Change!! Getter Robo: Sekai Saigo no Hi

Abridged Review For People Who Don't Like Reading:

Getter Robo Armageddon is a show about giant robots thrashing the shit out of everything with glorious high quality animation. It could also totally kick Jupiter's ass.

Actual Review:

Getter Robo Armageddon - You have to be insane to enjoy this show.

Story

I'm not going to lie to you, the story is awful. It consists of all the typical BS you expect to find in anime and then some. There is incoherent babbling about evolution, a massive explosion that wipes out a good chunk of humanity, the "good guys" saving the Earth from the forces of evil despite the fact that ... almost all the Getter pilots are chaotic and insane (which according to the manga is practically a requirement to pilot Getter), some tidbits of SCIENCE which nobody actually cares about, and of course the solution to all of life's problems, which is to have a giant robot and be more awesome. Fortunately the story being so awful is what helps to make it entertaining. How am I supposed to enjoy characters being able to pull guns out of thin air, giant robots duking it out with other giant robots, aliens, or Jupiter, YELLING WHICH IS THE ONLY ACCEPTABLE FORM OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN MEN BESIDES THEIR FISTS, and explosions when there has to be a good reason for them? Exactly.

Characters

There are four types of characters in this show. The first is ordinary people. They are rare and should be kept away from the action unless you want to have to deal with zombies. The second is awesome people. These are most of the people involved in combat, which means most of the cast. The third is evil people. These are people who are easy to distinguish because of their ridiculous laugh and the fact that they won't freakin' die when they're killed. The fourth and final type is Ryoma. When you see Ryoma you know that someone is about to enter a world of pain. In summary, if you're looking for a show where you can't describe basically everyone with the word "badass" and the character development consists of more than a character going from "awesome" to "more awesome" this is not the show you're looking for.

Art/Animation

The art in this show is very gritty and '80s anime-ish, except pulled off a lot better than most '80s anime. For the most part it does a great job of staying true to the look of the various installments of the Getter Robo manga done by Go Nagai and Ken Ishikawa, meaning that the robot and character designs range from goofy and childish to tough looking and cool and that there are huge grins and crazy eyes galore. The animation is also surprisingly good. The range of motion is lacking compared to the best of stuff today, but there still tends to be a good amount of motion without the art quality being sacrificed in the progress. Thus it goes without saying that the high quality of the art and animation combined with the crazy mecha action elements makes for one of the best looking mecha shows available, despite the series being over a decade old now.

Sound

The soundtrack leaves me with few complaints. Both the opening themes are likable and hot-blooded and the typically rock/metal oriented tracks within the show fit the action well. I wouldn't actually listen to the soundtrack on its own, but the same goes for 99% of soundtracks out there. The voice acting is mostly very good, with everyone clearly knowing that if you aren't going way over the top in a super robot show you aren't doing it right. Dr. Saotome sounds a little too comically evil for my tastes, but then again the show basically turned him into Dr. Hell so I can't really fault his voice actor for that. Other than that I can't think of any problems I had with the voice cast considering everyone fit their roles well as opposed to sounding like they were picked due to their popularity like a lot of stuff nowadays.

Directing

According to the credits there were three different directors for this show over the course of the 13 episodes, but the main one was Yasuhiro Geshi who did the 2nd episode and episodes 6-13. Since doing this show he has directed a couple of episodes of GitS:SAC, New Getter Robo episode 8 (one of the best episodes in that great series), and Gurren Lagann episode 20 (Yoko/Yamako-sensei episode). While I wouldn't say his directing in this series was great necessarily, I can say that the guy knows how to direct some exciting action sequences. It certainly didn't hurt that he had a bunch of great animators to work with, but there clearly is a love for the material here that gives the show the type of soul and value that would've been lost had the directors not cared and simply phoned it in.

