STORY:
The most important turning point in the Great Mazinger TV series comes when the leader of the forces of Mikenes, Ankoku Daishogun, finally tires of defeat after defeat at the hands of Great Mazinger and goes out to battle him himself. The battle the two have is one of the classic battle in the Mazinger series with Great Mazinger coming up victorious by the very narrowest of margins.
With the death of Ankoku Daishogun the Mikenes Empire had to search for a new leader. The leader solved the problem by resurrecting Dr. Hell in the body of a powerful new robot body. He begins a new seres of attacks until he finally catches the Great Mazinger team with an old trap from his Mazinger days. While Great is busy fighting the enemy robot, Hell attacks the base with his new battleship, the Demonica. It rams into the Institute over and over again driving it into the waters it lies in all the time Chio and Boss watch helplessly on the side. The Base seems doomed with Mikenes victory afterwards assured that is until a familiar music begins to play in the background. Chio looks to the sky and from the clouds emerges Mazinger Z! Chio jumps with joy as he say "Mazinger Z? Koji!" Koji nods in the cockpit and begins his attack against the Demonica as Kenzo asks "Is Koji inside?" and Dr. Yumi nods.
Koji attacks the Demonica as it continues to try to destroy the Institute. At first Koji does little but soon he begins doing damage when Great Mazinger shows up, having destroyed his opponent. He attacks as well and soon the Demonica is made to retreat against the power of two Mazingers. After the victory Koji finally has his reuinon with his father. It is revealed that while Great Mazinger has been dealing with Mikenes, Mazinger Z was being completely upgraded so that it could more than keep up with the Mikenes robots.
The Mazinger brother spent the rest of the series fighting side by side however, both being fiercly competitive, they soon began squabiling and taking turns taking shots at each other. These differences would need to be put aside as the time of the final battle came. Robots was sent against Z and Great along with the Demonica. Tetsuya destroyed his opponent but was seriously injured himself in the encounter. As he lay unconcious the Demonica turned to attack. To save his adopted son, Dr. Kabuto charged the part of the Institute that could fly away into the Demonica itself, sacrificing himself to save Great. With that Koji screamed "Father!" and destroyed his own opponent yhen making his way to his father.
Koji moves to his father side and finds him barely alive. With his dying words, Kenzo reminds Koji that Tetsuya is his brother and that there is still more to be done. Koji leaves and relentlessly attacks the Demonica with all the power at the disposal of Mazinger Z. He succeeds in crippling the Demonica then begins to attack it with Breast of Fire. Venus Ace and Diana Ace show up and begin attacking it with their own beam weapons as well. Finally, a severely injured Tetsuya in his Great Mazinger shows up.
Great joins in with his own Breast of Burn and all of them continue on finally causing the Demonica to explode, killing Hell and the rest of the Mikenes forces and ending the war. The four return to land to celebrate their victory. With the war over Tetsuya can rest his injuries in the hospital with Jun by his side while Koji and the others give Dr. Kabuto a proper burial.
The war is finally over and the Mazingers are triumphant. Time to celebrate!
OPINION:
As a Mazinger fan there is no greater moment than when Mazinger Z heroically returned at the end of the Great Mazinger series. I always disliked how Mazinger was destroyed at the end of Mazinger Z but to see him return was a thrill. This is how I envisioned the original series ending. The two Mazinger brothers flying victoriously into the sunset. Why they never showed the Great Mazinger series here I will never know, especially with this ending.
© 1996 mazinman@yahoo.com
