Giant robot lovers rejoice!
After a steady diet of nothing, Japan is finally knee deep in a slew of new mecha shows! And all of them are either ambitious new projects or long-awaited sequels/remakes. However, before you get crazily indecisive about which ones to pledge your allegiance to, let me save you the time and give you a heads up about some shows that you should really be watching once they arrive in the US ... and what you should avoid like a group of rabid weasels foaming at the mouth.
Reideen
Hyped up to be the remake to end all remakes, this Production I.G title marks the second attempt to rehash the classic 1976 Sunrise anime series helmed by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Tadao Nagahama (who would later direct all three titles in the Romantic Robot Trilogy ... a must-see if you’re a fan of the genre). And it comes complete with a spiffy new spelling of the titular mecha: Reideen = new series; Raideen = old series. Please make a note of it!
The first remake attempt, 1996-97’s Chouja Raideen (aka Reideen the Superior), just sorta cashed in on the pretty boys in anime craze and focused on the God Bird aspect (i.e, all the members could turn into flashy techno armor things that could in turn change into a variation of the original Raideen’s God Bird). Sadly, the only people I know who even like this series call it a guilty pleasure or just outright loathe it entirely. Ironically, if there were ever a gateway drug anime to get those stubborn fangirls into the mecha genre, this would be it.
The second attempt is what we’ve got now on Japanese TV. Here’s the best way to describe it.
FRIEND: Did you see the new Raideen!?
ME: I thought I did
FRIEND: Oh? What do you mean?
ME: Yeah, it said it was Reideen but it was really an episode of Rahxephon …
How is it that I can mistake this remake for a show that by all means should be considered a remake of the same show that is being remade in the first place? (Still with me after that?) Here’s how it works. Rahxephon and Reideen are both from the post-Evangelion age of mecha shows where everything has to be darker and more serious, no matter what. Rahxephon was already a hop, step, and a jump away from being declared an official remake of Raideen, so much so that even the director of the series himself stated in an interview that he meant to make it a modern-day version of the original. However, and here’s the thing about it, while Rahxephon was accused of being a ripoff of Evangelion but was able to prove that it was anything but, Reideen could be accused of being ripped from the former AND Evangelion.
The first episodes of the show basically feel like something of the post-Eva era so they attempt to focus on the plot and characters but in this case, it’s really drawn out. The initial episode is all about Akira getting into the cockpit and they throw all these things at you to build
up anticipation. All it did for me was make me keep reaching for that fast forward button.
However, the pacing and attempts to be RahXephon alone aren’t the main reasons I can’t stomach this remake. It isn’t the animation which, I’ll admit, is gorgeous to look at, otherwise making up for everything else. It isn’t the CG either as it doesn’t lag like most anime out there that try to merge 2-D and 3-D, making one suffer because of the other. Oh no, my real gripe with the show: the mecha itself.
No, it’s the fact that our hero has to strip down to use it. It’s that the mecha fights are sooooooo freeeeeaaaaaakiiiiing sloooooow.
An example: During a viewing of the first episode, I had to run out of the room to answer the phone but I left the episode running. When I came back, Reideen was still trying to swing the same punch. Literally, he had only moved 3 inches between the time I left to have a conversation on the phone and the time I got back. I understand you want real-time physics and all that but ... goddamn!
It apparently does get better, according to some people, but I’ve already tuned out long enough to not even care. Otherwise, just get Rahxephon as it’s essentially the same thing … only with an actual pace. Or just watch the original Raideen series, which has really awesome animation for its time and two of the best anime directors of our time were involved. How can you go wrong with that?
Koutetsushin Jeeg
Now why the hell can’t all remakes be more like this?!
Seriously! This is the show that has everything! A hook-filled first episode, all the references back to the original series you could want (minus all the mysterious pussyfooting around that everybody does nowadays), great animation, and a JAM PROJECT theme song featuring the return of legendary Super Robot crooner Ichiro Mizuki!
Set 50 years after the end of the original 1975 series, an ominous cloud surrounds the area around Kyushu, apparently created by Jeeg himself in a final battle with the Queen Himika of the Yamatai Kingdom in an attempt to seal their powers from within. Now the cloud dissipates and Himika’s powers are on the loose! It’s up to Kenji Kusanagi, complete with new Jeeg mecha, and the team from Shin Build Base to stop them.
