Search - Getter Robo Armageddon - Transfiguration (Vol. 2) on DVD

Go Nagai's Best

madnessmark | Maple Grove, MN | 12/22/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"You might remember Go Nagai from his early work on Cutey Honey, Devilman and Getter Robo G. Well, if you can recall, Nagai soon put all these tamed titles on the hot-seat by redoing it in a more realistic, but still synically humorous, setting. And now it's Getter Robo's turn. Look out Big O and Evangelion. This is one mecha series that kicks metal bot and takes names.Nagai's plan for this series was simple. Take average early-days super robots (you know, the kind that you would see on Voltron) and turn it into a show that actually makes sense of the giant robots. Go's past projects were easy shows. For Cutey Honey he added nudity and for Devilman he added realistic devils. Even when Nagai's beefs up Getter Robo it really doesn't seem that different from the original television series. However, there are some parts that stray away from common mecha shows. You wouldn't see a guy drooling from his mouth weilding a gun out for revenge now would you?The story takes off when the underground Japanese government spies (Go, Kei, Benkei, Yoshida, Dairoku, Gai) ends up helping the old Getter pilot Hayato, who is now the commander of the robot army in the Tower, fight against the newly awakened Shin Dragon. But the new Getter team now composed of Go, Kei and Gai, are not respected for their efforts. The other members of the robot army start getting racial and actually getting into a fight with the Getter team. But later on they realize how vital Shin Getter Robo is to defeating Shin Dragon. While Benkei recovers from an Invader wound he got earlier, Doctor Saotome makes his new entrance onto the scenes. And he announces that Kei, or Genki, is Saotome's daughter. This causes a flood of secrets to be released about Saotome and people who were involved with him. Even though Ryoma is the main star, trust me he isn't dead, Go becomes the main hero for this volume by actually being sucked into Shin Dragon with Kei and having a sweet moment of reflection.Then theres the action. Sweet sweet sweet action! If you crave mecha action that your mind cant possibly conceive, you must see Getter Robo. The action, since there isn't a whole lot of detail on the robots, moves so fast and furious, you'll have to put it in slow motion just to figure out what just happened. I love this new concept that Go Nagai has developed with Getter Robo. There are still some points in here that refer back to old-school mecha. One of the most obvious points is the fact that Shin Getter Robo can transform into two different Getters. While they do show how Getter Two is transformed, his arms are just appear out of nowhere leaving you to figure out how this works. Once more, the whole Invader concept is very old-school, but it gives a good excuse for the action.The DVD extras here are pretty nice. The four interviews with English voice actors were pretty fun and Im looking forward to more of them. The production sketches are very pleasent to look at, but people who haven't seen the first volume of Getter Robo, very crucial I might add, will be looking at the picture of Getter Three and say "what the heck is that thing?". The textless opening and closings are a bit repeditive, but worth watching just to see the original Kanji title.Overall, Go Nagai has taught me that anything is possible from animation. I support Nagai for his never ending struggle to make animation that is a feat for anime fans and non-anime fan's eyes to feast upon. Highly recommended."