Dallos

The OVA. A very important part of anime history. With the advent and rising popularity of VHS tapes in the early 1980s of Japan, OVAs were straight to video anime which grew widely popular amongst anime fans and helped to become the backbone of the industry for quite a while. While the lack of censorship also meant a lack of quality control leading to an influx of terrible animation it was also an opportunity for new talent to emerge and be celebrated such as was the case with the earlier Gainax shows like Otaku no Video and Gunbuster. But the OVA that started it all ... was Dallos, produced by Studio Perriot way back in 1983.

It was also the directorial debut of Mamoru Oshii who was currently working on the Urusei Yatsura TV series at the time and would later go on to direct Angel's Egg in 1985 and even the Ghost in the Shell film in 1995, so the OVA looked promising enough but unfortunately this OVA, outside of its historical significance, offers very little in the way of substance.

Set in the future, Dallos tells the story of an ongoing conflict between the people of Earth and the people of the moon who were sent to said place as a means of using the moons resources in order to prolong life on Earth. However, feeling that they're under the tyrannical rule of the earthlings, the people of the Moon fight back leading to an all out war on both sides. And that's where my main piece of criticism stems from; I simply do not care what is going on.

Neither side of the conflict has any characters to feel a damn for so its hard to care for anyone who is fighting on screen. Never do any of the main characters on both sides of the conflict project any kind of goal or type of mentality into winning this war and instead feel like lifeless robots, especially Shun who joins the rebellion just because. Its hard to feel the narrative weight of this struggle for independence when none of the characters are interesting to watch. The only kind of interesting character was Alex whose ideology and personality were a bit more fleshed out then the rest of the cast but still felt way too underdeveloped.

Another problem is the really bad pacing and lack of any flow between any of its scenes. The show moves at break neck speeds throughout its duration making it hard to keep track of or care for whatever is going on. Shun joins the rebellion for hardly any reason and not enough time is given to fleshing out his character or his ideals leaving him feeling like a bland robot. There is so much going on in this show that it's hard to keep track of without feeling like a mess

The main problem I have is with the show is how the themes and ideas are presented and how they all seem to clash awkwardly with one another. Nothing really feels all that developed or plays out in a satisfying way since none of the ideas presented are given any time or room to breathe. One idea that was never explained was in regards to a machine-like thing called Dallos that can apparently control the moon and even has its own type of consciousness. All we get are really vague speeches about how its a symbol for peace and nothing else beyond that. It could have been great if more time could have been spent on it, which is a shame too considering how well directed it is.

One great thing about this OVA however is the animation and the music. The general look and design for its characters and world are all great and there is no shortage of highly detailed mecha suits throughout the show. The action is very well done and entertaining to watch, even if I don't really care much for what is going on. The action scenes themselves were enough to keep me entertained throughout the show. Similarly, the music was great too with lots of tracks to keep you pumped for that 80S STYLE!

In conclusion, Dallos was a noble attempt at creating a action space show with lots of voilence along with some underlying themes of oppression but needed more time to work properly. As a spectacle alone I would recommend it if only the downtime wasn't so boring.

Despite being one of his first works, it is clear that Mamoru Oshii already had a flair for directing an anime with intricate political subplots, heavy themes of existentialism and intense combat.

However, it becomes clear; even from the first episode that all the ideas and concepts Mamoru Oshii had for Dallos was more fit for a 25 episode Tv series rather than a 4 episode ova. While the story is nicely interwoven with several subplots, half of them, including the many too-spontaneous acts of rebellion the the failure to explain the titular Dallo's true purpose are awkwardly explored and then disposed of altogether.
The ... only good thing I can give Dallo's story is its sense of scale. While the political situation is hardly well fleshed out, it is still enough to give the already epic combat scenes more punch. The action in most anime is usually more battle than total warfare; Dallos achieves the latter.

In such an overambitious plot, one thing is inevitable. In typical Oshii style, the characters end up slaves to the plot and central themes of the anime, having basic personalities and only reacting to the demands of the story. However, the character animation is absolutely superb and would tell you otherwise! Quite a shame.

It is quite clear now that this is a very flawed Ova and a underwhelming effort by Oshii; so why my high rating of 9/10?
Its the music and the art. The art isn't the greatest, though I am quite certain it was the pinnacle of art and animation for its time. The art designs are very above average but hardly jaw dropping.

The music on the other hand is absolutely perfect, to my tastes at least. Solidifying my opinion that early 80s/late 70s had the best music of any period of anime due to the residual influence of 70s pop music (which also happens to be the best decade of music). The Ost covers sweeping orchestra's mixed with memorable jazz funk fusion tracks. One of the best anime Osts I have ever heard.

