Haja taisei dangaio

If you're looking for Japanese animation with a strong story, intriguing plot and detailed character development, don't bother with Dangaio. If you're a fan of 80s style action cartoons like Thundercats and Transformers, (like me!) you'll love it!

The story follows four teenage-types with super powers, who are brought together by an alien type fellow called Professor Tahssan, and trained to pilot space fighters that combine to form a powerful giant robot, Dangaio. Tahssan plans to sell them to a space-pirate organization, but fortunately the kids don't believe his explanation of their origin... so they escape and set off to find out who they really are.

The whole point of the show is visuals... and most people don't realize the big names who produced it- Toshihiro Hirano (Iczer One, Vampire Princess Miyu) wrote, directed and obviously did the character design. The animation director was Masami Obari, one of the most dynamic animation directors in Japan. (Just watch BubbleGum Crisis 1-4, then compare to vol 5 when Obari took over!) One of the art directors was none other than Hideaki Anno, GAINAX's A-1 director. (GunBuster, Evangelion, etc.) But most importantly, the mecha design- you have not only Masami Obari and Yasushi Ishizu (Gundam, Dirty Pair) and Koichi Ohata (MD GEIST, GunBuster) but Masanori "Shoji" Kawamori as well! (Macross, Patlabor, darn near every famous mecha show) And you even heave awesome monster design by Junichi Watanabe.

Fortunately Anno and company did a great job portraying the designs with great detail in every frame, and Obari really brings them to life; Dynamic battles around every corner, even the sound effects are perfect. And yes, they even go to earth to stomp all over Tokyo for awhile. Unfortunately, this fantastic show is out of print. Volumes 1-3 were released in the US by US Renditions many years ago, subtitled. Though Manga video since picked it up, you want to avoid it like the plague. They dubbed it, and they even cut out the first episode, the best one!

So if you're a fan of beautiful machines stomping the mess out of each other in dynamic action-packed battles in a hardcore-science fiction environment, with some superheroic, slightly underdressed girls thrown in for flavor, you must hunt down Dangaio.

I saw the first installment of this anime mini-series when it was first released years ago on VHS, and where the theme is fairly basic and aimed at children (mature grade school-agers to teen) I still find it thoroughly entertaining in a very adventuresome kind of way, all the while delivering the Japanese parable of working together to overcome obstacles.

Dangaiô Hyper Combat Unit borrows from a plethora of scifi and anime. Note the giant dragon ship used by the bad guys. Note how the bad guys like to use giant monsters to terrorize Earth. Note how it's the anime females who are shown as being capable in spite of being female. Note how it's the weak nerdy guy who comes realize his manhood during a crisis. Also note the typical allusion to the use of WMDs on Japan (a holdover from the dropping of atomic weapons in the second world war, which seems to be a recurring allusion in a variety of Japanese anime to drive home a variety of story points).

It's cliché on a number of levels, anime wise at least, but it's still good fun for younger audiences. And I say that unabashedly, because this is the kind of thing that American studios should have been making for our young audiences, but the thinking at the time (which still prevails I'm afraid) is to show g-rated brain-over-brawn concepts with non-combative solutions. Well, sometimes you do have to fight, and meet brawn with brawn. A constant lesson that American psychologists perpetually forget in their naiveté, which affects American children's programming.

Fortunately we have the likes of AIC who continue to create exceptional anime with lessons in harmony, cooperation, and friendship that resonate with all cultures the world over.

The characters are from Japan's equivalent of Central Casting, but even so they make a good mix and create an enjoyable dynamic as team Dangaiô confronts one threat from the space-dragon ship bad guys after another.

I don't recall any nudity, but there is a good deal of violence. If you're an anime fan, and if you can get yourself a copy from Japan, then see it once and see what you think. I would, however, avoid the US market version; usual bad dubbing, and nothing in the way of extras to explain the story or background.

Have a look.

I loved the plot and the mech designs! Shoji Kawamori's mech designs were just as cool and elaborate as in Escaflowne! the character design was pretty cool as well.