Anime Reviews
Feb 22, 2008 22:41:01 GMT -5
Post by TheGunheart on Feb 22, 2008 22:41:01 GMT -5
Sorry about that. I read the first post well before I signed onto the forum.
Well, here it goes...
(This is actually something I posted on another forum, so forgive the presentation)
WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.
I'd waited a long time for this. Ever since I saw the artwork in Newtype Magazine, I was drawn in by Gad Guard's classy retro-styled mecha designs and promise of a story with the theme of "absolute power corrupts absolutely". The fact that it was by GONZO, who's made some of the best animated series I've seen, was icing on the cake. So when Rightstuf had a massive Geneon sale, it's no suprise I snapped up the series.
The thing about GONZO, however, is that while they're capable of producing some truly amazing stuff, like Last Exile, Yukikaze and Gankutsuou, they're also just as capable of producing some truly mediocre works, like Trinity Blood and Galaxy Force.
And if I had to bring up GONZO's faults, it should be easy to see what I'm getting at.
At first glance, the children's show-style character designs and cutesy robots give off the impression of a Digimon with mecha. The intro gives it the feel of a retro-styled series like Cowboy Bebop, with its catchy jazz music and pulp serial-style superhero costumes. Overall, it gives the impression that this is going to be a heavily stylized show with plenty of robot action.
The story begins in Night Town, a city in Unit Blue, which includes Day Town and Gold Town, as well. Hajiki is just a regular teenager trying to support his familiy after his dad died when his space rocket blew up on launch. He works as a delivery boy, and one day he's given a mysterious package which, long story short, contains a myserious object known as a Gad. A Gad is a stone from outer space which can transform the thoughts of the one who touches it into a physical entity known as a Techode. Needless to say, when Hajiki winds up touching it, it becomes the giant robot Lightning. And when a mysterious woman shows up at the office where Hajiki works, she puts him to the task of investigating the Gads that have shown up in the city, where he encounters other people who have aquired their own Techodes.
Among these people are Takumi, a orphan who's parents left him with a stupid amount of money, which he uses, along with his sleek Techode Thunderbolt, to try his hand at crimefighting.
Then there's Aiko, the adoptive daughter of the richest man in Unit Blue. As the heiress of her father's company, she's unsure of her own future, and finds comfort only in her massive Techode, Messa, who she treats like a big brother.
Next is Arashi, a girl who moved to Night Town to get away from her dad, who's a selfish martial arts master. She's Hajiki's on-and-off girlfriend throughout the series, and her dreams of flying away take the form of the flying Techode, Hayate.
Now we have Katana. He's a sociopathic mercenary who constantly switches between the roles of friend and foe. His goal is to rule Night Town and crush anyone who gets in his way. Helping him achive this goal is Zero, a black, gun-armed Techode.
Finally, we have Sayuri, a young blonde-haired girl who follows Katana around. It's unknown at the onset as to just who she is, or why a madman like Katana would let her hang out around him, but the truth is that she's a Techode that was created at the same time as Zero by Katana's memories of a girl he knew as a child.
Sounds promising? Yeah, well that's all it is: promising. And it's a promise the series never keeps.
Gad Guard, sadly, is just one big false advertisment. The series is actually a fairly mundane drama that desperately wants you to think it's the above mentioned stylish action series. The first episode has all the style the series ever gets, with skateboard racing, animated graffiti and some hints at some nice world building. But these things are forgotten after the first episode, and all we're left with for a good portion of the show is Hajiki taking on random delivery jobs or investigating Gads.
This wouldn't be a problem, of course, if the story or action could make up for it. But honestly, they don't. Out of all the character arcs, Takumi and his realization that he's been fighting crime solely because it makes him feel good about himself was the only one I felt satisfied with, since it was the only one the series seems the follow through on. Hajiki, on the other hand, goes from supporting his family and trying to buy back their old house to being forced onto a clichéd "follow your dreams" plot where he abandons everything for the sake of going into space. Aiko and Arashi come off as little more than tagalongs.
And then there's Katana, who's given precious little backstory. His "character development" is all over the place, and his entire character seems to depend on the episode. I at first wound up liking this character, as the mystery of why his Gad wound up as a Techode instead of a monster was an interesting plot point, and I hoped in vain that he would be given a real backstory besides "his parents died in a shipwreck". His attatchment to Sayuri happens so quickly at the end that it feels like it comes completely out of nowhere, and what happened to the girl she resembles is never explained at all.