In the end, Oshii's perchant for creating engaging military anime, the similarly militant/ space opera aesthetic of the art and especially the great music has a sum greater than its parts. Memorable scenes are created such as the cyborg dog attacks, armoured paratroopers, the raining of bullet casings, the light shows put on by Dallos and the moon graveyard (from the box art) to name a few. While many other animes are objectively superior, Dallos' memorable moments have an emotional impact that far surpasses them.

This ova may be interesting for anime history buffs who want to see the first ova made but it is a must watch for fans of military focused, sci-fi retro anime!

How could a show with ravenous cyberdogs and rocket-propelled moon-skiing be anything other than great? I guess when the story is less about those novel ideas and more an epic tale of Proletariat v. Bourgeoisie in Space.

Earth hasn’t been the happiest of planets these days. Lacking sufficient energy and dealing with increased pollution meant we had to look outside our pale blue dot to survive. Fortunately (or unfortunately as Dallos shows) that last hope happened to be a little dusty ball orbiting roughly a quarter-million miles away.

Sometime in the 21st century, the Moon was heavily colonized and turned into the biggest mining operation this side ... of the solar system. Things are finally getting better on terra firma, its inhabitants able to regain the idyllic days they used to know. Life on the Moon could hardly be worse. The Lunarites used to be hailed as heroes back home, but now everyone is so used to the return to prosperity that no one pays them any heed. Worse still, the ruling party on the Moon itself is treating them like worthless insects. So what is a subjugated group supposed to do?

Apparently if you’re not part of a union, it’s best to grab a gun.

Which is just about where I start asking little logical consistency questions I probably shouldn’t. Why are there any sorts of armaments on the Moon to begin with? Certainly there were no indigenous tribes of lunar rocks that needed quelling. That whole ‘vacuum of space problem’ necessitates that a strong infrastructure be developed before a single person is living lunarside. So wouldn’t you just arm your law enforcement with batons or cattle prods and call it a day? Aren’t you worried that a stray bullet or laser rifle pulse would blast a hole in the city’s protective dome and vent everyone faster than the air escaping this plot? And why the devil do you need fast hover cars with retractable stilt-legs when the population’s preferred form of locomotion are feet and the subway. And you do know where the latter stops occasionally, don’t you?

Characters also take a backseat in Dallos’ plot-driven narrative. It’s all about the struggle of the rebel workers against their overlords. Everyone is merely an archetype: the impressionable youth, unsure which side is right; the rebel leader with his insistence that the Lunarites deserve independence; the villain who must confront these rebels and a growing suspicion that the establishment may be unjust. While there are moments when they are conflicted as individuals, there is hardly much proof that they are anything other than pawns in the story’s telling and are ultimately interchangeable.

Even the plot feels strained. Granting that the present situation is sensible without argument broaches the question: why is this happening? Is there any benefit to the maltreatment of the Lunarites? How are they being hurt? All the men have barrel-chests and forearms as big as thighs, so they are obviously not being starved. There isn’t much romance going on, but there is nothing pointing to the fact that people are forbidden from falling in love and starting families. As best I can figure, the Lunarites just aren’t allowed to go back to Earth, but no one really seems to want to other than the nostalgic elders pining for halcyon days. This lack of concrete evidence really hampers one from hating the ruling body or cheering on the rebels.

Since this has been dubbed the very first OVA, I feel like I’m treading on hallowed ground and to be critical is to be sacrilegious. The plot and characters are shallow. That much is clear. The technical and artistic production, however, is fantastic. The animation is surprisingly fluid and the action constructed better than shows that were made a decade later. It’s violent, without being graphic. People die, but the carnage is understated. Costume design is… a little absurd, but forgivable.

Only in the 80s can you still get away with giving a girl a pink spacesuit without being laughed at or having your face slapped.

Instead of a desiccated series of moonbases on the lunar surface, the inhabitants live in built-up craters encased in bubble domes. There’s a breathable atmosphere, blue sky and clouds, and homes erected all along the inner walls that look like adobe pueblos out south-western America. Call it terraforming on a tiny scale, minus the greenery.

There really is a Man in the Moon too. For some reason, left unexplained, a mechanical face rests at the bottom of one particular deep crater. The Lunarites think it might be a god. Despite the mystery we never learn much about it, although I will say that it results in maybe the single coolest visual change to occur in an OP. Great imagery is the best Dallos has to offer. At one point we see a statue depicting a host of people either climbing towards, or being crushed by, the Moon. Even the lunar graveyard is hauntingly poetic, impotently staring at the planet it cannot reach and unable to turn away due to synchronous rotation.

