Search - Dai-Guard - To Serve and Defend, But Not To Spend (Vol. 2) on DVD

Dai Guard Hits His Stride

Edward M. Erdelac | Valley Village, CA | 05/24/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Dai Guard series really hits its stride in the four episodes collected on this disc. While not having nearly as much action as the first volume, the characterizations get kicked up a notch here, and we really begin to care about the three pilots and the slew of tertiary characters in the office. Dai Guard is a gradual series, where plot points introduced in episode three might not surface again until episode six. The backstory of the Ibuki's father is developed more, and we learn of the army's fledgling plan to compete with Dai Guard's popularity by creating their own giant robot. The Heterodynes in this set are pretty bizarre. There's a giant mushroom, a green Christmas ornamanet thing which `erases' anything it touches, and my personal favorite, a yellow ballon like thing which looks like a cheeseburger with two strips of red onion flowing like kite tails behind - what's great is it never does a thing but evade every attempt by Dai Guard to fight it. This looks to be a charming series with the focus being more on the relationships of the various characters then on the robot fighting -sort of a Robotech Lite. We focus more on the difficulties of effectively using a giant robot. I love that Dai Guard is forever losing body parts (to the consternation of the accountants), and he has to be disassembled and flown over the hills whenever the Heterodyne moves because he can't negotiate the terrain. This show has catchy music, endearing characters and a lot of genuinely funny situations. There's the bit with all the gossip starts flying around the office about the two oddest characters hooking up for a date...Shirota is berating Shunsuke at a sushi bar when a corporate jerk sitting behind him steals all his best lines as he dresses down his own employees, and Ibuki and Shunsuke get drunk on beer right right before a fight! Also like the mysterious girl genius who cracks the secret weakness of the Heterodyne while relaxing at a hot spa (`Mmm...I feel like melted cheese.'). This is a great series so far - I like that there are four episodes on each disc, making it worth the money. For once, I even prefer the English dub to the Japanese, as there are often so many characters speaking at once that its a little hard to read the subtitles - they fly by too quickly. The English voice talent does a decent job though, and there aren't too many Americanisms. Disc one is a little slow, but volume two really picks up here. Recommended!"