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Note: familiarity with both the 2004 Tetsujin series Imagawa also directed and the Giant Robo OVA is helpful in understanding this review. They're both incredible, please watch them if you're a fan of mecha and haven't yet. You can watch this without having seen the series but I do not recommend it as it assumes familiarity with the main characters.

It's no secret that Imagawa himself wasn't happy with how this film turned out, and it sharing its name ("Zangetsu" - the lingering moon) with one of the Magnificent Ten from his Giant Robo OVA has led some to believe that Imagawa just used this ... opportunity to animate one of the chapters that would have chronologically preceded the OVA ("The Birth of Zangetsu the Midday"), but replacing all of the characters with Tetsujin 28 characters. Shotaro's older adopted brother, while not featured in the original manga or any of its previous adaptations, does bear resemblance to some of Yokoyama's characters. The same goes for the apartment manager he lives with, who is based on a character from Sangokushi.

The backgrounds are as good as the show, though for a movie it's merely the expected standard, and the animation as well is decent but nothing noteworthy; character acting's almost nonexistent and the film only has a few robot fights (one of which reuses footage from the first, though for plot-related reasons). The visual presentation of the finale will be extremely familiar to you if you've seen Giant Robo.

Tetsujin himself is practically a background character, and while it does attempt tackling some of the same themes as the series, the short length prevents both the impact and depth it presented. Though I do appreciate how it depicted some aspects of the era not present in the series, like the unexploded bombs or repatriated soldiers.

If you liked Takamizawa and Kenji in the series, here they act essentially out of character, Kenji presumably because he hasn't gone through the trauma of having lost his brother (though he strangely still acts as a journalist for one scene), but Takamizawa is just inexplicable. The rest of the cast who do act the same as in the series lack depth across the board due to not having experienced the same events.

The antagonists' (there are multiple) motivations range from shallow to a tad incomprehensible, and some of them are just trivialized versions of the same antagonists from the series.

All this said, it's a passable film overall that I don't regret spending my time on, but there's no loss in skipping it.

Overman King Gainer is the lesser-known TV anime Yoshiyuki Tomino created and directed between the acclaimed Turn A Gundam and the infamous Reconguista in G. While it's definitely more in line with G-Reco than Turn A and shares a lot of the idiosyncrasies Tomino would be derided for in the former, it's significantly more restrained. You could view this as it being less ambitious, which is true to a certain extent, but the average viewer is likely to find greater enjoyment in King Gainer. If you are a fan of either of the two works I mentioned, Tomino in general, or just a lover of ... the mecha genre then this is definitely worth checking out.

The plot is quite simple, and supposedly based on a series of French novels (of which there are 97!) called "La Compagnie des glaces," or "The Ice Company." It follows Gainer Sanga, a skilled teenage gamer, who is one day dragged out of his high school classroom and arrested on suspicion of collaborating in an Exodus - something he'd never even dream of doing. He escapes with the help of a man named Gain Bijou and follows him for a while, before discovering Gain is an Exodus specialist who's been hired by some of the populace to coordinate one out of the Domepolis (a domed city) Gainer lives in, and before Gainer knows it he's stolen an antique Overman mech, assisted in kidnapping a princess, and been pulled into the Exodus scheme.

This involves a line of enormous City Units that are pulled by smaller tugboat-like vehicles called Silhouette Mammoths. Their destination: their ancestor's homeland of Yapan, where they hope to live away from the control of the Siberian Railway corporation which holds significant power in the Domepolis, it being the only source of new supplies. The main sources of conflict for them are the SR's attempts to stop the Exodus, as people leaving the Domepolis means less tax revenue and sales from the goods they transport (Tomino's not being very subtle here), and the London IMA organization, which owns the Domepolis and seeks to capture Gain for reasons concerning his past.

If some of this terminology is confusing, that's because it only really starts to makes sense in context. What's more complicated than the plot in King Gainer, as in G-Reco, is the setting. There's a small description in the OP but it doesn't tell us any specifics of the Domepolis our story begins in, Wulgusk, and neither do any characters for the most part. Exposition is sparse, and important character and worldbuilding details are given away in casual conversation then rarely repeated. You'll have to pay attention to pick up on all the details, but the setting here also isn't really as important to understanding everything as it is in G-Reco nor is it anywhere near as complex.

Making Gainer an individual who opposes the Exodus initially is a good move, though, because not only does it set up his character arc and allow the audience to learn about the details behind the Exodus, including the type of people who advocate it, it also creates an entertaining dynamic for interactions. King Gainer is filled with colourful personalities and fun interactions from and between all factions involved. Gainer is surprised to find out that both his teacher and the girl he crushes on in his class, Sara, are involved in the Exodus. The kidnapped princess Ana Medaiyu, a self-proclaimed "pitiable hostage," is more enthusiastic about the situation than anyone else. She and the rest of the people on the Exodus are developed surprisingly well both as individuals and as a group with a common identity throughout the show, and this is partially thanks to episodes that revolve around their antics: a supply raid on a lone Siberian Railway train, or a silly relay race to name a couple of examples.

