Mazinkaiser SKL 2-3: Reclaiming Hell

Two Guys, a Girl, and a mecha.

I’ll start with the shooting of unarmed prisoners, which is an act that is mostly vilified by the average mecha pilot, and by average I mean inferior. Not only does Kiba’s crew deserve to die I hope they burn in the hell that Mazinkaiser creates. Kiba’s crew a bunch of lowly lecherous bums that tried to grab girls mid battle but they were fat and disgusting so clearly they were an inferior form of life. There was no way I would want these fat fucks to be fed nor would I trust them to behave while in captivity surrounded by women. After what they did, to give them food and shelter would be a crime against Zeus so of course Magami did the right thing by finishing where Yuki left off. They did not have the time to bother with prisoner transport nor was Yuki likely able to babysit the guy. What we should all be disappointed about was that Yuki did not gut the guy herself or break the guy’s arm. Who knows the lurid details of the guy’s crimes but we all know he did something and that is more than enough to go judge, jury, and executioner on him.

After much speculation that Galan was a big dumb and smelly troll it becomes clear that Himiko is not really Grace reborn but sadly, is genuinely in love with the unworthy lout, though I confess that Galan did have a magnificent beard. I found it amusing that during the initial fight against Galan that all of Mazinkaiser’s rounds simply bounced off Galan’s hide. While normally that would be the end of it Mazinkaiser proves once and for all how projectile weapons are so much better than fancy lasers. Rounds normally have to end up somewhere and true to being the EPIC that we all know Mazinkaiser is, rounds not only bounce off they end up somewhere, somewhere being some Galan Mook’s face. It’s funny how Mazinkaiser is much more real-robot than Gundam in that those huge shell casings also become lethal projectiles in their own right as a big huge casing with velocity plus a significant gravity boost can really put the hurt on anything nearby. Galan being bullet proof did not kill the action as everything around him died and his palace was demolished.

If anyone really choked so far it has to be Magami who despite being the cool calm guy experienced a choke that rivaled Shinji Ikari vs. Anything. It has been said elsewhere that this series is not made for character development, but I’ll buy that this had less to do with Magami as a character than snarky commentary about the average mecha pilot and the lamest conflict that seems to afflict mecha. No I am not talking about Zekes being Zekes, but rather the ongoing saga of every mecha pilot vs. himself and how tacky and unimaginative every tragic past is. It rarely works because it is usually poorly executed and it always comes off as whining instead of winning. Magami did whine and in this instance there was no one to bail his ass out or a cooler character dying to save his sorry ass. Instead, Galan does get the better of Magami and by better of; I mean Magami got his ass handed to him that Mazinkaiser got pummeled, lost an eye, and tossed off a cliff; pretty much a complete humiliation of Magami. Thankfully Kaido survived getting tossed around while Magami choked and did manage to slap some sense into him. Best of all we did not waste a whole other episode to resolve the lamest type of conflict in mecha. Round Two is not only better but results in Galan getting his face smashed. Oh and we also had an awkward bro-mance moment killed instead of having it go on for the rest of the series.

I was worried early on that Yuki was useless, but in fact she has hacked her way into my heart already. Luckily Wingle wasn’t there just for show and we did get Revolutionary Girl-bot Wingle who was her own Rose Bride as she drew a sword and proceeded to curb stomp the opposition. It was a glorious and long awaited moment though it was terribly short. This isn’t a big problem though as we all know this is Mazinkaiser’s show and Wingle is a sidekick. The only thing that would have been better was if those octagon bots had referred to Wingle as onee-sama and white lily-like objects started to make their way onto the screen. I was unsure how Wingle would be the scrander for Mazinkaiser but it worked well enough to net us Wing Kaiser, though sadly no Kaiser Deathscythe. Thankfully at no point did Wingle wake up one day and ask herself if she needed to make some dude breakfast. While it is great that Boss finally applied himself and became an officer I did enjoy it when Yuki laid on the verbal abuse when Lt. Boss was holding out information when there were mere hours left to save the world. How Boss managed to get that far up the chain I have no idea, but I do know who will probably be sacked and definitely passed over after the crisis is over.

