The first volume of the manga.
Great Mazinger (グレートマジンガー Gurēto Majingā?) is a manga written and illustrated by Go Nagai. It was serialized in TV Magazine magazine from September 1974 to September 10, 1975[1]. It was compiled by Kodansha in 2 volumes in 1975. It is the sequel to Mazinger Z.
Story[]
Great Mazinger starts after the defeat of Mazinger Z. Tetsuya Tsurugi is the new protagonist, piloting the powerful Great Mazinger, a creation of the once thought dead Kenzo Kabuto, the father of Koji Kabuto. This time the enemy is the Mycene Empire and its powerful robots.
Characters[]
- Tetsuya Tsurugi
- Jun Hono
- Kenzo Kabuto
Publication[]
It received various republications in different formats by various publishers like 2 Volumes by Asahi Sonorama (1974), 1 Volume by Daitosha (1996), 1 Volumes by Kodansha (Reprint).[2]
Creation and Development[]
Due to TV Magazine's editorial staff requesting Go Nagai write the Great Mazinger manga to be akin to its TV Counterpart, The manga has more in common with the Toei Mazinger anime than the previous manga. The original Mazinger Z manga ended with Koji Kabuto, a wrecked Mazinger Z and Dr. Hell presumably drowning in the Pacific Ocean, but at the start of Great Mazinger, both he and Mazinger are alive and well, seemingly treating the story as a sequel to the then concurrent anime version. In addition, the unexplained presence of anime only elements such as the inclusion of Boss Borot and Diana A and Mazinger Z copying the anime design rather than the slightly different manga design also contradict the original manga due to a lack of those elements present.
The TV Magazine Mazinger Z stories Go Nagai made featured similar tv only designs and elements in order to tie it in to the Mazinger Z anime, which at first would suggest the Great Mazinger manga (and by extension the UFO Robot Grendizer manga) is a sequel to that version rather than the Shonen Jump version. In spite of these visual and writing inconsistencies, guide books like the Mazinger Bible do indeed confirm that the Great Mazinger manga is the sequel to the Shonen Jump version, since the Kodansha release of the manga contained two volumes with the first volume being the then unpublished final arc of the Shonen Jump version.
Related Media[]
- Mazinger Z (Nagai) (Prequel)
- UFO Robot Grendizer (Nagai) (Sequel)