That one line struck such a cord with me, and sold me on Dai Guard, and Dai Guard immediately became my all time favorite mecha anime the moment it was uttered. XEBEC and director Seiji Mizushima did a wonderful job injecting a lot of hard core reality into the fantasy genre of mecha anime, and they did it with a lot of humor and a lot of heart.
Hard core reality like all that paper work that needs to be done after a mission, or bickering among the best pilots ruins the mission, or what does the military do when they see an insurance company doing their job with military surplus equipment? (They get jealous... big time.)
Dai Guard was built as a military robot to fight Hetrodynes by the 21st Century Defense Corporation, however when Dai Guard was finished the Hetrodyne threat stopped and the military allowed 21st Century Defense Corporation to keep Dai Guard as a cooperate mascot. 13 years later the Hetrodynes return and only 3 office workers can pilot Dai Guard who is in serious need of maintenance.
Some of the show cracks me up like no other; at first they have to truck Dai Guard across Japan in pieces in a multiple truck convoy, assemble it in the path of the enemy only to have the enemy change course and they have to tear down Dai Guard and load it back on the trucks to the next anticipated battle site. If you've ever been in a mobile military outfit you know how painful that is. But a lot of the show is very touching too, it's not all giant robots and evil monsters, there's a lot of human drama going on and quite often Dai Guard doesn't make an appearance.
I give the story a 10 - it's intriguing, humorous, and very fair; meaning there's no deus ex machina waiting to spring out and ruin the plot. What you see is what you get: there's no super powers, no alien interventions that will change the story, no hidden back plot to spring out at the end and change everything.
The art I gave an 8 - the animation could be smoother, but there's no long still shots with the camera rotating to denote action, there's no inappropriate chibi or super deformation when a character becomes embarrassed, and there's no jiggling... actually no fan service what so ever. Hey! This is a large Japanese corporation, I'm sure they have fan service rules.
The Sound is an 8 - surprisingly good for a mecha anime. Mostly I like the music, and the opening and ending songs are very very catchy.
The Characters are solid 10s, every one of them. The characters are very individual and they always stay true to their nature. There's no sudden epiphany that creates a complete and total personality change in any characters, although several do have an epiphany - they end up handling it like any normal person would. There's a few characters there for humor but they're not clowns. Just about every character is very likable and each for a different reason. Even the characters you detest are detestable for appropriate reasons.
Enjoyment is a solid 10 - every episode was and is a celebration.
Overall - a big 10. On the surface this looks like a silly little anime, but wait a few more moments... if you're not hooked when you see how the crew of Dai Guard win their first battle then anime may just not be your thing.
