Comments on: Shin Mazinger Z 4-5: Mazinger is Minty Fresh!

By: d3v

d3v — Fri, 15 May 2009 01:23:11 +0000

@IKnight
It’s the kind of show you shouldn’t watch with an annoying kid brother, because you end up punching them in the face.

By: IKnight

IKnight — Thu, 14 May 2009 23:26:10 +0000

I know what you mean about struggling to find the words . . . Shin Mazinger taps right into the kind of simple passions that defy description. It does make one want to punch something for fun, or go out and scale mountains and swim rivers. And if it can do that to me, it must be potent indeed.

By: d3v

d3v — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:04:38 +0000

The whole first battle gave me a Giant Robo vibe for some reason. Then again, Imagawa does seem to do his best work when he’s using a giant robot battle to actually tell a story beyond just a couple of robots banging heads. Clearly he feels that a first battle is a very important part of any mecha stories development. The slower pace allows the Mechanical Beasts to be more threatening than if they were eliminated in a single episode. Also, we get to see Kouji as a noob pilot and how tense this point in time is for all involved by actually letting the audience feel the tension without the safety net of knowing that things will be better as the episode ends. The battle also affects the next episode (6) as it is very much an episode that deals with the aftermath of the previous nights events.

That said, Imagawa also knows when it’s time to move on and the next episode moves the plot forward even more, letting us know more about the more interesting new additions to the Mazinger cast (and showing us that Ankokuji knows that everything works better with a gun).

P.S. Rusted horse is Imagawa saying that while Super Ashura is almost Master Asia level, its taste in horses leaves much to be desired (at least until it decides to have a horse pilot a mechanical beast).

By: animekritik

animekritik — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:40:41 +0000

yeah, these episodes were awesome. i haven’t been able to see 06 yet, hopefully they keep it up. Mazinger’s breath is impressively fresh!

By: ghostlightning

ghostlightning — Thu, 14 May 2009 05:31:27 +0000

Awesome set of eps. The original series is nowhere near as fun, though it was definitely groundbreaking. What we have here is that as opposed to a ‘moster of the week’ format, we get a ’special attack c/o mazinger’ of the week showcase. It’s not a bad thing by any stretch. I really am enjoying Imagawa’s handiwork.

I have a theory that Imagawa wasn’t able to implement his vision since Giant Robo didn’t get it’s final battle OVA, he’s using all his good stuff here with Mazinger. Mixed feelings.