Mecha Anime Ova
– a new feature where I go back in time and catch up on some of the classics and hidden gems of the mecha genre. Whether it was before my time or I simply missed out on them, it’s time for me to watch them and let you know why you should too!
In the future, robotics technology has advanced to the point where they figure into every aspect of society. The titular “Labors” are used for heavy construction and other tasks beyond the means of mere humans. However the rise of Labors has also led to Labor-related crime. The Tokyo police utilize their own fleet of labors, known as Patlabors, to deal with these incidents in the form of Special Vehicles Division 2. Noa Izumi, a bright young girl with a love of labors has just joined them. These are the stories of her and Division 2’s exploits.
. I knew the show was light-hearted, but I didn’t expect it to be so light on the mecha action and even police-procedural parts. The OVA is very much a character driven story, as you meet the various members of Division 2, from the excitable Noa to the trigger happy Ota to the troll extraordinaire Captain Goto, it quickly becomes obvious how much Patlabor is a child of the 80s era of anime. It’s fun, there’s some great mecha goodness when the animation allows it, and full of hijinks that marked the shows of the time. At its heart, Patlabor is basically a Slice of Life show that happens to have giant robots in it. Also that OP. Wow, talk about 80s. For a second there I thought I was watching
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One thing I really enjoyed was seeing labors in a more widespread usage. Too often mecha anime have giant robots that exist for the sole purpose of killing other giant robots. Here, those kinds of robots are the minority. It’s refreshing and does an amazing job of making the world feel a little more real.
Universe and I’m definitely going to try and watch the movies and the TV series when I have the time. That said, the episodic nature also made the 2-part finale all the more jarring in its attempt at drama. For better or worse, it was definitely something directed by Oshii, filled with men standing around while talking, political conspiracy, and robots doing robot things. Also, the last episode, which isn’t directed by Oshii, feels completely different. Considering the OVA itself is an adaptation of the manga, I suppose this can be forgiven, but it’s still quite jarring as well. In the grand scheme of things though, it’s fun and anyone looking to get into the franchise should start here.
Is clearly a product of the 80s. There’s the pop music, the facial expressions, the designs. However, it’s apparent in less obvious ways too. At its root,
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Is a pretty down-to-earth setting despite its sometimes over-the-top nature. There are no aliens to fight, no world-encompassing wars to win, no angsty teenagers with a chip on their shoulder. It’s about some regular people just trying to get by in a world quite similar to our own. These are not hardened men or elite SWAT guys (as much as Ota would like to be). Noa is delightfully cheery, especially when she’s fawning over her beloved Ingram, “Alphonse.” That kind of peppiness pervades
And almost feels foreign in the landscape of the modern genre. It’s the kind of story I don’t think could exist these days, at least not for the foreseeable future. It’s cheesy, the characters act with reckless abandon unbefitting of any self-respecting police force, and as you watch it, you realize it really doesn’t matter.
The designs themselves are also an example of some of the great concepts and ideas that were being created back then. The AV-98 Ingram is an immediately recognizable and iconic mech in its own right. Look at nearly any mech artist’s portfolio and you’ll see references to its design, from the wedge shaped head and bunny-ear style antenna to the forward jutting chest canopy. The mechanically practical feel to it really makes it seem like something that could be built, a design ethos that pervaded much of the 80s and early 90s of mecha. It’s a sleek piece of work, but undeniably one made by human technology. There’s a reason its design has endured through the ages. You see the silhouette of that head, and you’ll never mistake it for anything else.
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Is something to watch for anyone who’s grown tired of how “epic” the genre has become. It’s a story about some regular guys doing some occasionally irregular things. Mecha anime doesn’t have to always be so gargantuan in its scale, and sometimes the smaller scale makes it easier to connect with. It has the kind of campy irreverence of the time while still presenting something wholly easy to digest.
Is a light enjoyable piece of work and a great place to start if you’re looking into the kind of things that gave 80s mecha anime its distinctive feel.At an anime convention I attended over the summer, Alien Defender Geo-Armor: Kishin Corps (or Kishin Corps for short) was summarised to me as people fighting aliens and Nazi robots that shoot swastika lasers. With a description like that, obviously my interest was piqued and I immediately went home to download the 7 episode OVA series.
Based on a series of light novels by Masaki Yamada, Kishin Corps is set in an alternate history, specifically during World War II. Amidst the war and destruction, the planet is also hit by an alien invasion, but the two sides seem content on continuing their war despite this aggressive new threat.
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An orphaned teenager named Taishi suddenly finds himself at the center of a struggle over a mysterious black case entrusted to him by his father, Professor Tokamura. The case contains the controlling mechanism for one of the giant Geo-Armor Robots, and the Japanese Kanto Army, the alien invaders, and the Kishin Corps all want to recover the device. Between the spies, the armies, the aliens, and the Giant Robots, Taishi is in for an epic adventure - that is if he can survive it.
So with only seven episodes (well, eight if you take into account that the first is twice the length of the rest) you'd think Kishin Corps would stick to relatively simple story, whilst remaining engaging to the audience? As far as I was concerned, it didn't really achieve this at all. The episodes were really drawn out, with the action usually taking place in the last five minutes or so of each episode. Now I know that not every mecha series needs to have gratuitous shots of explosions (as much as I'd like it to), and that Kishin Corps is much more a gritty war-time piece, but any series that's going to have GIANT ROBOTS as a centrepiece needs to have some sort of money shot.
The characters themselves are pretty balanced, but none of them ever struck me as particularly interesting. The antagonists are pretty one dimensional, just your cliché evil soldiers with pointy noses and scars. The aliens are extremely bland - looking like humanoid turrets from the Portal video games, but lacking the personality. Or any personality at all for that matter. Why exactly the aliens are there in the first place is never quite explained, and the OVA has is pretty open ended, meaning a lot of questions remain unanswered. With more time to spread the story across and less dialogue heavy exposition, Kishin Corps could have been a bit more interesting.
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Which brings me to the question of why exactly Kishin Corps needed to be set in an alternate WW2. Other than the presence of Nazis (read: generic villains) the show also has the bizarre concept of having Eva Braun as a scientist who ends up joining the Kishin Corps. Other historical figures like Albert Einstein also pop up throughout the course of the OVA, but even then it doesn't feel like the setting is particularly integral to the story - any sort of fictional war or villains could have achieved the job just the same. Maybe even better, since its backdrop only worked as some sort of surreal incentive to watch the show in the first place.
The art style is...eclectic. While some of the characters seem particularly well designed, others are really simple by comparison - to the point where they don't really feel like they belong here. Characters with normal eyes and faces interact with ones with exaggerated proportions and black dots for eyes. And besides the aforementioned cliche villains, whoever designed the characters for Kishin Corps clearly thought that Taishi would look four years older by just stretching him. No, not quite.
The mecha designs are mixed. While the aesthetic certainly suits the tone and feel of the OVA (particularly the Nazi Kishin - the Panzer Knight, despite its lack of a proper swastika laser), the mecha won't really win any awards for being memorable.
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This turned out to be a particularly short review, because I genuinely don't
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