I was genuinely surprised to see Zombie Kiba, but I guess Mazinkaiser felt that humiliating his ass just once was not enough. Zombie Kiba, however, did get the better of Galan after offing Himiko who never saw it coming despite having powers of precognition. I just have to say Mazinkaiser did a wonderful job in fixing Kiba’s ugly mug so it is Halloween every day of the year for him. I guess Himiko was really into beards since it’s hard to see how humorless and emotionally distant guy like him managed to get a girlfriend. Still maybe since he was arguably one of richest dudes on the island money was more of factor.

Kiba may have had blowtorch facial reconstruction that left half his face looking like a Sailor Moon Villain, but he also gets shiny new ride in Iron Kaiser. Still it’s Kiba and while Iron Kaiser may have been a match for Mazinkaiser, Kiba was never a good pilot. At the end of the day the bastard spends more time hurting women than he does honing what little martial skill he has. Even with a new and better machine he still managed to go down in one round and was literally impaled to the idiot ball that had killed all of Galan’s goons. Kiba may have managed to kill some helpless woman but it doesn’t change the fact that he died in horrible and humiliating ways, not once but twice. To make matters worse what was supposed to be a suicide mission for Mazinkaiser and Death Caprice wasn’t a suicide mission and the dynamic duo not only survive but get a cool new spear and a flying horse to show a little love to G Gundam to really put the sword through Kiba’s heart. Clearly Kiba is this years’ front runner in BAD END unless some Zeke manages to top that. Of special note was the dogfight for the sake of a dog fight, EPIC Fist bump, and the battle of bad breath.

It was not a great series, it was not even a good series, it was an EPIC series that every mecha fan should watch to get their fill of Grade A action. If you don’t like this series I don’t feel sorry for you because you could not enjoy Mazinkaiser’s Hell for what it was, F-U-N. If you have a problem with how Death Caprice handles things and how they don’t shed a tear for Kiba and feel the need to ask a question about character development in a 3 episode OVA then you must have not only been hit by the idiot ball you probably swallowed it whole and choked on it. And if you don’t get all the little jokes don’t cry, just go back and enjoy some older and not so old classics to bring yourself up to speed. We probably aren’t going to have much more mecha fun than this all year, and the only reason why you should be mad about this series is that they aren’t giving us more episodes featuring Mazinkaiser becoming one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

I applaud this breaking of the Geneva Convention.

That's one way to earn your jump wings...

Rope-a-dope...

Mazinkaiser's awesomeness can shatter mountains.

I take it Galan commissioned a statue of himself.

Galan wanted Mazinkaiser to get off his lawn.

This was just a really bad choke on Magami's part...

All bullets have to end up somewhere...

I like how shell casings from Mazinkaiser also contribute to the kill count.

It was about time Magami tried something else...

Sadly Magami was not the real close combat expert.

Just a sad and sorry performance...

I hope Magami remembers how even Yuki showed him up.

I think I heard cries of ONEE-SAMA.

2011's Revolutionary Girl-bot.

Slaps no longer work so Kaido figures it out and uses his FIST.

Uh oh...

Whew... crisis avoided.

It's good to see that Boss made something of himself.

Terminator Kaiser.

I did not see this coming, neither did Himiko.

Galan was dumb enough to argue with a loaded gun.

Welcome to hell Galan, population YOU!

Kiba did not take kindly to the comment that Mazinkaiser made him look decent again.

I see physics came back with a vengeance.

Iron Kaiser inherited Kiba's lazy eye.

I am surprised that Mein Kaiser was so good with dental work.

Missiles missing...

Good to see Yuki yelling.

I wish Kaiser also had a scythe...

Mein Kaiser did not let the loss of an eye slow him down.

Kaiser's minty fresh breath PREVAILS.

Kiba's bet that red ones go 3 times faster would not payoff.

This is some fist fight.

I was going oooooohhhh too.

Oh no Kiba is going to sing...

I like the physicality of Mazinkaiser, great way to show how you dominate your match-up by dragging Iron Kaiser by the chin.

RIGHT BETWEEN THE EYES TIME.

THIS ONE IS FOR WOMEN EVERY WHERE.

(clap clap clap) Good you just have to love how Kaiser is still kicking Kiba when he's down.

Mein Kaiser's on a horse.