The music is so totally 80s. You just can’t not love it. From the grand sweeping orchestration of the OP with its violins and flutes to the slightly-poppy synthesizer bits throughout. It makes you wonder why dramatic moments in today’s shows always have to sound so, well, dramatic. Where has the sense of fun gone? Why can’t action have a happy theme song?

Dallos stops short of being a space-based rumination on communism, but it also stops short of a lot of things. What moments of poetry and introspection exist are not woven into a pleasing whole. I can’t recommend it, but I can’t dissuade you from it either. If you’d like a quick two-hour hop into an action-centric show, you’ll probably be entertained. Anyone searching for further depths will only find the cold depths of space.

Explore at your own risk.

After watching Dallos, I was a tad disappointed.
I put too much hope in it, I suppose...
Think about it: the first ever OAVs, an ambitious director - Mamoru Oshii - who successfully directed at first Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer, a newborn studio, some noteworthy collaborators like Hiroyuki Namba...

So why did it bomb ? In my opinion, this title was full of potential, but clearly misguided. Studio Pierrot is not Madhouse, if you catch my drift. While SP's staff isn't incompetent nor inexperienced, they're not flawless. Look at animation: it is painfully ropey, specially during action scenes. I'm not exacting about it, but it frankly remains ... a key aspect, in this very case. Too bad because they're not too shabby, apart from that...
I'll be abrupt though: Dallos would even be way better if they were more unobtrusive. Instead of focusing to McCoy's radical group combat against Moon's directorship, drama needed more work. In fact, I can hardly sympathize with miners' disputations: they don't seem to starve to death, they live on nice, spacious, clean adobe houses with all their families, they're allowed to worship Dallos, they have a beautiful park with frisking swans...
Of course, a miner's life is far from being paradise, but this is close to be the best that can be offered to them. ID headbands for everyone ? Isn't this because of said terrorist group ? If earthlings are proslavery, it doesn't show well.

Now, allow me to draw a parallel between Dallos and a book from Emile Zola, Germinal. In the latter, workers' daily life is depicted with heaps of details. As you finish to read, you get their motivations to stand against their rulers: mutual and blatant incomprehension, miserable wage just high enough to survive, absurdly high working hours, no possible labor union, outdated conditions of work...
You understand what I imply by "misguided", now ? That's right, I think it could have been finer if half of serie was centered around average Lunarians point of view, putting aside actual battles. Hell, even Dallos point of view would cut it. In the actual anime, we're left clueless about its condition. Is it a monument, a temple, an actual God ?...
To think it's only scripted as a sentient battlefield is sad.
And you know it's bad when you find yourself rooting for Alex Riger in place of Doug and Shun ! Yay, they're supposed to be the good guys, after all.

Imagery is beautiful. Shots of the moon stations, vessels, Dallos Itself...
But as I stated it doesn't particularly strengthen the drama. Definitely lacks depth in that regard. Same with the characters, they try to sound stylish, but I don't stick with their respective ideology to begin with. They're boring for the most part.
The sole breath of fresh air is Alex. Because he's not your generic evil bureaucrat. At some point, he even questions legitimacy of his function. That makes him remotely likeable, unlike rest of the cast. Also, he may have tight jodhpur pants but he has sideburns. Sideburns are manly, therefore it's dope :s

I don't have much to say about character design. It's simple, functional, devoid of out of place fantasy. It's good by my standards. On the other hand, general mecha design betrays title's age. Not like it's important since storyline doesn't dwell on showcasing different technologies used by our futuristic civilization, anyway.

Music wise, it's groovey. Synthetic boogie will accompany you throughout the four episodes. Deal with it. If you don't have a knack for it, Hiroyuki Namba's score will likely annoy you. As an enthusiast retro watcher, I do enjoyed it. In any case, opening theme has my total approval ! It has that mystic and yet dramatic tension tied to it...
Too bad entire soundtrack wasn't composed with that main idea in mind.

All in all, it's an affair of genre development: Oshii wanted to appeal both scifi fans and drama lovers at the same time. Former aspect isn't far from being subpar, latter isn't very well conducted, not enough to highlight Dallos' contribution in Japanese animation History.

It's a forgettable, inconclusive, sometimes tedious show. I can't say it blew my mind. However, it's unfair to say it completely sucks. It doesn't...
Not too demanding science-fiction afficionados who digs depressing ends to their animes would surely wanna keep it for rainy days.

