Anime Review: “Mazinger Z: Infinity” – A Robot Reunion

Anime Review: “Mazinger Z: Infinity” – A Robot Reunion

February 28th, 2019

W.R. Miller

With a name like Dr. Evil, you just know he’s up to no good. Especially when he allies himself with do-badders Baron Ashura and Count Brocken. But they want more than world domination. This time, they want to replace our universe with one of their own. How? By activating a massive robot just discovered at Mt. Fuji: Mazinger Infinity. To this end, the villains and their many mechanical contraptions capture two photon power supply stations—one in Texas and the other at, coincidentally, Mt. Fuji.

Thankfully, Koji Kabuto is around to stop them with his own super-robot, the famous Mazinger Z. The result is a tour-de-force in heavy mecha action, in which the battle scenes are pumped up to a frame rate “on ones.” Backgrounds are intricately detailed, as are the robots themselves—cg models skillfully blended with hand-drawn characters. Between battles, we spend time with the cast of the Great Mazinger series some ten years after it ended. A new character, Lisa, is the key to operating Mazinger Infinity, and she becomes involved with our hero, Koji, in an unexpected way.

Disclaimer: There is some brief nudity, and a team of Mazin Girl robots fire missles from their breasts.

Warners Entertainment released Mazinger Z: Infinity in North America on Blu-ray and DVD on February 19th, 2019. For those unfamiliar with Mazinger Z lore, the disc comes equipped with menus that allow subtitles in both English and Japanese audio, which come handy in identifying terms like “scrander,” “bust teedle” and “pilder” and character name spellings. The bonus materials include a message from the creator, Go Nagai; plus interviews with director Junji Shimizu and key crew members, an art gallery, the opening song by Ichiro Mizuki (and it’s a catchy tune, I might add), English opening and credits, original Japanese trailers, and trailers to Tiger & Bunny, Lagrange, Gargantia and One-Punch Man from Viz Media. The English voice cast includes Wayne Grayson as Koji Kabuto, Mike Pollock as Dr. Hell and Dan Green as Tetsuya Tsurugi, pilot of Great Mazinger.

Mazinger Z fans will probably love it. Others might want to stream or rent this first before buying. Available on Blu-ray and as a Standard Edition DVD. The Mazinger Z: Infinity Blu-ray’s MSRP is $24.98 U.S. / $29.99 CAN; the Standard Edition DVD’s MSRP is $19.98 U.S. / $24.99 CAN. Audio featuring English and Japanese dialogue options along with English subtitles are available on both formats. A production of Toei Animation.

Special thanks to Erik Jansen of MediaLab.

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W.R. Miller

W.R. Miller - known informally as “Bob” – has written for Starlog, Comics Scene, Animation Magazine and Animation World Magazine. Bob has been involved in animation for two decades, as a writer, character animator, special effects animator, and storyboard artist - For more information about Bob, check his website: http://wrmilleronline.com/.

He has just completed Batman: The Animated Interviews, a five-volume work featuring the executives, producers, directors, writers, actors, designers, storyboard artists and composers involved with the making of Batman: The Animated Series and its spinoffs. BearManor Media is the publisher.