While the point about corporations exerting control over people's lives is hammered in quite heavily, especially early on, the lighthearted tone (best exemplified in the series' catchy opening and claymation eyecatches) overall ensures that fun is prioritized over any kind of dull thematic lectures, and this is a positive - the representatives of the Siberian Railway are more bumbling fools than angry, vengeful capitalists. Even when the Exodus is forced to take in a large group of refugees they don't really have the supplies to accommodate, the unwavering sense of optimism that permeates the series seems to brush over it and insist that everything will be alright.

For TV anime standards the animation is fantastic, allowing for mecha fight choreographies that are just as interesting as the eccentric designs of the Overmen themselves - worthy of special mention is episode 14, handled by studio Bones and featuring simply jawdropping animation by the legendary Yutaka Nakamura. There's plenty of fast movement in scenes, and what's just as impressive as the mechanical animation is the detail put into animating the ice and snow breaking apart when a mech is hurled into the ground of the frozen tundra. You likely wouldn't think there are many opportunities to make use of the Siberian wasteland environment in fights, but this anime proves you wrong as early as the third episode.

Part of this is due to the creative abilities, or Overskills, the Overmen possess. King Gainer's first major opponent is an Overman that can stop time, and yes, this does lead to some scenes that feel heavily inspired by DIO from Stardust Crusaders (slightly unrelated but it's also amusing that there's a character voiced by Takehito Koyasu who more than slightly resembles Phantom Blood Dio). That's just the jumping off point for a range of unique and sometimes ridiculous Overskills. An episode featuring an Overman whose Overskill allows people to hear each other's thoughts produces one of the best episodes of anime I have ever seen. The titular mech has a gun that's also a chainsaw!

Their designs are contrasted by the grunt-type units the rest of the characters use, the Silhouette Machines, which are less explicitly humanoid and more militaristic in design, though not without their quirks. Gain's sniping unit, the Gotchko, has one thin skeletal arm and one muscular beefy arm. Turn A Gundam's the closest reference point I can think of here, and indeed the mechanical designer for this, Yasuda Akira (who would later also design for Code Geass and G-Reco), designed Turn A's characters, so there may be some inspiration from Syd Mead's mecha designs on that production involved here.

As far as the actual art itself, particularly for the characters, it's rather standard; as are the backgrounds except when they're depicting the awe-inspiring City Units - granted there isn't much you can do given the setting. More detail likely would have hampered the animation quality, so it's a fair tradeoff, but the predominantly flat colours and shading are unlikely to impress most, and in this area at least it's the weakest looking anime of those that feature Kenichi Yoshida's always fantastic character designs (it should be noted that there is a slight but noticeable improvement towards the end). While watching I couldn't help but think how gorgeous it would be if it were animated in the same art style as G-Reco.

The soundtrack is just as bold and dramatic as the action it scores demands. I'm especially a fan of the track "in close combat" with its guitar riffs and trumpets.

The meaning of the word Overman is put to the test in the Devil Gu- I mean, Overdevil arc, comprising the last seven episodes and introducing just the kind of potentially-world-ending stakes perfect for capping off the series memorably - the ending is especially good. It also brings some classic Tomino themes with it in case you thought they were strangely absent.

In the end Overman King Gainer falls just short of Tomino's biggest achievements, but this is no fault of the anime itself - it achieves what it sets out to do in providing a thoroughly enjoyable experience with great mecha action and endearing characters.

Note: this review contains some spoilers beyond the premise but does not discuss conclusions of character or story arcs. It also refers to other works directed by Imagawa.

Built to contribute to the Pacific War effort but only completed after the Japanese surrender, the titular robot in Tetsujin 28-go (2004) was left on an island, abandoned now that it was without purpose. Ten years later it is resurrected, but what place does it have in this new era of peace for Japan? More than just a plot device or action scene prop, the nature of the mecha itself is examined in this series: its reason for ... existence (or lack thereof), especially as a metaphor for real world technology, and its relationship with both its controller and society. This and much more is explored in this adaptation of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's 1950s manga by renowned director Yasuhiro Imagawa.

I will be honest: coming into Imagawa's Tetsujin adaptation as the last of his mecha projects I viewed, my expectations were mixed. Though I had read some praise for it, it's also his least popular mecha series in the west by a decent margin. Can that be explained by the mere fact that Tetsujin 28-go's following is almost non-existent? Possibly. Lacking both the popularity of a franchise like Gundam or Mazinger Z, or the high budget epic allure of Giant Robo, that Tetsujin 28-go would slip through the cracks into obscurity is understandable. Nevertheless I thought that if it were truly great it would at least have a little more recognition. That seems to have been a mistake: this is certainly one of the finest mecha anime ever made, and debatably Imagawa's best work.

