This resulted in a new design in Super Robot Wars F Final that had been augmented through the use of Getter Rays from Getter Robo to create the bat-like and very impressive-looking Mazinkaiser.
Naturally, fans loved this, and an anime OVA series was announced a few years later.
This OVA tries to retroactively canonize the Mazinkaiser mecha into the plot of Mazinger Z from the 70s. As such, this OVA can be watched without having seen any of the prior anime or read any of the manga.
This is not to say that you won't get more out of this OVA if you have watched the older anime and read the original manga, but it's not essential.
The reason for this is that Mazinkaiser, in this version of the story, was the creation of Koji Kabuto's not-at-all-sane grandfather, Juzo Kabuto. He made the Mazinkaiser in secret as the ultimate manifestation of Mazinger.
This kind of mid-season upgrade was sort of a staple for Sunrise mecha anime, so this sort of follows a similar line of reasoning; in that once Kouji faces a seemingly insurmountable enemy—which he does at the start of the OVA—and his Mazinger Z is irreparably damaged, his pilder they auto-flies over to where the Mazinkaiser is secretly stored.
Except, Mazinkaiser is a beast of a super robot, and overwhelms Koji initially, having him become a temporary, albeit unwilling, villain.
All of this resolves quickly, and over the course of seven episodes, we end up with a nice showdown against Dr. Hell and his army of Mecha Beasts, with Koji and Tetsuya taking multiple names in the Mazinkaiser and Great Mazinger, respectively.
For the period, it's a fun and very nicely animated OVA. It keeps the tone of the 70s shows and movies but gives it a modern styled facelift. The characters still look very classic though, and that's how it should be.
While the Mazinkaiser OVA tends to get overshadowed by other super robot anime of the era, such as Giant Robo and Getter Robo Armageddon, to name a few, it's still a solid series in its own right. It also spawned a follow-on movie, which I will also cover at some point soon.
Naturally, the video and audio quality are great on this Blu-ray release, but a remaster of the visuals wouldn't go amiss. However, the transfer here is from the Japanese Blu-ray, which is quite old now (circa 2012). Like other Discotek releases, there aren't any real extras to speak of, but that's fine considering how affordable this release is.
Overall, the Mazinkaiser OVA is a fun super robot anime that gives its titular mecha a narrative validation outside of Super Robot Wars. It also has some great action scenes too, but this is definitely more for fans of Mazinger Z and Super Robot Wars, which is no bad thing, as there are definitely plenty of those.
This Mazinkaiser OVA is available on the Crunchyroll online store for $31.96.