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Director: Tomoyoshi Katsumada
Screenplay: Hiroyasu Yamaura;
Hiroyuki Hoshiyama; Keisuke Fujikawa; Toyohiro Andō
Based on Magne Robo Gakeen
and Re-Edited by International Media
Group and Century Video
Voice Cast: John H. Mayer as Sir
Miles Nevers/Xerxes Tire-Iron Dada; Marla Scott Frumkin as Mai Lady Ester
Nevers/Estroydia/Yuri Petrakov; Paul Ross as Janus; John H. Mayer as Gordo
Starkey; Paul Ross as Brain/Stretch Landis
Viewed in the English Dub Version
This is a curious one to review,
usually the realm of a bonus review, but in this example Magnos the Robot is more than likely known over here in the West
not for the original 1976 giant robot series Magne Robo Gakeen but as a ninety minute compilation film. Now, for
the uninitiated, giant robots (where heroes, usually teenagers for some reason,
pilot giant militarised machines as a form of hero fantasy) had a heyday
through the seventies. This genre, whether super robot or attempting to be more
realistic, still exists to this day usually in throw backs to this earlier era
(Tengen toppa gurren lagann (2007)),
more serious interpretations of this material (Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995), bearing in mind co-creator Hideaki Anno was more inspired by Ultraman than robots), or a curious
meshing of fan service and other aspects (Godannar
(2003), by all accounts actually a cool show, but rife with enough giant
breasts, nudity and skimpy costumes just on the DVD covers it's been hurt from
having a wider cult audience). The seventies, however, was very important as,
whilst much of this genre was targeted for young boys with the intention to
promote toys, it was when legendary manga author Go Nagai innovated in the genre, director Tadao Nagahama and the staff of Toei
(under the collective name of "Saburo
Yatsude") created the Robot Romance Trilogy, three shows between 1976
to 1979 that started striding to add more dynamic storytelling to them, and Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) whilst
initially unsuccessful would eventually become a franchise and draw the serious
giant robot show into being.
In the midst of this, I highly
doubt Magne Robo Gakeen is a big
license. Someone probably likes it - probably one of the coolest videogame
crossover series Super Robot Wars,
when not a version with original characters, grabs robots and characters from every licensed anime from known titles
like Neon Genesis Evangelion to Gundam, to ultra obscure titles like Hades Project Zeorymer (1988-1990), so
I'd be baffled if Magne Robo Gakeen never
appeared in a future title. However, in terms of actual historical context,
this is a franchise who in the West in more infamous for this re-edited version
in from International Media Group and Century Video, the kind which
deliberately removes any Japanese text with crude text blocks onscreen, renames
characters and was clearly meant to sell to a Western family audience for
profit. The biggest distinction of the premise left in this version is that, as
male pilot Janus (originally Takeru
Houjou) and female pilot Lady Ester Nevers (originally Mai Kazuki) need to
combine their robots into a super machine, they have to jump out of their
cockpits in mid-air, join hands and, in an unexplained transmogrification that
would become Cronenbergian if depicted in explicit detail, they turn into the
belt buckle of the final machine. It's deeply silly and by all accounts, it's the
one gimmick of the series, something somewhat tragic as sadly the original
series has never been licensed for the West to confirm where this show would go.
From there, Magne Robo Gakeen was presumably a monster-of-the-week show, a new
antagonist each episode; hailing from the once dominate species the Paleo-Goths,
the villains are a group led by Xerxes Tire-Iron Dada, a glorious name if ever
there was one, a vague form whose visibility are his henchmen and women take
centre stage, creating synthetic giant monsters to take back Earth. There is a
dark twist, mind, in that they're doing this because their world is about to be
destroyed, slowly the moon and the planet about to collide, a detail left in
the English script that adds an unexpected moral complexity so out of place for
this material. Not that this is meant to add dramatic complexity like the Robot
Romance Trilogy is said to do mind, just a jagged edge as you're supposed to
boo the villains.
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Helped by Lady Ester's scientist father John H. Mayer, on the mobile battle fort Ft. Liberty with three male teammates of useless backup, Janus and Ester must defend the Earth. Janus belong to the list of stoic but frankly boring leads, even if as a karate champion there is even a flashback image to the fact he once fought a bull. Ester on the other hand is in danger of being the useless female protagonist, gender discrepancy sadly an issue here for the male power fantasy for boys. Baring in mind the original context of the series, meant as entertainment for young children, this is an issue but I have to bear in mind how the U.S re-cut has taken this material as, for all I know, there is many character beats even for a conventional premise which are probably lost. Of course, what we get also has a ridiculously broad English dub, peppy and exaggerated which does drastically change these characters a great deal even if it is amusing.
Thankfully, whilst the prospect
of thirty nine minutes being condensed into ninety minutes sounds an absolute
nightmare, the work is a breeze to sit through is utter cheese. The production
wisely just turned this into a few vignettes as our villainous henchmen, lead
by the giant Brain (with his exposed brain), who keep trying to get the jump on
the heroes. Credit where its due, they try (for an anime) wise tactics like
two-on-one assaults or exploiting how Magnos' feet overheat if overused, just
silly mistakes or the heroes pulling contrivances out of their backsides
preventing them from winning. I confess my love for the gaudy designs as well,
the monsters in particular animal hybrids christened with glorious names like Batroacher
III, emphasising that whilst many of these shows regardless of country of
origins were toy tie-ins, which has always been problematic, they had a
creativity even if bizarre that can be appreciated if this commercial aspect is
separated from the images. As someone who has no shame in still having old toys
from his childhood, now as room decorations no matter how banged up some are,
there's an art to vivid and creative designs even at their gaudiest that I have
to appreciate here.
In the end, I couldn't help but
find a lot to like even if there's the innate issue that, as a compilation of
an episodic series, this has a rinse and wash style to it, escalating in terms
of what is done but never building to greater detail even if a (presumably)
episode rather than story driven show. Thankfully there is some sort of
escalation, when the battle fort is hijacked, but you are watching segments
from episodes, with their own dynamic beats and resolutions, be cut down to
swifter paces and connected together tangentially. In fact, having seen a bit
of giant robot anime, I can see plot points that have been used in future work
like when Janus briefly quits, something that even Neon Genesis Evangelion used but with a greater psychological
complexity. Mazinkaiser (2001-2), an
OVA series based on the Go Nagai property
Mazinger Z, was arguably in style of
this compilation, as a series of event-of-the-week incidents and vibrant
robot/monster designs, but (with Nagai's
history and the production) more knowing in its bombast, from the opening rock
song by JAM Project having lyrics
like "Crush on crush!" to gratuitous nudity just for the hell of it.
Characters learnt of looking up
the series are gone completely, and at least one villain who has shape shifting
abilities here is barely used, a figure likely of greater prominence in the
original series, just emphasising how this whilst in its own little bubble is
still a piece of a bigger puzzle. Nowadays we'd condemn this type of
compilation, even if editing of shows for Western tastes was still happening
into the nineties. Ironically, what really drives the enjoyment of Magnos the Robot, regardless of the
version deliberately trying to scrub away any sense that it is a Japanese production,
is the original work even in a truncated form. Seventies anime is not that
commonly seen still over this side of the globe and, from its hand drawn
animation to the funky music about to turn into full disco, the entire
aesthetic and wholesome tone is charming. It's enough that, if I had the luck
to see the original Magne Robo Gakeen
show, I'd take a chance on it.
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