Subatomic Brainfreeze

Shin Mazinger Final Episode: One Hundred Rocket Punches GET HYPE

I hope you didn't find out anything about this episode during the wait for its release: I know I avoided every place that might possibly have been talking about it. I was pretty sure of the big thing (we'll get to it), but the rest of it was a series of very happy surprises.

Dr. Hell's King of Hell (which has faces on the sides of its face) is rampaging around, and both the Mazinger Army and the fancy new weaponized Photon Power Labs are completely useless against it. Obviously, it falls to Kouji to take care of it.

 Now this is where the Baron Ashura Show (and make no mistake, we were warned halfway through the series for very good reason) gets complicated: it is revealed that Ashura had actually joined forces with Tsubasa and Kouji, unbeknownst to everybody, when they were inside the Mycenae pillar. Why would this happen? Remember that there was a part of the Kedora's memories that we were never shown: Kouji would just say "we saw a lot of things in there I don't wanna talk about." What they actually saw was grounds for Ashura to backstab Dr. Hell. Remember that Ashura is supposed to be a fusion of two half-rotted bodies, and that the rotting is never really accounted for in the story of this show or the original Mazinger. It just kind of happened.

The truth is much nastier: Dr. Hell and Kenzo Kabuto actually half-rotted the bodies themselves so as to have one less person to deal with when they stitched it back together. For good measure, they obliterated the remains of the Mycenae civilization that was preserved inside of Bardos. So, as it's all part of the plan, Ashura fishes a waterlogged Kouji and his Pilder out of the ocean to fight Dr. Hell. But wait, Mazinger's still down there! What the hell is Kouji going to do from his Pilder against this mightiest of evil robots? Isn't it obvious? He's going to punch it. Over and over again, in the most awesome way possible. No, seriously, if you haven't seen this, then don't let me be the one to tell you how it happened.

Kouji makes it rain. Inside the mechanical corpses of the defeated Mazinger Army are hundreds of Rocket Punches, which fly up and fall onto the King of Hell from the sky. Kouji wrecks the body with a machinegun hail of Rocket Punch fire. He then calls back all the punches to become one huge Rocket Punch, which he then flies directly through the King of Hell's body before completely obliterating it with a Big Bang Punch. Meanwhile, the show is hinting that this was actually a terrible idea, but I, the viewer, cannot bring myself to care because what just happened is so fucking awesome.

Well, it was a terrible idea anyway, and here's why: this was all stage two of the Baron Ashura Triplecross. Let's give Baron Ashura a hand: for all the scheming that was going on in this show, Ashura, of all people, ends up the decisive winner. It turns out that Dr. Hell's goal was not to take over the world and Photon Power for its own sake: it was to take over the world and defend it from the Mycenae with Photon Power. Oh, Dr. Hell. You could have been less of a dick about protecting the earth from giant god-monsters. If you'd just sat everybody around a table and had a talk, maybe they could have worked this out. But they didn't, and Dr. Hell's death actually makes a huge mess of everything. Remember how Ashura couldn't commit suicide as long as Dr. Hell was alive? Well, that's pretty important, because as it turns out, it is Ashura's blood that is necessary to revive the ancient gods of Mycenae. As the credits roll, Ashura tears itself in half with its bare hands, and an army of seven appears before Kouji. They are led by the Grand General of Darkness (Ankoku Daishogun), who, in the final moments, unsheathes his sword and slices Mount Fuji in half.

And that's exactly where it ends. I had said a few posts back that the best possible conclusion would be a revisiting of the fantastic 70's movie Mazinger Z vs. Ankoku Daishogun (which transitions from Mazinger Z to Great Mazinger) in the form of a movie or special, and this has got me very hopeful. This show isn't over. Great-hen is probably going to happen, and there's a possiblity of the movie or special I was talking about, but nobody's said anything and any new stuff is probably a ways off. You'll live.

So how about this show, you guys? Putting the inconsistent animation aside, this was a hell of a ride all the way through. Giant robots are fun and all, but as Tomino will tell you, they're not enough by themselves. This show really sold on its twisting narrative, strong characters, and, of course the fact that nearly every episode had some kind of "oh my god holy shit" payoff. It's great to see Imagawa get to make an epic again, and I really hope everything continues to go as planned. For the time being, though, these writeups will end and I'll have to find something else to talk about. Oh well!

