Anime Review: Overman King Gainer

Well, seeing as I have some time left before I go to bed, I decided this was as good a time as any to try and write a review of a series I just finished watching. Now I'm kind of torn in general on whether its better to write a review as soon as possible after finishing it, or whether its better to sit back and wait on it a bit and reflect. But for right now, I want to try and get some of this out while I'm still thinking about it and while I feel like writing. And so without further ado, I present to you my review of "Overman King Gainer".

Sometime in the future, the world underwent some kind of dramatic environmental change, because human civilization had become too advanced. Reflecting on its ways, humanity decided to move into large Domeopoli, away from the rich and fertile areas of the Earth so that the plants and animals could recover. So says the vertical text scroll during the opening sequence of "Overman King Gainer" and honestly you don't really ever get much more background or setting than this. The show itself begins in a confusing blur as apparent gamer nerd Gainer Sanga wins his 200th consecutive video game battle and is awarded the title of game king. The next day at school, he is promptly arrested on suspicion of Exodus (and no explanation for why or what that means) and is thrown into jail. There he meets and follows a man named Gain Bijou who breaks out of the cell, uses Gainer's help to steal a mecha (called an Overman), kidnap the daughter of the local magistrate (who eagerly jumps into the cockpit proclaiming that she's going to be a hostage) and fights several more mechs while the Exodus begins.

Seriously all of that happens in the first episode. You don't really get an idea of what an Exodus is for a couple more episodes, and why Gainer was even arrested for it in the first place is never answered. Perhaps even more inexplicable is Gainer himself. As a character Gainer is one-dimensional at best, he's the pilot of the titular Overman, King Gainer (which he named after his gaming nick) and most of the other attempts at his characterizations seem taped on. After the first episode, he spends the next several kind of whining about how much he hates the Exodus, how he was tricked into coming along, and how betrayed he feels because he trusted Gain Bijou. I read a review of the first few episodes that compared whiny Gainer to Shinji from "Evangelion" but I never hated Gainer the way I hate Shinji; in fact, i didn't really feel anything at all. Despite his whining he dutifully hops into the cockpit of his mech without any real hesitation and fights the forces of the Siberian Railways, the series antagonists. Heck, even if he didn't think he was going to go on an Exodus, you can't help but wonder what he thought he would do after breaking out of jail, brandishing a gun and assaulting several guards, stealing a giant robot and wrecking the city in the escape. Eventually his reason for hating the Exodus is revealed (his parents were murdered by pro-Exodus forces) but the revelation comes out in the middle of a completely unrelated fight. He just blurts it out for no reason, and although that plot point comes up again in the later half of the series, no real reason is given for the murders and no real implications occur due to the second revelation. These kind of character inconsistencies are not specific to Gainer, but his are probably the most notable as he's the apparent main character.

Having said that, for a good portion of the series it's his mentor, Gain Bijou, who really steals the show. The mysterious Exodus specialist hired to prepare everything, he's the cool, collected, mysterious drifter that everyone seems drawn to. And a fair number of Gainer's victories are really only possible due to Gain's interference. It's largely due to Gain and his past that the series gets one of its recurring villains, Asuham Boone, but that relationship never really strays from two central points: Asuham's sister once had a fling with Gain and was heartbroken that Gain left, Asuham will do anything to capture Gain and take him back to his sister. His devotion to this task is almost laughable and his motives and methods take a bizarre turn for the crazy near the show's climax. Speaking of the villains, for the most part they're a gaggle of goons: there's a troop of about three or four henchmen who consistently show up and manage to bungle things up, and even their superiors never really manage to be menacing in the least.

Now I've been ragging on this series a fair amount so far, so you must be wondering "If it's so bad, why did you keep watching it?" Well to be honest, the show isn't all that bad. I found it to be kind of charming, and some of the stuff like the bumbling villains and the creative and bizarre mecha designs (more on that later) seem to try and evoke a retro/nostalgia type feeling. It's not really any one thing I can put my finger on, but the vibe of the show really did remind me of some of the classic giant robot shows of the 70's/80's. The series' opening I think has a lot to do with that. A catchy tune with lyrics like "King... King... King Gainer! Metal Overman King Gainer!" and "Metal Full Coat!" (in Engrish) set to the various characters and mechs from the series doing The Monkey (aka. the Jonny Bravo Dance) is just oddly charming. From a technical aspect, the animation is fairly consistently above average and the characters fairly distinctive.

