Raikoh Reviews - Mazinkaiser SKL

*Disclaimer*

Due to the nature of Mazinkaiser SKL, it only is appropriate that the following review contain gratuitous cursing. I apologize if you are offended by this.

What do you do with less than an hour and a half of runtime in a mecha series? World building? Character development? Technobabble? FUCKING. PLEASE. If you're making an entirely self-contained mecha movie, the most important part is the robots, isn't it? Seriously, just ask yourself: how many good mecha movies are there that aren't connected to an existing story? Mazinkaiser SKL knows exactly what it wants to do, and that's something that I give it props for. Can you handle it?

STORY: 5/10

"If a God gets in our way, he'll be cut down!"
"If a Devil does the same then he'll be shot!"
"We fight because we want to!"
"We crush because we want to!"
"The words 'just cause' mean nothing to us!"
"There's no point in waiting for us in Hell..."
"WE ARE HELL!"

Not even my words, this is a DIRECT. QUOTE. FROM THE SHOW.

Other anime movies might try to tell a complex and deep story or some shit, and sometimes they can manage it. But making a complex story means taking out the action beats, and Mazinkaiser SKL says that only pussies would sacrifice action for plot. Mazinkaiser SKL's story is most heavily an excuse to get a lot of fighting going on, and it does so rather well. The plot isn't important, since fuck that, we got mecha to smash.

So what is this plot, if you're curious? There's an island that's essentially like a more metal version of Australia - that is to say, they sent a fuckton of nutso criminals and murderers there and then closed it off with a gravity curtain. Said gravity curtain is about to overload, and that'll seriously fuck the world's shit up, and an elite team is sent out to stop it. But they get their asses handed to them and get sent to Hell in the first few minutes, so the team is reduced to one girl and their backup - which happens to be one badass motherfucking giant robot piloted by two badass motherfuckers. Also, there's a civil war or some shit going around on the island between three factions: nice girls who dress like Greeks, metalheads who are fucking nuts, and some Japanese style empire. They all also have tons of mecha since they jacked production plants. Only one of the factions cares about stopping the bomb (two guesses as to which one it is, and the first guess doesn't count) and the others are more than willing to let it go off since, hey, it isn't gonna fuck their situation up any more than it already is. Which is why they brought the robot.

It isn't a great plot but it manages to keep your interest for the runtime and it fits exactly what the OVA is trying to do.

Premise: 1/2
Pacing: 1/2
Immersion: 1/2
Setting: 2/2
Theme: 0/1
Complexity: 0/1

ART: 8/10

It's pretty apparent that most of the effort in Mazinkaiser SKL went to making something that was badass, and not a cent was wasted, since from start to finish it looks fuckin' awesome. The animation is absolutely breathtaking, the colors are distinctive, and even scenes that in other series would be hard as shit to follow (such as SKL's multiple uses of gun kata) are so clear it's a wonder why other action scenes can't be this god-damn awesome.

Honestly, there isn't much to say here. It's badass as fuck. It's metal as shit. Fuck the deets and all that bullshit, since it's just awesome start to finish.

General Presence: 2/2
Visual Design: 1/2
Backgrounds: 1/2
Animation: 2/2
Attention to Detail: 1/1
Visual Effects: 1/1

SOUND: 8/10

You can just take a quick glance at a screenshot to tell what SKL is going to sound like. The music consists almost entirely of metal that blends together and is largely unmemorable (aside from the opening and the insert song "LEGEND OF KAISER") but it sounds awesome and matches the tone perfectly. It's not trying to be the kind of music that makes you praise a composer for beautiful composition or some shit. It's trying to match up with the fuckin' hyperbolic violence and testosterone that's covering the screen. Then again, I'm some self-important shithead who likes a wide variety of music, not the kind of manly man who can survive on heavy metal. If you can take metal, it's metal as shit and that's all you need. Not to mention that I would point out that after watching the fight scenes about a half dozen times, the metal does manage to leave an impression, and there are a few beats every now and again of NOT metal for the pussies of the audience.

Voice acting is hype, and that's all you want it to fucking be. The characters aren't the kind of shit that some pretentious shitheel is going to be writing, so they don't need all this shitty false depth or anything. When it gets to it, you got hot-blooded bastards, cold and calculating sons of bitches, and BOOBS. The voice cast fit their roles well and are entertaining through the runtime, so what more do you want?

And the sound effects? If your ears could orgasm, they would. If you watch old mecha anime like the kind of shit your daddy would see as a kid, you know exactly how memorable those sound effects were. Now imagine if you took those sound effects and HD remasters of them so they didn't sound like shit any more. Yeah, it's fucking awesome, isn't it?

Voice Acting: 3/4
Music: 3/4
Sound Effects: 2/2

CHARACTERS: 4.5/10

Like I said before, this ain't something like that pussy "complex and human characters." You want that, go watch something by Shinkai Makoto or some shit. We only got three half-hour episodes to work with and time spent on character development is time better spent smashing shit.

That said, the performances given as well as the writing manages to suck you into the characters right off the bat. That earlier excerpt about "WE ARE HELL" is the kind of shit that makes you fall out of your seat because it's more badass than you or any pussy you know will ever be. That sort of writing is all over the place in Mazinkaiser SKL, so the characters really end up feeling larger than life. Because they ARE larger than life. They're FUCKING HELL, after all.

Presence: 2/2
Personality: 0.5/2
Complexity: 0.5/2
Memorability: 1/2
Development: 0/1
Pathos: 0.5/1

THE Most Metal Image You Will Ever See

Okay, I think that's enough swearing for this review. I don't exactly have the most colorful repertoire of curses, and mixing in foul-mouthed sailor speak with my normal style is just bizarre. When it comes to spectacle, Mazinkaiser SKL has all that. It's not a fucking music video, but you could easily make it into one. Like I mentioned before throughout this review, they know exactly what they want to do with the time and money they had and that's blow your balls off with complete awesomeness, nothing more and nothing less. Is it something that is a must-watch? Not by any means. Am I glad I saw it? Oh yeah. Oh hell yeah!

FINAL JUDGMENT : 7/10

Pros:
+ AWESOME.

Cons:
- Not the most ambitious writing.

Recommended Watch List:
- Anything by Studio BONES
Pretty much everything I've seen from BONES has absolutely beautiful animation that looks rather similar in style (I think it's the coloring) to Mazinkaiser SKL.
- NEEDLESS
Both are METAL AS HELL 24/7 and full of larger-than-life personalities.
- Super Robot Wars Original Generation: The Inspector
Like Mazinkaiser SKL, SRWOG:Ins offers hyperbolic violence that you can watch again and again, with a lot of treats for oldschool mecha fans.