Super Robot Showcase: Giant Robo from "Giant Robo" (OVA) / スパロボショーケース：「ジャイアントロボ」(OVA)のジャイアント・ロボ

An ability showcase for Giant Robo from "Giant Robo: The Animation: The Day the Earth Stood Still".

"Giant Robo: The Animation: The Day the Earth Stood Still" is a seven episode OVA series, and the second adaption of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's manga Giant Robo. The series is distinctive for its storytelling, where the simple setup is repeatedly recontextualized as the more complex truth is gradually unraveled. Due to the detailed animation and orchestral score, the series struggled with budget, and was released over a period of about six years. The last episode in particular had a wait of over two years before its release. Three additional episodes were sold focusing on the character Ginrei, but these are not part of the main story, and two of them have a comedic and sexy tone that is not present otherwise in the series.

Due to a rights conflict with the creators of the previous live action adaptation, this OVA was heavily restricted on which characters it could include from the source material. To compensate, it instead drew characters from Mitsuteru Yokoyama's entire library of manga, which includes historical fiction such as adaptations of Chinese literature, as well as science fiction such as remote controlled mecha. Appropriately, the OVA mixes superpowered heroes and giant robots, Chinese and western styles, and a deliberate retro style. The director, Yasuhiro Imagawa, went on to provide a similar mix of martial arts and mecha in his later series "G Gundam", and created other crossover tributes to a single artist's work in series like "Getter Robo Armageddon" and "Shin Mazinger Edition Z: The Impact!".

According to various sources, this series was meant to be simple one part of a larger epic. While the OVA did not have any sequels or prequels, Yasuhiro Imagawa later served as writer for the manga "Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Burned", which follows many of the details proposed for the expanded world of the OVA. However, there are significant differences in tone and characterization, so it should not be expected to be a straightforward expansion.

"Giant Robo: The Animation: The Day the Earth Stood Still" has previously appeared in the Super Robot Wars α and Super Robot Wars 64.

For clarity, the subtitles here are not mine.



「ジャイアントロボ THE ANIMATION 地球が静止する日」のジャイアント・ロボは全て武器と特殊能力。