"Twelve +2" Animes I Would License -Mecha Month Edition- Part 2

I hope everyone had a fun, & filling, Thanksgiving as well as a fruitful Black Friday, because I sure as hell did.  At the end of the day I somehow was able to simply go into a store and buy a Deluxe/Black Wii U, as well as some games, and I sure had some fun with it with some friends last night.  But enough holiday talk, back to Mecha Month.  Part 1 of this "Twelve Animes" list featured mostly titles that were either real robots or at least were super robots that handled themselves more like real robots.  Well Part 2 is kind of the opposite, since most of what's here are super robots, so what other mechs would I try to bring over to North America?

Sengoku Majin GoShogun & Time Stranger
Starting off the supers is a neat reverse example of what Dancougar was, i.e. North America got one portion of the franchise, but this time we got the latter part, at least in an uncut form.  The original GoShogun aired in Japan back in 1981 and was essentially a parody of mech anime of the time, with a crew of heroes who seemed to be more interested in simply talking to each other than taking their enemy seriously, a group of villains whose goals were sometimes outright ridiculous (Kernagurl's goal was to open a fast-food restaurant chain, supposedly), and scenes that were meant to poke fun at other mech anime; one scene apparently involved the GoShogun crew finding a robot that looked like the RX-78 Gundam from the original Mobile Suit Gundam.  Apparently GoShogun itself then gave the robot sentience, followed by the robot killing itself after remembering the horrors of war.  Even though it was mixed together with Srungle to make Macron-1 here in North America I'm sure the joking nature of the original show was lost.

And then there's the 1985 movie sequel, GoShogun: The Time Étranger, which takes place 50 or so years later and is absolutely serious & dark-natured, plus the GoShogun is nowhere to be found outside of flashbacks.  Manga Entertainment originally released it on sub-only VHS in the 90s, and then CPM gave it a DVD release in 2003, complete with a brand-new New York-produced English dub, simply calling it Time Stranger.  If Justin Sevakis is any indication there are people who are really curious about watching the original 26-episode TV series after watching the movie, and I'd release the entire show, with the dual-audio movie, in one boxset.

GR -Giant Robo-
This title first appeared in my list of animes I'd love to review but can't at the moment, and it's kind of sad to see that a relatively recent remake (it debuted in 2007) has been ignored, partially because it's not related to a well-loved title of the same name.  The Giant Robo OVA is a fun ride of an anime to watch, and I'm sure that the recent Blu-Ray release looks amazing, but at the same time I am really interested in seeing something more in line with what Mitsuteru Yokoyama created.  That's what GR -Giant Robo- was meant to do, especially since it was created to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Giant Robo's creation.  It's annoying to see, honestly, any sort of recent anime go by unnoticed and uncared about, and that's honestly a big part of the idea behind what I'd license in general: The stuff that deserves a fair shot, or a fair second try.  Even though the Robo OVA is a popular title I'd likely just stick with a sub-only boxset when it comes to GR.

Giant Gorg
Really, there's no way I could go after SPT Layzner and not give it's fellow Sunrise Classic Action never-was a chance.  Much like Layzner Gorg was fully subtitled as well during it's time with Bandai, this time by Dave Flemming, and there's a chance that Flemming himself still has the translation with him.  With a fun, grand adventure style to it, plus a little bit of Tetsujin 28th & 60s Batman mixed in, Giant Gorg would be a title I'd be willing to risk losing slightly less money on.  Much like with Layzner I'd pay Flemming what he was owed if he wasn't paid by Bandai and then release the show sub-only, probably in one, 26-episode set.

The J9 Series (Ginga Reppuu Braiger, Ginga Senpuu Baxinger, & Ginga Shippuu Sasuraiger)
Now here's where I outright break my usual "twelve" anime idea, since while I had multiple entires before in this list (B't X, Dancougar, & GoShogun), those cases at least featured the whole idea of "sequel/continuation", but the J9 Series, though technically taking place after each other, have only tenuous ties between them storywise.  But who cares, because all three shows really have to be treated together...  It's either all of them or none of them, in my mind.  Whether it's Braiger's merciless, though entertaining, J9, Baxinger's intergalactic ronins of J9-II, or Sasuraiger's galaxy-traveling quartet called JJ9 this series is only recently starting to get more recognition & appreciation, since Braiger is fully fansubbed.  But to only have one-third of the series subbed isn't enough, and I'd do the ambitious idea of having all 121 episodes (Braiger's 39, Baxinger's 39, & Sasuraiger's 43) brought over to North America on sub-only DVD.  Each show would likely be released across two or three sets, and maybe I'd even offer an artbox to hold all 6-9 sets, much like that awesome artbox release Japan received in 2009 (pictured above).

Next Senki Ehrgeiz
Yeah, it's yet another case of a license rescue entry appearing on this type of list, but Ehrgeiz is just a title I can't help but enjoy & want to support.  Even though it hasn't had a DVD release in Japan I'd still go for it, though I will admit that I'd try to get this as part of a package deal with d-rights; I'd likely package it with the Eat-Man animes, since I already would want to license those, too.  I can understand how some people don't enjoy this show, but I will always put my support towards Ehrgeiz.  I'd make this a semi-dual-audio release (i.e. include the dub for the first two episodes that was made), and I'd even try to get as many of the extras that the lserdisc release had in Japan, namely the six "My Favorite Battle of MV" video shorts, which compile director Toshifumi Kawase's favorite battle scenes in the series, as well as an image gallery featuring the posters each LD came with as well as the info sheets that are on the other side of each poster.  These info sheets feature production sketches as well as short Q&As with the production crew, and it's really cool to see that, even though it is such an obscure title nowadays even in its home country, Ehrgeiz was still at one point a new anime and had all of these neat extras that came with it.  Some might call it putting too much focus on a minimal release, and I would try to do this release as cheap as I could realistically do, but if there's extras like that then they deserve to be on the DVD release.

