Ranked #3023

Detonator Orgun

Detonator Organ is a short OVA series around a living alien mecha which seeks refuge on Earth from its creators. Predictably, they are not willing to let it go so easily, so they sent in other robots to retrieve it or destroy it while planning to destroy the planet just for fun. Sounds like a simple but good enough premise to make something decent out of it but unfortunately it remains as a sci-fi action slugfest and nothing more.

The story has a lot going for it, such as evolution and human compassion clashing over time and space, freedom, destiny, heritage, but in practice it is nothing but a long-winded build-up for a rather straightforward brawling between robots. The plot moves extremely slow, with lots of scenes used for nothing other than flavour before skyrockets in the finale just for the sake of ending. If this was a 12 episode series then those extra scenes would be needed to flesh out the cast but in such a short feature they manage to do nothing but slowing down the already limited in duration plot. Which translates to being boring when there is no action or revelations, almost two thirds of the total airtime.

Another thing is the generic cast that doesn’t allow you to like them for any reason at all. Orgun is a generic robot that protects Earth and his race is nothing but a stereotypical bunch of killing machines. The human characters seem to be there as nothing but decorations and cannon fodder. But at least they put up a much better fight than they usually do in such types of shows. Some of them even cause damage to the otherwise unbeatable alien invaders. Unfortunately there is so much airtime dedicated to battles or generic strolling around that nobody manages to be anything other than a caricature.

The production values are quite good. The backgrounds are drawn extremely detailed and the battles have a basic choreography, plus they are epic in proportions. The three different ending songs are also great to listen to as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzc2NJ7F6gw&feature=related
Voice acting fells rather dried up as the characters are all too distant and blunt to bring out anything special for you to care about.

In all, the whole deal plays out way too fast for you to care, plus most of it is wasted on secondary events that matter very little in overall. If this was a 12 episode or more series, it could feel a lot better. As it stands it is nothing but a generic alien invasion that is resolved in a rushed and sloppy manner. Plus, it is nothing that you won’t find in other famous titles, such as Tekkaman Blade or Super Dimensional Fortress Macross. read more