Shin Mazinger Episode 25: Blade GETS HYPE

Well guys, Shin Mazinger Shougeki Z-hen on television is over, and seeing as I've been busy anyway-- I have grown a serious blogger backlog that I haven't been too great about clearing up-- I decided to do a special double-post for the last two episodes. Hope you guys enjoy.

Boy, things were still a total mess last week, weren't they? Kouji and Mazinger were mobbed with robo-monsters, the Photon Power Labs self-destructed, and only the Kurogane Five stood between Ashura and Kurogane House. Well, as it turned out, the God Scrander Cavalry saves the day courtesy of Computer Grandpa, there's a real Photon Power Lab under the old one that's way better anyway, and the Kurogane gang are protected by the, uh, capable Boss Borot. The fight between Dr. Hell and everybody else is still hurtling towards its conclusion.

This Blade appearance is exactly the same as the Blade appearance from the very first episode, but he gets the Hype Award for killing Pygman as abruptly and effortlessly as possible. As the narrator hypes him up, Blade cuts out as quickly as he appeared, leaving Anokuji to remind the audience that this is a story for another time. Sorry, Great fans, but if you wanted to know any more than this, you're just going to have to wait. Great-hen has been repeatedly hinted at by the mechanical designer and is very likely to happen given the success of Z-hen, but Giant Robo fans remember that time Imagawa promised a sprawling epic. We remain cautious.

Running out of options and generals, Dr. Hell desperately launches Bardos Island... which was exactly what Tsubasa had wanted him to do. Everything up until now has just been part of the plan: even Kouji rushing into battle instead of going with "the plan" was completely intentional. Once Bardos is up in the air, the reinforced Mazinger Corps surround and bombard it. But wait! Taking down Bardos Island was part of Dr. Hell's plan all along! Wait... what? Behold the final Dr. Hell robot, the King of Hell! Plus there's nothing left of Kenzo but the Kedora! I don't even know anymore, man! Good thing there's another post coming...

New York Anime Fest 09: SOUL OF TOMINICA

Obviously the big draw was ol' Yoshiyuki Tomino, creator of Mobile Suit Gundam and a ton of other anime. Fans are already very familiar with the guy, and not too many people are going to go see him without knowing who he is, so there were really no surprises when he took the stage for the keynote, or for the Q&A session.

I'm not going to get too deep into the keynote, because, frankly, I'm saving my opinion piece about the keynote for Colony Drop. Look forward to it! There was quite a turnout, though, and people were really excited: they ran a highlight reel of Tomino series over the years before the Q&A and the crowd ate it up. The keynote had serious translation problems, as has been documented. Everybody in the room was mortified for the translator, who couldn't seem to figure out anything Tomino said and had to have his work picked up for him by two other translators. The guy across the aisle from me had his head down because he just didn't want to watch, and I know exactly how he felt. Thankfully they switched up for the Q&A and there were no problems there.

In a characteristically Tomino move, our hero tossed out the questions that Anime News Network had prepared for him from an internet forum thread and demanded to go through the questions of the masses lined up before him, because they were "actually here". I was shooting the major stuff onto the Twitter: this guy is brutally honest in an industry where nobody can afford to be. Whenever anybody asks him any question, he's worth a listen. Tomino's a fan of making vague answers that leave room for the listener to interpret that he is holding back private, intense loathing. In response to "why did you return to Zeta Gundam after all those years?", for example, Tomino simply responded that "people wanted to to make money," confirming everything that critical observers had noticed about those movies. Nobody was safe! Kunio Okawara wasn't safe! Tezuka wasn't safe! We laughed, we applauded him, it was a good time.

I was also lucky enough to receive my second Tomino signature: the first was back in the days of Big Apple Anime Fest, where I brought him an adorable talking Haro alarm clock, and this one was was the vintage Gundam III poster I bought a year ago at Otakon. It's a beautiful poster of the famous Last Shooting scene by Kunio Okawara... that guy whose work Tomino said he didn't care for the day before. Oh well! The crew I was running with all brought progressively more awesome items for Tomino to sign, from an original theatrical program for Gundam III to a Zambot 3 box set to Garzey's Fucking Wing.

