Great Mazinger Z (1974)

Description

Great Mazinger is the second entry of the Mazinger trilogy. Considered darker and edgier than his predecessor, Great Mazinger was less successful and less popular among fans despite of it having more angst and character development. There was several crossovers among it and other Go Nagai series, featuring those such as Getter Robo and UFO Robo Grendizer, and the two main characters reappeared in the Mazinkaiser OVA.

After Dr Hell's defeat, life on Earth is threatened by the Emperor of Darkness and his seven generals who control the monsters of the Mycenaean Empire. These Warrior Beasts survived underground thanks to a union of their organic systems with mechanical bodies. To prevent the conquest wishes of these monsters there is the Great Mazinger, the powerful robot constructed by Dr. Kabuto Kenzou, son of the inventor of the Super Alloy Z and creator of Mazinger Z, Dr. Kabuto Juuzou. The Great Mazinger is piloted by Tsurugi Tetsuya, an orphan raised by the same Dr. Kabuto, and trained since birth to fight aboard of the robot. The war against the Emperor of Darkness is very hard and it seems to be never ending.

Main Characters

Photo	Name	Description
	Kabuto Kouji	Kouji Kabuto is the protagonist of the show, an average student with great skill in driving motorcycles. He lived with his brother Shiro and his grandfather Juuzo, after his parents were apparently killed in a lab accident caused by his grandfather. One day, Koji receives a call from his grandfather to meet him at his mountain cabin. Just as Kouji arrives however, the cabin explodes. Searching the remains, he uncovers a hidden doorway into the mountain and inside, he finds his dying grandfather who tells him with his dying wish to pilot "Mazinger Z" and stop a man named Dr. Hell. Kouji continues into the hidden lab and discovers the huge, humanoid robot Mazinger Z, and the hover pilder which is used to control it. Honoring his grandfather's last wish, he joins up with the Photon Power Labs and fights the forces of Dr. Hell with his Mazinger Z.
	Kabuto Juzo	Grandfather of Kouji Kabuto, he is the century's authority on robot engineering and Photon Power research, as well as a great inventor. He built the robot Mazinger Z for his grandson, as a way of making up for causing the accident that killed his parents years before. According to Juzo this robot would allow Kouji to do as he pleases with the world, even ruling it as a God or destroying it as the Devil.
	Shiro Kabuto	Kouji's younger brother. Kouji is very protective of Shiro, as he is the only family the other has. At least, as far as he knows. Taken in by his father after Mazinger Z is defeated by Ankoku Daishogun.
	Sayaka Yumi	After her mother passed away, Sayaka was raised by her father, Gennosuke Yumi. Since her father was a man dedicated to his job, Sayaka decided to assist in his projects by becoming the test pilot of Aphrodite A, a humanoid robot he designed for manual labor purposes.
	Boss	A comic relief character and pilot, mostly joke robot, Boss Borot. Boss has been friends with Sayaka Yumi since middle school and getting a crush on her. At school he has been a bully and formed his own gang since there were no other gangs in the area.
	Gennosuke Yumi	A scientist heading the Photon Power Laboratory after the retirement and later death of Dr. Juzo Kabuto. Prof. Yumi once worked under the professor and was inspired by his designs to create his own robot, Aphrodite A. Later with the Aphrodite's destruction Prof. Yumi and other scientists replaced her with Diana A. Both robots were piloted by Prof. Yumi's daughter, Sayaka Yumi.
	Nuke & Mucha	Boss's underlings. Both mostly do what Boss's tells them to do and both see him as an idol
	Dr. Hell	The main villain Mazinger Z. He was a brilliant, cunning and evil scientist, obsessed with world domination through his creations, the armies of Mechanical Beasts. He was seemingly killed in the final assault on his island fortress by Mazinger Z. However, the Emperor of Darkness brought Dr. Hell back from the dead as the Great Marshall of Hell and trusted him with military command over the Mycenae Empire's Seven Armies.
	Baron Ashura	The main henchman of Dr. Hell, the antagonist of Mazinger Z. He/she is depicted as a disturbing half-man, half-woman combination who speaks with both a male and female voice (often depending on which face is shown on screen). In the original series, he/she was created by Dr. Hell from the remains of two mummified lovers, who had half their bodies crushed when their tomb collapsed.

Episode List

.Vs Getter Robo crossover movie

In 1975, this crossover movie was aired between Go Nagai and Ken Ishikawa's works. It was aired in Arabic countries, Italy and Spain.

When a UFO appears over Japan, both the heroes of Great Mazinger and Getter Robo want to investigate it first, out of a sense of rivalry. Getter finds it first since the Mazinger robot is being repaired. However, they are unable to defeat the apparently living vehicle. It had already dropped a metal-eating monster on Japan named Gilgilgan, and Great Mazinger confronts it only to be badly beaten. Later, despite the robot pilots' protests, their two bases decide to join forces to stop Gilgilgan as he starts becoming more powerful and begins to change.

.Vs Getter Robo G

Aliens in a spaceship decide to conquer the Earth and begin by attacking the headquarters of the Getter Robo team while the Mazinger was being repaired so it could not go to their aid. One of the team members, Musashi, is killed in the battle with the alien monster Grangen and his vehicle is destroyed, meaning they can no longer form the first Getter Robo. However the laboratory already had a new Getter Robo ready for action named Getter Robo G and a new third pilot is elected. Meanwhile, Great Mazinger and his allies fight the invaders' giant robot Bong but it was just bait to lure it out so that the invaders could use their trump card: Pikadron. Getter Robo G arrives to help, but their combined beams only make Pikadron grow bigger. However Great Mazinger's pilot Tetsuya figures out how to strip this defense from the monster and destroys it with a new weapon. The alien spaceship is also destroyed and in the end everyone gets together to grieve the loss of Musashi.

It was also aired in Arabic countries, Italy and Spain.