EX RENTAL REVIEWS - DETONATOR ORGAN (1991 -1993)

It’s difficult to talk about this without going into some measure of depth how incredibly and needlessly complicated this is, Detonator Orgun was one of those anime’s that I watched rather regularly on recorded VHS from the Sci-Fi Channel’s anime broadcasting which helped shape my interest, like most things however as I got older I started to see the errors that plague certain elements of it that make this a part of nostalgia that you want to look at and shrug off. Not to mention at times when you enjoyed something from a younger age by the time you get older you are completely annoyed and frustrated by it, that’s what the effect of this leaves the more you watch it.

A 3-part OVA series tells the story of Tomoru Shindo, a college student who is frustrated with his mundane lifestyle and how the 21st century has become with how easy everything is for humanity by this point in the earth’s advancement. With only a few months away from graduating college he is at the stage where he can’t decide what to do with his life, the options present to him are either follow in his family's footsteps of working in intra-stellar shipping or join the Earth Defense Force (EDF). As all of this is happening he has been having a reoccurring nightmare of protecting a young woman whilst being attacked by mechanical looking monsters and being protected by another mecha named Orgun.
As that develops he encounters a genetically engineered researcher called Professor Michi Kanzaki, who looks eerily like the woman from his dreams that he was trying to protect. As the story proceeds he develops a crush on her all whilst the earth has been invaded by the Evoluder, a race of galaxy hopping Mech warriors. One of the Evoluder, Orgun leaves his race to go to the earth to find what the anime keeps referencing as “Something important”. Tomoru manages to unlock the memories from Orgun due to a psychic bond they share with each other and how his desertion from the Evoluder will lead to uncovering the truth of Orgun’s mission.
That’s the long and short of this story and how it unfolds, which from afar you’d be quite hyped about. What I think really makes this Anime suffer not from its dated look is how Dire everything about it is, especially as well how convoluted the plot can be when you don’t pay attention. This is an OVA that while its fun to watch from an animation perspective which gives you some level of appreciation for the studio who worked on this, plot wise again it feels Dire. From the characters to the story and how it steamrolls along which really drags on forever and can at times fail to keep an interest.

The Characters first of all, some of them to be honest are not that interesting. Tomoru Shindo (while his current status in that lifestyle is relatable) is not very engaging as a person, he tends to whine about his dissatisfaction with current society and harbours on about how “I was born in the wrong time” and “I should have been born around this era” which the more you hear it the more boring it starts to get.

From his fashion style he wears clothing that represents a WWI Luftwaffe leather flight jacket and his behaviour he comes across as a character who is written to be stuck in wishing to go back and live life differently, however what is interesting despite it being a flaw in his character his interest in old history is engaging to see when he explores Museums displaying Aviation and War enactments from WWI & WWII, so you can tell he is a military historian which sadly they never go into more depth on which might have flushed out his character a little better. Another issue with him is with his linkage to Orgun and how he feels horrified with how he should remember what Orgun had to go through as he has to link up with him to combat the oncoming threat, for whichever reason Tomoru seems incredibly pushed over by how he thinks the EDF use him to get information out of so they can learn about Orgun and the Evoluder, Tomoru is bitter about the whole thing and makes his character rather impossible to root for because of his attitude. Which ends up fading away anyway because he gives into his problems and realize he must fight to save everyone despite the position he is in.

Michi Kanzaki while her profession and her role in the story helps bring her closer to Tomoru, there is very little to her character as well which makes it hard to connect with since she doesn’t give out much information about her and she feels like a wet blanket.
Which doesn’t help when some of the scenes were we see her and Tomoru interact feel incredibly forced and rather unwelcoming at times based on what Tomoru has to go through.
Other characters such as Kumi Jefferson - a prophet child whose main purpose in the story really is to predict what happens in the plot, Youko Mitsurugi – The EDF’s best female fighter and Nokk – Tomoru’s college friend really don’t seem that interesting. The problem with a majority of the cast is they aren’t written to a point where you are invested that much in what they are doing and how our lack of information about them helps us care about them. Even when things are at stake when they are attacked by the Evoluder you feel like in the time we have spent with them we should have felt something.
The biggest issue which shows that the Anime needs you to pay close and minuscule details is the backstory of the Evoluder. The backstory with them is how 200 years ago an exploration team was launched into the Cygnus Galaxy and due to the experiences of Time Dilation they have evolved into mechanical creatures incapable of feeling emotions outside of war and destruction, basically the Evoluder are evolved humans from a different time line which explains how Orgun and Tomoru Shindo have a connection with eachother, as well as characters such as Kumi Jefferson & Lady Mihku (The supreme commander of the Evoluder). What makes this an issue is how underwhelming and kind of silly their origin is and how by the end of it their mission feels like a complete misunderstanding, nothing feels earned from this and you can’t help but laugh at how it’s explained in the most contrived way possible.

