Of course Xiao Ran knew Mazinger Z, one of the recurring characters in the Super Robot Wars series. There were winged Mazingers and wingless Mazingers, Mazingers piloted by Kouji Kabuto and Mazingers piloted by Tetsuya—what a joke—and things like Mazinger Kaiser and Mazinger ZERO, all of which Xiao Ran at least knew about.
But knowing about them did not mean he fully understood them. Although Xiao Ran had a general impression and awareness of many works that were rather old by his standards, and they often appeared in games, that did not mean he had actually watched all those works with their dated visuals and committed them to memory.
Perhaps in Xiao Ran's original world, he would have watched those works out of interest and curiosity. But because of their age, the poor image quality was simply unbearable. Fast-forwarding through them, skipping around, watching the ending directly, and looking up plot summaries were probably Xiao Ran's standard approach to most older works.
Even when newer versions of those old series appeared, Xiao Ran had only watched the newer versions. Thus, his understanding of many machines amounted only to knowing the rough plot and having a vague grasp of them. More often, he had encountered those machines through games, knowing what kinds of enemies would appear in Mazinger's story, roughly where the plot would go, and what the upgraded machines were about.
Mazinger ZERO happened to be among Xiao Ran's memories. Although those memories consisted only of images and some information, Mazinger ZERO was absolutely something akin to Getter Emperor in his mind. In short, it represented terror and invincibility—a being that could probably take on an entire world alone and destroy that whole world.
From Mazinger's current state, Xiao Ran thought of the terrifying Mazinger ZERO. He froze for a