Of course then the question is raised, did he really direct the 2nd episode and did one of the other credited directors do episodes 1 and 3? This doesn't seem to be the case, or if they did they were solely the episode directors, as initially super robot enthusiast Yasuhiro Imagawa was the main director of the project. Due to some sort of undisclosed disagreement he was taken off the project after episode 3 however, which infuriates some of his fans. While I can agree that Imagawa probably would've helped the story make a lick of sense, I don't think the show would have been any better/worse had he stuck around as the insane action and high quality animation are really the driving force behind the quality of the series.

Final Thoughts

It really does take a special kind of crazy to be a fan of Getter Robo Armageddon. There is even a screenshot from the series floating around of Ryoma pondering, "What the hell is going on? It doesn't make sense at all!" If you can manage to fit into that mold of insanity even a little however, there is a ton to enjoy here as GRA is one of the most nonsensical, brimming with action, mind blowingly awesome anime series out there. Don't think, feel.

Peace

This review will be a bit biased because its from a fan of the manga, so lets dive in. First off I love the art design and animation, better than most OVAs today. Next, the story, while incredibly different from the manga, is really good. A bit preachy about evolution, but the manga is like that too, so they nailed that. The characters are pretty good, and they are given enough time to develop their character throughout. The sound is good, a lot of triumphent music, which isn't anything new for the super robot genre. Overall, every, new or old, ... mecha fan will enjoy this title, loved watching it all the way through.

Getter Robo Sekai Saigo no Hi (or Getter Robo Armageddon as it's usually called) is not a show that just anyone can hop in and enjoy. The only people who are going to find any true merit here and not write the show off as an absolute mess are people who are die-hard mecha fans and are an absolute sucker for hot-blooded mecha action with all the staples: yelling at the top of your lungs, announcing all of your attacks for an inane amount of time, gritty and angular character designs, yelling, exhilarating action sequences, transforming, combining, and more yelling.

The story isn't exactly nonsense, ... but it certainly seems that way given how poor of a job the show presents its plot points. Not visually, mind you: the animation of Getter Robo Armageddon is some of the best mecha action around, with every big moment having tons of great shots and ceaselessly detailed and dynamic movements, but story-wise presents its sequence of events clumsily at best, and plain not at all at worst. The writing is hyperbolic and juvenile, the acting is stilted and awkward save for a few characters, and it can be a bit of a chore to get through if you are a viewer who is actively trying to get interested in the story, and for this show that would be a mistake. Anime is a visual medium, and while your story is generally what should be the focus, and is where a lot of the deeper appreciation for any visual medium comes from, visuals are important too- doubly so since they are a method of storytelling on their own. This statement doesn't apply too well to Getter Robo Armageddon however, since it's a half and half series, one half being all of the cool shit: the character and setting design, creature effects, combination and transforming effects, mech action and battle scenes, and the adrenaline-fueled triumphant super robot schlock that mecha enthusiasts like me lap up, and the other half: the difficult to follow story, the confusing storyline decisions, poorly developed science and internal logic, poorly developed antagonists, the 1 dimensional side characters, etc., and whether or not this slapdash and clumsy approach to the show is a deal breaker for you really depends on your own preferences- are you someone who wants a compelling story AND gorgeous animation 100% of the time? Are you someone who is willing to overlook the bad aspects and focus on the good? Are you someone who goes into everything with 0 expectations? Whatever kind of viewer you are (and mind you none is better than the other) Getter Robo Armageddon is a show that will take some effort to find the good in. Even I, a trash-brain orangutan of a man who loves mecha to my dying breath 10 times more than any other anime subgenre had a rough time getting to the nuggets of gold that were in this show.

The soundtrack is absolute god tier and if you never give this show a watch at the very VERY least listen to the OST. Some of mecha's most hype orchestral arrangements combined with some disco and funk instrumentation for some of the battle tracks, and you have a diverse and stylish OST that is up there with some of the best mecha anime have to offer.

Getter Robo Armageddon is the definition of a 5/10: infinite technical competency, legendary shots and frames, influential to some of modern anime's true masterpieces, but narratively sloppy, lacking in compelling characters, repetitive, and difficult to sit through if you're not partial to mecha. I'm giving it a 6 because yes I AM a chimp and I like this show a smidge more than most people. Appreciate you reading this far.