That about wraps up NYAF for me on this blog. I do enjoy this con, but given the unsolvable size problem and my interests compared to those of the majority, there's not a ton to do. First priority was obviously Tomino, second was hanging out with people, and the rest I could essentially take or leave. I'll probably do it next year, though I should note that a press badge makes this decision very easy and your personal mileage may vary. Here's hoping their guests are as good.

New York Anime Fest 09: THINGS THAT AREN'T TOMINO

Well, I'd better get all this out of the way before I forget it happened. New York Anime Fest was last weekend: this is the con's third year, I pretty much knew what to expect coming in, and I got exactly what I thought I would. Let's go through the pros and cons of this convention really quick, as they are the same every year.

As an NYC commuter I'm obviously very happy to be able to go to a con where I don't have to put down a couple hundred for room and board, but the convenient location comes at great cost. Everything that's wrong with NYAF is something that can't really be helped. They don't have enough room in the Javits: to visualize how crowded the place is, imagine Otakon numbers walking around in a space a quarter of Otakon's size at best. Of course, the Javits is really expensive-- during the CPM retrospective our host guessed that it was probably a couple hundred bucks a minute just to be in that room-- and high rent is just a fact of NYC life.

Side note: food prices are through the roof ($2.50 Coke cans!) in the building, so I advise anybody going to anything at the Javits load up on food beforehand. I did this at Go Go Curry on the first day and Subway on the second.

Because this is a for-profit con, the dealer's room is really the main attraction, with panels running on the side. Nothing really unusual there: one booth was selling really obvious bootlegs (HK DVD box sets and Prince of Tennis figures that weren't quite Sader but were really bootleg-ugly) and another had a ton of old VHS that I might have put up the cash for if it had been a buck or two cheaper per tape.

Behind the dealer's room was the World Cyber Games. A pro gaming league-- especially one that deals primarily in real-time strategy and first-person shooters-- is kind of out pf place at an anime convention, and for its part WCG made no attempt to reach out. Anime con people didn't go into WCG, WCG people didn't go into the con, you get the idea. I stopped by here a few times because they were playing nationals for Virtua Fighter 5 and many of the players are friends. I woke up a little too late to catch the finals though. I regret it: just watching the guys play really made me miss the game, and it was an even bigger bummer thinking about what's up with VF5R. It's so bad that every time I talk to one of my old VF buddies, we talk about jumping ship to Tekken 6 when it comes out for consoles. Sega, Sega, look what you've done to yourselves!

On the side, you've got your maid cafe, which has always been peculiar. The law ensures that the maids can't actually serve food or drink, so they're more all-purpose entertainers: last year we chatted with a maid while we rested from the con, and it was nice. This year, probably to avoid crowding, the event stage and the maid cafe were put together, to pretty ugly results. See, having a stage there means having huge, loud speakers there, and this means that the area was no longer a place to relax and get away from the con. We sat down for about ten minutes before getting hit with the maids yelling at people to come up and dance on the speakers, and we left juuust when they started Boom Boom Boom Boom (I Want You In My Room). Later, we would find that escaping the con entirely and sitting at the tables at the closed food court was what the cool kids do.

You kind of want to get away from the con after a couple hours of it, because man, the kids are really out in full force, being as obnoxious as they wanna be. This is a given at any anime con, but it's worse at NYAF because unlike many fan-run cons, nobody's come up with such wise rules as "no hug me signs", "no yaoi paddles", and "stop running and screaming and flailing and swinging that fucking ridiculous thing you bought at the dealer's room around". In summary, a cosplayer raised a sign inviting us to a con orgy on the way out Friday.

The only not-Tomino panel I went to was the CPM Retrospective, which was loads of fun and really deserved to pull more people. Did you know that when CPM hired you, they'd show you a highlight reel of their most atrocious porn (my buddy who used to work for them said he'd seen all these shows before) and then plop a "I am not offended by this" form in front of you? Because that's how they used to roll.

