Review- MAZINKAISER SKL parts 2 and 3

by: Chris Eaton

I’ve meant to finish this review a while back.  Oh, the fool I was.  Seeing that there hasn’t been much in the way of news (at least I can find) I figured I’d take another crack at reviewing the last two parts of Mazinkaiser SKL.  You know, finishing what you started kind of thing. If only I applied this much gumption in real life I would probably be doing something better than writing Mazinkiser SKL reviews.  But I’m not. So here we go.

Seeing that I’ve watched part 2 and 3 back to back, I’m going to jump into this review with looking at them as one piece.

When we last left the crew of the Death Caprice Squad, Ryo and Ken, they had completely handed the Kiba faction their collective asses on a silver platter.  Their leader, Kiba, was killed in an epic battle with Mazinkaiser much to the collective joy of the Kaiser crew.  With one major battle out of the way, and the Kiba portion of the gravity curtain station shut down, the Kaiser crew and Yuki turn their attention to the Garen fortress.

It’s here that we see Ken and Ryo get some character time outside of Kaiser.  During a raid on Garen’s fortress, Ken performs hand to hand fighting on the roof of Garen’s compound with a sword.  Much like when he’s piloting Kaiser, Ken is a ruthless fucker who hacks away at Garen’s men with easy and joy.  When he face’s off against Garen, the massive leader of the second faction on the island physiologically taunts Ken to the point that they take the fight to their mechs.

What proceeds is your typical anime moment were one of the characters is psychologically out matched that causes him to loose it and end up loosing the fight.  Well, this happens to Ryo, who Garen mocks as having no point in life.  What we’re only slightly privy to is that Ryo has a mysterious past, one that alludes to him being grown in a lab or something like that.  Look up anime cliche 9 and 26 and combine them.  This leads to Kaiser’s defeat at the hands of Garen’s Geisttles mech.  A Nobel oni samurai looking thing.  With Kaiser deep in a pit, Garen’s army moving on to the Octagon, were the Aria army girls are preparing to try to not get raped, Yuki heads to her crashed ship to retrieve her own mech, Wingle.

We now get to where shit starts going down.  I won’t deluge in to spoilers, so I’ll say this.  Act 3 is were Mazinkaiser SKL pays off.  With the arrival of Wingle, the Devil Lady looking Mazinger, and the effects of the falling Gravity Curtain destroying Japan, shit gets real.  It’s safe to say that Kaiser makes a recovery, but what that leads to is one of the best mech fights I’ve seen in an anime in years.  The sheer metal awesomeness of Mazinkaiser SKL is put on display in the final act as Kaiser fights a mech named Iron Kaiser.  Things go from incredible, and with any good Go Nagai product, to fucking ridiculous.

Overall, Mazinkaiser SKL is a goddamn ride.  But, much like Kill Bill, it feels stunted.  SKL plays out like a full film that was cut into 3 pieces for the sake of selling.  When you put the episodes together, it runs a little over an hour an a half.  It would have been a perfect one off movie.  One with a ending so goddamn metal that all even the likes of Pantera, Metallica and Dio era Black Sabbath would have to bow to.  I’ll say this:  Kaiser Pegasus.

Mazinkaiser SKL is everything I love about anime.  Back when I was growing up and anime was violent as a shark and a killer whale going at it.  Simple.  These days, it’s all fantasy battling with some love story and hyper exaggerated characters.  Mazinkaiser SKL is a return to form of the days of Guyver, Fist of the North Star, Crying Freeman with Mechs.  It’s all the good things that Go Nagai has to offer, including the cameo appearances by Akira and Miki from Devilman.  When Mazinkaiser SKL is released on June 7th, I would say you have to suffer some sort of brain trauma via gang beating not to go pick it up.

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