Video is excellent. It's definetly a DVD rip, as this OVA was never aired on TV. Also, apparently it's widescreened. Or maybe it isn't. Either way, it has a black bar at the top and bottom of the screen, so I'm just assuming it's a wide screen deal going on.

Audio is great, too. Comes through crisp and clear for everything. From the explosions to the screaming of attack names, everything sounds awesome.

Audio is great, too. Comes through crisp and clear for everything. From the explosions to the screaming of attack names, everything sounds awesome.

Mazinkaiser is... well, at the time of this review, no longer is... the latest incarnation from the Mazinger saga. Koji Kabuto, after getting a serious beat down from Baron Ashura and Doctor Hell's Mechanical Beasts, finds a final gift from his grandfather: Mazinkaiser, the most powerful robot to ever be seen. What follows is pure super robot goodness, with battle after battle. I felt that this OVA wasn't as good as it could've been. It was a little to silly for me. The middle episodes are just pure jokes. Nothing serious about them. I was hoping for something like the Shin Getter Robo anime, but was denied that. What majorly hurt this anime I felt was the nudity. Episode four was just pure perverted garbage. I know Go Nagai loves nudity, but come on, save it for Cutey Honey! The three middle episodes definetly do not take into mind the awesome power that is Mazinkaiser and relies on cheap fanservice humor. Some people may like that, but I'm not particulary a big fan of it. They could've had a serious OVA the whole way through and perhaps included some more enemies from Mazinger Z, but they took the comedy route. You have to love it for what it is though. The funny parts had me laughing, but I would've prefered a more serious OVA the whole way though. Hell, you could watch the first two episodes and the last two episodes only and not miss much. But the comedy episodes are hilarious, so like I said, take the show for what it is. Now, on to the DVD itself. The packaging is really nice, and gives a feel of what the show is going to be like. It opens once, having disc one on the left side of the gatefold, and disc two on the right. All the art used comes form the R2 DVD release of the show. Except maybe the front cover. The front cover could be an insert on the DVDs though. If you want to see what the art looks like, the left inside picture is the first R2 DVD's cover, and the picture on the right side is the second R2's cover. The disc's art itself is the same, but shrunken, of the art on it's corresponding side in the gatefold. The back of the gatefold is jsut the back of the first DVD, with the typical disc stats at the bottom. Very nice looking set. The episodes on the two discs are laid out as four on the first one, three on the second. There was the basic each episode is one chapter, so you can't easily skip the opening or ending, but the songs are so great I don't see why you'd want to. JAM Project is an awesome band. The opening, "In The Fire" just gets your blood pumping, and the animation for it is so stylish. The ending song, "Tornado" is a bit slower, and kind of cools you down after watching the craziness you just saw in the episode. The first ending is the typical modern Go Nagai one, with two colored pictures of people, robots, and such from the show. The second, as I said before, is a cut away of Mazinkaiser, which looks awesome. Both discs just go right to the menu at start up. No logos. The menu is your basic HK one, with Play All, subtitles, and chapter select. Disc one had the menus in English. Disc 2 had it all in Kanji, but the layout is the same as disc one, so you can easily use it. Each episode had the opening, show, ending, then next episode preview. Both the opening and ending were subbed. No eye catches, as none were made. They seem to always be absent from Go Nagai's works. Next episode previews subbed, also. There's only one opening animation, but the ending has two different ones. The seconds pretty neat, with a cut-a-way view of Mazinkaiser. But the opening and ending song remains the same the entire way through. No email addresses or watermarks appeared in the show, which some people will be happy about. THis probably has to do with the first disc being a rip of the FX version (from what I hear. I've never seen the FX version of the show). The second is all original done by MI, or done by another company and ripped by MI, but the same quality is still there from the first disc. I don't see a part two of the set by FX, so I figured they never finished it. But quite frankly I don't know, so I'm just quessing on this. That about covers it, I believe. I watched the show on my old Zenith TV and using my Toshiba SD-1200 DVD player. Grab this if you're a super robot fan. If you dig Cutey Honey (another of Go Nagai's works, chock full of gratutious nudity) then episode 4 will not let you down. A pretty decent mecha anime, with an awesome ending. Don't forget to watch the second OVA, which is only a single 55 minute episode!