Kikou Ryohei Mellowlink

For any fan of Ryosuke Takahashi's Armored Trooper Votoms franchise, you'll feel right at home with this series. It's set in the same world, and Chirico even makes a short cameo as well, though their paths never really intertwine.

As a revenge tale, you shouldn't expect anything profound from the plot. Simplicity is the name of the game here, so the setup is fairly obvious...you get pieces of info along Mellowlink's journey that unveil why he's hunting down these high-ranked officers.

The main draw of the show, IMO, is the clever, tactical ways in which Mellow dispatches his enemies. Whether it's using misdirection ploys or baiting pursuers ... into a trap of mines, he's always got some scheme going on to get the upper-hand. And seeing how he's just a lone man against giant mechas most of the time, it's absolutely essential he turns the battle into a match of wits rather than outright strength. Some of its episodes are better than others at depicting this, but overall, the action here engrosses with its gritty guerrilla warfare...a stark contrast to other mecha anime like Gurren Lagann and recent Gundam shows.

Concerning the animation, I think it's important to point out it was made back in the late '80s. As a bit of an old-school fan myself, I don't mind it at all, but younger anime fans accustomed to shiny CGI and sparkly colors may be put off by the gritty, earthy look of the show.

If you are a fan of classic revenge stories, especially Votoms, this anime is for you

Synopsis: The story of a young man who seeks revenge for his friends after a plot by army generals and sacrifices the army in exchange for the generals saving their lives.
It may seem like a classic revenge story to you, but the writer's way of telling the story and revealing some facts and reasons for the hero's revenge.

There were some flaws in the story, like the hero killing people who were like him in order to get revenge after he said in the first episode that he's only here for ... the leader.
Although the anime is classified as a mecha, the hero does not use any machine, only a gun.

Art: In the first episodes, art was acceptable for anime in that period, and animation actually escalated in the last episode
Music: It was so horrible I don't want to hear such destruction again
I liked the main character and his calmness
The story of the anime is traditional, with expected events, but it still presents a beautiful story about a soldier who seeks revenge for his comrades who were betrayed.

Let me preface this review by saying I don't know anything about ATV, the parent franchise of this series, in case that's an important aspect for you in reading this review.

That out of the way, this is a solid, old school sci fi anime with a somewhat fresh take on the mech genre. The premise is a quite straightforward (basic, if you're being harsh) revenge story about an ill done by ex-soldier hunting his former commanders to avenge his dead comrades. It functions as an episodic series for the most part, with the last few episodes following a short "finale arc".

All these episodes are ... titled based on the environment they take place in - quite appropriately, as the environments are the stars of the episode in lieu of a really charismatic or interesting cast. Mellowlink, the protagonist, is pretty much just a bland soldier man without so much of a hint of an arc, his 'love interest' is equally one dimensional and their relationship is just as pointless and unnatural feeling. The antagonists are all just cackling shonen style villains with no depth either - not inappropriate for a story of this style, and to be fair they have their individual gimmicks for each episode, but still, all this means something has to fill the gap this cast leaves. And it's the environment: while the animation is nothing to write home about, there are some quite excellent looking background paintings of mysterious and exciting sci fi vistas.

As for "mech and tech" stuff, I wouldn't consider myself any kind of mech expert, so take my assessment with a spoonful of salt but I would describe the stuff on display in Mellowlink as interesting but homogenous. The Mechs on display, AT's as they are called, have a cool design similar to Gundam's Zakus but a bit more "real" feeling (they remind me of some designs from the Mechwarrior Games). This shouldn't be a surprise, as they were designed by the same person who designed the Zaku, Kunio Okawara. While it's a cool design, I don't love it - it does seem a bit devoid of personality, although perhaps that is the intention in taking the "real robots" concept to its conclusion. But from what I can tell, this one triclops design is the only one on display which makes things get a bit stale, when you are watching Mellowlink blow up the same mech for the 5th time in that episode. (Note that as I said I am unfamiliar with this setting - perhaps there was some subtle differences between the mechs, but by and large they all looked the same, and perhaps there was some lore reason for them all to be so...I can't say).

But it is perhaps unfair to focus on the mechs in a show which is about a mech hunter. Which is as I said in my intro, quite an interesting take I haven't seen in other anime. The concept seems to be inspired by WW1 and early WW2 anti tank rifles, which reflects a broader trend in this anime - everyone seems to be using some early 20th century inspired technology, with Browning MG's and German style armoured cars. It's a neat aesthetic and it works well, giving the show a grimy, gritty feel that it'd otherwise lack - there's rarely any sense that the protagonist is in danger, and opponents are disposable cannon fodder to him.

While I may seem disproportionately harsh in criticising this anime, I did enjoy it more than my scores would suggest. It's a low tech sci fi anime with solid mech designs and a pace fast enough to stop you getting bored - which ticks a lot of boxes for me. If you're similarly into that scene, or the idea of a guy with a giant AT rifle fighting chunky, realistic mechs just sounds fun to you, I think this anime is worth your time.