Highlight of the panel was definitely the anecdote about the host, his boss, the CEO, and a lawyer standing around watching Night Shift Nurses and trying to figure out if they were going to sell it. They were on the fence about the pissing, but CEO John O'Donnell decided "If it's in Penthouse, it's fine!", sent a secretary for a Penthouse, and sure enough, there was the pissing. Or maybe the time they took Utena's Kunihiko Ikuhara to a trashy bar where the hot chick bartenders made out with each other, and Ikuhara was all "RESBIANS!!" God, what a company. It really makes you wish they were still in business. Also, there was an apology for the Patlabor dub and that fucked-up Slayers DVD box, which I appreciated. I described this panel as both "owns" on Twitter while I was at it, and then "owned" on Twitter once I had left. This is the proper use of a Web 2.0.

The only anime I saw was Cencoroll: produced by one dude (Atsuya Uki), the story is basically JD Salinger's Pokemon. An antisocial young man and his pet shapeshifter fight another antisocial young man and his pet shapeshifter, and visual fireworks ensue. There's probably more creative animation in this half-hour than there is in many anime TV series' entire runs. People in the crowd after the movie were complaining that everything wasn't explained and spelled out to them, and to these people I say "go back to Jump and leave the animator alone".

I didn't take a ton of pictures but I'm going to go ahead and authoritatively pronounce that Maetel and her luggage (and, yeah, the Bumblebee guy) won cosplay.

Shin Mazinger Episode 24: EVERYBODY GETS HYPE

This week I simply cannot point out a single individual for Hype Honors. There's just too much going on. One of the cool things about Shin Mazinger is that Imagawa reminds us that if an evil genius who operates out of a Greek island off the coast of Japan started sending mechanical monsters to destroy an alternative energy plant defended by a giant, heavily armed robot, that would constitute a small war, not just a weekly cartoon showdown. As Kouji-- who was tricked by Ashura, who doesn't even show at the site of the duel-- fights off five exceptionally tough mechanical beasts, Kurogane House, the Photon Power Labs, and Dr. Hell are getting their troops ready. Kurogane's preparations, as ever, are hilarious: did you know that you can have bamboo spears made out of Super Alloy Z? News to me. The Super Alloy Z frying pan and shovels-- and especially the Super Alloy Z electric fence that Ankokuji and Gamia are imprisoned in-- should really be sold in stores around the world.

We're also seeing a lot of scenes from the chaotic first episode (which, as you'll recall, was titled "Finale") actually take place, and back then the animation wasn't looking nearly so hot. This time, though, Imagawa actually has some money, and it shows in the scale and polish of the assaults. Pygman sics his animal army on the Photon Power labs and gets a lion for a head! The men of Kurogane House slaughter Baron Ashura's soldiers guerilla-style! Boss Borot makes his grand entrance by intercepting a damn missile! Even Sayaka and the worthless Mazinger Corps (though they fight completely offscreen) don't seem to get their asses kicked this time. God damn, it's all so viscerally exciting! Maybe the summary of this episode should just be "and then all this stuff exploded like BOOM and this guy comes out all YEAAAAAH, and then everybody's like AW HELL NAW". It's very tempting to just leave it at that.

Anyway, here's where the fights end up: Kouji is mad as hell because he's stuck getting his ass kicked (the God Scrander, for some reason, is still en route) by some robo-monsters when Baron Ashura isn't even around. Pygman crashes the Photon Power plant by posing as Sayaka, leading Professor Yumi to get desperate and suicide bomb the whole place, killing (maybe) both himself and the three scientists. Meanwhile, the Kurogane Five are getting ready to take on Ashura's army by any means... until Kenzo Kabuto appears inside the house. This week's cliffhanger is Tsubasa charging him with her dagger. Tsubasa does say "it'll be interesting to see who survives this," and while I am curious, the fakeout deaths from before kind of remove any major feeling of suspense.

By the way, it's old news, but Mr. Imagawa and mechanical designer Tsuyoshi Nonaka canceled for Anime Weekend Atlanta, which is this weekend. I wouldn't have been able to make it either way, but he'll certainly be missed by many AWA attendees. Probably fear of the swine flu: can't really blame the guys. In addition, I'm sure you've noticed that there's less and less going on on this blog that isn't Shin Mazinger, and I apologize for the holdup. I have, however, been on a bit of a posting spree at Colony Drop (and it's far from over), so I recommend you take a look there too.