Speaking of character designs, I have to talk a little bit about some of the bizarrely creative mecha designs this show sports. When I first heard about this series, I read that the director was Yoshiyuki Tomino, creator of the Gundam series, so I kind of expected the same kind of samey, giant human shaped robots. The titular King Gainer by contrast, although it is human shaped, has a giant fishbowl for a head and dreadlocks. Another one has what appears to be a large purple horn with lights on it and a detachable cape. Another is a big ball of goo that freely morphs into different configurations and shapes. The big boss mech at the end has three eyes, a kind of... bat face, and six arms. Crazy stuff. In addition to all of these Overmen, there are more down to earth, work oriented mechs like the Panthers and Dogodzos, which have that kind of awkward, mass produced type look to them as opposed to the unique, one-off looks of the Overmen.

Ultimately, I can't help but feel the "Overman King Gainer" was a series that had a lot of potential that it ultimately didn't capitalize on. There were really clever moments that I loved, like Gainer confessing his love to his high school sweetheart to defeat the mind reading tactics of an opponent, and the backstory and setting of the world could have been really interesting, but it seems to much of that was just kind of left aside. I enjoyed watching the series and I don't regret buying it. The action and the fights were well executed, and the plot was serviceable. Above average overall and certainly better than some of the shonen romantic comedy crap I've been watching fansubs of lately, but your mileage may vary.

-ZK

Game Review: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Hey, it's only been three weeks or so since my last post. One day I shall hold myself to a regular schedule of some sort, but that day is yet far off. So without further ado, I present to you my review of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Xbox 360)

For the sake of my typing fingers and for a slightly shorter post, I will refer to this game using the abbreviation TFU for the rest of this review. Chances are if you enjoy Star Wars and gaming even a little, you've already heard about this game and if you had any intention of buying it and playing, have already done so. If not, the game takes place in the years between Episode 3 and Episode 4, when the Empire was consolidating its power and Darth Vader was jetting about the galaxy and murdering Jedi where he found them. It is on one such journey to Kashyyk (the Wookie homeworld) that he finds a young boy, the son of the Jedi he has just killed, who seems unusually gifted with the Force. Darth Vader takes the boy and begins training him as his Secret Apprentice. I capitalized "Secret Apprentice" because that's basically all you will know him by. At the very beginning of the game he is given the codename "Starkiller", but that only comes up once or twice at the very beginning and the main character is simply referred to by pronouns for the rest of the game.

Now TFU was released for every video gaming console under the sun, and from the water-cooler discussions I've had, there are actually substantial differences b/t the different versions, aside from the PS3 and the Xbox 360 which basically get the same game. Case in point, on the Wii, you can actually use Force Choke to kill your enemies. Not so on the 360. I know it sounds like a minor quibble, especially when you talk about the advanced particle and destruction effects and enemy AI that's only possible on the 360/PS3, but to me it still rings a little hollow since I can't Force Choke my enemies into oblivion. That said, the powers that are available are still oodles of fun. Force Lightning (especially once leveled up) is probably one of the most useful powers in the game as it does considerable damage, branches out to hit multiple enemies, and temporarily immobilizes most of them, but my personal favorite has to be just grabbing stormtroopers and then hurling them in random directions, or dropping them from great heights.

I enjoyed the gameplay overall and found combat to be rather intuitive. With a handful of exceptions, I found the game on the whole to be fairly easy (I was playing on normal difficulty) with one area at the start of the last level being a glaring exception: it is a room where enemies, both cannon fodder and challenging, just keep spawning in wave after wave. They do eventually run out, but I died more getting past that section of the level more than I had at any other point in the game, combined. It was just intensely aggravating. One more part that I had concerns about going in from the reviews I'd read was a sequence in the later part of the game where you pull a Star Destroyer down from orbit, as in the trailers. In theory, you're supposed to follow on-screen prompts indicating how to move position the spacecraft while fighting off waves off TIE fighters. The reviews all indicated that the prompts were often wrong and the act of juggling the manipulation with the TIE fighters was broken. I disagree, at least to the latter point. The prompts may have been misleading, but honestly I didn't really pay attention to them: once I figured out what the game seem to expect of me, I just did the positioning and tweaking by myself, only looking to the prompts to see when I had finished. And the TIEs are easily dispatched since they come in clear waves.

The story is fairly strong for what it is and is quite a bit more enjoyable than the plotlines from the three prequels. Continuity demands that certain events have to take place, but seeing how we get there and what the implications are was entertaining. I would have liked to see it fleshed out a little bit more, especially since the whole game clocks in at about 7 hours, but I don't have many complaints about it as is.