The worst thing Oshii has ever laid hands upon. Rebels fighting the government for four episodes. Both sides feel generic and unconvincingly brought about, probably due to the staff forcing their conflict into the narrative without fleshing things out enough so the audience could actually give a shit. Self-serious exploration of a theme that goes nowhere thematically, and the drama is cringeworthy with eye-rolling interactions, contrived chemistry and a final sequence that pretends to be epic while being just hard to sit through. Basically, 80s cheese trying to be more than what it is and whose only redeemable aspect would be Oshii's directing, which to ... be honest is far from noteworthy in here. How he went from this to directing one of the most beautiful pieces of arthouse ever in little more than a year remains a mystery to me.

Dallos as we know it would serve better as an intro to a full fledged series. Unfortunately, it's short run leaves it feeling short of fully developed and short of fantastic.

The story line to Dallos is well rounded. You have a love story, a story of jealousy, a story of neglect and a story of revolution. With all these avenues working in harmony, which I commend as well done, I felt that by the time we reach the end, I'm left wanting more. While I understand that this OVA was really the emotional journey of one man, it builds a world with rich depth that ... is begging to be explored. If you like Star Wars, you'll find a lot of similarity to the general premise of Dallos.

Art is about average. There really isn't anything to note. At times it can feel a bit awkward animation wise, but those moments are few and far in between. Similarly with sound, if it were without the great score, the sound would be average. I don't think the voicing is particularly spectacular although it does have it's moments. The score is what sets the sound high. In my opinion, the score is on par with many other forms of media, including Hollywood productions. It does feel dated, making use of synths, but more than perfect for it's time period.

Character quality is just okay. We really only see development in Rachel and Shun. While some of the other characters might undergo development, it's hard to say for sure, as we'd need more episodes to confirm any growth.

Overall, Dallos is enjoyable to watch, but I feel it's short run and lack of additional stories, hurts the series overall as the world is rich with possibilities.

Dropped after one episode. This OVA basically seems like an exercise in Mamoru Oshii atonally spitting Existentialist ideas at you. And because existentialism tends to be about chance and external meaninglessness, this show structurally holds together like plumbing held together with gum and tape. Why bring the protagonist home when that's the first place the police will look? Why break him out if it's only going to make more trouble for him later on? Don't ask me.

This review originally appeared on my blog.

Dallos is an anime that reminds me a lot of what got me into anime in the first place. I came into anime as a fan of science fiction and fantasy, and I came in through OVAs and films like Akira, Demon City Shinjuku, Ghost in the Shell, and Record of Lodoss War. So, when I found out that Dallos, an anime considered to be the first OVA (or one of the first alongside the Cream Lemon series), and which was directed by Mamoru Oshii (who also directed Ghost in the Shell and Angel’s Egg – which I’ve previously ... reviewed), had been licensed by Discotek Media, and later made available for streaming on Crunchyroll, I put it on my to-watch list.

As far as the premise of Dallos goes, it borrows a little bit from the concept of Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, in particular the book’s first act. The anime is set on The Moon. As with Heinlein’s novel, the moon has been built as a colony to provide needed materials (ore and other raw materials) to Earth. However, in Heinlein’s book, the moon’s colonists were political dissidents and prisoners, while in the original colonists were workers who chose to work to build the lunar colony, with the agreement that they would settle there.

The protagonist of the series, Shun Nonomura, is a third generation inhabitant of the colony or “Lunarian”. While the first two generations have a distinct sense of loyalty to Earth – the first generations having gone to the Moon to work for the betterment of Earth, and the second generation having inherited their parents sense of obligation – the third generation Lunarians don’t have the same sense of obligation. They have never seen Earth – indeed, the colony is on the dark side of the moon, and the Lunarians are forbidden to travel to the moon’s near side so they could see the Earth. The main unified belief among the three generations is a reverence to “Dallos” a mysterious giant head, built with incredibly advanced technology, that was uncovered during the development of the colony.

The lack of personal experience of Earth or ability to travel to Earth, combined with the poor treatment of the colonists by the administration, has lead to a revolutionary movement in the settlement, and this leads to the focus of the story, as Shun and his childhood friend Rachel, are caught up in the separatist movement lead by Dog McCoy, which is contending with counterinsurgency efforts by the civil administrator, Alex Leiger.

The first half of the anime borrows a lot from films like Battle of Algiers, as it follows the efforts of the revolutionaries as things escalate further and further, and Shun is brought more and more involved, before the last two episodes in the series bring things into open revolt and almost into something resembling a real-robot anime.

