Ranked #3546

Bakuto Sengen Daigander

At the time of writing this review, this anime was in the 3994th rank and there were no fansubs released. If you search hard, you can find the raw version somewhere. So, I’m writing this review completely off my memory, which is an English dub I watched almost 5 years ago.

Bakuto Sengen Daigander is a mecha show, set in a world where people use mechas to fight in mecha battles. The mechas are not the usual ones, like in Gundam or Code Geass – they are more like robotic Pokemon. These bots take the form of animals (well, sort of) and can think and act for themselves. Just like Pokemon, all mechas have trainers. In this anime, you follow Akira, a young boy on his quest to win the Titan Belt, the World Heavyweight Championship of the world the characters live in. When Akira enters the tournament, he’s close to being knocked out of the first tournament, when his grandpa, a mecha developer, gifts him Daigunder, his greatest invention ever. Meanwhile, an evil professor, Dr. Malestrom, creates an even stronger robot called Ginzan, which goes rogue and tries to destroy Daigunder by hook or crook. Will Team Akira be able to win the Titan Belt and somehow manage to defeat Ginzan?

Right, as you might’ve noticed, this is a kids anime. It is more or less a robot version of Pokemon, where the robots and the trainer form a team and participate in gym battles and such. You even have a Team Rocket-like stalker group trying to destroy Daigunder, but they don’t appear as often and are actually powerful. And of course, just like Gary, you have an arch-enemy, Ginzan. The Titan Belt holder is the Pokemon League winner I suppose. The unique aspect is that two robots can combine to form a new bot, which is pretty snazzy. I wonder how two Pokemon combine…hmm…

The anime story progresses in an overall breezy manner. It is 100% shonen and there are moments when you smack your head when the little brat says a cheesy punch line. A good example of such a line is this : “Such evil people must not exist in the world ! It is not nice at all !” says Akira, the 12 year old kid with tears in his eyes. He then proceeds to launch a rocket missile from his mecha. But, it is forgivable seeing that it is advertised as a kids shonen anime. Since this show spans 39 episodes, fillers and fan service episodes are to be expected. But for once, these episodes aren’t all that bad. They are actually pretty fun, stuffed with chibi animations, blue lines, vex mark etc.

Coming to the actual mecha battle, it’s overall shonen. You get your usual matches where Akira struggles to win and at the last minute realizes something that helps his bot win. It’s pretty standard stuff, really. The only new thing is that things can get pretty interesting when you start to combine robots. You see uncooperative bots being forced to combine and follow their master, and sometimes they rebel. Things are never nail-bitingly interesting and you start to get bored around the middle of certain lengthy battles. To spice things up, new mechas added into the show every 8 episodes are so, but it’s still not enough and doesn’t quite pack as big a punch as it could have.

The animation is decent. Being a shonen, you can see lots of flashbacks and a good amount of frame recycling. The bots look diverse enough and they are all colored brightly so that kids get a lively show. Battles look so-so, with sparks flying in the air almost every second, which sadly, does not increase the intensity one bit. But considering that the anime was released in 2002 and had a tiny budget, it’s all excused.

The sound, well, I don’t really remember. I remember the OP being a bouncy track, but no idea about the ED. The BGM fits the mood, but nothing standout.

As far as the characters go, I’m fairly impressed. The producers managed to transfer almost every single shonen aspect onto a kids show. You have the usual noisy little brat as the protagonist, the useless female assistant, a tsundere but powerful sidekick, an evil genius etc. Their actions are totally predictable and their actions never surprise you even in one of the 39 episodes. But then again, you don’t really expect Ash to release his Pikachu or Misty to start dating Brock do you? If you consider tsundere robots becoming kinder, then I suppose there is character development.

The show has an overall fun atmosphere and it’s pretty welcoming to kids, considering how soft they made the whole concept of one robot trying to blow the other one into bits. At no point in the show do you really start to get excited or thrilled, but you don’t get dreadfully bored either. And for that, the show does deserve some credit.

Overall, Bakuto Sengen Daigander is best described as Pokemon + Transformers wrapped neatly in a shonen package that kids would find appealing. Sadly, lack of promotion and funds led to this anime not getting the exposure it deserves.

[ THE WRAP-UP ]
Bakuto Sengen Daigander is a fun anime that never bothers to get serious or dark at any point of time. It’s sort of going down a slide in a park – it’s not very mature or cool, but it still feels fun, because everyone wants to be a kid again. With decent animation and a passable soundtrack, this show does not fail technically. This is a great anime for kids, if you can find a copy of this show that is. It’s also a decent show on its own, but not the kind you would want to buy or download if you’re above the age of 14. It has strong hints of Pokemon and also has a good dose of shonen. While the show does have a lot going for it, the ultimate question is that whether this anime is underrated or not. Well, yes. I strongly feel that this show does deserve a spot better than 3994. I think it could stand firm in the 500-800 range given a decent amount of promotion, but it is nowhere near a great show. read more

The 28 episodes i´ve seen on youtube were very enjoyable. Nice characters, a story that you are really drawn into and good battles. This is one of the few mecha animes that caught my attention and i wasn´t dissapointed after the first few episodes. The Problem is, that you can hardly find any episode after the 28th. There are just raw ones with a lenght of 9 minutes... But if you like Mecha animes this 28 episodes must be seen.