Mazinger Z tai Devilman

The fluid and vibrant animation of this film is of special note; even though it was made the same year as the last episodes of Devilman and Mazinger, it far surpasses them both on a technical level.
I wouldn't mind having Sirene destroy my Tokyo, if you know what I mean ;)
And General Zannin is the man, as always.

If you're a fan of Mazinger Z, you may really enjoy this. I tend to be more of a fan of Devilman and was disappointed by the fact that this felt more like a Mazinger Z special with Devilman as the special guest.

I'll try to explain why it really bothered me but it may reveal some spoilers so be aware. (though why you're reading a review of this and haven't already seen it is beyond me). For one Devilman has to be saved by Mazinger Z at least twice whereas it's never the other way around. The devilman villains are pretty much controlled by ... Dr. Hell (The Mazinger Z villain). You are surrounded by Mazinger Z characters but you only get a quick cameo from 2 Devilman characters. The final battle is a fight between Mazinger Z and the main villain. Even the END credits mostly feature Mazinger Z with Mazinger Z music.

Overall this was a very one sided special that did no justice for Devilman, but did plenty for Mazinger Z. The only real positives I can say about it was the beautiful art and animation which is much better than Devilman and Mazinger Z series.

If you love Mazinger Z. Watch it
If you love Devilman. You may be disappointed.
If you love both. You may find some enjoyment.

This film had some slight enjoyment to it but nothing to crazy. Considering the time in which it aired, the animation and budget was improved quite a bit over its TV series counterparts of each respective series. How ever I did not like how this film protrayed more of an emphasis on mazinger dominating most battles and Devilman characters were amostly delogated to supporting roles.

Personally I enjoy the Devilman verse more so then the classic Mazinger series and to see the Devilman villians treated like this was kind of off putting. All in all though the budget and animation was interesting and if you enjoy ... Mazinger and Devilman and you are just looking for an excuse to see both heroes in action teaming up with some interesting fight choergraphy, then you may enjoy this.

This movie combines multiple different Go Nagai series, specifically Mazinger Z and Devilman. The plot is pretty straightforward; the Devilman demons are treated like kaiju, and the movie features a typical "bad guys teaming up" storyline. I found that I was able to enjoy the movie without any prior context, as there was not much character or relationship development, and not much happened in terms of character or story progression. The animation quality varies throughout the film, but the character designs are excellent for its time. It's always a pleasure to see Go Nagai's design work animated, even if it's toned down for a younger ... audience.

Crossover movie. Despite the name saying vs, they actually team up in order to beat the bad guys of each stories who have also allied together. The plot is nonsensical, and requires retcons in order to work. It's completely written in a way to make the two stories merge together. The dialogue is also pretty wank. With that said, it has the type of action that both series needed.

One of the biggest problem with the 70s Tokusatsu show is their villain of the week format. Despite facing a major villain that's trying to take over the world, said bad guy always sends one of his ... minion at a time instead of many. Now, there's a couple of reasons for this. One of which being that it would make fight scenes harder to draw and animate, thus taking more time and more money. The other being that they couldn't draw out the series for as long as possible.

This movie rectifies that and gives fans what they had been wanting by having both protagonist take on 10 or so Kaijus at a time, which is pretty cool and fuels the big scale fight scenes that many fans crave. Other than that, it's pretty much like any other episodes of either series, albeit, with better visuals. It's a fun short watch, but that's about it.