Armored Trooper VOTOMS
All right, now I called doing the J9 Series ambitious...  But I honestly would consider this ambitious.  In fact, I consider releasing VOTOMS so ambitious that right now I'd just try to do the TV series, much like what CPM did.  VOTOMS is not just the story of Chirico Cuvie and his adventure from planet to planet as he's being hunted down by the army he once fought for, but rather it's essentially the life story of the man, from his early days in the army to his later years, with the TV series being only a large portion of the overall thing.  Out of all of Ryosuke Takahashi's creations VOTOMS is, by far, his magnum opus, with new productions even being made as recently as 2010.  But, to start, I'd give the TV series the license rescue it desperately needs (if you want the last story arc at a fair price & with good release...  Good luck), probably trying to add in whatever little extras I could include, like maybe the one episode CPM had dubbed simply for the fun of it.  If the sales for the TV series were good enough then I'd start to dig myself deeper into releasing more VOTOMS, because there's plenty to still do, like Roots of Ambition/Treachery, The Last Red Shoulder, Big Battle, The Heretic Saint, Phantom Arc, Pailsen Files, & even spin-off Armor Hunter Mellowlink, which is about a man who destroys small mechs with only a giant gun...  No mech of his own.

Shin Mazinger Impact! Z Chapter
Might as well, as the saying goes, "save the best for last" and go into outright craziness with Shin Mazinger.  Yasuhiro Imagawa's 2009 reboot of Go Nagai's legendary Mazinger is an absolute fan favorite of mecha fans, but unfortunately wasn't that much of a seller in Japan.  In fact, even with a BD release the show sold apparently so poorly that the studio that animated it, Bee Media, went out of business after the show finished, making the chances of a much hoped for sequel, which would have likely been called Great Chapter, very unlikely.  Still, with such a well-loved title in existence it would simply be disrespectful to not give this title a try in the licensing field, and maybe a company might.  A few months ago someone asked NIS America at one of their con panels if they would do Shin Mazinger, since they have relations with Dynamic Pro via Demon Prince Enma Burning Up!; NISA's response was that they weren't even sure if they could license Shin Mazinger, followed by a quick quip that someone else might have licensed it.  Now, this isn't anything absolutely positive in terms of a response, but one can only hope that Shin Mazinger is truly being given a chance over here one day.  If not, then I'd give it that chance, across one or two sets...  And maybe a dub if I was feeling crazy enough.

And that's the end of this "Twelve Animes" list.  There is a "ton" of mech anime out there, though that saying doesn't work out well here, since one giant mech alone is likely weighing in at over one ton.  Anyway, with such a niche-laden focus I've given this license list I'm sure that my company likely wouldn't survive this onslaught of titles, though I'm sure the fans would appreciate the thought & line-up.  But, who knows, with a genre that can survive on things like courage & hot-blooded yelling maybe if I believe enough I can keep on going...  Maybe.

"Twelve +2" Animes I Would License -Mecha Month Edition- Part 1

My absolutely made-up, 150% non-existent anime licensing company has now, hypothetically, survived an onslaught of licenses including the likes of Ring ni Kakero 1, Akagi, Mononoke, YamiBou, Air Master, Slam Dunk, and even Zaizen Jotaro...  So why not continue this journey into absurdity?  At least I'm honest in that every title I list I would honestly consider licensing, so I'm not just tossing random things out.  Anyway, the last two lists of this type has had mech anime in them (List 1 featured the likes of Bokurano & List 2 had Gaiking [2005]), but this time the list will be nothing but mech anime!  So let's not waste anymore time and get straight into a list than can, possibly, crush the competition under the sheer weight of these giant robots...  Don't like my pun?  Too bad.

I've used so many B't X covers that I'm down to the OSTs

B't X & B't X Neo
All right, so this isn't exactly a "mech anime", but I wouldn't count Tekkaman Blade or Detonator Orgun as that either, yet those two have appeared in SRW titles...  So there.  Anyway, I tend to try to avoid listing stuff that I already put in my license rescue lists, but much like how the Eat-Man animes appeared in both types of lists I really do feel that B't X deserves more attention.  Sure, Saint Seiya & Ring ni Kakero 1 both surpass it, but that doesn't mean that B't X is bad or simply average by any means.  Masami Kurumada's crazy action-oriented style just meshes well with mechanical beasts of destruction, and Illumitoon's aborted attempt at a release, combined with the fact that they couldn't even fully dub the original TV series, just stings & annoys me to no end, especially since this was my first Kurumada series, so there's some sense of nostalgia there, too.  I'd either release it across three sets (split 14/11/13 so that all of the dubbed episodes can be on one set, also making that set dual-audio) or maybe even just two sets, with the TV series set being dual-audio for the first half only.

Metal Armor Dragonar
This series is one of those truly underrated mech animes, and the seeming curse it has on it so that fansubs can't go beyond five episodes certainly doesn't help.  I had Dragonar on my Top 3 80s anime list when it was read on ANNCast's Revenge of the 80s show, and even Daryl Surat of AWO wondered why I listed it over any Gundam of that decade.  Well, to put it simply, Dragonar had the advantage of coming after the very serious Zeta Gundam & the mostly comical Gundam ZZ, both of which have its detractors.  Because of that Sunrise was able to give Dragonar an excellent mix of seriousness & comedy that really worked in its favor.  Sure, the show is essentially, as I put in my review, "Gundam without Gundams", but that's not a knock against it in any way.  As for how I'd release it, even though the original R2 DVD release included a booklet I'd probably just give it a simple sub-only release, likely across two or three sets.  At least then it would have the proper English translation that I feel it always deserved.