Shin Mazinger Episode 23: Kanjite Knight GETS HYPE

This episode came pretty fast, huh? I was certainly caught off guard. We are starting sill: See, Aphrodite A was lost long ago, leaving the perpetually useless Sayaka without a robot. Sayaka couldn't stand being any more useless than she already was, so she asked the three goofball scientists to build her a new robot. She wants it built to look like her (yes, this is a carryover from the original Mazinger), so here's the Go Nagai logic: the scientists can't possibly build a robot that looks like Sayaka unless they have some nude pictures of her. And so it is that the episode begins with Kouji fighting off the three scientists as they attempt to strip Sayaka bare.

Of course, when the situation is explained to Kouji, it clicks with his Go Nagai logic, and he decides to kick these three assholes out of the room and take the pictures himself. Sayaka is quite pleased with this turn of events, but Shirou pops in and lets everybody know that the robot's already been built. Who built it then? Professor Yumi, I suppose? Or are the three scientists just sneaky bastards who were planning on Sayaka the robot after they got her nudes? The only thing we know for sure is that Venus A has a well-defined ass, which is an even weirder thing for a robot to have than boob missiles.

 Kouji and Sayaka get some much-needed flirt time in before Tesshou Genda scolds them-- there are armies incoming, you kids! Do this love crap later! It goes without saying that Brocken's armies wreck the non-robot military, and that the "we won't have our asses kicked quite so fast this time!" Mazinger Corps get so served by Mechanical Beast Baron Ashura that they don't even bother showing it onscreen. Meanwhile, Boss Borot waits at the Photon Power Labs for its chance to shine.  Ankokuji visits, and he's clearly up to something: the Kurogane gang speculate that he might have allied with Kenzo Kabuto.

Ashura's robot makes its real debut at the grave of Juuzou Kabuto. The Kabutos are trying to have a nice, early memorial service before Dr. Hell shows up, but you know what? Dr. Hell shows up anyway-- in hologram form. He even leaves some hologram flowers on the grave. And then the fiery wreckage of the Mazinger Corps appear, and then so does Ashura. Venus shows up, and she's a little useful here, but like the Mazinger Corps, her robot upgrade only means that she won't be beaten quite as quickly as she was in the past. Ashura and Dr. Hell offer a duel. Single combat. Whoever wins gets their way. You know, the usual cartoon bad guy trap.

Say, did you know that there's a giant Devilman statue in the Kurogane bath? Because there is. In the end, Shirou, Kouji, Boss and the lackeys talk over the offer. Kouji wants to stick to the plan, so he has to refuse Ashura. Of course, everybody else present-- yes, even the little boy-- replies with "what kind of man are you?" Boss even finds a little common ground with Ashura, as a rival determined to win and destined to lose. Everybody walks out of the bath in disgust, leaving Kouji to ponder how he wants to fight Ashura more than anybody. A bathing Sayaka has overheard the whole thing and jumps out to console Kouji, who promises not to accept the duel.

Of course, there are a lot of things a guy will say to a naked girl, and as Tesshou Genda so boldly declares, "A man! Kouji is a man!" As Kouji and Mazinger walk slowly, backs hunched over purposefully, towards an obvious trap, Kanjite Knight is reprised in the background. Imagawa knows it's the best, just like we do. I assume Imagawa also fast-forwards the ending credits every single episode, like I do.

Shin Mazinger Episode 22: Recaps GET HYPE

Hey, guys! Remember all the good times we've had watching True Mazinger: Impact! Z Chapter on television? Boy, what a ride it's been! As the players are being set in place for the final battle, the show has decided to take a little break with everybody's favorite, the recap episode. Very little that's new happens this week, so I'm just going to say it all here: Ankokuji (??) promises to build Boss and his lackeys a robot to fight in. Ashura attempts suicide and promptly discovers that Dr. Hell has wired it unable to do that. If Ashura died, after all, who would pilot MECHANICAL BEAST BARON ASHURA? Also, there's this awesome Beavis and Butthead screenshot of Brocken and Ashura laughing at the end of the episode. That's seriously it for this week: nothing left to do but get hype for the next one.