Then we have the "action" aspect, or rather, the lack thereof. Out of all the Techodes, only Lightning, Hayate and Zero really do anything, and even then only Lightning and Zero ever fight. It should also be noted that since the Techodes lack a cockpit, forcing the operator to ride on their back or in their hands, these fights are severely limited. To add insult to injury, Lightning really doesn't have anything special about it; it can punch and do a nice breakdance-style kick, but it's otherwise unarmed. Furthermore, it's possible for a Gad to become an A-Techcode, a massive monster bent only on destruction. These would've made great "boss" fights, but all but one boils down to Katana showing up and shooting it with Zero.
In this regard, it's actually ironic that both Arashi and Katana point out that Hajiki uses Lightning as a "tool for fighting", as he rarely does so in the entire series. Most of the time he simply has Lightning run and only fights when cornered...
On to the technical aspects, I want to say that either Hiroshi Nishikiori or Yoshikazu Miyao need to be shot. One of them, if not both, have a habit of relying on disorienting scene cuts that make some episodes unnecessarily hard to follow, with leaps of logic that are bound to leave one scratching their head. Take one scene where Hajiki escapes some thugs by jumping in sewer water. Next cut, he arives home, perfectly dry without one comment on how he smells. Another episode jumps between different points in time at random, while others seemingly cut to unrelated scenes in the middle of a conversation. And I'll probably never figure out the end of episode 8...
It's also heavily implied that the man Hajiki works for, Mr. Hachisuka, and the Gad-obsessed Catherine actually knew each other before, but this is never followed up on.
Speaking of leaps of logic, as I stated earlier, the ending is one really big one. It drops any and all previous plot points in favor of having Hajiki meet a Techode that looks like his dad and a mission to return the Gads to space. We never learn what happened between Catherine and her previous Gad, what happened to the real Sayuri, or what will happen to Messa after a berserk Thunderbolt trashed it. Heck, the very origin of the Gads is nothing short of laughable: it all boils down to the mistake of a space burial company.
Furthermore, the world-building is a joke: the cities of Night Town, Day Town and Gold Town are all but indistinguishable from one another. It's mentioned once or twice that the eletricity is turned off after midnight in Night Town, but only once is this ever important, and only then it's a subplot about Arashi's refrigerator. There are hints that the world had fallen victim to some major disaster, requiring mines to be built for digging up machine parts, but this is never explained, and unlike similar cases such as Heat Guy J and Cowboy Bebop, the world is otherwise fairly mundane.
As for the art and animation? It starts off good, but I can't help but wish the series used the style used on the artbox and in the ending credits instead. Backgrounds are generally detailed, though there's little variation in the cityscapes, and the rest are fairly mundane locations that you've seen a million other places.
Characters and costumes are also fairly good, with Hajiki himself sporting a cool dragon-patterned jacket. But given the chlidlike designs even for teenagers, Arashi's and Aiko's short skirts edge dangerously into lolicon territory. Also, despite being a rich kid, Takumi's costume makes him look more like something out of Oliver Twist, with only his pristine room and high-tech computer really suggesting otherwise. It makes sense that he's want to hide his wealth, but they really went overboard on this.
The robots are a nice mix of cartoony designs and heavy mechanical detail. They have human-style eyes and child-like proportions, but they give off a convincing feeling of weight and power. A shame they don't get much to do in the series.
But the animation is a mixed bag. It starts off as simply amazing, with rooftop chases that leave plenty of collateral damage. But as the series progresses, the animation begins to look cheaper and cheaper. For instance, one scene has Takumi on Thunderbolt leap out from behind Arashi on Hayate and land in front of her. This is done with a shot of Arashi, than a shadow quickly leaps from the background, and we suddenly have a close up of the side of Takumi's mouth taking up the left side of the screen. The lack of battle scenes only manages to make it more obvious that the series was seriously lacking in budget.
At first, I was afraid of rating this series as I felt I was judging it solely on what I wanted it to be instead of what it actually was. I thought I was just missing the point. Having seen the entire series, however, I realize it had no point to begin with. The scary thing is that it tricks you into thinking it knows what it's doing, and the moment the lackluster "Where Are They Now?" montage is over (and Katana is shown to potentially be back at square one), you realize every point in the series where the writers went wrong.
I really, really wanted to like this series. But now that all is said and done, I have to give it a 6 out of 10. It might have been higher if the show didn't take a sudden downward spiral towards the end, but when its all said and done, all we're left with is a collection of ideas that don't go anywhere.