Makyou Densetsu Acrobunch
I'll be honest here and say that I was actually planning on watching Acrobunch this week & reviewing it for Mecha Month...  But I found some indication that there is a new fansub group out there that plans on subbing this show, so I decided to hold off on seeing this show and hope that it can be fully subbed.  Still, with a concept like the one this show has ("Indiana Jones with a giant, combining robot") it's hard to continually hold off on watching this show, even raw.  Pioneer Japan gave the show a nice release, first the boxset release you see above followed by a singles release.  I'd love to give it a release like that, complete with that booklet, but this would likely be another simple-yet-deserving sub-only release.  Hopefully Enoki Films USA is still surviving on its seemingly sole employee (Mr. Yoshi Enoki himself), because he'd have an interested party in me...  Yeah, not exactly helpful for the man right now, but at least the thought is there.

Blue Comet SPT Layzner
Here's a title that really got shafted, what with it being licensed by Bandai Entertainment back 10 years ago or so, only to never get released, though the translation work was apparently fully completed and, according to Mike Toole, is likely still with Neil Nadelman himself.  With Bandai Entertainment now a non-factor in the industry, plus the 10 years that have passed since the R2 DVD release, I would hope that Sunrise would be more willing to hand over actual good-quality masters so that this title can finally start its never-happened release.  I would pay Nadelman the money he was owed by Bandai, if he was never payed for the translation in the first place, and then release Layzner across two or three sub-only sets.  And, yes, I would also license the three OVAs that came out after the TV series was canceled and include them in the release.  The story is essentially unfinished without that last OVA, afterall.

Dancougar - Super Bestial Machine God
Yeah, it's another one of those titles that was on a license rescue list, but at the same time this just deserves a re-release.  Dancougar (or Dancouga, if you prefer) is just such an interesting title to watch, and in North America it's mostly a relic of the VHS era nowadays.  I mentioned the issues with CPM's old release back in the first license rescue list, but I'll give a quick recap: Cramming five episodes on each VHS tape resulted in episode previews being cut from all but every fifth episode, at least 60% of the episodes featured the wrong opening & ending themes (and only one VHS, in the middle, had the first OP & ED!), and the Requiem for Victims OVA had all of the recap footage cut out so that it could act as a 39th, & final, episode.  Still, at least there are subs to go off of because of that release, & Western Connection's UK release of God Bless Dancougar gives that OVA some (extremely rough) subs as well, which essentially leaves only the Blazing Epilgoue OVA series & Jyusenki-tai Songs OVA left to sub.  Plus, the show received a Blu-Ray release in Japan which likely looks amazing since this was all hand-animated on cels; sure, it likely also makes any & all errors blatantly obvious, but to some that's part of the appeal.

I know that John Sirabella & Media Blasters will never do Dancougar due to Sirabella's hatred of it from working on the first half of CPM's release, but I would certainly release it.  Sure, it would be sub-only, likely two or three sets, but if BD production costs would go down enough I would give it a BD release as well.  But, hey, at least the DVDs would also look great, right?  Also, I would make sure that the version of God Bless Dancougar I get is not what WC got; I can't find the site I saw those pics at, but essentially WC's release featured uncropped video, so you could see exactly where the cels ended & the backgrounds continued.  Needless to say it looked horrible, and I would make sure that it wouldn't happen on my release.

After War Gundam X
Many fans are lamenting the fact that with Bandai Entertainment's going away the future of the Gundam franchise here in North America is in question.  There's no doubt that we'll still be getting releases of newer properties in some way sooner or later, but what of the older stuff?  Turn-A Gundam was already taken away from us before we could even get it, so what about Gundam ZZ?  What about Victory Gundam?  What about Gundam X?  Well, if I was able to get just one Gundam series it would be X, which is yet another underrated mech anime.  Unlike most Gundam series, GX is about what happens after a devastating war ends, and how people live their lives in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.  Tossing in a fun & neat way at explaining the idea of Newtypes and even being able to tell a satisfying ending when faced with cancelation, the first time since the original Gundam aired, Gundam X is my personal favorite entry in the franchise, and I would absolutely give it a release.  Now, yes, Gundam tended to receive a dub, usually Ocean-produced, but even Bandai realized that Turn-A had to be sub-only when they were planning the release, so I'd have to go sub-only for Gundam X.  Plus, if you've heard how Ocean casted Garrod in Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 then you probably wouldn't want a dub, either.

Megas XLR
Am I cheating?  Yeah, sure, whatever you say...  But, damn it, this is Mecha Month and it would seem silly if I didn't bring up the ultimate American-made love-letter to mech anime & simply anime in general: Megas XLR.  Reveling in the absurd & then turning it all up to 11, the creators of Megas, Jody Schaeffer & George Krstic, both made fun of and celebrated anime as many fans know it, or at least knew it, as.  From a future filled with war in space to a super-hero group that looks like Gatchaman but has a Voltron/GoLion-esque giant robot to an absolutely blatant Captain Harlock parody, Megas XLR was amazingly funny and entertaining.  Really, Cartoon Network didn't really know what they had with this show, and the fact there still isn't a DVD release shows; sure, you can get it digitally over at Xbox Live & iTunes, but it's just not the same.  If there was any way that I could get Time Warner (the company that owns Turner Broadcasting, which in turn owns Cartoon Network) to let me release Megas I would do so in a heartbeat and give it the best possible release I could do.  All 26 episodes, the original Lowbrow pilot, a retrospective on the series, cast & crew commentary featuring Schaeffer, Krstic, & even voice actors David DeLuise (Coop), Wendee Lee (Kiva), Steven Blum (Jamie)...  I know that this show would sell well enough to make this kind of effort worth it.