Shin Mazinger Episode 21: The Arm of Zeus GETS HYPE

The waits for this show are getting pretty long, eh guys? From what I'm hearing, there's good news and bad news. Good news: the next one will come sooner! Bad news: it's a recap episode.

But let's look at the wonderful things before us right now. This is a hell of a busy episode, full of masks and hard punches and people returning from the dead. That's right: it's revealed this week that the Kurogane Five were patched up by Tsubasa at some point after four of them were killed inside that machine brain's memories of ancient Greece. Shall we recall how the men of the Kurogane Five died? Cross was stepped on by a giant monster, Master was sliced in half onscreen, and Yasu exploded himself. Not too many shows can get away with resurrections this crazy, but Shin Mazinger seems to have established with Ashura that death is a state that only lasts until next episode.

In small-fry-related news, the Mazinger Corps return, and by their own admission they are only slightly better than they were before. It's enough to deal with a couple of small-fry mechanical beasts, in any case. Noted small-fry Shirou punches Pygman in the face. But the smallest fry of all is Ultra Gorgeous Computer Grandpa, a tiiiny hologram that Juuzou seems to have left inside of Mazinger Z in case things got really bad. For reference, "really bad" means that Energer Z is going to self-destruct and kill everybody. He has a plug tail that wiggles when he sexually harasses Tsubasa.

Anyway, I guess somewhere in there is the arm of Zeus, right? Well, as it happens, the thing--having already come up out of the ground when Tsubasa called it-- grabs and fuses with Mazinger Z, forming the whole God Scrander getup. Of course, it goes without saying that Kouji takes out the self-destructing Energer Z with the Big Bang Punch we saw so long ago and have so eagerly awaited. It is quite wonderful, but the show takes it as a given and, as it has done before, only revisits the moment itself in flashback. There's important stuff going down, you know!

By "important stuff" I mean Kurogane House hijinx. Detectives from all over Japan who owe Tsubasa-- she gave them all Super Alloy Z weapons, ranging from Z toothpicks to handcuffs to prayer beads-- have all decided to stay at the Kurogane House to help out with whatever huge fight Tsubasa already knows is coming but we don't. Among the detectives is old Ankokuji, who we haven't seen in a long time, and his beloved Gamia. There's a bit where the detectives have a party and dress Gamia up in the usual fetishy outfits (nurse, bunnygirl, maid), which comes to its logical gag conclusion when Gamia is wearing the old favorite "naked apron". Now, to me, the sight of doll-parts Gamia baring her joints is hysterical. I'm sure to some other viewer it is hot, hot, hot. For him, this is no gag.

Over the course of this arc, Kouji and Shirou have basically accepted that Tsubasa is their mom, and Kouji and Tsubasa are doing some mother-son bonding while the detectives (and Shirou!) are partying hard with Gamia. Things learned: though the Kenzou on Energer Z turned out to be Brocken in disguise, the real Kenzou Kabuto is still alive. Furthermore-- and this is a doozy-- it is revealed that the deceased Tetsuya was actually Tsubasa's brother. I guess that's why they softened his features and changed his hair color?

At the very end, Bardos jumps up out of the sea again, and shit is about to get real. As everybody gets all hype about the situation, notice that in the very last shot, as Kouji and Tsubasa look out into the moonlit sky, the ghost of Tetsuya Tsurugi-- who, yes, has been sitting around all this time-- slowly fades away.

So I guess the Shin Mazinger version of the Soul of Chogokin Energer Z only comes in Photon meltdown colors, huh? I'm going to go ahead and blame the collectors for this, as an older model already exists.

Shin Mazinger Episode 20: Energer Z GETS HYPE

Well, gang, Energer Z is here and it's not pleased. Apparently piloted by Kenzo Kabuto-- who should be dead-- the prototype charges Kurogane House and Kouji has to take it on in Mazinger. Things don't go well: the robots have the same armament and Energer wins every clash. As Mazinger gets tossed around like a rag doll, the episode centers on the people inside of Kurogane House, where we spend most of the episode in a flashback and finally figure out the circumstances of the "deaths" (because who knows, really) of Tetsuya Tsurugi and Kenzo Kabuto.

