Giant Robo: Unleashing retro mecha fury!

Over the last 10-20 years Japan has realized the substantial value of nostalgia. Astro Boy has seen all kinds of attention, most notably in TV series and complete bomb of a motion picture, Cyborg 009 went from hokey old anime to distressingly serious drama punctuated by death and despair with its reboot.

It’s difficult to express the cultural relevance of Giant Robo to the Japanese since it was a hokey live action show originally about a boy in short shorts who would summon a hideous abomination distinguished by its ugly pharoh-esque head to do battle with equally ridiculous robots.

But that's NOT entirely what is shown, in fact the deal in making the series was that one manga artist/writer would be able to fold his original characters into the Giant Robo mythos and populate the entire cast with completely original characters and integrated ones.

So I’m going to explain it this way: Imagine if Magnum P.I. were turned into a 7 episode cartoon with a ridiculous budget, a world renowned orchestra contracted to perform the ENTIRE soundtrack in an epic homage to the Hawaiian-based, private detective portrayed by Tom Selleck as he punches holes through mountains, stabs someone with his mustache, drop kicks a Godzilla into the sky, takes a catwoman to bed and hops into a spaceship to fight space crime with Cyborg Higgins.

That’s a weird image, right? Good, because that’s what the anime essentially represents in terms of its accuracy and "wtf?!" factor.

It’s retro appearance is a smokescreen to hide an epic story behind the illusion of a unique homage to a Japanese classic. Don’t get me wrong, it’s goofy as all hell when you consider the basic premise, but there’s layers to this thing which border on genius and the action doesn’t leave you wanting considering that at least 2-3 entire cities are laid to waste as a result of a few scuffles.

As an amalgamation of an artist's considerable library of characters and stories (since they couldn't use the original characters from the live action tv show) it's very similar to the franchise bridging works of CLAMP. For instance, the primary antagonist, Big Fire, is actually badass alien-inheritor psychic Babel II, complete with his giant robot, bird monster and tar-like black panther. Additionally, characters from the Romance of Three Kingdoms game series populate much of the ranks of the Experts of Justice.

Let's talk about genius for a moment though...

For instance, I owned the first VHS tape of this back in the mid nineties. It was a copy of the original US Renditions English dub, which was actually pretty damn good for that bunch of goofballs. I’m watching this thinking about how iconically goofy it looks and imagining the budget behind it when… Out of nowhere… Shit got REAL.



(Von Vogler unleashes his beautiful night in the original US Renditions dub)

I had to watch and re-watch this scene about twenty times. I didn’t even care about the rest of the series because nothing was going to top this scene! And this was just a flashback of all things! This was the epitome of anime mad science, with magnificent music permeating every inch of this snapshot in time, painting a vivid descent into madness coupled with the single best delivery in both voice and dub script for this intensely disturbing moment of horror and confusion shattering the preconceptions of this show's Mighty Mouse-ish exterior.

What. The. Hell?!

This particular moment only gets more disturbing as the series progresses because when you first see this, it makes no sense. Probably as little as it does to you right now. The event is fleshed out and explained, then re-explained as the series progresses, but this entire scene is the defining moment of the story that only becomes more crucial to understanding the characters and the world they live in. Hell, this single event practically turns the damn series in Rashomon as lies become half-truths and truths become excuses all covering a rather surprising little series of details neglected in the first taste of Bashtarle's tragedy. Furthermore, this specific english dub simply comes off as the single best representation of this scene and that probably made it a strong incentive to include this audio track alongside AnimeWorks’ new, better refined dub.

That’s not to say that the rest of the series doesn’t have its own strengths, after all there’s a pharaoh-headed robot who still needs to punch the hell out of things; Never mind all the freaky, superhuman bastards fighting over the attache case that holds the key to revisiting the horrible event in question that could destroy the world.

Giant Robo is an amazing series that simply MUST be experienced as majestically re-imagined Japanese icon and as a totally kick ass anime. It's not perfect though, even in only 7 episodes they found a consistent detriment to the epic level of cool this series wields.

It's... it's those damn kids again.