It's "debatably" mostly because I'll be the first to defend Giant Robo's greatness if it's brought into question, but also because if you are familiar with his works, he implements variety while sticking to common elements, making comparing them in the first place a bit of a pointless exercise. Giant Robo, G Gundam, and Shin Mazinger Z may all be mecha series with various stylistic intersections like martial arts but their goals, tone, scale, and more differ wildly from each other. The same is true for Tetsujin 28-go, which I'm inclined to say separates itself the furthest from any of the previous mentioned. Like the other mecha projects he wrote in addition to directing (all of them except for G Gundam), Imagawa is extremely ambitious here. It's not the ambition that led to the seamless blending of characters from multiple works into one bold epic narrative as with Giant Robo, nor the reminagining that centers events around a secondary antagonist from the source while attempting to cram as many plot twists as humanly possible into the story as with Shin Mazinger Z. What Imagawa is going for in Tetsujin 28-go, and I'm glad to say that he succeeds magnificently, is thematic focus. There are specific ideas here which he wants to explore, and does so extremely effectively. Though I can't say how much of it is taken directly from Yokoyama, having not read the manga (which isn't available in English at the moment), the auteurist aspects of the direction still solidify this adaptation as Imagawa's through and through.

There's a solid cast of characters here, but two of them deserve the most attention for their importance both narratively and thematically: Shotaro Kaneda, the boy detective and our protagonist who finds himself in charge of operating Tetsujin No. 28, and Kenji Murasame, the ex-intelligence officer.
Shotaro is born at the end of the war and, with no parents to guide him, must decide his own morals in this new "peaceful" post-occupation era. Fortunately for him, he has some help in the form of Police Chief Otsuka and Professor Shikishima. Kenji, meanwhile, has lived through it, lost friends and family, and during his experience developed a deep disdain for any and all weapons of war. Tetsujin is no exception, and early on his driving motivation is to destroy or otherwise rid Japan of it. But the story has other plans, and the same events that become instrumental to developing Shotaro's values simultaneously test Kenji's: the post-war era as experienced by both the youngest generation and its predecessor.

The series grounds its plot in real historical context, referencing events such as the Mitaka and Matsukawa trail derailment incidents of 1949, the space race, the Ueno zoo animal euthanizations, and of course the war itself. A recurring element of the series is that many of the antagonists Shotaro faces are normal people transformed by their involvement in these events: circumstances forced them to do bad and their lives were irreversibly changed as a result, and they find themselves incompatible with the new era defined by optimism and progress; emblematic of the maturity of the work is the fact that while it may take pity on them, the series never excuses their actions. The past in Tetsujin 28-go has an unavoidable influence on the present, whether it be good or bad, and through the eyes of Shotaro we learn about the nature of the society Yokoyama would have been experiencing firsthand and writing about - notions present on the role of technology and foreign influences in Japan at the time, as well as its place in the world post-war perhaps reflect real anxieties that were in the public consciousness - and we witness too the effects it has on our protagonist.

Despite the giant robots this is very much a noir series tonally, and in typical detective noir fashion there are revelations when it becomes clear that the nature of the situations Shotaro faces are more complex than first anticipated, and/or previously unknown information comes to light. These are handled with ample amounts of foreshadowing so while the reveals may be surprising they never come across as unjustified or out of left field. I said I don't like to draw comparisons but when it comes to this I can't help but comment on (and praise) the level of restraint here compared to the later Shin Mazinger Z.

The animation is never spectacular, but Imagawa's talent for shot composition is on full display here and with excellent background artists supporting him the series is always visually captivating (here is an album containing a few shots from the first episode, plus others from throughout the series that don't spoil anything: https://imgur.com/a/usbqxPi). The setting of 1950s Japan, rarely utilized in anime, provides the opportunity for equally unique locations: the industrial docks and factories, the tram-laden streets of Tokyo, the lower class settlements. Simplistic character designs faithful to the original manga as well as the use of the same opening theme from the 1963 anime give it a retro feel. Being an early digital series it's unfortunately stuck in standard resolution, but this is not a complaint I can hold against it.
The score is effective and well suited to the noir tone of the series, adding tension to scenes when needed and enhancing dramatic moments, with a few memorable recurring tracks. Supposedly David Bowie's song "Space Oddity" played during a certain scene in episode 11 during the anime's television broadcast but it was replaced on the home media releases, and that version isn't available to view anywhere. What a shame.

Without spoiling, the ending of the series provides a satisfying and extremely memorable conclusion to the themes it's been pondering since the first episode, as well as completing Shotaro's coming of age. This is one that will likely stick with the viewer for a good while after finishing, but then, I could say that about the series as a whole.