Getter Robo Armageddon - Reviews

Alt title: Change!! Getter Robo: Sekai Saigo no Hi

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Baxter's avatar
Mar 20, 2011

Anime Haters usually say that anime is 'teh ghey" and that only teenage girls like it. Their second (and more intelligent) argument is that it's stupid because things happen that make no sense at all. Luckily enough most people who tell me that tend to be comic book fans or fans of doctor who and Star trek, which throws the stupid argument out the window.

Either way, my argument has always been "Well, what's wrong with something being a little stupid?" Almost all movies, books and Video games (DEFINATELY VIDEO GAMES) tend to be at least a little stupid once in a while, it's just the type of stupid that the property is willing to brings in that I find the crux of it all. I'm willing to take ninjas fighting dinosaurs controlled by demons a little more then a sci-fi show with heavy Atheist motivations behind it which happen to have aliens who look just like humans beings except with pointy ears in it. This is mostly because the ninja show is playing loose and doing stupid things for an overall point while the sci-fi show has no reasoning behind it and is basically punching it's own agenda in the face.

I tend to be a fan of the 'go for broke' mentality of certain movies, anime, video games and T.V. Shows when they are willing to bring it forward in a super fun and entertaining way. This is the reason why I'll sit down and watching hours of Buffy the vampire slayer and have huge chunks of silly mysangistic straw-feminism shoved down my throat just so I can watch Vampires kung fu fight. I'll always love the 'anything goes' mentality where we get to see ancient Chinese warriors having dragon ball z fights against guys in business suits.

Getter Robo: Armageddon isn't the best example of 'go for broke' in anime, but it is a prime example of entertainment staying just as entertainment and over analyzing a work which is intended to be as such is foolish. This show won't change your mind about life, nor will it give you a feeling of intellectual or spiritual superiority. No, it's just going to give you one hell of a fun time and that's all you should be rightfully asking of it.

The plot of GR:A ties with the plot linee of the previous shows in the franchise: getter robo and getter robo G, but don't worry, it plays it loose and simply so you can easily pick it up. A few years have passed since the great invasion war, a war brought on by evil aliens from mars hell bent on destroying earth. They are defeated with the help of the mystical getter rays, discovered by Dr. Saotome and harnessed into the ultimate weapon against the invaders: Getter Robo piloted by manly hot-head Ryoma, brooder hayato and fatty musashi. A few years after the war, Ryoma is imprisoned for killing the good doctor Saotome, hayato has gone missing and musashi, with his good buddy benkai, continue to fight in the military to protect the helpless. Yet it seems all is not well as Dr.Saotome has arisen from the dead and is now harvesting the getter rays to take over the world with an army of Getter Robos and his two greatest creations: The Shin getter robo and the Shin Dragon.

There more to the plot, but that would include spoilers and, honestly, it's not all that important. This is the type of show you watch solely for the sake of it's sense of fun. Giant robots with billowing capes stomp around doing ridiculous attacks while their pilots scream the name of each attack with sincerity and raw aggression. The pilots come off larger then life and doing manly things in manly ways. Once you see Ryoma rush straight into a horde of other giant robots and toss them to pieces while hollering “GETTER BEAM!!!” you will know you will never be as manly as this man is.

Watching Getter Robo: Armageddon is the equivalent of seeing a modern iteration of a Saturday morning cartoon you watched as a kid yet made now for your mature pallet and a much bigger budget. It keeps its over the top zaniness it once had yet elevated it with a more mature subject matter. This might come off jarring to others but to me it's exactly what I would have wanted.

This isn't to say that this show is without flaws. Oh god is it not without flaws. To others, when viewing Getter Robo: Armageddon, they'll probably write it off as stupid, juvenile and akin to those late 80's OVAs we were saddled with for most of the nineties and I have to say.............they would be right. The shows plot line, while not bad, is nothing extremely unique or well thought out. Characters come in with not enough explanation and when we finally get it it's already way to late for you to care. It's 13 episode run feels really short where the potential for this could have been far more and at times the plot feels rushed. The mecha designs have a nice 70's blocky feel to them (probably because they ARE 70's robots) and to some that'll be a big turn off.

Yet with all those faults I still definitely state that this show deserves a watch because of one good simple reason: it's fun. Do you remember fun? When everything didn't have to have a philosophical or social statement to actually be considered good or well done? Remember when you would watch something just because it was entertaining and not because it reevaluated your interests so you don't feel like you are wasting your time? I mean, isn't that why we all started watching anime in the first place for? To watch awesome things that you couldn't see anywhere else? Now before you start yelling, I adore most anime and totally expect high art to come from it, but can't we have our Kino's Journey AND our Getter Robo? Most will say no but I say yes.

So, if your head isn't so far up Spike Spiegels ass that you can tell what he is eating and you have a sense of fun, you couldn't do worse then watching Getter Robo: Armageddon. After the third episode, I can bet you two quid that you'll be screaming the attack names alongside Ryoma and the rest.

Whew boy is this long! well, either way that's all I'm saying. I know it's opinions and everyone has opinions, but I'm smart, smarter then you, so I'm right :-D

P.S. Before I go,

All together now

GETTER BEEEEAAAM!!!!!! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

7/10 story
9/10 animation
7/10 sound
8/10 characters
8/10 overall
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