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THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

One of my favorite movie critics once wrote, "if a movie is this entertaining, can it really be considered BAD?" He was talking about the film "Dreamcatcher", but I think that sentiment could easily be applied to Heavy Metal L-GAIM.

I will start off by saying that no, L-GAIM is not really a good anime. But it IS entertaining, and if you are a big fan of either Yoshiyuki Tomino or Mamoru Nagano, I would consider this a must-watch series. L-GAIM was the series that Sunrise released right before Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and some of the characters (Daba Myroad and Fanelia Amu ... for example) superficially resemble characters that would later appear in Zeta Gundam. And many of the characters and aspects of the world they appear in are recycled by Nagano in his first manga, Fool for the City, released in 1985 right on the heels of this series. It was the very beginning of his epic Five Star Stories manga. L-GAIM mostly feels like two very different creators with very different ideas dueling it out.

The story itself really suffers a lot from the poor pacing and direction of the series, but I agree with a friend who described it as "Star Wars on crack". L-GAIM takes place in a star system called "The Pentagona System" and the main character, Daba Myroad, is the last surviving ruler of a civilization that was exterminated by the empress Poseidal. The list of characters in this series would make your head spin, and they all have crazy names and ridiculous hairstyles and clothes courtesy of Mamoru Nagano. Every other episode ends with a title card that says NEXT DRAMA, NEXT CHARACTER or NEXT HEAVY METAL to give you some idea of what is coming next. All of this makes for very entertaining viewing especially if you have some people over and enough beer for everyone.

On to the show's actual strengths. First of all, the mechanical designs are, for the most part, really good, which is only to be expected of Nagano. I think the actual L-GAIM itself is one of the best mechanical designs I've ever seen in a mecha anime. Secondly, the characters have a lot of personality and are really what keeps you watching the series. A lot of people complain about the humor and slapstick and whatnot (this show has more animation smears that any other mecha anime I have ever seen), but first of all, it succeeds in actually being funny, and secondly, it endears you to the characters so that later in the show when the conflict intensifies, you actually CARE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS TO THEM. I won't spoil it, but there is a scene in one of the last few episodes where a character I had grown to love is stuck underwater and I was actually on the edge of my seat worried about whether he would live or not. That's not something that happens in most Tomino-directed series (sadly) because in most series he's directed, the characters feel more like action figures there to warm the seat of the model kits -- I mean, robots. This strategy of using humor to facilitate character development would be re-employed later in Mobile Suit ZZ Gundam to great success.

The other aspects of the series, animation, music/sound, etc. are par for the course for a nearly 30-year old television anime. Nothing really to write home about but nothing that really impedes your ability to enjoy what's going on. And the two opening theme songs are really quite catchy. If you're like me, you'll be at work the next day singing "SAY MARK TWOOOOO" under your breath hoping nobody can hear you in the next cubicle.

In the end, I feel I can only recommend L-GAIM to mecha enthusiasts. A novice probably wouldn't appreciate it as much as someone who has already seen at least most of the classic, more well-known series, and you really need to be familiar with both Tomino and Nagano to get maximum enjoyment out of it. But if you've already seen MD GEIST and Garzey's Wing a million times and need a new anime to watch on the weekends with your friends while you're getting blazed you could do a lot worse than L-GAIM.

It took me a long time to get around to watching Orguss because nobody seemed to have anything good to say about it, and well, after watching it, I don't really get why it's so disliked/overlooked. It's not the best anime in the world (maybe people are comparing it to Macross because it's Studio Nue and most of the same staff worked on it?) but it's definitely an enjoyable little show that's worth watching at least once.

Without giving too much away, the basic plot of the show centers around two pilots, Kei Katsuragi and Orson Verne, whose mission is to set off a "trans-dimensional bomb". ... It's the "near" future and the two factions that govern the world are fighting over the control of an orbital elevator. When it comes to this conflict, we don't get much more detail than that, but we don't need it, because as soon as the bomb goes off, Kei is transported to another earth, one where dimensions phase in and out and the earth's atmosphere is affected by some sort of extreme greenhouse effect.

Kei is immediately discovered by a group of people who call themselves Emarns, a business-minded people who typically travel from place to place selling goods in sort of a floating spaceship-esque caravan, the Groma. Kei soon learns that he is one of two "differential points" (I kind of wonder if this could've been translated another way) -- this basically just means is that Kei is key to the restoration of the earth, which is becoming increasingly unstable. There is an antagonistic faction on the planet called Chiram who want Kei for their own purposes, and to complicate things, our heroes also have to contend with an entire civilization of genocidal robots hell bent on destroying all humans.

From there, politics get a bit more complicated, as to be expected from an anime directed by Noburo Ishiguro; it's not as sophisticated as some of the other anime he has directed such as Legend of the Galactic Heroes or even Macross, but it's still complex enough that the story plays more like a pulpy late 60s sci-fi novel than your typical 80s mecha anime. Unfortunately, due to the pacing of the show (there is some filler and the last handful of episodes seem rather rushed, and the ending is completely abrupt) the story suffers a bit. The story really begins to pick up around episode 15, after Orson is reintroduced into the show (my favorite character by far and probably the best example of a "main hero b" I've seen in a mecha anime). I also feel like the conflict with the Muu robots could've been introduced a lot sooner than it was. With some better pacing this show could've been a lot better, but it's not hard to see what they were shooting for and the show is still enjoyable to watch. There are several WTF moments (Palm tree monsters! Gigantic grapes!) but those just add to the charm of the series and are imaginative, I mean, in a world where different dimensions phase in and out, why not have fun with it?

The characters in this show are fun. Most of them are deeply flawed, but to get into detail about their flaws would spoil a lot of the show. The protagonist, Kei, is a "player" type of guy but has more charm than your typical Ataru Moroboshi-ish horny male anime lead. I started off really disliking him as his constant attempts to get with Mimsy were really annoying me, but over time you get to see a softer side of the character, a guy who is attracted to women but simultaneously genuinely cares for and respects not only women but everyone around him. In fact, this proves to be a major problem for him later in the series.

Basically, Orguss is a really fun show with some great art (great example of early 80s Haruhiko Mikimoto character designs, which I absolutely love) and sporadic bits of decent animation, with an intriguing and original story, and really good music. (My absolute favorite OP and some of the BGM is actually quite good -- listen for the Morricone-ripoff theme!) Watch and judge for yourself, don't listen to the haters.