Alternative TitlesJapanese: スーパーロボット大戦OG -ディバイン・ウォーズ-
Information
Type: TV
Episodes: 25
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Oct 5, 2006 to Mar 29, 2007
Duration:
20 min. per episode Rating:
PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
L represents licensing company
StatisticsScore: 7.081 (scored by 429 users)
Ranked: #19572
Popularity: #1996
Members: 948
Favorites: 2 1 indicates a weighted score
My Info
Popular Tags
mecha sci-fi |
SynopsisRobot bugs suddenly attack Tokyo and robot gamer Ryusei is given a real, mechanical robot trooper to see whether he is a qualified fighter in a war which he has just now become a part of. Amazingly the controls to the personal trooper are just as in the game. (Source: ANN) |
Related AnimeSequel: Super Robot Wars Original Generation - The Animation, Super Robot Wars: OG Divine Wars - Special DVD
Characters & Voice Actors
Staff
Reviews
|
|
slax
3 of 7 people found this review helpful
|
25 of 25 episodes seen
|
| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
8 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Character |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
Super Robot Wars is exactly what it says on the box. Unsurprisingly, it is about a whole bunch of robots having a huge war. But first, some prerequisite information: The Super Robot Wars franchise is a series of crossovers from almost every mech anime, usually with a handful of "original" characters thrown in to tie the story together. There are so many of these games that eventually, by putting together a crossover of all these original characters, a whole new game was created, the "Original Generations" series. (On a side note, there are no licensing issues with the OG series (since they were all owned by one company), these games were able to be released in English, whereas most other SRW games have not been)
Ok, onto the review:
Story:
SRW DW follows the story of Ruysei Date, a mech enthusiast and video gamer who ends up being picked as a test pilot for the "SRX" team. Progressing from there, Ryusei is just one of many people who end up involved in a series of conflicts, escalating into several full-blown wars.
Now, I'm not going to spoil this by giving too much detail, but I must say one thing right off the bat, the overall story is incomplete. There is a sequel to the SRWOG game, and as such, there are a few plot details that are left unresolved at the end of Divine Wars. However, the main plot is largely self-contained, so this does not detract from the anime's story.
Also, when I watched this, I had played some of OG2 for GBA, but not OG1, which this anime is based off, so I was expecting to be thoroughly confused. I was not, the anime progresses in a very logical way, with events flowing at a good speed, neither so slow as to be boring, nor so fast as to be confusing.
Overall, the plot is not a masterpiece, but it is certainly not bad. This is, in large part due to the fact that the series has its hands full simply introducing the cast, as there are a HUGE number of characters, and as such simply isn't able to deliver a overly complex plot. The second game comes with a much much more complex and engaging plot, with vast amounts of character development, but as this is not covered in the anime, I can simply say that the anime did a good job of covering all the bases, but was by no means brilliant.
Art:
The mechs and battles overall are done in 3D-CGI, and are fairly well animated, with everything fulfilling its role as it should. It does a good job of creating a believable environment for the viewer, and as such is in my opinion is a very sucessful use of CG. Characters and backgrounds are done in standard anime style, and again, are nothing to complain about. While none of these are stand-out among anime, I would be honestly surprised if anyone actively complained about them (other than to say they could have been better).
Sound:
The theme music is taken from the game, and the game had BRILLIANT music. When converting from the game to the show, they were changed slightly, but nonetheless is still done very well. The into is done by JAM project and is very much what one would expect from SRW. The voice actors are all (as far as I'm aware) the same as from the PS2 version of the game, and all fit their roles superbly. Nothing to complain about here, but again, it could have been better, some of the sound effects, such as explosions, were somewhat dull, but the overall sound quality is very good.
Character:
This is where things get interesting. There are a million and a half characters in this show. All of them with their own roles, all of them with interactions, all of them with stories to tell and traits to exhibit. Unfortunately, the second game is where most of the individual characters get their 15 minutes of fame, but nonetheless, they are all introduced, established and fully utilised in this anime. Without playing the first game, you can pick up #2, play it, and understand the story, simply because the character development in this anime is so complete. That is no simple task with a cast of this size. Full credit to the writers, they did a good job here.
