Mazinger Z

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Mazinger Z is a simple, yet bizarre and interesting manga, where Go Nagai's ability to clearly tell is a story is on full display, even if the overarching story is a little flat. His visuals are very clear, and many of the ideas in the manga are quite interesting, even if variations can be found elsewhere. There is little to really hold your imagination on this five volume manga alone, but the simplicity of the manga is also a strength as it is quit easy to read.

The major flaw is that most of the characters lack real development, and at times feel a bit ... childish. That could be due to the intent of Nagai's audience with this work, as something like Devilman has much grander themes, regardless of how you feel about their execution. Mazinger Z doesn't really present any important themes, although the characters themselves, both heroes and villains, are quite enjoyable, if at the same time bland.

The most important thing to say about this manga is it sort of thinks of itself as a companion-work to its anime, which was being released at the same time. Occasionally things appear that the anime fans would have been familiar with but are unexplained within the manga itself.

That said, it's an excellent, short way to dip into the Mazinger franchise and still manages to give a good grasp of the main cast and main villains, some of the highlights of their adventures, and the beginning-to-ending trajectory of the central Kabuto Kouji-vs-Dr. Hell story. It also has the excellent advantage of not needing to ... be a companion work to the original Mazinger Z anime— if you're watching the Mazinkaiser OVA or the Shin Mazinger anime, it still performs its function of enhancing your enjoyment of the characters and world a lot.

Go Nagai is still a witty, appealing manga author, even if he's not exactly presenting us with the most well-rounded, standalone product here. The violence may strike some people as gratuitous— but it actually gives some weight to the whole "god or devil" premise. Admittedly, that premise is capable of more interesting exploration than it's given here. But this manga (with its violence) is primarily interested in just getting that premise off the ground, rather than giving it as thorough an exploration as it might be given.

While I can't in good conscience recommend this manga to anyone who wants something that can be enjoyed independently from any interest in any other works, which means I've knocked my score down to 7/10 (rather than an 8 or 9), it still does the job it sets out to do well. I'd still tell anyone to read it if they're interested in the history of mecha. I'd just also warn such a person: do not restrict yourself to encountering Mazinger Z ONLY through this manga.

You know the story, Kouji Kabuto's grandpa has built a giant robot for him, called Mazinger Z, and gave him the choice of either doing good or evil, to become a god or the devil.

But if you don't, you shouldn't make this your first contact with the series. While it's a fun read for veterans on the series, if you're getting into it for the first time, you can get really confused, as many things are simply dropped on your face without any explanation.

The series stays in a steady pace for most of its run, but in the last two volumes you can tell ... the author was either tired or wanted to focus on his other works, rushing for it to end, only to stop it abruptly after an event that while may be the climax, it's also nothing close to a conclusion. After it, you have a string of episodic short chapters to wrap up the final volume. You could read it as him just giving up of making this a series and instead just him trying to promote the anime, which had recently started, and its original concepts.

One could call it dated, but Go Nagai's '70s art style is so charming and dynamic that you can't help but love it, the fight scenes are well executed and with the poses he draws, it really gives you a sense of movement.

None of the characters are actually fleshed out, but they're mostly unique and memorable. Kabuto may be a pretty generic mecha protagonist from the early days, but characters like Baron Ashura and the other villains keep the series fresh and enjoyable. Also, the manga has a few bad jokes here and there, so you may either chuckle a little with some of them or hate them.

TL;DR it's a fun manga with a not-ending. You either like it or hate it.