You know what really sucks? Having a computer that's completely crashed so you can't even get on it using safe mode.
You know what really sucks, to a degree that the previous thing's really minor? When that person keeps putting off updates because he's too obsessed with Super Robot Wars F Final. ANYWAYS!!!!
The first series by all rights I should have covered was the Wings of Rean. A while back, when I covered Aura Battler Dunbine, I made mention of the Wings of Rean, which was a light novel series that Tomino wrote during production of Dunbine and which took place in the same continuity. A few years ago he even came back to the story and remade it into a six-episode ONA series. ONAs are similar to OVAs, but while the latter are direct-to-video releases, ONAs are released online first, almost like a podcast. In recent years there have been a few series that have been released as ONAs, including Gundam SEED Stargazer which I'll review at a later date.
Anyways, the Wings of Rean is chronologically set before Dunbine, taking place during America's occupation of Japan following WWII. Our hero is a young Japanese man named Asap Suzuki (I am not making this up), who happens to be friends with a lot of people that absolutely detest the American presence in Japan. When his friends convince him to help out in raiding a joint Japan/US military base and stealing some weaponry, including an RPG, things go straight to hell when a gateway to Byston Well opens up.
It is then that Asap meets Princess Luxe Sakomizu, who has been aiding a resistance movement against her father, King Shinjirou. The titular Wings come in here as attachments to a pair of magic shoes that can open Aura Gates, pathways between Earth and Byston Well. And thus Asap begins his own adventures in Byston Well, having obtained the Nanajin from Shinjirou's forces and putting it to good use.
The series, similar to Dunbine itself, explored the themes such as the cycle of revenge. Asap's friends loathe the Americans for using atomic bombs, and we find out that Shinjirou himself was also from Earth, a would-be kamikaze bomber who was blasted into Byston Well by said atomic bombs. Seeing Japan under US influence is actually what drives Shinjirou's plans, which involve using nuclear weaponry himself to remove said influences from his homeland.
That being said, the story averts the mass killings that were present in Dunbine, and in fact Shinjirou dies a hero's death. This is due to the series also putting an emphasis on redemption, with both Asap's machine and Shinjirou's, the Oukaou, possessing butterfly wings.
The series hasn't been included in SRW yet, although like Dunbine was present in Another Century's Episode with the Nanajin and Oukaou as hidden units in the second game and a revised version of the story in the third.
Here's Asap with the Nanajin, helping out Yuu and Hime from another Tomino series, Brain Powerd.
The other series I owe everyone is Warring Demon God Goshogun, a 26-episode series that ran in 1981 and was somewhat of a comedy series and had a habit to not take itself that seriously. But I'll get to that in a moment.
Goshogun begins with a mysterious meteor striking the Earth and releasing the powerful Beamler Energy, the stand-in for the physics-raping energy source lots of Super Robots have. Using this energy, the world-famous scientist Professor Sanada creates the three-part Super Robot named Goshogun and also its floating, teleporting fotress, Good Thunder. A team is formed to pilot Goshogun, and for once, the brilliant scientist's son ISN'T part of the crew for it!
... At least not at first.
This is because Kenta Sanada, the previously-mentioned son, is actually a little kid. But by god, it's a convention in Super Robot anime and the directors aren't just going to forget something like that! So the story at first shows us how Kenta joins up with the inhabitants of Good Thunder, explaining how is father's genius with Beamler Energy attracts the evil Docooga crime syndicate. To see to it that Docooga doesn't find out, the professor kills himself, forcing the Docooga members to go after Kenta. However, at that point he's saved by the Goshogun team and he ends up being another pilot for it.
Now, as I said before, Goshogun *REALLY* didn't take itself seriously. The subordinates of NeoNeros, the leader of Docooga, all were kinda ridiculous and weren't entirely bad people, one of them in fact wanting to start fast food chains obvoiusly meant to parody McDonalds and KFC while another *HAD* a successful business selling tranquilizers. The series even included an enemy robot based off of the design of the original RX-78-2 Gundam for crying out loud!
Goshogun was never released in America as itself, instead getting combined with a lesser-known anime as Macron-1. The series ended up also getting a follow-up movie, Goshogun: The Time Etranger, which was pretty surrealistic and weird, although it was released in America as itself.
Anyways, Goshogun was first introdced into SRW in SRW EX, but never really was that important to the plot until Alpha 2, when they actually bothered to introduce NeoNeros. Until then, the three subordinate villains mainly did their own thing, occasionally setting aside their differences with you to help out with other enemies, like how their plot wraps up in SRW F Final.
Here's Goshogun in Alpha 3.
Super/real Robot Franchise Of The Week, A labor of love, for my beloved genre
Jan 7 2010, 6:57 AM