And there's Part 1 of this special Mecha Month edition of the good-old "12 Animes" list...  Wait, did I put a "+2" in the title?  Why yes I did, and if you didn't notice I had seven entries in this half, and I guarantee that Part 2 won't disappoint.  You want a hint?  Well, there's two reboots (one highly-loved, the other obscure), some more license rescues, & a three-in-one...  Come on, at this point you should know that I don't know the definition of the number twelve.

Super Robot Wars GC & XO: Texas Mack Makes Everything Better... EVERYTHING!

What other way to celebrate Mecha Month than to get Super Robot Wars involved, right?  I haven't done a game review since Ring ni Kakero on the Super Famicom back in June of last year, and the last SRW review was Compact 3 back in February of last year.  Compact 3 was a perfect SRW entry to review on this blog, due to its absolutely obscure series additions, like Acrobunch, Mechander Robo, & Betterman.  Well, this review isn't too much different, but the twist is that I'm going to be talking about two games!  But, unlike when I did the TwinBee "Double Feature", this is only counting for one review, because these games are essentially the same exact thing, only the second one is a HD version of the first.  Welcome to Super Robot Wars GC & XO.

Excuse the lesser quality of the XO title screen; it was the best I could find.

SRW GC was released in Japan back in December of 2004, and was a GameCube-exclusive entry in the series (obviously).  It did a number of things differently, with the biggest one being the use of 3D models instead of the usual 2D sprites; the last time SRW went 3D was SRW Alpha for Dreamcast.  Two years later, in November of 2006, the game was remade into HD & given online multiplayer with SRW XO.  GC/XO was made with a focus: To celebrate mech anime of the 80s, and that's obvious from the line-up:
-Blue Comet SPT Layzner
-Dancougar - Super Bestial Machine God
-Heavy Metal L-Gaim
-Ginga Senpuu Braiger
-Ginga Reppuu Baxinger
-Ginga Shippuu Sasuraiger
-Mazinkaiser (OVA)
-Metal Armor Dragonar
-Mirai Robo Daltanious
-Mobile Suit Gundam
-Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team
-Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket
-Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
-Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ
-Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack
-Saikyo Robo Daiohja
-Shin Getter Robo vs. Neo Getter Robo
-Muteki Robo Trider G7
-Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh

The line-up here is similarly obscure to what was offered in Compact 3, with most of the entries making only their second or third appearance (Dragonar, Daltanious, Layzner, Shin vs. Neo), their first appearance since the original "Classic" series (L-Gaim, the original Gundam), making their first appearance (Mazinkaiser, Raijin-Oh), or even making their only appearance in the series (Baxinger, Sasuraiger, Daiohja).  The entire line-up just screams 80s (Gundam debuted in late-79, so it's essentially an 80s show), and the non-80s entires (Mazinkaiser, Shin vs. Neo, Raijin-Oh) at least maintain that similar feel. Regardless, this is definitely one of the more original line-ups in SRW history, and that helps in making a recommendation if you want to play a SRW title with a more eclectic line-up.  But, anyway, is there any meat to this game, i.e. story, gameplay, visual "oomph"?

GC/XO's original story stars Akimi Akatsuki (you're choice of male or female), who gets involved with a battle with a group called Guardisword, lead by the evil Helruga.  Akimi pilots his/her giant robot (real robot Soul Gunner -> Soul Lancer or super robot Soul Saber -> Super Soul Saber) alongside Fairy Firefly, a former member of Guardisword who defected from the group and took with her the mysterious power source CUBE (renamed XENON in XO).  Fighting on Guardisword's side are Sieg & Sally, two of Akimi's childhood friends, as well as the mysterious Regianne Josephine, a woman who seemingly only loves battle.  The story itself may not have the instantly cool style that Compact 3's Fist of the North Star-inspired Shura had, but GC/XO definitely has interesting characters & mechs, and that's what counts in the end.  Both Soul Gunner/Lancer & Soul Saber aren't exactly the most-detailed or intricately designed creations in SRW, but they still look really nice, and that's certainly helped by the fact that mech design legend Kunio Okawara created them.

As for how the anime series are utilized, GC/XO actually uses almost all of them to a certain extent, which is great.  Across the 59 stages in the game, the first 20 focus on the first half or so of the original Gundam, mixing in Dragonar's story with it, while mixing 0080 & 08th MS Team into the One Year War, with Trider G7, Raijin-Oh, Daltanious, Dancougar, Braiger, & Shin Getter vs. Neo Getter getting introduced & included as playable units.  After those first 20 stages the gang gets teleported to another galaxy, where L-Gaim, Baxinger, Sasuraiger, & Daiohja are introduced.  After about another eight or so stages the gang teleports back to Earth, along with their new friends, only to see that the One Year War has been altered slightly so that Zeta Gundam & Gundam ZZ fit into the story (i.e. Char becomes Quatro & Lalah is still alive, but Amuro is still a kid & White Base is still a viable battleship).  Along with that Layzner gets introduced & Mazinkaiser goes into full-steam, after making occasional pre-story appearances in the beginning.  From there everything continues on, and it actually makes for an interesting storyline overall, though Char's Counterattack is only there for Nu Gundam (piloted by young Amuro), Sazabi (piloted by Quatro), & Beyond the Time.