Overall:
Ok, this is where things really get subjective;
Most of the characters show are cliche, most of the mech names and abilities are cliche. This is done intentionally, as SRW is a mish-mash of every mech show ever created. As a matter of fact, Ryusei will actually explicitly point out most of the cliches used (Oh, so she's "the chick" and he's "the cool jerk", etc.). But even more interesting is the fact that it is SO cliche that it is original. No-one has ever taken a mech from EVERY mech genre and put them in one coherent plot. This is where the subjectivity comes from, if you only see the cliche, then you'll dislike it, if you can see the complex interweaving of plots, then you'll appreciate it. My opinion falls toward the latter, and was thoroughly impressed by the end product.
Also, fans of the game *may* be disappointed by the show, as it isn't as deep or complex, or over-the-top as the games are. But this isn't Divine war's fault, this is the fault of the fact that there isn't a Divine Wars 2, which, as I have said all along, is where the plot really picks up. Thus, some may take off points here for incompleteness, while other may look at what they HAVE achieved and give them two thumbs up. Again, my opinion is toward the latter, the fact that they converted the game almost perfectly into a watchable, engaging, anime seriously impressed me, although I must admit, I only played the game after having watched the anime.
Conclusion:
Divine Wars takes a game and converts it into a coherent, original, complete, stand-alone mech show. The fact that this is only one part of a series may be a dissapointment to fans, and may leave a few (minor) question marks to the non-SRW-literate viewers, but overall these complaints would be better suited to saying "OG2 would be better than OG1", rather than "OG1 is bad", and as such I cannot give this anime anything other than a good score, because it deserves it. read more
Recommendations
|
|
More Cybuster goodness but in a different context
|
|
|
Well, the most important argument for this comparison first to be named is the plain fact, the whole existence of the strategy-RPG series "Super Robot Wars", at least very popular in Japan, is sheer unthinkable without its MS-ancestors since 1979. So besides striking similarities in mecha-design both are set into an distant feature calendar, featuring war between an allied Earth military against their giant space colonies (though just a minor villain faction in the later). Among the large number of pilots in their at least ca. 18m tall battle robots some individuals inherit new type-like abilities (instead of Coordinators its Telekinetics in SRWOG), launching from just 2-3 large space ships and trying to change the fate of mankind.
While 'classical' SRW-titles featured MS among many other animé-robots as units, 'SRW Original Generation' released for GBA in 2002 combined most many mechas and pilots originally appearing in publisher Banpresto's former games into an independent story, that's retold in a bit shortened form. Though it maybe an even greater pleasure to now see your console heroes in animated action, this series should still be entertaining for any giant robot-fan, even without further background knowledge.
|
Opening Theme#1: "Break Out" by JAM Project
#2: "Rising Force" by JAM Project
Ending Theme#1: "Yell!" by Minami Kuribayashi
#2: "Mou Ai Shika Iranai" by Aki Misato
| No posts for this board were found |
Fansubbing Groups
Which fansubbers do you like the best? Click + to approve of their subs for this show. Click - if you don't think they did such a great job.
Onmitsu [Onmitsu] (Brazilian Portuguese)
Related Clubs~* KOYASU TAKEHITO FANS *~, PSP - PlayStation Portable Club, Mecha Fans, Mecha - trash or paperweight?, Super Robot Wars Fanclub, Silver, White, Gray-Haired Characters Fanclub!, THE KISAMA-ONORE-TEMEE-YATSU-SAN-TACHI CLUB, Mecha Kingdom メカ王国, Masters of Gattai, Tomokazu Sugita Fanclub, Mecha Fans Club!
Recently Watched By|
Yesterday, 9:43 PM |
Yesterday, 5:45 PM |
Yesterday, 1:32 PM |
11-06-09, 4:38 PM |
11-06-09, 11:21 AM | |
11-05-09, 7:47 AM |
11-04-09, 1:26 PM |
11-04-09, 11:02 AM |
11-04-09, 7:56 AM |
11-02-09, 7:57 AM |
|
|
