One of the original Japanese super robot franchises that started the entire mecha craze in Japan, "Mazinger Z," is now set to grace the silver screens in a brand new full-length feature film adaptation. Fans of the original manga and anime series, which aired back in 1972, will undoubtedly be quite excited to see their favorite robot come to life after more than 45 years.

As mentioned, the series itself will officially be celebrating its 45th year anniversary this year. In what seems to be an effort to commemorate the event, Toei Animations had revealed its plans for producing a movie adaptation of the original series. The announcement itself was made through a press statement in Japan, via Crunchy Roll, where the company also laid out some details about their upcoming new project.

The movie was revealed to have the temporary title, "Gekijouban Mazinger Z", or "Mazinger Z The Movie," when translated into English. Along with the announcement, Toei Animations also launched a brand new website, which will likely become the go-to place for any new updates and announcement regarding the movie. Additionally, Toei Animations also announced to fans that they will be present during the upcoming 2017 AnimeJapan event in Tokyo on March 26, where they will be revealing more details about the upcoming movie.

The "Mazinger Z" franchise has been a massive influence in Japanese pop culture since it was first released. The original manga series even became so popular that an animated series was immediately released within the same year. The anime was comprised of 92 episodes, which aired from 1972 to 1974 in Japan.

The series also pioneered some of the features of mecha and robot anime and manga that is still being used in different franchises today. Renowned director, Guillermo Del Toro, even mentioned on a Japanese TV show that the anime, which was extremely popular in Mexico during the 1980s, was a big influence on his previously released movie, "Pacific Rim."