbian overtones and many other things, maybe most importantly that Girly doesn’t mean weak.

Pink is Power.

Now, as sexy as Devilman and Cutie Honey are, Mazinger Z has a special place in our hearts and a very wide range of influence. Tetsujin-28 started the “Big Robot Super Hero” genre, but Mazinger helped define giant robot tropes that we’ve been using since. Mazinger Z was the first giant robot machine to be piloted from a cockpit and not by remote or it just being autonomous. Mazinger grew into Great, Grendizer, Kaiser, but that little seed blossomed into more than just a series. It blossomed into the modern robot genre

Someone, somewhere is totally fucked.

I know, I know, it’s what you’ve heard about Go Nagai every time he’s ever been brought up, but it’s his birthday and we wanted to show our respects since we can’t send him a cake. It not much, but Happy Birthday, Go Nagai!