True Mazinger #9

The first episode of True Mazinger made no sense what so ever, but it was appealing nonetheless. I'm a sucker for mecha anime and this one is based on a manga published in the 1970's, which was the grand daddy of all mecha stories. In keeping with that heritage, the animation style is 70's retro but done with modern techniques. The retro style includes the massively over dramatic yelling of commands for weapons activation and other functions. Its all in good fun though, and underneath the story is really good.

Kabuto Kouji is given the Mazinger Z, a powerful robot designed by his grandfather Juzo, to fight off an attack by a strange enemy using mechanized beasts. Kouji is young and a hot head, and with power of the Mazinger Z under his control, he easily believes that he is invincible. Fortunately there are several interesting secondary characters who try to keep him from becoming too delusional. The first few episodes have also revealed surprising relationships between several characters which make the story all the more interesting.

The story draws heavily on Greek myths. The head of Mazinger Z is recognised by several characters as resembling the god Zeus. The story actually does explain how they would know that, by giving the myths a more sci-fi origin. Given that things are often explained after being introduced, at some point I expect the first episode will make more sense, since it now looks like a flash forward to events later in the story.