Great Mazinger (Series)

Great Mazinger (グレートマジンガー Gurēto Majingā) is a Japanese manga book and anime television series by manga artist Go Nagai. The story is the sequel and direct continuation to Mazinger Z series after its initial success. This series featured new protagonist Tetsuya Tsurugi and the titular mech, Great Mazinger in the fight against the Mycenae Empire. Unlike the original Mazinger Z manga, the Great Mazinger manga follows more closely to the anime storyline to the point of completely ignoring the original Z manga.

Synopsis
The series begins after the battle against Dr. Hell with attacks from the Warrior Beasts. With the Mazinger Z overwhelmed by this new threat, it was almost destroyed until it was rescued by the Great Mazinger. With assistance from the Science Fortress Laboratory, Tetsuya Tsurugi and the Great Mazinger battle against the risen Mycenae Empire. With the defeat of military leader, Great General of Darkness peace had came for once a brief while.

The Empire brought Dr. Hell back from the dead as the new military commander and overpowered the Great Mazinger until the restored and strengthened Mazinger Z came back to fight. Koji and Tetsuya would fight together to bring down this threat with their robots and their allies. With a final assault on the empire, the Mazinger brothers emerge victorious.

Anime Episodes

 * Comprehensive Listing of Great Mazinger episodes

Manga Continuity Placement
Due to TV Magazine's editorial staff requesting Go Nagai write the Great Mazinger manga to be akin to its TV Counterpart, The manga is considered an alternate universe version of the Great Mazinger anime and by extension the ending of the original Mazinger Z anime. The original Mazinger manga ended with Koji Kabuto, a wrecked Mazinger Z and Dr. Hell presumably drowning in the Pacific Ocean though in the start of Great Mazinger, both he and Mazinger are alive and well, completely disregarding the ending of the previous manga and seemingly treating the story as a sequel to the then concurrent anime version.

In addition, the unexplained presence of anime only elements such as the inclusion of Boss Borot and Diana A and the design of Mazinger Z being a copy of his anime design rather than the slightly different manga design directly contradict events of the original manga due to a lack of those elements present.

Interestingly, the TV Magazine Mazinger Z stories Go Nagai made featured similar tv only designs and elements in order to tie it in to the Mazinger Z anime, so it could be argued that the Great Mazinger manga is a sequel to that version of the manga rather than the Shonen Jump version. In addition, the TV Magazine Grendizer manga directly follows the Great Mazinger manga with designs and events in the manga correlating with the previous storylines.

Reception
While Great Mazinger did not have the same high ratings as its predecessor, it was still very popular in its time; enough to spread several merchandize throughout Japan and high enough ratings to fund the creation of Grendizer. It was also very popular in broadcasts in Italy and several Latin American countries. The main robot also starred in several crossover films between sister series Getter Robo such as Great Mazinger vs. Getter Robo. The said robot also appeared in several related media such as the Mazinkaiser OVA series and the Super Robot Wars games.

Trivia

 * Plans for a sequel to Mazinger Z were thought up in early 1973 after the ratings declined after Episode 26. Toei's writers considered upgrading Mazinger Z into "Big Mazinger Z" to keep viewers interested in the show. The concept and character design was then recycled for a show called "God Mazinger" that was to follow it and eventually was modified into Great Mazinger.