I need to update this one some time, like actually giving the name of the chara designer and mecha designer (the later did some truly epic designs for Gainax's Diebuster).
Well, here it goes...
(This is actually something I posted on another forum, so forgive the presentation)
WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.
I'd waited a long time for this. Ever since I saw the artwork in Newtype Magazine, I was drawn in by Gad Guard's classy retro-styled mecha designs and promise of a story with the theme of "absolute power corrupts absolutely". The fact that it was by GONZO, who's made some of the best animated series I've seen, was icing on the cake. So when Rightstuf had a massive Geneon sale, it's no suprise I snapped up the series.
The thing about GONZO, however, is that while they're capable of producing some truly amazing stuff, like Last Exile, Yukikaze and Gankutsuou, they're also just as capable of producing some truly mediocre works, like Trinity Blood and Galaxy Force.
And if I had to bring up GONZO's faults, it should be easy to see what I'm getting at.
At first glance, the children's show-style character designs and cutesy robots give off the impression of a Digimon with mecha. The intro gives it the feel of a retro-styled series like Cowboy Bebop, with its catchy jazz music and pulp serial-style superhero costumes. Overall, it gives the impression that this is going to be a heavily stylized show with plenty of robot action.
The story begins in Night Town, a city in Unit Blue, which includes Day Town and Gold Town, as well. Hajiki is just a regular teenager trying to support his familiy after his dad died when his space rocket blew up on launch. He works as a delivery boy, and one day he's given a mysterious package which, long story short, contains a myserious object known as a Gad. A Gad is a stone from outer space which can transform the thoughts of the one who touches it into a physical entity known as a Techode. Needless to say, when Hajiki winds up touching it, it becomes the giant robot Lightning. And when a mysterious woman shows up at the office where Hajiki works, she puts him to the task of investigating the Gads that have shown up in the city, where he encounters other people who have aquired their own Techodes.
Among these people are Takumi, a orphan who's parents left him with a stupid amount of money, which he uses, along with his sleek Techode Thunderbolt, to try his hand at crimefighting.
Then there's Aiko, the adoptive daughter of the richest man in Unit Blue. As the heiress of her father's company, she's unsure of her own future, and finds comfort only in her massive Techode, Messa, who she treats like a big brother.
Next is Arashi, a girl who moved to Night Town to get away from her dad, who's a selfish martial arts master. She's Hajiki's on-and-off girlfriend throughout the series, and her dreams of flying away take the form of the flying Techode, Hayate.
Now we have Katana. He's a sociopathic mercenary who constantly switches between the roles of friend and foe. His goal is to rule Night Town and crush anyone who gets in his way. Helping him achive this goal is Zero, a black, gun-armed Techode.
Finally, we have Sayuri, a young blonde-haired girl who follows Katana around. It's unknown at the onset as to just who she is, or why a madman like Katana would let her hang out around him, but the truth is that she's a Techode that was created at the same time as Zero by Katana's memories of a girl he knew as a child.
Sounds promising? Yeah, well that's all it is: promising. And it's a promise the series never keeps.
Gad Guard, sadly, is just one big false advertisment. The series is actually a fairly mundane drama that desperately wants you to think it's the above mentioned stylish action series. The first episode has all the style the series ever gets, with skateboard racing, animated graffiti and some hints at some nice world building. But these things are forgotten after the first episode, and all we're left with for a good portion of the show is Hajiki taking on random delivery jobs or investigating Gads.
This wouldn't be a problem, of course, if the story or action could make up for it. But honestly, they don't. Out of all the character arcs, Takumi and his realization that he's been fighting crime solely because it makes him feel good about himself was the only one I felt satisfied with, since it was the only one the series seems the follow through on. Hajiki, on the other hand, goes from supporting his family and trying to buy back their old house to being forced onto a clichéd "follow your dreams" plot where he abandons everything for the sake of going into space. Aiko and Arashi come off as little more than tagalongs.
And then there's Katana, who's given precious little backstory. His "character development" is all over the place, and his entire character seems to depend on the episode. I at first wound up liking this character, as the mystery of why his Gad wound up as a Techode instead of a monster was an interesting plot point, and I hoped in vain that he would be given a real backstory besides "his parents died in a shipwreck". His attatchment to Sayuri happens so quickly at the end that it feels like it comes completely out of nowhere, and what happened to the girl she resembles is never explained at all.
