Dallos - Reviews

Story
Oh dear me... where to begin. As the description states, men have been working on the moon for a few generations, and have been reduced to slaves, essentially. Their only hope is a large and mysterious structure named Dallos, which is worshipped as a god, by some. The question of "why" is never really explained, nor are we ever privy to the reasons why this structure is somewhat sentient as well. Regardless, the moon men have decided to rebel, and one neutral man named Shun is thrown right into the middle of it.

I'll say up front that it's very difficult for me to say positive things about this OVA (though I saw the 83 minute movie version), simply because the dub was SO incredibly bad that most of the time I was focusing more on how hilarious the dialogue was, rather than what potential merits could come out of the storyline. The story itself wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything fantastic or special either. It probably reminded me the most of watching something like Total Recall, with hints of Toward the Terra, Spriggan, and Bounty Dog. The whole "men turned slaves want to rebel" concept just isn't that original (I don't care if it was at the time, I'm speaking from my experience now), and didn't interest me that much. Then there's Dallos, which seems to be thrown in almost like a wild card, and isn't explained to boot. Finally, the story doesn't really end (like many things that are released, it seems), giving no sort of conclusion. All things combined, the story of Dallos was disappointing and overshadowed by the RIDICULOUSLY BAD DUB.
Animation
The visuals for Dallos were pretty bad most of the time. Yes, I know it was created in 1983 so perhaps you can't expect too much, but come on now... every explosion was a perfect cylinder of 2 shades of orange, character designs were ugly even for that time period, and the high-octane motion scenes were jerky. In addition, some of the animation was just REALLY bad, such as a scene where a door to a large spaceship bay of some sort was being closed. It literally looked like someone was dragging the door upwards with another cel, looking completely fake and silly. In the world of Dallos, shotgun shells fly straight up or sometimes diagonally the wrong way, it truly is fantastic!

On the other hand, some scenes were better than others. The occasional shot of Dallos from above, shots of the city, or other backgrounds seemed detailed and interesting, but most of the time, simple and boring.

The colors used were also quite "interesting", being mostly pink (for the ladies, of course), brown, puke-yellow, puke-green, or orange. I sort of wonder if the animation director had eaten shrimp in some form of orange sauce the night before, vomited, and then based the color scheme on what was in his toilet.
Sound
Before I slam the dub, I'll say that the 3 is only for the background music, which was ridiculously cheesy but occasionally fit the mood. It sounded like early 70s music, pretty much. The title track always had the uncanny timing to be played loudly ANY time the word Dallos was mentioned, which was hilarious for sure.

And now, the dubbing... the glorious dubbing. Dallos had the worst dubbing of anything I've ever seen, period. First, let's start with the cast. Let's assume that the first character that talks (a random punk in the desert-like wasteland), the English VA's name was John Smith. The way I see it, if you were to check out the list of the English VAs in general, you'd see this: John Smith. No, really, that's it. Besides two other unique voice actors I could count (the girl, and Shun's male actor), ALL THE VOICES WERE EXACTLY THE SAME! Seriously, I highly suggest ingesting a large amount of alcohol and then watching this, because it makes it downright hilarious instead of annoying. Literally every voice, from semi-main characters to random secondary ones or one-offs, had the SAME VOICE, but perhaps lower, higher or rougher. Who did they think they were kidding? It's pretty obvious it's the same guy trying to sound more feminine or gruff. Then, there's the pacing of the speech. Some series sound scripted, Dallos sounded just ridiculous in every way. The one VA that did all the damn voices must have had Captain Kirk as an idol, because it sounded like that style of pacing in each sentence, but even more mangled and silly sounding. It was almost like the guy was reading a cue card, but only one word at a time, and some words took longer to figure out than others (maybe he was illiterate partially?), so it spewed out in a garbled fashion. Gee, what next? How about the fact that the 3 voice actors are all concerned with making up their own accent which sounds like no country ever? It was like a cross between mental retardation, British, and 27 other countries combined (that, or just a lot like Terence and Philip from South Park). And they all had different accents, even! But of course, the guy who did most of the characters always used the same one, which was a dead giveaway to his recycled voice. And finally, the background music was about 1.5 times louder than the actual dubbing, which meant 30-40% of the time, you didn't even understand what the characters were saying. Sweet! Seriously folks, this is definitely something to watch while intoxicated, it will make you laugh so hard you cry.
Characters
We are introduced to a rash of characters that aren't developed, and are about as 2-dimensional as an old-school RPG. They have their roles, sure, but they aren't fully delved into or developed in general, and you have no empathy for any of them. Again, the dub really overshadows any potential any of these characters have, since you are too busy laughing at them. It doesn't help that many of the characters look the same, or seem to be totally useless (such as the blond girl from Earth). Bad character development and bad characters make for a bad characters score.
Overall
Dallos might be famous (coined as the first OVA released, and by Mamoru Oshii, no less), but it sure is famous at being mediocre as well. The storyline is unexciting, the characters boring, the music hilariously bad, and then the dub is... well... i explained that above. The only people I can recommend this to are those who are drunk, are planning to be drunk, or can pretend they are drunk, since then, you'll have a grand MST3K time on the comfort of your own couch. Otherwise, unless you really want to hear a bad dub, stay away!

