Mazinger

Mazinger by Go Nagai
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

In a world torn apart by violence, Mazinger is the greatest robot of them all. When an explosion tears open a wormhole, Mazinger and his pilot find themselves in a world where Mazinger is human sized and the population is being decimated by lizard people...

Mazinger by Go Nagai is the originator of the giant robot genre of manga. This volume was produced specifically for the American market in the 1980s and published by First Comics. The art is fully painted and looks pretty good.

That's about the only good thing to say about it. Why would you create a graphic novel to introduce a property to an American audience and not retell his origin? Instead, we've got a mash-up of Gulliver's Travels and John Carter of Mars. I don't know who built Mazinger and I can't even remember his pilot's name a few minutes after I read this. If you want to introduce manga to an American audience, let it be manga instead of dumbing it down and coloring it.

The roots of the giant robot genre are clearly visible though as Mazinger cuts through enemies with his sword. Even though I was disappointed, I still enjoyed it.

The black and white panels from Go Nagai's various works in the back were very interesting. Hopefully someone nabs the Mazinger license and translates the original manga from the 1970s sometime soon. As it stands, I think this is the only English Mazinger and that's a little sad. Two out of five stars.



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