Anime: Detonator Orgun

Detonator Organ is a short OVA series around a living alien mecha which seeks refuge on Earth from its creators. Predictably, they are not willing to let it go so easily, so they sent in other robots to retrieve it or destroy it while planning to destroy the planet just for fun. Sounds like a simple but good enough premise to make something decent out of it but unfortunately it remains as a sci-fi action slugfest and nothing more.

The story has a lot going for it, such as evolution and human compassion clashing over time and space, freedom, destiny, heritage, but in practice it is nothing but a long-winded build-up for a rather straightforward brawling between robots. The plot moves extremely slow, with lots of scenes used for nothing other than flavour before skyrockets in the finale just for the sake of ending it all with a bang. If this was a 12 episode series then those extra scenes would be needed to flesh out the cast but in such a short feature they manage to do nothing but slowing down the already limited in duration plot. Which translates to being boring when there is no action or revelations, almost two thirds of the total airtime.

Another thing is the generic cast that doesn’t allow you to like them for any reason at all. Orgun is a generic robot that protects Earth and his race is nothing but a stereotypical bunch of killing machines. The human characters seem to be there as nothing but decorations and cannon fodder. But at least they put up a much better fight than they usually do in such types of shows. Some of them even cause damage to the otherwise unbeatable alien invaders. Unfortunately there is so much airtime dedicated to battles or generic strolling around that nobody manages to be anything other than a caricature.

The production values are quite good. The backgrounds are drawn extremely detailed and the battles have a basic choreography, plus they are epic in proportions. The three different ending songs are also great to listen to as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzc2NJ7F6gw&feature=related
Voice acting fells rather dried up as the characters are all too distant and blunt to bring out anything special for you to care about.

In all, the whole deal plays out way too fast for you to care, plus most of it is wasted on secondary events that matter very little in overall. If this was a 12 episode or more series, it could feel a lot better. As it stands it is nothing but a generic alien invasion that is resolved in a rushed and sloppy manner. Plus, it is nothing that you won’t find in other famous titles, such as Tekkaman Blade or Super Dimensional Fortress Macross.

Detonator Orgun sounds like a pile of clichés on first sight, and sadly it does nothing to ameliorate this impression. Although I suppose that the elements used in this OVA were much less stretched-out in 1991, that only affirms that it hasn’t managed to stand up to the test of time.

The biggest gripe one can have with this anime is that it is ill-fitting to its genre. It stands to reason that an anime whose protagonist and title character is a battle mecha (and a “Detonator” at that) would be full of action sequences. The premise is there; after all, Orgun is compelled to defend the Earth from a planetful of evil counterparts of himself. There is even a production line of manmade mechas further into the story. But none of those benefits from much screen time.

Instead we get more than enough of angst and sulking, due to a subplot where Orgun and Shindou can merge a finite amount of times before they lose their individuality. The obvious reason for the existence of this subplot is to prevent Orgun from being present to fend off every single Evoluder attack. That way, some casualties and destruction manage to take place, giving fuel to even more drama. But Shindou’s angst is really overplayed, especially considering the limited screen time. It would be an interesting tangent to explore in a longer OVA or a TV series, but in a 5-part OVA there is simply not enough time to make Shindou or Orgun likeable enough to sympathize with their prospected loss of self-consciousness.

Which is really a shame, considering that animation and character design are very competent. Outdoors settings like landscapes and space environs are very well drawn and action sequences, although scarce, are nevertheless quite detailed and nicely choreographed.

In addition, completely superficial love triangle among Shindou, a young scientist and a military pilot rears its ugly head. There is not enough interaction among the characters for it to get really annoying, but it definitely feels unnecessary and the outcome is rather glaring even from the first few minutes of the first episode. At least it serves as an excuse to flesh out the thoughts and motives of Professor Kanzaki, who is one of the more interesting characters in the anime. In fact, other than Shindou’s growing-of-age, Kanzaki’s emotional progress throughout the anime is probably the only element of character development.

All these conflicting story threads constantly struggle for the attention of the viewer. Nevertheless the various elements are brought together pretty well, other than some pacing problems.

As far as audio is concerned, there is not much to say. Voice acting is very good, as every one of the major characters has a manner of speech according to their educational and social background. There is nothing extraordinary about the voices, but they get the message across very nicely. The music score, wherever it does exist, is minimalistic; epic space fight riffs are mostly absent from Detonator Orgun. The sound effects are, again, pretty competent but not noteworthy.

In conclusion, I think that Detonator Orgun represents an experiment to break the mold of its genre and include more focus on the dramatic aspects of the characters, at the cost of fight scenes and space vistas. Although it did not manage to be successful in that venture for the most part, the quality of its parts marks it as definitely watchable.

One of the most underrated and underpublicized animes I've ever had the pleasure of discovering, Detonator Orgun has to be one of the best mecha-based anime I've seen. As usual, Masami Obari's directing, flair for action, and very dynamic camera angles emphasizes the action and enhances the experience. For such a tiny mecha, the Solid Armor Units pack a humungous punch. Something some viewers may find cheesy unless they suspend all disbelief...it's science fiction after all. ;) All in all, one of the most enjoyable OVA's I've seen, and one I continue to enjoy revisiting. My only complaint, it's too damn short! XD

This is a real nostalgic anime to me. I saw it 9 years ago as the first anime I ever saw. It left it's mark on me for the rest of my life. The great plotline, awesome mecha action and designs and somewhat good characters were just something a serious minded western lad would expect to be found on a animated movie. DO's only weakness is the simple main character who could be in any mecha. DO still comes out to be a real good anime due to it's great animation, mecha, audio, plotline and Orgun himself, who in my opinion is the most awesome mech ever created.

This is a great manga, I watched it on VHS a couple of years ago and found myself watching and borrowing the VHS more then once. The story is good with an insane race of high tech mechs going from planet to planet distroying everything on it and then moving on and ...it's earths turn next... set in the future this manga is very enjoyable the characters are detailed and every good. there is also a romantic thing with this manga as well with everyone trying to save the earth. I notcied in this manga the earth is the main point.

overall a very good manga..