Wakusei Daikaiju Negadon

I don't get the hate behind this one. I rewatched it and it's still a good story.

A scientist laments on an accident for years from when he created a mecha robot that costed him his daughter's life. He lives saddened, distraught, absolutely broken down.

When a kaiju awakened and tries to destroy Earth, he decides it's time, goes back to the mecha robot and sacrifices himself to kill the kaiju. He parts the world with his very creation in memory of his daughter.

The CGI was very real like, the fight with the kaiju you can feel the man's physical and emotional pain. He bleeds ... in the burning cockpit his last bit of strength to go down with the kaiju and explode in space was still very touching.

I need more something like this, that's 25 minutes and a good story, Please recommend me if you know.

Hey everyone, since the last review posted was from almost 12 years ago, and the movie was released 15 years ago i felt that a new review would be cool, i won´t say much different from the later review, but, i will pull my points of view and my opinion on it :
First of all and most importantly is to reinforce some points :
1) This movie is a tribute to the japanese kaijuu movies (godzilla and etc) and also the metal heroes and tokusatsu series, so the premise and the main idea was never to change the genre or to shock, but, ... to feel as a nostalgic piece for fans of that style.
2) The artstyle and animation was intended to look old, to feel like it is an old series from the late 70's/80's that had the time setting in the futuristic 2000's.
3) This is a short 25 minute long movie, so it would be really unfair to judge it like i would judge a big production or a long series.

Now, lets get to it, the only issue i had was the lenght, i wished so bad this was longer and had more development and time to explain the story better, aside from that, i enjoyed this movie a lot. Basically the movie plot is about an exploration on mars that resulted in the awakening of an ancient monster from mars called "Negadon", thus, the name of the movie, and it brings the question of wether the human race should or should not explore the universe and how that exploration should be done, because our world is literally a little point in the middle of an infinity universe full of older and bigger galaxies, so, should us really play the tough guys and just invade stuff ? and that is pretty much the movie, and that is were we get our main character, a old scientist with a very sad and tragic past that i will not get into, because as it is very short and we have very little story, explaining anything would really ruin your experiences, but, what i can tell you is : This old man is epic ! Take a look at this movie if you have the time, you will not be dissapointed.

Judging by the number of recent views, I take it most people have probably seen this during Sci-Fi's airing on 9/22/08. What an interesting OVA to show, especially followed so closely by Gurren Lagann and seen by a fanbase that has probably seen Big-O :)

Anyway, there are two, maybe three important things to know before viewing this:

1.) It's intentionally done in an "old school" style and is obviously an homage to Kaiju films (i.e. Godzilla etc)

2.) It picks up after the admittedly largely forgettible and throw-away beginning.

3.) It appears to largely be an interesting tech demo with some pretty cool giant monster vs. giant mecha ... fight scenes added.

Either way, with the whole thing being only 24 minutes long you won't waste a lot of time watching it.

Story: 6 (Fair)

The story is largely throw-away and just an excuse to get a giant monster and giant robot fighting. In the year 2025, mankind has expanded to 10 billion persons and is exploiting Mars for natural resources. A large cocoon is brought back from the red planet, which escapes from the space ship holding it and lands in downtown Tokyo. Meanwhile, an old man is remembering his lost daughter who died during an accident during the construction of a large machine he designed for terraforming. As he watches the news, a large monster emerges from the cocoon and obliterates the army. He decides to activate the machine, which turns out to be a giant mecha, and flies into action as the only remaining thing standing in the monster's way. Yes, it's admittedly cookie-cutter, but hey I guess it's besides the point.

Art: 7 (Good)

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Negadon, and perhaps its main point, is its art; the movie is entirely in CGI, but unlike other CGI works like Advent Children, there is an asserted attempt to make the CGI seem as lifelike as possible, and the details on the main hero's skin for example are pretty impressive. However, the technology clearly hasn't climbed out of the Uncanny Valley...yet....

Sound: 7 (Good)

The sound is sharp and crisp, but there's a lack of any memorable BGM or other audio mood modifiers.

Character: 6 (Fair)

The characters are pretty stock and one-dimensional, perhaps unsurprising given how much needs to be fitted into 24 minutes, and also perhaps because it's besides the point - you watch this so you can see CGI giant monster fight CGI giant mecha!

Enjoyment: 8 (Very Good)

...and that is after all what Negadon is about. Just sitting back and enjoying a good fight as you munch away on popcorn - or pocky. It's a pretty interesting and enjoyable fight, and one can't help but conjure up images of, say, Roger Smith (The Big-O) or Kamina (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann) especially since the mecha's aesthetics and activation sequence look as if they've been ripped right out of Big-O (I was just about ready to shout out Cast in the Name of God, Ye Not Guilty!) and the mecha also has a big freakin' drill for a weapon (yeah, go ahead, play My Libra/Row Row Fight Da Powah! during the fight scenes, you know you want to)

...and that is why this gets an overall rating of:

7 (Good)!