Fighting in the early Gundam battles, like Jaburo, with mechs like Neo Getter Robo is a neat concept, and the second half of the story has the really cool mix of some evil groups teaming up while others battle for territory.  But that's not all, as mixed in with the 59 stages are 20 "sub-scenarios", which are available after finishing certain stages, that add more story & battles, effectively making the game 79 stages long.  These sub-scenarios are definitely worth playing, as they tend to have secret units, pilots, & even attacks in them, and, as long as you don't start the next main stage, sub-scenarios can be played over and over in order to gain more experience & money.  While that might sound like it breaks the game by allowing players to "farm" stages, I'm pretty sure that each repeat play is harder than the last.

The gameplay is your usual SRW title, so it's based around moving your units around on a grid-based movement system, one at a time, and fighting in your usual strategy RPG form.  The biggest change in GC/XO comes from a battle system that's exclusive to these games: A multi-health meter system.  In your usual SRW title a unit has a simple health meter and when that's fully depleted the unit is destroyed, but in GC/XO there are now four health meters: Body, Head, Arms, & Legs (some units, like Big Zam, don't have a Head or Arms meter).  This multi-health meter system has two purposes, with the primary one being that damaging a tertiary meter enough actually affects the unit that it happens to: Losing the head reduces aim accuracy, losing the arms removes most attacks from use (though some attacks do use the head), and losing the legs reduces movement down to one square (four if you use the "Accel" seishin, which adds +3 to movement for one turn); please note that losing a body part does not result in any actual visible damage to the unit, outside of smoke & some sparks appearing.  A side effect of this system is that unit size (SS, S, M, L, or LL) actually becomes a big factor in battle, unlike in other SRW entries which simply have it act as a damage modifier.  For example, a SS or S-size unit won't be able to attack a L or LL-size unit's main body until the Head, Arms, & Legs meters are all depleted, unless that unit either has the "Snipe" pilot skill or casts the "Snipe" seishin (which also adds +2 to all attacks that aren't 1 space range); also, M-size units can't directly hit LL-size units normally.  In fairness, L or LL-size units have attacks, usually their strongest ones, that can't target SS-size units.  Overall, this helps add some extra depth & strategy to battles, and makes it so that you have to consider who will attack who.

The other purpose of this system is that if an enemy unit loses all tertiary health meters, it can be picked up by your battleship.  After battle any units you pick up can either be used in future battles with one of your pilots, exchanged for an equippable item/part, or sold for money.  While in theory this system adds in a neat way to gain some extra items/parts or money in reality it's usually more of a pain to focus on doing it, as it simply takes longer to drain all three meters while not destroying the unit outright, since main body attacks also do varying amounts of damage to tertiary parts.  Also, you're limited to only being able to pick up specific units, usually grunt units that are useless to pilot and aren't exactly worth much.  It's not a bad idea for a SRW title, but I do think that it could have been implemented in an easier method that's more worth worth taking advantage of.  Finally, instead if the usual Pilot Points (PP) system for upgrading your pilots' abilities, GC/XO uses a Skill Parts system, where special pilot skills, like stat boosts, "Snipe", "Counter" or "Hit & Away", are equipped like items.  This system would appear in other SRW titles, like SRW K.

The graphics are kind of tough to properly talk about, mainly because one of SRW's most well-loved aspects is its notoriety for having nicely-detalied 2D sprites & all sorts of crazy animations for some attacks.  In contrast, GC/XO uses 3D models, which means that while there is some nice extra detail added in that for 2D would be too hard to include in every frame, like the word "Alex" on the Gundam Alex's shield, at the same time the animations aren't quite as detailed & insane as the 2D sprites have been known to be.  Still, the 3D looks pretty nice, though XO crushes GC in this aspect overall.  GC's look is admittedly a little bland, and for XO Banpresto added all sorts of extra details, like added lighting effects of units when beam or energy-based weaponry is used and cleaner & nice looking models in general, but my favorite extra detail in XO is that every major pilot, both on your side & the enemy, has a cut-in shown for their strongest attacks.  It's kind of a minor addition, but it just adds to the feel of the game, letting the pilots show themselves in more than just a simple image next to their text, and allowing for some really cool looking group shots, like the Baxinger cut-in above.

Another nice thing about the use of 3D models is that scale is actually fairly noticeable in this game.  In most SRW titles scale between units is completely all over the place due to the use of 2D sprites, with a good example being SRW W, which features characters like Tekkaman Blade & Detonator Orgun looking only slightly smaller than giant robots, which is completely ridiculous since they're supposed to be human-sized characters.  GC/XO, while not completely accurate in scale, does still maintain it for the most part, with something like a battleship obviously looking larger than a smaller unit like a SPT from Layzner.  A personal favorite example of scale in this game is Dancougar's DanKuuKougaKen attack, which is so big that you can roughly estimate that the beam of light itself is the height of five Dancougar's...  And Dancougar is not a small unit by any means.  Like the extra cut-ins in XO it's a small detail but it does add up.  Also, one final extra is that XO features a few extra units & attacks, such as a a new final attack for Sasuraiger & a revamped Final Dynamic Special that utilizes Shin Getter, Mazinkaiser, & Great Mazinger (GC's FDS only used Shin Getter & Mazinkaiser).