Now the Animation for the most part of this from the character designs, to the movement, to every fight scene done in this is actually rather good. Directed by Masami Ōbari (Angel Blade, Voogie's Angel, Marine a Go Go) this was before he eventually moved into the direct-to-hentai format and you would think this wouldn’t be his work, surprisingly his mark has been left mostly on the mecha outlook of this mostly with the Evoluder and how they move and function.

 Ōbari’s style when it came to Anime was always very distinctive that represented an angular and almost curvy feel, from robots to big breasted women he has a unique style that is a part of what the 90’s had when he was involved as a director or character designer, for human character designs though done by Kia Asamiya (Silent Mobius, Kamen Rider Fourze, Baoh) everything seems to work pretty well. The way this is done is by having both Ōbari design the mechs and the weaponry and by Asamiya design the humans and how they would appear shows that both different artists can work together by clashing both styles within one another. Finally animated by studios AIC, ARTMIC Studios & DARTS everything about the production of it really makes this a definitive product of this era right down to the specific sound effects used. The fight scenes, lighting effects on characters and scenery, the atmospheric city scopes which are used to bring the characters to a calm level and the almost dreamlike moments where you see characters experience visions and nightmares which are vital to the plot really are well tied together. The budget on this was well spent to bring so much of this to life despite the flawed story.
The dire and easily the most difficult part of this are from an audio perspective. The score done by Susumu Hirasawa is probably the most agonizingly, painfully, brutally and easily most repetitive thing about this. This was before he ended up composing scores to anime such as Berserk and the filmography of Satoshi Kon, now I’m a big fan of Susumu Hirasawa and I highly respect him as a great musician with a very influential and highly mechanical sound to his music as well as an underrated and incredibly underused composer which shows how much of a genius he really is, in Detonator Orgun you don’t get that result. The score to this goes really all over the place and plays at the most awkward and unwelcome of moments, when there should be just dialogue the score comes out of nowhere and proceeds to beat you into the ground over and over again with the same song that the more you listen to it you feel like reacting to it, it doesn’t help when the songs drown out a majority of dialogue in this as well. The lyrical songs however really are enough of a reward because they are captivating and enjoyable to listen to, so the score from such a unique musician is rather mixed.

From the perspective of the English Dub however things are even more complicated, the dub of this was done by Manga UK and sadly they are not at their best. Performances here are easily the most wonky and brutally forced I’ve heard them do, specifically from two people. Joanna MacInnes as Michi Kanzaki and Roger May as Tomoru Shindo, both of these leads are very badly miscasted and at times listening to them sounds incredibly uneven. Both characters that are in their mid-teens to early 20’s are played by people who sound almost like they are in their 40’s. Sometimes when a specific voice actor with a specific voice is able to cover up their age through their voice they can pull it off rather well if they play a younger character, sadly with both Joanna MacInnes and Roger May they act as though they have no chemistry between each other and they sound tired and weary when they perform their lines and it doesn’t help that every time they deliver the dialogue they have to read you can’t help but burst out in hysterics at how silly it sounds. The only actor in this who really is trying and is putting effort into his role is Bill Roberts who plays Commander Zoa, as someone who is usually type-casted as villians or old men Bill Roberts puts in the effort and energy to at least care about the work he is given and to make every performance count. Even at the worst of times he is still trying, he’s the only actor in this who plays his character well and you can take him seriously.

There was also a dub of this done by the defunct Central Park Media which features names such as Ted Lewis & Jessica Calvello, names you might have seen in titles such as Attack on Titan, Ultimate Muscle, Excel Saga etc. I’ve not had a chance to properly hear this so whether or not it’s better than the UK dub is up for a passable debate.

An interesting point as well from a design aspect from this regarding the design of Orgun, the design features and the asthetics are very similar to the anime Tekkaman Blade (Teknoman) which aired around the same time, so it’s possible that one ended up being inspired by the other thanks to Masami Obari.

Overall Detonator Orgun is one of those Anime’s that while it is entertaining to watch from time to time it can leave you very fatigued. The characters are boring, the dialogue is laughably bad and the voice acting can drag from time to time, but what appeals to it though was how the companies that made this sunk so much time and energy into making the animation of this rather vibrant for the time. It looks pretty on the surface but at the once you begin to see it close up you might want to have a second thought about it, what made it special for me which is why I have a soft spot for it despite the negative mentions was how fun it is.
Robots put against other robots in the fight to save the planet earth which for an Anime you can’t get more out of it than that.
Despite the problems I've mentioned it’s a watchable Anime, recommended..

Sami Sadek is a lifelong Transformers and Anime fan, and can often be found propping up bars or appearing in the background of Auto Assembly vids. He has also talks on Youtube, Tumbls on Tumblr and doodles on Deviantart. He has never had a swordfight atop a church whilst a crow watches. Honest.