hopeful_monster
Thousand Master
Dai Guard
The basic premise is that 13 years ago the Heterodynes attacked. Since they were impervious to traditional weapons they drop an OE bomb (read nuke), and set about building the titular giant death robot after finding out from the remains that the Heterodynes (weird shaped monsters, it was going on long before the Eva’s angels) can be defeated sustained force on a single point. The job of building it gets out sourced and a private firm builds the robot in readiness for the next attack, but after the 13 years no more heterodynes attack. Dai Guard is reduced to a company mascot and has standby pilots drawn from the PR department. Then heterodynes attack again.
The first thing I should say is this is nothing like Eva. Secondly its is firmly a kids show. So don’t expect metaphysical psychobabble, pseudo-religious undertones or anything like that. The monsters are bad and get mashed. The pilots are… well normal as giant death robots go, one’s a mecha fan boy (kinda like Gai Daigoji from Nadesico), one wants revenge cause the heterodynes killed her dad, and they other was uses it to pick up chicks. You also have the hard arse military liaison and the rest of the PR department, the board of directors, mechanics and whacked out genius who bares a striking similarity to Washu.
Thoughts on the less brilliant stuff first, then the better bits. Not quite sure how to put it but the zero body count really bugged me. It kinda reeked of the old GI Joe, or A-team stick of firing off more rounds of ammo an episode than are shot in some wars but some how nobody dies. Kills some of the realism, and yes I do know how silly that sounds. Also the heroes seem incapable of doing wrong, they can be bone headed, stupid, and crazy but never wrong. They also seem to rely on the 1 in 1000 long shot working 9 times out 10 far too often.
On the plus side While there is no over riding plot to the series there is a lot that threads the series together. There is a lot of development of the characters, both major and minor. There are lots of little things that, while don’t add anything major to the plot, add hugely to the world and characters that live and the sense that there is more going on than mashing heterodynes. There are also similar touches in the plot, things don’t come from nowhere and disappear again, there are warning tremors and aftershocks. Oh yeah its also funny, while you won’t be rolling in the isles it will keep a smirk on you lips and chuckle in your throat.
On the whole it’s a solid, if unspectacular, series. 7 ½*
The basic premise is that 13 years ago the Heterodynes attacked. Since they were impervious to traditional weapons they drop an OE bomb (read nuke), and set about building the titular giant death robot after finding out from the remains that the Heterodynes (weird shaped monsters, it was going on long before the Eva’s angels) can be defeated sustained force on a single point. The job of building it gets out sourced and a private firm builds the robot in readiness for the next attack, but after the 13 years no more heterodynes attack. Dai Guard is reduced to a company mascot and has standby pilots drawn from the PR department. Then heterodynes attack again.
The first thing I should say is this is nothing like Eva. Secondly its is firmly a kids show. So don’t expect metaphysical psychobabble, pseudo-religious undertones or anything like that. The monsters are bad and get mashed. The pilots are… well normal as giant death robots go, one’s a mecha fan boy (kinda like Gai Daigoji from Nadesico), one wants revenge cause the heterodynes killed her dad, and they other was uses it to pick up chicks. You also have the hard arse military liaison and the rest of the PR department, the board of directors, mechanics and whacked out genius who bares a striking similarity to Washu.
Thoughts on the less brilliant stuff first, then the better bits. Not quite sure how to put it but the zero body count really bugged me. It kinda reeked of the old GI Joe, or A-team stick of firing off more rounds of ammo an episode than are shot in some wars but some how nobody dies. Kills some of the realism, and yes I do know how silly that sounds. Also the heroes seem incapable of doing wrong, they can be bone headed, stupid, and crazy but never wrong. They also seem to rely on the 1 in 1000 long shot working 9 times out 10 far too often.
On the plus side While there is no over riding plot to the series there is a lot that threads the series together. There is a lot of development of the characters, both major and minor. There are lots of little things that, while don’t add anything major to the plot, add hugely to the world and characters that live and the sense that there is more going on than mashing heterodynes. There are also similar touches in the plot, things don’t come from nowhere and disappear again, there are warning tremors and aftershocks. Oh yeah its also funny, while you won’t be rolling in the isles it will keep a smirk on you lips and chuckle in your throat.
On the whole it’s a solid, if unspectacular, series. 7 ½*