One thing you can rely on Mizuno to make is forged blades that not only perform, but also look beautiful and this year's poster boy is the MP-5.
Now I would call this a blade, but apparently it is a 'Channel Back' iron because there is a slight channel between the thicker top line and the muscle back on the rear of the club.
Either way it does look great and, as you would expect, this is aimed at your better player. The shape is based on the previous MP-64 and you can see the similarity in the shape of the muscle back.
The head size is also the same, but there the similarity ends as the perimiter weighting of the MP-64 gives a meatier feel than the more blade style MP-5.
However that is OK as the blade imposter MP-5 gives a much sharper feel, which better players will prefer and is probably closer to the more traditional MP-4 blade in this respect.
The forgiveness is pretty good for this style of iron and certainly a little more than the MP-4, so skilled low handicap amateurs could find the MP-5 offers a little more margin for error, whilst still offering a high degree of shot making.
The feel from the 1025E Grain Flow Forged Pure Select Mild Carbon Steel is fantastic, when you middle it of course, and I particularly love the 46° wedge for shots around the green.
This continued right through the set, with each club offering a small amount of forgiveness combined with the ability to shape shots and even the 4-iron was pretty easy to hit for a blade.
However what really appealed to me was the excellent flow of the set as each iron complemented each other, providing the same level of feel, forgiveness and performance and that is a trick not many sets manage these days.
Before you all go out and start ordering these psuedo blades, please remember these are skilled clubs for very low handicappers who like to work the ball on demand. To be honest, for most amateurs there really is no need for blade style clubs these days, as Mizuno make some very good forged cavity backs that combine feel with more forgiveness, such as the MP-25 or the excellent Mizuno JPX850 Forged irons.
However, I am glad they still make irons like the MP-5 because really there is still nothing that feels as good on the course as nailing a blade and on top of that they are beautiful to look at.
So if you can't play with them, then put them up on your bedroom wall.