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Giant Robo - The Day the Earth Stood Still (Vol. 1) Posters
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Rating:  -
If you, like me, think a "Premium DVD Collectors box" (Eye of Volger) actually contains the anime's 3 DVDs: it doesn't. It's a cardboard box and a plastic sphere. Anime sold separately.
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If you have ever gone back as an adult to watch one of the shows you loved as a kid, you know the feeling of disappointment you feel when it just doesn't move you like it did back then. Often you find yourself laughing at scenes that once made you cheer. Things that awed you now look cheesy, and all the low-budget flaws you never noticed back then now stand out like neon signs.
If you have ever found yourself wondering why on earth you loved those old shows, then Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still is a series you shouldn't miss. It is a loving tribute to the dozens of giant robot shows produced in Japan during the 1960 and 1970s. Sadly, most of those shows were never seen in America, but their effect was felt in the form of the toys (many of which were released over here in the "Shogun Warriors" line), and in the handful of shows that did make the transition; Gigantor, Tranzor Z, Voltron, and the like.
Giant Robo is a mid-1990s OAV series that is styled like one story arc (or season) of one of those old shows. It plunges right into the story with no time wasted on backstory or character introduction, and even ends with a teaser for next season. Of course, there never was another season in the works, nor was there ever a TV series. Giant Robo does take some of its basic design elements from an old live action show called Johnny Sokko, but the connection to that series is superficial at best.
Don't get me wrong. Giant Robo is not a parody of the classic giant robot shows, nor is it yet another doomed attempt to update an old favorite for a modern audience. Despite the cartoony, retro character designs, what sets Giant Robo apart is that it takes itself completely seriously from beginning to end. This is an homage in the truest sense of the word. It's everything that was cool about the old shows, done as their original creators would have done it, if they had had the time, manpower, and a real budget. You get all the over-the-top action, the drama, the bombastic dialogue, and the megalomaniacal monologues, without the poor animation quality, cheesy music, and general corniness that plagued the originals. In short, this is what the TV shows of your childhood dreamed of being, and a rare chance to remind yourself of what it was that you loved about them.
A word of warning though, if you are considering buying the "Premium Collector's Box:" While it is not made clear in the ads, this is NOT a boxed set of the complete series. It's just what it says: A collector's BOX. The price is a little misleading. Essentially, you are buying the first volume of the DVD series, and spending the remaining 40 bucks on an empty plastic box. It's novel, but hardly worth what they are charging for it.
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Giant Robo is a world where the energy problem has been solved by the creation of the wondrous Shizuma drive. The Shizuma drive is cheap, clean and reusable leaving the world in a relatively idyllic state. Unfortunately things aren't so neat and tidy below the surface. Security is constantly threatened by Big Fire or the `BF Society' as this version of the OVA calls them. Big Fire differentiates itself from most `evil organizations' by actually being incredibly competent. The society works in league with the Magnificent Ten, a group of super humans that are more than a match for just about anyone or anything they come up against. Compounding the threat from Big Fire is the sudden resurfacing of the Shizuma drives' dark history. Defending the world is the Experts of Justice, the Big Nine and of course Giant Robo and his handler/friend, the young Daisaku Kusama.
Giant Robo is an enigmatic OVA. Supposedly the anime is inspired by an old live action television show called Johnny Sokko. When you watch each episodes opening credits it shows scenes as if from previous episodes. The confusion continues as characters are suddenly thrust into the cartoon without any background information. It all adds up to give the impression that `Operation Earth Stand Still' is just one part of a larger cartoon series which it is not. Apparently there was a tremendous amount of material written for Giant Robo including character backgrounds and even other stories that were never created. For instance Magnificent Ten member, Shocking Alberto, talks about a history with Big Nine member Taisou where Taisou apparently caused the death of his friend Cervantes and cost Alberto his right eye. None of these events are actually in the OVA. Much of the character backgrounds can be found on the internet.
What sets Giant Robo apart is the complexity and maturity of the script and the beautiful music provided by the Polish philharmonic orchestra. They say that the measure of a hero is the challenges they must overcome and in this case the Experts of Justice are truly heroic because Big Fire is a ferocious foe. How ferocious? A single member of the Magnificent Ten, Shocking Alberto, with the assistance of the bizarre Koenshaku was able to personally assault a large Experts of Justice base and destroy the entire thing with his bare hands.
The Giant Robo OVA has a very cartoonish, but still excellent, retro look to it which contrasts with the emotional and often violent story. GR was one of the first anime's I ever saw and remains one of my all time favorites. The DVD set has an all new voiceover with some pluses and minuses. On the plus side the story is explained much clearer than in the original VHS version. On the minus side the voice acting isn't nearly as good. Luckily the DVD also includes the original voiceovers although it doesn't include scene selection for the original. You also get more bang for you buck with the DVD's since the first DVD combines two tapes worth of episodes and the second contains three tapes worth.
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GIANT ROBO is one of my all-time favorite animes--an over-the-top worldwide battle between an international superhero team and a Hydra/Cobra-esque supercriminal organization. It meanders in the later chapters a bit, but it's wonderfully retro, better than the past cartoon era it attempts to recapture; a superhero opera that's also completely accessible for American viewers. Additionally, the original English dub is one of my all-time favorite English dubs, on par with the original Akira and Cowboy Bebop, and this dub is included as an alternate track, along with the original Japanese, a new English dub that's somewhat sterile but probably truer to the original Japanese (I'm not sure), and a Japanese commentary track with subtitles for the commentary. This is eveything the AKIRA special edition should've been. Five stars. I just hope the rest of the series is done the same way.
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First off I am a massive fan of the series so I am hyper critical of any version presented for public consumption.
This edition DOES have the old VHS voices but the track is ONLY selectable using your DVD players audio selection NOT the DVD itself...lame? Yes...but at least the track IS there.
The new dub...it's OK and does flesh out the story to a more understandable level for first time viewers...but it's nowhere near the passion and epic feel of the first dub. Lets face it the FIRST english dub surpasses even the Japanese track. It's simply perfect for the story and style.
Picture quality is great...TOO great...you can see all the detail in nearly every frame so in some cases you can see the watercolor brush strokes and imperfections in the print used to make the DVD's...It does surpass the "Imports" from Japan and China though so the DVD set is a must own...
But...it has two serious flaws for the collectors amoung us. The collectors edition comes in a great box...with a cheap plastic Eye of Vogler and get this...CD CASES FOR THE DVD'S!!!!! This is jsut WRONG...they are cheap cases at that. Only buy the Collectors Box if you are a HARDCORE fan.
The second flaw is more serious...the "special features" are FAR too excellent to be only in the collectors edition. This should have been in the normal edition and as a result makes fans of the series NEED to buy the awful collectors box to get them.
It's great to have the series FINALLY out...but sadly it's not put together in a sane and economical way. It's expensive as a collectors set and overpriced as a standard DVD due to the lack of the collectors editions extras...
Sadly for the TRUE fan you need to buy both...Collectors Edition for the extra's and the standard DVD for the TRUE Case.
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