Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still was a 90s OVA. It was awesome. It was the good old days. It was an homage to the legendary Mitsuteru Yokoyama, one of manga's earliest icons. Unlike what you'd expect, it wasn't a mecha anime so much as an old-fashioned Japanese superhero anime, a kind of style that's gone to the wayside with the advent of fight shonen anime. The titular Giant Robo appears for a fraction of the OVA's time and is mainly a symbol for both Yokoyama's legacy and Japan itself, as made obvious by its patterned design. Yokoyama himself created the first giant robot series ever with Tetsujin 28-go. In the middle of the Giant Robo OVA's production, a side OVA was made starring Ginrei, one of the main characters. It sucks.
The three episodes of this "Ginrei Special" are very different from each other, but alas, none of them are good at what they do. The first episode entails Ginrei getting captured by Alberto and put on a joke "trial" for the many times she's thwarted Big Fire's plans. Each time, Ginrei explains that she was actually doing what she did for the sake of good. Which doesn't change their point that she's "guilty" of doing all of this, but whatever. The nonsense doesn't stop there however, as an elaborate body swapping plot that had no need to be done is explained and we go from being very bored to being very confused. Then it's over. 20 minutes and the whole thing takes place either in Ginrei's bedroom or Big Fire's hideout, which is almost all pitch black shadows. Classic spin-off OVA budgeting. Every scene Ginrei is in is meant to highlight her sexuality or body in some way, but it doesn't even show the good bits so no one wins. It's not funny, and it doesn't use Giant Robo's characters or universe for any uniquely delivered jokes.
The second episode is much more involved and has an actual plot yet it somehow makes even less sense. Daisaku (a little boy) gets completely drunk and steals Ginrei Robo, a giant robot meant to look exactly like Ginrei, and joins Big Fire in order to put on a live idol concert. "It's funny because it's random" is the mantra here, but I personally can't laugh at any joke that has zero set-up. They at least try a bit harder to derive the humor from Giant Robo's setting this time. The jokes with the characters are done in contrast to their personalities, and mecha humor is of course very natural in Giant Robo. There's a lot of parodying classic super robot anime in this one. Ginrei Robo gets its own theme music and opening animation which is the highlight of the whole episode right at the beginning, and there's a fight with the drunkenly evil Daisaku in a new robot. This is perhaps the most valuable section of the OVA, if only because Ginrei Robo appears in every Super Robot Wars game that Giant Robo does. They got pretty desperate. Once again, every single scene Ginrei is in highlights her sexuality or body in some way.
The last episode is sadly the longest yet. A half hour special that actually attempts a more serious plot. It takes place out in the desert and is framed like a western. Ginrei and Tetsugyu come to the desert to search for a missing research team. They run into a former outlaw who's taking care of the son of a man he killed, unbeknownst to the kid. What follows is a completely generic western redemption plot with boring original characters that lack the eccentric personality traits of Giant Robo's original cast, all wrapped up in tropes. None of this story is special or interesting, which means it sure feels long and boring. Nothing that happens here matters canonically and none of it is fresh or cool. Perhaps most notably, Ginrei actually avoids being sexualized for most of the episode save for the obligatory fanservice scene. Almost made it! For some reason, most original characters here are made to resemble the regular cast. Like the rest of this episode, it means nothing.
I considered my expectations reasonably low entering this OVA, but it really is totally devoid of anything interesting save for bonus Super Robot Wars knowledge. It doesn't develop the world of Giant Robo in any way, and because it doesn't capitalize on anything that was good about the original OVA it does not feel satisfactory to a fan desperate for more. It feels like something else because it is something else: a terribly unfunny comedy that fails in conveying why anime's traditional origins can still be idolized and idiosyncratic in the modern era. Unlike Giant Robo, everything in Ginrei Special is stale and derivative. I recommend anyone skip it.