Another thing to bring up is the music, which features some excellent remixes of each anime's respective music, and also has one of the best remixes of Beyond the Time I've heard in a SRW title; Fire Wars from Mazinkaiser even features all of Hirobonu Kageyama's random Engrish from the start of the song.  But probably my favorite song in the entire game is also, in my opinion, the greatest remix ever in SRW history: Hontou no Kiss wo Okaeshi ni, the 2nd opening to Dancougar; really, listen to the original song, which is a nice-enough 80s J-Pop song, and then listen to what Banpresto did to it in GC/XO...  My god is that amazing!  That version is up there with Shakunestu no Ikari as one of my go-to favorite Dancougar themes, and I would never say that about the original song.  Also, there is voice work in this game, with everyone doing a great job overall, like Kazuki Yao's Shinobu and, especially, Tamotsu Nishiwaki's Jack King & Chieko Atarashi's Mary King (GREATEST...  ENGRISH...  EVER!!!!); in fact, Laynzer villain Ru Kain is reprised by the late Kaneto Shiozawa...  After he died.  From what I could find, Banpresto literally just reused the work Shiozawa did for the character back in Shin SRW for the PS1, kind of making this a performance from Shiozawa from beyond the grave.  The only other time I think this happened was with Gundam's Bright Noa in SRW Z, which came out after Hirotaka Suzuoki's death & simply reused his Alpha 3 work.

Finally, while GC is a single-player game, like most SRW titles, XO did add in an online multiplayer mode, called Super Robot Competition (the Japanese title for the mode, Super Robot Taisen, is a pun, as the kanji used, 対戦, is pronounced the same way as 大戦, which is what the series is normally spelled with).  Unfortunately, there seems to be no one playing this online anymore so I can't talk about it much, but from what I can tell from screenshots, like the one above, each player chose two units, likely from whatever they had available to them in single-player, and competed against each other.  It probably wasn't much, but multiplayer in a SRW title is a rare thing, and I'm sure it was a fun-enough mode, though the lack of anyone playing it kind of makes it nigh-impossible to earn any of the achievements that required one to play it enough times.

Super Robot Wars GC & XO are probably two of the more original entries in the SRW franchise, with an 80s-focused line-up, multi-health meter system, 3D graphics, and, in XO's case, online multiplayer for the very first time.  The only other title similar to this would be SRW Neo on the Wii, which is a spiritual successor to GC/XO that has a 90s-focused line-up (specifically early-to-mid-90s) and utilizes a radial-based movement system, & geographical obstacles, rather than the usual grid-based system.  Between the two there is absolutely no contest: XO is better than GC in every way.  XO literally has everything that GC has and more, and if you're interested in checking this game out I would encourage one to play XO, as long as you can play a region-locked Japanese Xbox 360 game (why lock it, Banpresto, why?).  Unfortunately, XO is also the more expensive version of the two, with GC easily being available for purchase in the $20 range, while XO, even with a Platinum Collection re-release in 2008, tends to hover around the $45-$60 range.  Still, that's certainly cheaper than the $200+ that SRW Compact 3 tends to go for.  Anyway, if you want a console SRW title that's a little off the beaten path in terms of line-up and offers a fairly original style of gameplay then I fully recommend GC or XO, and I'm sure that you won't be disappointed.

Kikou Sen'nyo Rouran: You Just Got Hirano-ed!

The next title for Mecha Month is a bit different from the usual mecha mold in that the giant robots aren't exactly the main focus, at least in the main visual way that they usually are in mech anime.  Rather, this show utilizes mechs as a means to an end & are more story-focused in their use, not to mention that the real star is a human-sized girl who is arguably even stronger than the mechs and features some really weird imagery...  Yeah, that sounds like a Toshihiro Hirano title.

Man, I haven't reviewed a Toshihiro Hirano title since my very first review: Haja Taisei Dangaioh.  To be fair, I did bring up Hades Project Zerorymer in my first "Twelve Animes I Would License" list, but an actual review of something from the man happened back at the start of everything.  The man, who also goes by the name Toshiki Hirano, is definitely a mixed-bag kind of director; he was the man behind fan-favorites like Magic Knight Rayearth (both TV series & the OVA series), Vampire Princess Miyu, & Fight! Iczer-One, as well as mixed-opinion fare like the Apocalypse Zero OVA, Zerorymer, Dangaioh, & The Devil Lady...  But he also gave us tripe like Great Dangaioh.  Then there is Hirano's more obscure fare, like Angel Heart TV & two of the New Savior Legend Fist of the North Star movies, specifically, Kenshiro-den & Raoh-den: Gekitou no Shou (bet you didn't know that he directed all three of those, huh?).  Kikou Sen'nyo/Strange Steel Fairy Rouran definitely fits into the obscure category, but it's also one of Hirano's more interesting works, no doubt helped by the fact that the similarly-mixed Noboru/Shou Aikawa wrote it.

Dr. Masahiko Mikogami created the organization ASY, & it's five mechs called Gousens, to act as the new defense force for Japan after it's own military joined the UN. ASY immediately went after the Shiromorishu, a mysterious group that guided Japan spiritually for centuries, stating that the group had been controlling Japan instead of guiding it. Though their base has been destroyed the Shiromorishu are ready to enact their vengeance on ASY... But a mysterious girl named Rouran will complicate matters further by bringing back the past between Mikogami & the Shiromorishu.

Rouran's story is a bit of a slow burn, but that's probably the show's best asset.  Though all of the major characters are introduced early on, each of their moments come in one at a time, and likewise the Gousens are introduced one after another, all with Rouran herself tying everything together.  Specifically, Rouran is a sen'nyo/fairy, a powerful being who can fly and has enough strength that the first Gousen, piloted by main character Yamato Mikogami, is destroyed without Rouran ever having to summon her mech, Kikousen.  The slow pacing is all the more impressive when one takes into consideration that the show utilizes 15-minute episodes, with only the 28th & final episode being normal length.  A common issue with half-length-episode anime is that the episodes are still paced like they are normal length, which makes one wonder why the show was even made in this untraditional style.  Now, admittedly, there are a few episodes of Rouran that suffer from this, but overall each episode actually works in this style, so much so that if you were to think of the show as 14 episodes long (technically 14.5 episodes, or even just 13 if you take out the three recap episodes) then the pacing of each "episode" would be awkward.  This is a great example of a half-length-episode anime series being done right.