Like in Evangelion, the protagonist is an insufferable fucking whiner, but without all the likeable human complication. Watch Daisaku piss, moan, bitch, whine, cry, sob, mewl, mope and sniffle his way through 6 and a half of the 7 episodes while he keeps company with guys whose very expressions can quite literally slice through mountains, whose fingers can fire laser beams and whose fists can puncture the very heavens. While it's easy to appreciate the thoughtful contrast of a mortal fighting amongst the Gods as their ace-in-the-hole, that doesn't require him to do everything he can to bring down the rest of the show be being a less compelling character than his giant robot.

To make things completely insufferable dub-wise, Animeworks' Daisaku is the screechiest little bastard ever. He sounds like he's crying AT ALL TIMES! Even when he's happy he sounds like he's sobbing his eyes out or he's got a rabid ferret biting away in his short shorts! He makes the effeminate Professor Go look butch by comparison. I get that for the sake of accuracy he sounds like a child, but no child with a giant robot is that much of a fucking crybaby. There's laws against that kind of thing. By comparison, the original Daisaku dub wasn't remotely as annoying voice-wise.

There's also the ending. I won't spoil it, but good god... It's like a knock-knock joke that had explosive shrapnel and artificial laughter to make light of your fatal wounds as you bleed out, confused and alone.

The differences between the US Renditions (USR) dub and the Animeworks (AW) dub are like night and day. USR seemed to have a twisted, campy style that showed up in a lot of their dubs like Ambassador Magma and Macross II, be it intentional or as a result of inexperience in acting/writing. AW corrects the camp issue entirely, making it a slightly more serious affair with something called "acting".

Well, alright that's not fair because Giant Robo was probably one of the finest dubs to come out of USR (it was good enough for Manga Video when they bought the domestic rights to it because the camp feels appropriate in a retro cartoon way), but with the exception of the Tragedy of Bashtarle, the USR versions pales in every respect to the new AW english dub which feels dramatically more powerful and generally more likable than USR's.

Fortunately, since AW is precisely THAT cool, the USR English Dub was bundled in with the plethora of audio available for the entire series. Add to that the Ginrei Special OAV tossed in and you have a perfect collection that puts all previous to shame. Mine came in a typical DVD case except that it stores 4 DVDs, I was tempted to go big and get "Eye of Volger" boxed set which comes in the ominous Volger Eye though I'm sort of short on room, but that's still one of the coolest things I've ever heard of!

The BEST thing about this is that it includes the Ginrei Special, a collection of three OAVs that are all gag-filled spoofs mocking Giant Robo and other anime while casually resetting character deaths so that the entire cast is at their whimsical disposal. There's a lot of goofy sexual humor and Daisaku even switches sides at one point to work for Big Fire, or rather "Blue Flower" as they refer to them in the OAVs. As awesome as Giant Robo is on its own, to have the Ginrei Special bundled in is to have your cake AND eat it.

So find yourself a copy of the set and eat up because treats this tasty are unheard of. Anyone with the Vogler Eye please send pictures. Seriously.

Stinks like hope.

There's good news and bad news. This post is all GOOD though.

I've come across some new stuff: Kaze no Stigma (AKA Stigma of the Wind), Samurai 7, Full Metal Panic: FUMOFFU, Gankotsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo, DNA2 and some classic OAVs.

This is good news because the above stuff is pretty swanky and swanky is good. So I'll have some glowing stuff and lower amounts of venom on tap for these upcoming spiels. Currently clogging the pipe is the Catgirl Nuku Nuku franchise, or rather its two spinoff series (TV & DASH, respectively).


(US Manga Corps trailer)

Additionally, I'm trying to finish up my articles regarding Project A-ko, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Compiler and a loving look at the now-defunct Central Park Meda, AKA US Manga Corps.

There's still plenty of venom and some genuine cheer to go around and I'll have this stuff up and running soon.

Keep the faith kiddos.

Buying time

I'm behind on like 7 posts on writing... Sooooooo let's distract ourselves, shall we?

Check after the jump if you dare.

Testing something - Be wary of dangling participles

Trying to work stuff out with the new design thing.

Bear with me as I get the hang of this stuff.

Trust me, I'm a professional.