Mazinger Z (マジンガーZ Majingā Zetto) is a classic and extremely influential and popular giant super robot manga that ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1972 until 1973. The series was created by Nagai Gou (Kiyoshi Nagai).
The story tells the adventures of Kabuto Kouji, the young brave pilot of Mazinger Z, a powerful mecha with super powers that fights against evil hostile giant robots called "mechanical beasts".
Due to its popularity the original manga was turned into a 92 episode anime that debuted also in late 1972 and ended in 1974. It has spawned several notable sequels and spinoff series, among them UFO Robo Grendizer, Mazinkaiser, and Robot Girls Z.
Mazinger Z was broadcast in several countries and became very famous worldwide. Its fame in some European countries was such that even a giant statue of the titular robot was erected in the province of Tarragona, Spain, in the year 1979.
It was also a very popular anime in Mexico during the 1980s, where it was dubbed into Spanish directly from the Japanese version, keeping all the original Japanese character names intact and broadcasting all the complete 92 episodes, unlike the version later aired in the U.S. (which was called Tranzor Z and was not very popular due to its severe censorship and many absent episodes).