Throughout the entire story Rouran goes through a fair amount of character devlopment, all stemming from her mysterious birth & reason for destroying the equally-mysterious Senkotsu, which power the five Gousens.  Rouran's entire existence affects the actions that both sides end up doing, and seeing her go from an empty slate to an actual character is just great.  The other main characters do get their fair share of development, too, and it all stems from their own pasts & potential futures.  Yamato's main development comes from his growing uncertainty that fighting for ASY actually makes him a good guy or not, mainly because of his father's secretive nature.  Mahoro, Yamato's little sister, starts off as a doting sister who wants to help her brother out, but her own personal feelings towards Yamato, combined with her own mysterious origins, start to make her more of an issue.  Aoi Akizuki, another ASY pilot, has an interesting character arc in that she starts off as cold & uncaring but eventually she goes into a destructive psycho-bitch, which I found neat.  In fact, Rouran's most interesting aspect is that the ASY vs. Shiromorishu battle isn't the traditional "good vs. evil" battle.

To be honest, there are good-hearted people in ASY, but outside of Yamato it's actually the darker & potentially evil members that get the most focus, and when combined with the fact that the Shiromorishu have absolutely no good in them whatsoever the main conflict actually becomes more of an "evil vs. evil" battle, and when Mikogami's past with Shiromorishu leader Kasuya is revealed a lot of it becomes understandable.  That leaves the good side with Rouran & Tetsuya Takechi, a former member of the Shiromorishu who left them & lived with slummers over at Tokyo Arcadia, an abandoned man-made island.  The conflict & mysterious pasts behind Tetsuya & Rouran form the major portion of the plot and are really the main reason to watch the show.  Also, some of Hirano's more visual trademarks make for some really cool imagery; for example, when Rouran summons Kikousen a breast opens up, revealing a fleshy hand that shoots out, grabs Rouran, and then retracts back into the breast...  That is just so Hirano.

Unfortunately, one of Hirano's biggest problems comes about in Rouran, and that is what I now call "Getting Hirano-ed".  It doesn't happen in all of them, but Hirano has a slight habit of giving some of his titles endings that leave open the idea of a sequel.  Now that alone is not a problem, but rather than make it so that one could still think that the story can be considered done, Hirano instead likes to show off something awesome right at the end that gets you really excited and ready for more...  But nothing ever comes from it!  Dangaioh is probably the biggest example of this, with the original OVA leaving the future of the leads uncertain & then Great Dangaioh barely continues off of that ending while teasing something even better at the end of that show; there hasn't been any word of a third Dangaioh creation yet, and it's been more than a decade since Great ended.  Granted, Rouran isn't as bad as Dangaioh in that regard, as one could ignore the post-credits scene in the last episode and just think of the show as having a melancholy ending, but that post-credits scene is just that awesome.  It's like when it comes to endings, Toshihiro Hirano is the Ashton Kutcher of anime: He likes to punk fans.

Anyway, Hirano can be a great director, and Rouran is a great example of that, with excellent pacing that slowly reveals more and more of the story while also tossing in a false lead to the viewer here and there.  To go with that, Noboru Aikawa's script is also very well done, with only a couple of characters that ended up being mostly useless, and even then they weren't really brought up as potentially important characters in the overall scheme of things.  Another highlight of the show are the mech designs, which feature a nice range of styles, from the more blocky & simpler styles of the early Gousens to more more complex looks of the last two Gousens, plus the deceptively simple but effective look of the Kikousen.  These mech designs were done by Yutaka Izubuchi (of Gasaraki, RahXephon, & Gundam: Char's Counterattack fame) and Rei Nakahara (Nadesico), which explains the nice variety of styles; Aoi's Gousen even features a Dunbine-esque head.  The music, done by Yoshiro Kakimi, is a nice mix of slower-paced & eerie themes & more upbeat songs that wouldn't be out of place in Hirano's creations of the 80s.  The opening theme, Kakusei by Shuichi Senkawa, is an instrumental theme that is as engrossing as it is eerie, and the footage of a silhouetted Rouran dancing in front of a waterfall just adds to that feeling.  There are six different ending themes, though four of them are one-episode deals from episodes 24-27, with the main ending theme being Iroha Uta, both a female version by Myca Motomiya & a male version by Toshimune Suzuki, and the song follows Kakusei's lead by being both engrossing & eerie, but with a touch of soothing mixed in.  Overall, the music follows the already great direction, script, & mech designs.  Finally, the character designs will likely look familiar to fans of Slayers, and that's because Naomi Miyata did the designs, and they fit in very well for the show as well.

The cast also pulls out a good job, headed up by Hiromi Konno (Akira Kogami in Lucky Star, Potato in Air TV), who voices Rouran in a way that perfectly mixes a more childish style for her human form & a more serious style for her fairy form.  Masahiko Mogami is voiced by Naoya Uchida (Jin Hayato in the most-recent Getter Robo animes, Cobra in Cobra the Animation), and he does a great job in making Mikogami sound absolutely mysterious & even cold-hearted.  Yamato is voiced by Souichiro Hoshi (Kira in Gundam SEED, Sano in The Law of Ueki), and he pulls off a nice job for making the character believable in a "unknowing of what he fights for" way.  Rounding out the cast is Takumi Yamazaki (ASY member Souma), Shinichiro Miki (Tetsuya), & Mugihito (Kasuya), among others.