I can’t really review this show without getting into the ending. The ending of the series feels like the end of an act break, as opposed to an actual satisfactory conclusion. There has been a narrative arc, with rising action to a climax, and then some denouement, with characters being in different places than they were at the start of the series. However, it doesn’t really have any resolution. The moon is still under the thumb of Earth (and things are about to get worse), and in spite of Dallos itself becoming a major part of the conflict which changes things dramatically in the series final part, not only do we not know what Dallos is, no-one is taking this as an incentive to make a more concerted effort to find out what Dallos is.

It feels like this show was pitched as a 12 episode OVA, and early in production they decided to make it a 4 episode series instead, and if it did really well, it would get another 4 episodes, but it never did quite well enough to get those final parts. Unfortunately, co-writer Hisayuki Toriumi passed away in 2009, so I don’t know if we’ll really get a resolution to this story.

Dallos has some historical value behind it being the first official OVA and all that but otherwise it's a rehash of a Earth vs Space colony story without any meaningful interactions on it. The basic premise is already in the synopsis and it doesn't get much beyond that.

The whole plot revolves around younger generation of moon colonists resisting the regime forced upon them by Earth government that treats them like cattle who are marked with number rings on their forehead and exist to mine resources to pay off the debt to Earth. I don't remember the show ever explaining why anyone would move to ... the moon knowing they will be pretty much wage slaves for many generations until they return what Earth has invested into them. It also doesn't explain why after that anyone would agree to work under the conditions that are apparently so bad it made a lot of 3rd generation settlers to revolt. I'm only going off of what Dog says cause as far as visuals go we do see that settlers don't live the most luxurious lives and they do have to wear the rings on their forehead which can be rather humiliating but otherwise they're not shown to be awfully miserable in their situation. Still though without the OVA giving the viewer much information I can at most wonder why did they move on the moon, it would be better if show just threw in some reason like it's basically space australia and they sent in a bunch of prisoners for whom working in a mine on an isolated rock in space is preferable to either prison or death.

The OVA also tries to make you care about Dallos, which is basically some machine god embedded into the Moon, settlers are shows to pray to it as if it's some sort of god and older settlers always refer to it like some deity and there are only vague things you learn about it now and then like at some point people had to seek refuge inside the thing and it was apparently built by someone who was on the Moon before them but you never get any proper, concrete information and with how much the show likes to bring it up I don't think it's the best idea to keep viewer in the shadows, it doesn't make it seem mysterious it just makes it seem like a plot device.

What I'll give Dallos a bit of credit for is that it doesn't treat either side as either just good or just bad and has nuance within both. While it's hard to sympathise with guerillas without their allegedly miserable living conditions being all that bad you can still kinda sympathize with them a bit based on what IS shown. There's also a perspective of older generation that avoids fighting because despite their frustration they understand that the conflict will likely improve their situation in the long run. Similarly while there are less Earth character in this we still get people who can relate to opposing side.

However in every other respect the show falls flat. There's a small betrayal subplot on the Earth side that's a little nonsensical and hard to care about cause individually most characters are about as interesting as a rotten potato. It's not interesting to follow them and hard to care about happens about them. The show is mostly plot driven anyway but that means the romance subplot is as boring as mandatory romance subplots usually are.

When it comes to art it's a bit better. The character design is rather standard for 80s, some silly haircuts here and there, there's a clear distinction between Moon and Earth characters, pretty much every woman is a babe and every adult man is a meat brick with muscle pipes growing out their killer pecs and bulldozer buttocks. What I'll commend are the mechanical designs on the sides of guerillas, at the start of the show we see one of the characters mess with a hydraulic robot arm which later gives the leader of guerillas an idea to use them as a weapon, at first he just uses one to wear on himself and breaks down a prison wall but later on they start utilizing their mining robots for battle and it does some hints of industrial equipment in its design which looks pretty sweet. On Earth's side though we mostly just get generic space fighters and rather bad looking suits of armor with a boring color scheme and way overdesigned helmets.

When it comes to animation it's not one of those OVAs with ridiculously good animation but it's still rather well animated which makes occasional fights a somewhat fun watch. While it's not as fluid as usually expected from overblown 80s productions it still has some style to make it worth watching.

Overall I wouldn't recommend this to anyone cause there's hardly anything to gain from it but if you do it's not gonna be too terrible of a time and it's only two hours.

Knew nothing about this show before going in and was completely blown away. Animation was phenomenal. Bluray remaster looked fantastic. It has everything you want from the sci-fi action genre: mech battles, spaceship battles, AK47 battles, laser explosions, basically nonstop gorilla warfare. It probably should have been called moon wars. It's too bad the 4 short OVAs weren't enough time to tell a completed story, but also this is quite normal for old-school OVAs. Surprisingly not a lot of gore in this, but when it does show up it is quite shocking. It's an absolute must watch for fans of 80s style animation.