Now the reason I sound so excited when writing this is because, literally, this is the Super Robot show fans like me have been waiting for. It truly does feel like a Go Nagai series—and in this post-Eva age of mecha where everything is usually so bleak. It’s nice to see shows like this come around every so often (i.e., GaoGaiGar, Godannar, Gaiking: Legend of Daiku Maryu) that really bring the fun back.
GR: Giant Robo
I missed the first episode when it was being offered for free online but I managed to see the teaser trailer. Really kick-ass animation and the CG looks to match the awesomeness. Sure I’ll still have a soft spot in my heart for Yasuhiro Imagawa’s legendary original Giant Robo OVA series (y’know, the one that we all wish he’d make an actual conclusion to,PLEEEEEAAASE?!) but hopefully this one doesn’t fail to live up to the hype.
Dancougar Nova
I remember how excited I was when I first got word about Dancougar Nova after the 2007 Tokyo Anime Fair. Masami Ohbari was directing and doing mecha designs, Yao Kazuki was set to come back as Shinobu. What could possibly go wrong?
The series is set after the events of the series and the OVA, God Bless Dancougar, and it appears the CBF has been reformed, Shinobu is in charge, under the alias F.S, and they select four new pilots to face off against a new threat. Sounds decent, right? Nope. The premise revolves around wars breaking out all over the world, so the threats this time are now just small-scale armies. Nothing is any match for the team!
Now I know that the series was partially conceived as a parody of the Super Robot genre, so maybe the director is making fun of himself as you will, but I really didn’t catch onto that until say, maybe the fifth episode … by which point I finally tuned out.
Sucks to say it, but even with a kick-ass theme song and interesting mecha designs, Dancougar Nova bored me to tears … literally … as I was expecting so much more from what seemed to be a long-awaited project.
Armored Trooper Votoms: Peruzen Files
Yep. That’s right. A new freakin’ Votoms OVA series. And from the sound of the title, we’re either getting a prequel about the man who commanded the infamous Red Shoulders or moody hero Chirico is going to kick some serious ass. With the original director, Ryousuke Takahashi, back at the helm after doing a great job on FLAG, I have a gut feeling pertaining to this project’s potential for sheer awesomeness.
Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagaan
This one comes from Gainax, the legendary team behind Gunbuster, Evangelion, the infamous mecha episode of Abenobashi, and the animator behind the bizarro world OVA Dead Leaves. The mention of that combo alone should send shivers down your spine ... in a good way.
You’ve got a bunch of humans living in underground cities who dig deeper and deeper day in and out to expand their cities … when not cowering in fear over earthquakes, that is.
Enter Simon, one of the city’s youngest and best “Hole Diggers.” By chance, he meets Kamina, head of the Gurren Brigade, who is determined to break through the ceiling of the city to the surface world where he claims he went once as a child with his father (who disappeared shortly afterward …). The village elder stops Kamina’s every attempt, even getting two of his fellow members to ditch the group in exchange for food but not before making an impact on Simon, who later helps him escape prison, telling him that he’s found something, a “Big Face.”
... but not before A GIANT FREAKING MECHA, known as a Ganmen, crashes through the ceiling, along with a beautiful female hunter named Yoko. Together, the three of them find the “Big Face” that Simon discovered; a small mecha, yet another Ganmen, that is later dubbed “Lagann” by Kamina. With our three protagonists crammed inside the cockpit, Lagann manages to defeat the enemy via a crazy-go-nuts drill attack and in the process burrows its way up to the surface.
Upon finding another Ganmen, Kamina commandeers it, calling it “Gurren” (see where this is going?) and faces off with Simon against the pilots of the Ganmen themselves, the “Beastmen.” Eventually, both he and Simon learn that their mecha can combine into a single entity and after a rather destructive first attempt, they both form into Gurren-Lagaan!
It’s possible the show may be dismissed as “FLCL Again,” but in reality, it’s anything but. The crazy animation style actually fits the show, the soundtrack is amazing, the mecha designs are really different from the norm (in a good way), you actually can fall in love with the characters (I’ve even found myself quoting Kamina’s hot-blooded speeches on occasion). Best of all, there hasn’t been a single moment yet where I’ve felt the urge to bash my head though a wall.
The original advertising pitch of Gurren-Lagann was to bring back a sort of old-school mecha feel. Gainax has done that and more. Let’s just hope it keeps delivering during its 26- episode run.
So there you have it, my feelings about the Year of the Mecha thus far. With more shows on the horizon, here’s hoping we get more like Jeeg and Gurren-Lagann and less like Reideen. And Dancouga Nova. Okay, so maybe A LOT more shows like Jeeg and Gurren-Lagann.
