Anime Friday: Supa Roboto!

Anime Friday: Supa Roboto!

Since the beginning of this project, I've been pretty dismissive of anime featuring giant robots. Of all the common tropes of the genre, that was always the least accessible and interesting for me. It always just seemed to lack artistic or narrative subtlety. Then, all of my "anime advisers" started bugging me about Neon Genesis Evangelion, telling me how it's one of the best anime ever made. I'll reserve judgment for whenever I sit down to grind on that one, but one thing is for certain: I'll need to learn to embrace giant robots before I can embrace giant robots associated with angels. So, I took it upon myself to do a sort of crash course in the Super Robot sub-genre. My approach is mostly academic, but worthwhile nonetheless. To start out, I decided to research the origins of Super Robot. It turns out that Super Robot and the evolution of anime's image in America are intertwined from the beginning. In fact, the first anime to ever reach American shores was arguably the first Super Robot cartoon ever made. A cheap B&W anime from the early 1960's called Tetsujin 28-go came to the States in the form of Gigantor, a now iconic bit of 60's camp. In it, a sort of man/boy person operates a clunky iron giant by remote control to save the world from various evil-doers. Like so much post-war Japanese science fiction, Tetsujin is a thinly-veiled commentary on nuclear weapons. The big robot is the cutting edge of military technology. It's no wonder it had an appeal to both the defeated Japanese and the ever-imperious Americans. Watching both Tetsujin and Gigantor, I realized something odd. Anime wasn't always the slick, overwrought cartooning that it is today. In fact, before the 1980's it was downright cheap. Gigantor has a similar feel to Speed Racer. So, I decided to fast-forward to the next generation of Super Robot hits in America. While the likes of Voltron and various knock-offs dominated the US market for decades, the late 1990's saw the introduction of some very popular series. I ultimately chose Gundam Wing over the original Mobile Suit Gundam because I think it better demonstrates why Super Robot is appealing. The Gundam suits themselves aren't the clunky mechs of old. They're graceful and full of detail. Also, the series itself re-embraces the origins of Super Robot. The Gundams are, without a doubt, weapons of mass destruction. They scare people and they are often responsible for the deaths of thousands. In one particularly affecting scene, the otherwise gentle pilot Quatre goes crazy and blows up an entire space station, which is exactly like nuking a city. Gundam Wing may be about giant space robots, but I'll be damned if it's not emotionally loaded. The last Super Robot anime I watched brought me full-circle to the search for an American audience. The Big O (besides being unintentional innuendo) was, according to its creator, basically intended to hit it big on the other side of the Pacific. It did just that, failing in Japan but developing a significant cult following in America. It's easy to see why. The protagonist, Roger Smith, is a Western icon if I've ever seen one. He's kind of a James Bond/Tony Stark figure and he lives in a sci-fi noir. That's an American fanboy chubby just waiting to happen. The appeal of Big O is, ironically, not the giant robot. Like Gigantor, the robot doesn't come out unless it's absolutely necessary. It's not the A-bomb analogy it used to be, just something of a selling point. The show's premise, an entire city struck with amnesia, is interesting enough that the big, dumb robot doesn't even need to be there. In fact, I wish it wasn't. Watching Big O made me interested in Smith and the cast of characters around him. The robot was nothing but a distraction. Stylish, but a distraction nonetheless. Comprehension: 8/10- Again, giant robots do not equal subtle. Gundam can be a little hard to follow for all of the usual JRPG-style reasons, but other than that it was easy enough to know what was going on. Enjoyment: 3/10, 7/10, 8/10- Gigantor doesn't have any nostalgia for me because it aired two decades before I was even a gamete. On its own merits, it's a slow, badly-animated show that pales in comparison to anything coming out of America at the time. Gundam is just so darn pretty and I like the emotional core, though it did get fairly repetitive after a while. Big O has some awesome style and great music, but once again, big, dumb robot = distracting. Improvement of Understanding: 7/10- Alright, I get the appeal of giant robots. They're heavy with metaphor and they blow stuff up reel gud. Some time soon I'll take on Neon Genesis Evangelion with a decent enough understanding to take it on its own merits without constantly shouting, "What do giant robots have to do with anything!?" Next week: Cowboy Bebop, 'cuz I wanna smile.