Then we have the "action" aspect, or rather, the lack thereof. Out of all the Techodes, only Lightning, Hayate and Zero really do anything, and even then only Lightning and Zero ever fight. It should also be noted that since the Techodes lack a cockpit, forcing the operator to ride on their back or in their hands, these fights are severely limited. To add insult to injury, Lightning really doesn't have anything special about it; it can punch and do a nice breakdance-style kick, but it's otherwise unarmed. Furthermore, it's possible for a Gad to become an A-Techcode, a massive monster bent only on destruction. These would've made great "boss" fights, but all but one boils down to Katana showing up and shooting it with Zero.
In this regard, it's actually ironic that both Arashi and Katana point out that Hajiki uses Lightning as a "tool for fighting", as he rarely does so in the entire series. Most of the time he simply has Lightning run and only fights when cornered...
On to the technical aspects, I want to say that either Hiroshi Nishikiori or Yoshikazu Miyao need to be shot. One of them, if not both, have a habit of relying on disorienting scene cuts that make some episodes unnecessarily hard to follow, with leaps of logic that are bound to leave one scratching their head. Take one scene where Hajiki escapes some thugs by jumping in sewer water. Next cut, he arives home, perfectly dry without one comment on how he smells. Another episode jumps between different points in time at random, while others seemingly cut to unrelated scenes in the middle of a conversation. And I'll probably never figure out the end of episode 8...
It's also heavily implied that the man Hajiki works for, Mr. Hachisuka, and the Gad-obsessed Catherine actually knew each other before, but this is never followed up on.
Speaking of leaps of logic, as I stated earlier, the ending is one really big one. It drops any and all previous plot points in favor of having Hajiki meet a Techode that looks like his dad and a mission to return the Gads to space. We never learn what happened between Catherine and her previous Gad, what happened to the real Sayuri, or what will happen to Messa after a berserk Thunderbolt trashed it. Heck, the very origin of the Gads is nothing short of laughable: it all boils down to the mistake of a space burial company.
Furthermore, the world-building is a joke: the cities of Night Town, Day Town and Gold Town are all but indistinguishable from one another. It's mentioned once or twice that the eletricity is turned off after midnight in Night Town, but only once is this ever important, and only then it's a subplot about Arashi's refrigerator. There are hints that the world had fallen victim to some major disaster, requiring mines to be built for digging up machine parts, but this is never explained, and unlike similar cases such as Heat Guy J and Cowboy Bebop, the world is otherwise fairly mundane.
As for the art and animation? It starts off good, but I can't help but wish the series used the style used on the artbox and in the ending credits instead. Backgrounds are generally detailed, though there's little variation in the cityscapes, and the rest are fairly mundane locations that you've seen a million other places.
Characters and costumes are also fairly good, with Hajiki himself sporting a cool dragon-patterned jacket. But given the chlidlike designs even for teenagers, Arashi's and Aiko's short skirts edge dangerously into lolicon territory. Also, despite being a rich kid, Takumi's costume makes him look more like something out of Oliver Twist, with only his pristine room and high-tech computer really suggesting otherwise. It makes sense that he's want to hide his wealth, but they really went overboard on this.
The robots are a nice mix of cartoony designs and heavy mechanical detail. They have human-style eyes and child-like proportions, but they give off a convincing feeling of weight and power. A shame they don't get much to do in the series.
But the animation is a mixed bag. It starts off as simply amazing, with rooftop chases that leave plenty of collateral damage. But as the series progresses, the animation begins to look cheaper and cheaper. For instance, one scene has Takumi on Thunderbolt leap out from behind Arashi on Hayate and land in front of her. This is done with a shot of Arashi, than a shadow quickly leaps from the background, and we suddenly have a close up of the side of Takumi's mouth taking up the left side of the screen. The lack of battle scenes only manages to make it more obvious that the series was seriously lacking in budget.
At first, I was afraid of rating this series as I felt I was judging it solely on what I wanted it to be instead of what it actually was. I thought I was just missing the point. Having seen the entire series, however, I realize it had no point to begin with. The scary thing is that it tricks you into thinking it knows what it's doing, and the moment the lackluster "Where Are They Now?" montage is over (and Katana is shown to potentially be back at square one), you realize every point in the series where the writers went wrong.
I really, really wanted to like this series. But now that all is said and done, I have to give it a 6 out of 10. It might have been higher if the show didn't take a sudden downward spiral towards the end, but when its all said and done, all we're left with is a collection of ideas that don't go anywhere.
I need to update this one some time, like actually giving the name of the chara designer and mecha designer (the later did some truly epic designs for Gainax's Diebuster).
