"Twelve +2" Anime 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 Anime" 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 gives 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.

"Twelve +2" Anime 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 anime 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.

[2/2017 ADDENDUM: I forgot how many times I featured B't X in lists like these, because I only updated the original rescue list inclusion back then. Anyway, Anime Midstream will be giving this series the proper release it never received... Eventually. Yeah, it's Midstream, but at least that means that it should be a solid release in general, if a slow one.]

[11/2023 ADDENDUM: It's a been a few since the release, but Anime Midstream has released both B't X & B't X Neo via DVD boxsets, giving the anime its first complete English release.]

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 further back that February. 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 for Xbox 360. GC/XO was made with a laser-tergeted focus: To celebrate mech anime of the 80s, and that's obvious from the line-up:

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 mecha 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 themselves and features some really weird imagery... Yeah, that sounds like a Toshihiro Hirano title.

Man, I haven't reviewed a Toshihiro/Toshiki Hirano title since my very first review: Haja Taisei Dangaioh. To be fair, I did bring up Hades Project Zerorymer in my first "Twelve Anime I Would License" list, but an actual review of something from the man happened back at the start of everything. The man is definitely a mixed-bag kind of director, as 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 & 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.

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.