Reviews

Giant Robo is a remarkably strange anime. it's opening episode starts in media res and through exposition and characters' interactions we are made to feel that we are being caught up with a story previously seen on a lenghty classical 80s anime and what we are about to see is the crowning arc of the tale that had not been previously animated. We get hintsand glimpses of a succession of robots defeated in the past, of deep seated rivalries, origin stories, mysteries, and character arcs. However, when you take a minute to check if you maybe should watch that series before you watch this, you realise that there's not such a thing. And when you decide to go to the manga for the original source, you find out that it was a short, rather silly spy thriller with a few names that you may recognise and a Giant Robo that looks so goofy as to be near unrecognisable.

You realise, then, that you were had and that GR:TA successfully packed massive amounts of worldbuilding in what was pretty much a fake recap for something that never existed.

The series then proceeds to touch upon and develop several important and profound themes such as energy crises, the irrationality of nuclear panic, the burden that parents put on their children when they expect them to carry on with their legacies, the perils of the recklessness of progress, and whether happiness and peace can be achieved without sacrifice. This is a quote from the series that shows how heacy it can go with those themes:

"For oil, man once fought and killed the whale. Later, they fought and killed each other."

Watching some of the scenes in the first couple of episodes, it's hard not to imagine a disgruntled anime director, one Hideaki Anno, watching it the year it was released and getting some inspiration and ideas for an inconsequential anime he'd create shortly after. But I digress.

In addition to the impressive worldbuilding and powerful themes, the series also sported extremely well crafted animation, a potent soundtrack, and appealing character design that married a retro aesthetic to the best of the early 90s sensibilities. So why, you must be wondering, did I only give 7 to this OVA?

Unfortunately, too enamoured with its themes and the pure spectacle it offered from one impressive action set to the next, the story was extremely liberal with the way it pushed suspension of disbelief. Powerful, moving, or thrilling scenes often came as result of near non-sensical or pointless actions by the characters to the point that it was obvious that the big moments were planned first and the connective tissue was haphazardly woven after the fact. Similarly, dramatic twists and reveals were masked by the use of devices or artifice that was jarringly unbelieavable even in a setting with giant robots and superhumans. Had this sort of thing happened only a few times, it would have not been enough to detract from the great elements of the series. However it happened frequently enough that by the end, it all had aggregated on a nettling buzz of annoyance at not being able to apply the slightest amount of critical thinking to developments and characters actions without they crumbing down in front of your own eyes.

Still I recommend this series and I don't regret watching it, and I don't think you will, either.