Kenzo seems to have come for the arm of Zeus, which you'll recall was found buried deep inside Bardos Island by the Kabutos, Dr. Hell, Tetsuya and Tsubasa on their expedition. This arm, sliced from Zeus' arm by Hades in the distant past, is the source of Japanium ore, which is the source of Super Alloy Z, which is, of course, what Mazinger and Energer are made out of. Tetsuya says outright what you, if you watched Giant Robo, might have already guessed at: Japanium is sentient, and Photon Power is the life energy of Zeus.

Of course, it isn't long before ol' Dr. Hell decides he wants such a bombshell for himself, and so he betrays everybody. Of course, he's not the only one: it's revealed that Kenzo, hungry for power and possessed by a Kedora, also took part in this rebellion. As things turn out, Tetsuya holds Kenzo down, and Tsubasa has to make a shot that kills both men... except both men seem to be alive and kicking in the present, and though I've assumed they are ghosts, the show has made no explicit statement to that effect.

I should note that Tsubasa's voice actress is not very convincing during these flashbacks in the role of "naive young scientist, not yet hardened to the ways of the world."

And so, back in the present time, Pygman's proposal is this: give Dr. Hell Zeus' arm, and he, Tetsuya, the rampaging Energer Z, and Tsubasa's live-threatening spirit sickness will simply disappear. (No reason not to go along with this, right guys?) Tsubasa's response is this:

FUCK YOU

GOD SCRAAAANDERRRRR

That's right, it was lying around at Kurogane House this whole time. Talk about a cliffhanger. Get hype for next week!

Shin Mazinger Episode 19: Tesshou Genda GETS HYPE

As bizarre as the last arc was, Imagawa shows no sign whatsoever of slowing down his train. If you thought machine-brain memory time travel was nuts, get ready for some really loopy shit getting set up this week.

Remember the end of last episode, where we were about to see the death of Juuzou Kabuto? Well, that's too bad, because while Kouji got to see it, you didn't. Kouji only says that he "saw a lot of things in that Corinthian pillar", and he doesn't sound like he enjoys recalling them. Other than this, things at Kurogane are (kind of) back to normal, in that they're serving customers-- Boss and friends have taken over for the Kurogane Five, all of whom are definitely dead save Kiku-- and at war with ol' Dr. Hell again. Ashura's been taken in for the time being, because Ashura needs a place to hide from Dr. Hell, and because the Kurogane guys really need help: something has come up.

Ashura has to diagonose a bedridden and madness-prone Tsubasa, and as it turns out, Viscount Pygman is laying down an indirect assault. Since, owing to the events of the last few episodes, Dr. Hell can't attack directly, Pygman has instead opted to haunt Tsubasa with the ghost of a certain person. Though it doesn't speak, the spirit is somewhat vengeful, and Tsubasa certainly seems to bear some kind of crippling guilt that's amplified by the haunting and slowly killing her. So who is it? Get this: it's the ghost of Tetsuya Tsurugi.

If you're familiar with Mazinger lore at all, you'll recognize Tetsuya as the pilot of Great Mazinger, Mazinger Z's eventual replacement. You won't recognize him in any other way, though. Those eyebrows aren't half as thick as they used to be! In this story, Tetsuya has become the pilot before Kouji, having used a prototype built by Kenzo Kabuto and having died under unexplained circumstances. Being a ghost, Tsurugi just sits around quietly, being a drain on Tsubasa's dirty conscience. This brings up a lot of points. Is the "Blade" character who appeared in the first episode a different entity? Was the momentary appearance of Great Mazinger a total red herring? Who knows, man? This show is crazy.

It isn't long after all this is explained and set up that the aforementioned prototype is blasted into the earth like a falling comet, and it approaches Kurogane, piloted by Kenzo Kabuto (wait, what?). Its name? Tesshou Genda is here, as ever, to give it an extra-powerful "I am so hype that I am completely losing my mind" yell. The name of the robot is Energer Z. I can't even count the amount of times I've rewound the episode to this scene. Genda, you are the best. At this rate it looks like we have room for this arc, and then the final battle with Ankoku Daishogun. The best possible outcome would be Bandai allowing Imagawa to make an Ankoku Daishogun movie, but that's too awesome to ever happen.