Kikou Sen'nyo Rouran is not only one of Toshihiro Hirano's more interesting works, but it's also one of his better ones, and this can apply to Noboru Aikawa as well.  It actually utilizes its half-length episodes very well, and with a compelling story, interestingly flawed-by-nature characters, & nicely-done ending (even if the post-credits promise too much) it definitely is something to track down.  There are fansubs out there, though you might have to look a little harder for the last episode, as it's not usually included in any of the batches out there due to it being subbed more recently than the rest of the episodes; also, episode 27 was never subbed, but it's one of the three recaps, and even the R2 DVDs treat those three as extras.  After a rough start to Mecha Month this was a great follow-up, and though the mechs aren't exactly the "main course" in this title they are still enough of a focus to consider it a "mech anime".  But the next review will definitely be all about the mechs, and that's because it's the return of three simple letters: SRW.

Super Mobile Legend Dinagiga: At Least There's Twitter...

This November The Land of Obscusion will be celebrating a neat idea called "Mecha Month".  Gerald Rathkolb, of Anime World Order fame, debuted Mecha Month last November, and the idea of it is for mech fans who have a model kit they haven't made yet to finally get off of their butts...  And sit right back down and build that kit!  I myself have stopped buying and building model kits, though I do understand the fun of it, but I still felt like celebrating alongside those fans.  Therefore, every post this month will be mech-related, and what better way to start it than to finally watch & review something I kept putting off ever since the start of this blog!

The OVA boom of that debuted in the early-80s reached it's end roughly in the mid-90s, with fewer and fewer OVAs being made afterwards.  With the idea of late-night anime becoming more popular & lucrative, the short OVA seemed antiquated, but the format still worked in some cases, like maybe if an idea couldn't get a shot at a TV airing or even a personal project.  I'm sure Chou Kidou Densetsu/Super Mobile Legend Dinagiga is a case of that, because I can't honestly believe that this short production was originally created the way it ended up.

Hikari Touno has only been with the local robot training facility for three days and already she's caused more accidental destruction around the facility than thought possible.  At the same time, though, she looks to have great potential, and her dense positive energy makes it hard for any of her classmates to really hate her, including her roommate Nana Izumizaki.  But after a new student from Amsterdam named Marie Vlaanderen comes to the facility a mysterious robot, many times larger than anything the students pilot, attacks the facility.  If there's any chance at survival it's in Hikari's potential ability to pilot the secret giant robot Dinagiga, which accidentally caused the destruction of Hokkaido a few years back.

There's no way to talk around this, so let's get straight to the point: Dinagiga feels like an aborted TV series production.  It's only two episodes long, yet the amount of story told in them feels like it should have been about four or five, and it all simply feels like the beginning to a larger story.  From what I could tell, Dinagiga is the creation of a man called Takeshi Doi, with this being his sole anime involvement, and this is likely his own personal story that he wants told; hell, Doi's Twitter handle is @Dinagiga!  It really seems like Dinagiga was going to be planned as a TV series originally, but either Doi couldn't get a sponsor to get it onto a late-night slot or maybe the sponsors jumped ship, so a TV airing couldn't happen.  If that's the case then I'm guessing that Doi then decided to simply use the budget that he & Studio Deen already had for the production, which was for two episodes, and simply toss in as much of what was planned out into these two episodes.  It's not that the story feels confusing or anything like that, because it isn't; rather, it simply moves at a much-too-fast pace, which results in lack in detail and some scenes not having the impact that they obviously would have had if there was more time to develop the characters & story.

Also, Dinagiga really gives off an Evangelion vibe.  Granted, it's not outright ripping Eva entirely, but there are some bits that are very similar: The destruction of Hokkaido sounds like the destruction of Tokyo from the backstory of Eva, the idea that these kids are being used for a greater power that they don't understand at first sounds just like NERV's usage of Eva's leads, and Marie looks like the result of Misato & Rei performing the fusion dance from DBZ.  Still, Hikari's general attitude is enjoyable and innocent enough, though it might be a little annoying at times, & I like the idea of the kids being a part of a school, which reminds me more of Gunbuster's humble beginnings.  Had this idea been fleshed out into more episodes, or even simply continued beyond two episodes, I'm sure that I would have enjoyed this even more.  As it is, though, this OVA really just feels like it's rushing through story and simply comes off as someone just wanting his story made available to the public.

Production-wise, there are a few notable names here.  It was directed by Naoyuki Yoshinaga, who also directed Maison Ikkoku & Patlabor TV, and the title itself doesn't look like it cheapened out on anything; there are a couple of shots which feature two girls who complain about discrimination since only the main characters are given special training, and they are only worth bringing up because they are drawn worse than anyone else, yet the animation for them are some of the smoothest & most fluid in the OVA.  The mech designs were done by Kenji Teraoka, of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Gundam 00, & Code Geass fame, and the robots are some of the finer points in this title, with simple-but-effective designs that are surprisingly memorable.  Overall, the staff behind this title, as well as the cast, aren't really a problem here.  Probably the best part of this entire OVA is the opening theme, Yotei Chouwa no Mainichi by Yume Suzuki, which is an addicitive pop tune that really makes you wish it was related to a better title.  The ending theme, Himawari Hatake by Mayuko Omimura (the voice of Hikari), is nothing special.

Super Mobile Legend Dinagiga deserves some credit for being ambitious, but at only two episodes there simply isn't enough time for that ambition to really be told well.  Takeshi Doi's idea has merit behind it, even if it does reek of Eva at times, but this OVA really just feels like a TV series that wasn't to be, yet still got made in some form.  It's not a bad title by any means, but at the same time it really isn't worth checking out unless you're simply curious about it, like I was.  Enjoy the opening theme, but that's it.  Admittedly, this isn't the best way to start off Mecha Month for the blog, but this is only the beginning...