Anime Review: Tengen Toppan Gurren Lagann

Whew. It's been quite awhile since my last post here, and it hasn't been for lack of anything to write about. If anything I've actually had the opposite problem: I've been watching so much new anime lately that I haven't had a chance to write about them or figure out where to start. Well now I do, a series that I enjoyed so much that I can't NOT write about it while it is still at least somewhat fresh in my mind. If I talk (or chat as the case may be) with you on a semi-regular basis there's a good chance I've already mentioned this series to you. Even if I have, and especially if I haven't, here's what the whole thing boils down to: Gurren Lagann is awesome and you should go watch it now.

In a couple of words, "Gurren Lagann" is about Giant Robots. The good guys run around in giant robots, the bad guys run around in giant robots, and everyone fights everyone else in giant robots. Now I'm only speaking about the anime that I remember watching (which is admittedly the tiniest fraction of what's available), but it seems a lot of giant robot shows recently either: have elaborate and complicated socio-political environments and plotlines (pretty much any "Gundam" series ever and "Code Geass"); or have main characters that are adolescents with more baggage than all of LAX airport. This is a gross generalization, but it seems that gone are the giant robot shows of old where it seemed everything was simple, stylish, and larger than life. "Gurren Lagann" hearkens back to these robot shows in the same way that "Shaun of the Dead" pokes fun at and pays homage to zombie movies.

The setup is as follows: Simon and Kamina are two youths living day to day in an underground village digging tunnels outward and down so that the village can expand. Though the two dream of going to the surface (with Kamina doing most of the dreaming and Simon just kind of tagging along) they are forbidden and their attempts end in failure and punishment. One day, Simon (who is apparently some kind of digging genius with his hand drill) makes two astounding discoveries digging around in the dirt. One is a small glowing drill bit and the other is a smell mecha. Shortly after making this discovery the roof of the village collapses and in falls a buxom girl armed with a huge rifle fighting a Giant Robot. The girl, Yoko, teams up with Kamina and Simon and using the small mech that he found, defeat the villain and ascend to the surface.

On the surface this seems like a fairly straightforward plot and you may be wondering what's so special about it. And that's part of it, the story is a straightforward tale of two dreamers and the path they take. The other thing I've not mentioned yet is what the mechas actually look like. They're humanoid, with human looking arms and legs, but they have no head. Instead, the entire torso is one big face with eyes and a mouth that mimics the pilot inside to generally comedic effect. And the mech that Simon finds and pilots? It's about 4-6 ft. tall compared to the 30-50 ft height of his opponents and its special weapons are drills that sprout from its hands, or replace its legs and feet, whatever the situation seems to require. And the homage/parody thing I mentioned earlier is best represented by a gag in the second or third episode involving "combining" mechas to increase their power. You'll just have to see it.

Well setup and mechas are two important ingredients of a good Giant Robot show, but any anime ultimately lives or dies based on its characters, and on this count "Gurren Lagann" doesn't disappoint. Kamina in a lot of ways is the living embodiment of the series and its spirit and he's loudly outspoken, supremely confident in his and Simon's abilities and believes so much in his dream, his friends and his own ability that he comes up with some crazy ideas. I don't want to say too much for fear of spoiling the surprise, but Kamina, with his boundless machismo and optimism, is an energetic and charismatic enough character that soon he has inspired humans all across the surface to join his banner and fight against their mysterious oppressors, the beastmen. And although Simon comes close to the whining protagonist archetype that bugs me so much, Kamina's presence and his own inner reserves force him to come through in the clinch and ultimately make him a much more likeable character. The story starts out fairly light hearted, but as the series progresses it beccomes more serious and mature as its own characters mature, but never completely loses the element of fun. After all, this is a series where a special attack is named "Super Galaxy Boomerang Megat Cutter" without the slightest bit of shame or irony.

I've gone on and on and could probably continue to do so if I'm not careful, so let me wrap up now before I wear out your patience. "Gurren Lagann" is definitely a Gainax show. The art design, the high level of quality and the blend of humor and action and drama bring to mind good memories of shows like "Gunbuster" and "FLCL". Basically, if anything I've described sounds even the remotest bit interesting, or if you enjoy giant robot action, you owe it to yourself to give "Gurren Lagann" a try. I hear that it's currently airing on the Sci-Fi channel as part of their Anime Mondays block, though it's somewhere in the second arc of the story. However you do it, check it out.

EDIT: If you're curious, one of the guys at the Anime News Network has an interesting column comparing "Gurren Lagann" to some of Gainax's older works and drawing parallels. An amusing read if nothing else. Read it here.