The Role of "Mecha" in Anime in "Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still" (Nostalgic Anime Retrospective No. 19)

The robot anime "RS Project -Rebirth Storage-," born out of the "Let's Make the Mecha Anime We Want to See Production Committee," will be broadcast this month (June 2016).

The OVA "Giant Robo The Animation: The Day the Earth Stood Still," which ran from 1992 to 1998, has often been described as "a return to the roots of robot animation. When one hears the name " Giant Robo" (......), the series seems to have undergone a generational shift from the hard mechanical depictions of "Gundam" to the punch-driven "Giant Robo". The "Giant Robo" is also a "Giant Robot".

In "Giant Robo," with the exception of the main character Daisaku Kusama, both the allied Interpol organization and the enemy BF group are all supernatural beings who are called experts. The scenes of their unprecedented activities may have strengthened the impression that "Giant Robo" is an ancestor of the old TV cartoon series, which were more open-minded and free of logic.

The realism of battle depiction in the depiction of missile impact

The main character, Giant Robot, often seems to win battles with punches and monstrous strength. In the first episode, it destroys the enemy robot "Ishinryu Dawn," which has been transformed into a train, with a single punch. In episode 3, when he defeats "Uraenes," a robot that looks like a clay figurine, he also uses punches.

However, he only wins with punches on those two occasions, and the rest of the time he fights exclusively with the firearms built into his body.

In the first half of the second episode, when he rushes in front of Uraenez to save Daisaku, the belts on both shoulders of his torso open, and four quadruple missile pods, two on each side, protrude out, firing a total of six missiles. Three of the missiles fall to the surface of the sea, and the remaining three land around the highway where Uraenez is located, but do not hit the target. This cut is a subjective view of the robot, and it creates a tremendous sense of realism, as if the entire screen is rushing toward Uraenez.

The four missile pods have finely drawn frames and codes, and are painted in different colors. Such detailed depiction and the fact that the missiles are initially misaligned and begin to hit the enemy one by one (since the robot is flying toward the enemy, the distance of each missile is slightly different) make the simple, clear-cut battle scenes in which the enemy is crushed with a single punch seem like a different work of art. It looks as if it were a different work.

In the latter half of the second episode, they use howitzers protruding from both hips to chase after Uraenez, who has fled. Each time the howitzers fire, the light from the gunpowder illuminates the surroundings, and there is even a shot of the empty shell casing being discharged. The casing that crosses in front of the camera is out of focus because of the multiplanar shooting.

Gundam 0083" marked the end of hard battle animation, and "Giant Robot" marked the beginning of a retro-style robot animation without logic--it is not so easy.

The way mecha are depicted changes the worldview of the work.

The belt on the shoulder of Giant Robot's torso has a structurally ambiguous part. In the first half of the first episode, there is a built-in bar that joins the arm for unloading it from the transport ship. However, in the recollection scene in episode 4, there is a built-in bumper to catch the back rocket. So where on earth would there be room for a missile pod?　In episode 7, the missile pod is bounced outward and the bumper emerges from under it.

In short, different mechanisms are placed in the same place, but at the end, they make sense. It is as if he is trying to make the audience think, "We know that the mechanical structures are contradictory.

Near the end of the second episode, a crack in the ground occurs and the ground collapses, but for some reason, only the part where the main characters are located extends to the heavens like a stage set. Like in Kabuki plays, "Giant Robot" has a lot of "fake" effects that are deliberately done to make the film look dramatic. There is no doubt that this work is built on promises made to the audience.

However, the complicity between sender and receiver tends to lead to a backstage fall. In order to avoid scheduled harmony, the aforementioned "misplaced missiles" and other realistic staging that could be likened to "Gundam" are interspersed, disturbing the harmony of the work. By shifting the axis of reality, the film is neither a mere "return to the basics" nor an easy "return to the ancestors," but rather an exciting work in which one never knows what will happen.

And when you want to shake the axis of reality of a work, the easiest prop to use - "mecha" - is probably the most important one. No matter how serious the work is, if the cars are depicted in a random manner, the world view will be ruined. Anime "mecha" have such a mysterious power.

(Text by Keisuke Hirota)