Quote Originally Posted by Ossian View Post
Just saw the first episode of Shin Mazinger Shogeki! Z Hen. I get it, sometimes "in medias res" is cool. Maybe the author went a bit overboard with the concept though. Even for non linear japanese narrative style where much is left unsaid, unexplained, or plain contradictory and one just has to suck it up, this must be the most confusing beginning of a series I have ever seen. Maybe it s the transaltion....
No, it's meant to be confusing. It's more or less a preview of the end of the series. If you've watched Gurren-Lagann, remember the first five minutes of that? That's what the entire first episode of Shin Mazinger (and part of the second) is. Presumably it's expanded to episode length to show off how much of the mythos the series is drawing from for the sake of old fans, but more likely it's because Imagawa is not a very good storyteller.