Giant Robo the Animation: Chikyuu ga Seishi Suru Hi

In a future to come humanity enjoys a new age of prosperity thanks to Dr. Shizuma's invention of a revolutionary renewable energy source: the Shizuma Drive. But this peace is threatened by Big Fire, a cabal seeking world domination. Against Big Fire the International Police Organisation dispatches a collection of superpowered warriors and martial artists, together with Daisaku Kusama, inheritor and master of Earth's most powerful robot, Giant Robo.

By capturing an abnormal Shizuma Drive which is essential to Big Fire's plans the IPO ignites a desperate conflict between the two groups. The coming battle will test Daisaku's resolve to the utmost, reveal the ghastly truth behind the creation of the Shizuma Drive, and bring human civilization to its knees!

Giant Robo is a character-driven adventure in a retro-futuristic setting, drawing on influences from opera, kung-fu cinema, wuxia stories and classic mecha anime. It incorporates characters from the works of the manga author Mitsuteru Yokoyama but it is designed to be a stand-alone story.

Ginrei Main

Shimamoto, Sumi Japanese

Tetsugyu Main

Iizuka, Shouzou Japanese

Kusama, Daisaku Main

Yamaguchi, Kappei Japanese

Alberto Supporting

Akimoto, Yousuke Japanese

Murasame, Kenji Supporting

Mikimoto, Yuji Japanese

Zhuge, Liang Supporting

Nakamura, Tadashi Japanese

Taisou Supporting

Wakamoto, Norio Japanese

Genya Supporting

Ogawa, Shinji Japanese

Chuujou, Shizuo Supporting

Kayumi, Iemasa Japanese

Yamano, Kouichi Supporting

Shizuno, Koubun Co-Director

Maseba, Yutaka Producer

Takanashi, Minoru Producer

Imagawa, Yasuhiro Director, Script, Storyboard, Original Creator

Reviews

Sep 8, 2023

Pylgrim

Recommended

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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jan 15, 2024

Typo_comma

Recommended

The setting of the background applies to the Water Margin, which also adds some spoof to the story. Moreover, there is a lot of investment in animation production. Therefore, it should be a relatively sophisticated work in the 90s.

However, one thing that stings me is that the title is suspected of fraud. Under the guarantee that each episode lasts at least forty minutes, it does not make people feel that the whole story has any intuitive connection with the giant robot. Tbh, even removing the hero and his robot doesn't seem to affect the story much, because they are not the center of the story. ... After realizing these things, this well-made anime started to frustrate me.

Of course, I am very interested in Yokoyama Mitsuteru, the author of this series, but I can't deny that GR is a bad start to getting to know him.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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May 15, 2017

LostSpaceChild

Mixed Feelings

This series is a tricky beast. On paper it should be the perfect anime for me. I love the style of Post-Tezuka Manga/Anime, so character designs that embrace the look of the era like these sold me on watching it alone. The show's premise too seems interesting. A new energy source that turns out to be far less perfect than we initially believed. Dueling agencies of secret agent martial artists duking it out in the best wuxia battles this side of Crouching Tiger. This show should be amazing, but sadly, it falls a bit flat. And Here's Why

Pros:

-The art design in this show is ... phenomenal. I liked how they didn't just copy the art style of the late 60s/early 70s, but rather took elements of that style and mixed it with the style of the time. The character designs I love, I really love, and even though some feel kinda bland, this show definitely has a distinct look.

-The animation is phenomenal. This show is definitely one of the highlights of the pre-CGI era of anime. Everything is smooth and crisp, and it is a joy to look at, even if the content lacks substance at times.

-The music is also interesting and distinct. It has this operatic/orchestral feel that makes it stand out from it's contemporaries. It helps to underscore the tragic themes that the series inhabits.

Cons

-As other reviewers have pointed out, for a show called Giant Robo, the show really doesn't feature that much in the way of Mecha Battles. It saves the action for individual fights of the wuxia variety. This isn't a bad thing, it's just that this show bills itself as mecha, but doesn't really feel like it.

-The story starts out really interesting. Once I understood that this wasn't a mecha show, just more of a sci-fi shounen, I started to find it interesting. However, it doesn't elaborate enough on the interesting mythology of the world, and instead continues to give us meaningless action, death, and explosions.

-This show has some great character designs and animation, but that can't make up for the lack of connection I feel towards these people. There are about a dozen that we are told to empathize with, and the way that they're introduced makes it hard to latch onto them. There are some interesting ones in the bunch, but the time that the show would use to show us these details is used to introduce us to more characters instead. A lot of them start to feel really homogeneous after a while too. I can only have so many Chinese Warriors. A few of these characters die, and this lack of connection I feel towards them makes these deaths feel trite.

-The ending of this show is effing ridiculous, and not in a self referential way. It's bad, and the last few episodes are these really long, drawn out battle scenes. I'm not against sequences like this, but when I'm not really feeling the characters or the story, it makes me feel disconnected. The last two episodes are a non stop battle that doesn't take a breather, and this really messes with the pacing of the show. The unending pace makes me feel desensitized to everything that's going on and makes me feel disinterested.

TL;DR
This show is a joy to look at and appreciate as long as you don't pay too much attention to the story. This isn't a mecha anime as much as it's a weird sci-fi shounen. It throws at lot at you at once, but if you are in the mood for some crazy action battles, this may fit the bill.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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