Ranked #3256

Shinkon Gattai Godannar

This is a review of Season One of Godannar. My problem with the current reviews on the site of Godannar is they seem to be taking it way too seriously. It's an homage to older Super Robot anime and should be seen as such, not compared storywise to something like Spirited Away or what have you. It's like comparing G Gundam to Zeta Gundam and assuming it has a horrible storyline because it doesn't take itself seriously instead of seeing each show on their own merits.

Story: 6/10 - The story isn't heavy, especially in this first season. Your average super robot story basically - flavor of the week monsters that fight the main character. However, some of the arcs have better storylines than the rest - the Cosmo Base arc ( From the destruction of Cosmo Base to the final episode of the season with Ken and Lou fighting side by side ) was especially good, in my opinion.

Art: 9/10 - Really high quality art that stays consistent throughout the season. The fanservice is a bit excessive, but it's obviously meant to be like that.

Sound: 8/10 - Great, catchy OP.All the voice actors fit their characters well and the use of music during the episodes are nominally great. However, the ED leaves a bit to be desired, but that seems to be the norm for EDs.

Character: 7/10 - The problem with charaterization in this series is simply that there are a lot of characters, and in a single 13-episode season you can't exactly have episodes devoted to each character. However, the main characters (Go, Anna, Shizuru and Shinobu) all have pretty well cemented personalities by the end of the season. Additionally, any character that has gotten a character episode ( at this point, the Dragliner team, Lou and Ken ) also have developed personalities, even if some of them are somewhat generic. Hoping the second season develops the rest of the characters, esp the other mecha pilots.

Enjoyment: 10/10 - This is where the anime really shines. It just has so much fun with itself that its hard not to have fun yourself as long as you aren't trying to take it too seriously. The fights are excellent, the cliches are hilarious at times. read more

I will be reviewing season one of Godannar, if you check out my review of season two, you will notice it to be about 90% the same as this one. While both series are separated into two halves, they share the same overall story as a whole.

Story: 4/10
And speaking of which, there really isn’t too much of one to speak of! Basically the whole series revolves around these creatures called "Mimesis" that seem to be attacking earth for some unknown reason, and its up to a select group of mecha style fighters (most of which contain exaggerated busty women) to save the earth from this threat. Now I know this probably sounds nice and all, but everything throughout the anime is pretty much one battle after another. There are nearly no episodes that take a break in order to develop the actual story and characters. (though the main are introduced alright enough) Even in the end we never really know why earth was being attacked in the first place. Instead its nothing more than mech on mech action (which isn’t too shabby actually) and up close shots of the female’s body. The character development is pretty low as well, with the exception of Anna, Goh and Mira.....we never really get much story from the other characters. (there are literally tons) At least not something that will actually make you want to care about them like you normal would, not to mention everything in this series feels very generic. To its credit though the action scenes are pretty descent, and the mecha designs I actually found kind of neat. No real story here, but the fighting parts and fan service might keep some into it. Oh and this series actually does have a descent cliffhanger leading into season 2.

Artwork: 8/10
Easily the best part, all the character and mech designs are all very well done here. They both boast colorful and detailed body suits and armor, and you can tell that each one went through some thought on how to give it flare and appeal. The backgrounds are also nice, you get some pretty lush environments, from the deep jungle scenes, to the large city scape ones. Very nice to look at, though some may be turned off by the extremely robust bouncy women, as all are quite exaggerated in this respects.

Soundtrack: 6/10
Decent enough, even though you really only get one catchy background track (which is a non-vocal version of the opening), but other than that however, there really isn’t much to say about it. The opening theme was pretty darn awesome though, you get this raspy male pop singer that has a pretty distinct voice to him, though I doubt it will appeal to a major part of the audience, it still is and interesting tune. Ending theme was okay, and played as a somewhat low key melody, but nothing really too distinct about it.

Characters: 6/10
Well all the characters are likable, and there are a bunch of them in this anime, sadly though you really only get some actual back story and character development with about three or four of them, and even that is pretty shallow. Though I did kind of like watching Ana and Goh interact with each other. Its one of the few series that has both leads already married, and a big part of the show is all about them trying to keep things together, which especially becomes hard once Mira shows up, its nice since you don't see this kind of situation very often. Nothing too special, but it will probably catch your eye.

Bottom Line: 6/10
While there are quite a few things that just didn’t work out too well for this title, it isn’t really a bad series. Indeed everything about it is pretty run of the mill and not new, but it does add some interesting fight scenes and watching Goa and Anna interact is pretty fun to watch. Not to mention there is actually a pretty good cliffhanger that sets the mark for season 2. So long as you don’t mind watching an anime that has elements which have been done the same way many times before, you might just want to Go-Go-Godannar!!!! read more