This anime vaugely reminded me of another I remembered from my childhood and while it's not as popular as other mecha anime, it does have enjoyable aspects to it. While the plot is basic and most of the characters are far from admirabble, still it does present a heartfelt, and engaging story concerning wrestling with personal desires and duty, prejudice towards different races and all the drama culminating in between. It's a fun watch for lovers of 80s anime. While I personally prefer the Gundam franchise more, this one is not without its perks. 

Dallos became obsolete when the Gundam series came out. Both have a similar scenario. But Gundam has 30 years of merchandise and a zillion sequels and spin-offs on its reservoir, while Dallos was left with just 4 episodes. Keep reading with the premise that it’s a small and unimportant cousin to Gundam. (This review can extend to Dallos Special, which is simply the summary of Dallos)

ART & SOUND SECTION: 7/10
Very good, in spite of its years. Detailed and very realistic, a common trait of all Mamoru Oshi’s works. It can still easily be recommended by all hard-core science fiction fans. It loses some points for not having those unbelievably great CG and digital sounds of Macross Zero-like quality, but it is otherwise very good in this department after so many years. Not many anime can brag about that.

STORY & CHARACTER SECTION: 6/10

In a future space era, a Gundam… I mean… a crushed spaceship named Dallos… is the symbol of freedom and power for the moon colonists. Earth has been treating the moon colony as if it is a forced labor camp and all its citizens are branded like slaves. It doesn’t seem strange that riots are breaking up all over the place.

The protagonist is a young man who is accused and imprisoned along with his loved ones just for passing-by in a riot. The commander of the moon colony is a handsome and charismatic man with a luscious girlfriend, who is willing to imprison even innocents in order to keep the colonists afraid and working for the war machine of Earth.

Rebels break free the protagonist and recruit him in order to use his techno-loving skills. The commander orders a full attack on the rebels and a huge space battle begins. But suddenly, the battle awakens the weapons of Dallos, which quite rudely and very unrepentantly, fires at all directions and annihilates both parties! The story ends with an old man thinking of all those who have died so far in the name of freedom and for a place they can call home.

The story would be very good if it didn’t end so soon and not in such a sudden and out-of-place resolution. There is no time for real character development and their personalities are left quite stereotypical. Plus, all those similarities with the Gundam series simply leave you incurious about the story and the characters. Still, the whole deal of colonists being mistreated so the strong can make their wars is very close to real history (think of the American revolution) and thus is more believable than most other scenarios. There are no real good guys and bad guys, just a non-stop struggle for a piece of happiness. So, its premise is by itself good while the presentation is not.

VALUE SECTION: 3/10
It’s a Mamoru Oshi production! You want more? It’s the very first anime that was made VHS for us otakus to buy (video recording was still impossible back then). So its historical value is huge but unfortunately the replay value and the memorablility about it are zero.

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 4/10
Just a Gundam spin-off in my eyes. There’s mostly sentimental value about it. But even the plot feels too far-fetched and rushed to enjoy it for the most part.

VERDICT: 5.5 / 10
The accused is found GUILTY! of plagiarizing Gundam.

SUGGESTION LIST
As I said, the original Gundam (very good) series is a similar and far better series than this. And if you like space operas in general, there is always Banner of the Stars (good) and Legend of Galactic Heroes (awesome!).

Nothing much to say here that other reviewers haven't touched on. If you love older anime, particular 70's and 80's anime, this is a must watch. It is a pivotal part of anime history and also two creators careers. The combination of Mamoru Oshii and Hisayuki Toriumi is pretty interesting here.

What I loved most about this series was actually the music and sound effects. Some classic space, vehicle noises, and rock'n 80's jams. 

My scores take the release date into consideration. And, as always, subs not dubs.

Many Western fans compare Dallos to Mobile Suit Gundam and, if we are talking about the original series (OG), that's fair. Although I'm a big fan of Universal Century Gundam projects, I have to admit that Dallos beats OG in several regards. This is most likely due to Dallos being an OVA, the first ever OVA I'm told. Its limited number of episodes clearly meant that more time could be spent on each one. This is most obvious in the non-episodic nature as well as the higher quality animation (for the time).

Some people are dissatisfied with the series not answering a few big curiosities, but I see that as the result of emphasising the struggle of the common folk in a single confrontation rather than focusing on a few grandious characters and an entire war. Due to Gundam's popularity, Sunrise has been able to explore multiple aspects of the One Year War: many different battles; jungle, desert, air, underwater, and space battles; and the events leading up to and following the war. On the other hand, Studio Pierrot has put all their efforts into a single incident in Dallos.

I was particularly surprised to see character growth within the confines of a four part miniseries. A couple characters change their mind multiple times regarding the colonizers' struggle. This is something we don't see until years later in the Gundam franchise.


SPOILER AHEAD


I was also pleasantly surprised when a character (minor with respect to the show, but major in terms of rank & power) was instantly vaporized almost out of nowhere. We didn't get to know the character too well, so it's not Game of Thrones in this regard. But, the flippant way he and so many others on both sized were instantly destroyed made the incident all the more incredible.