When an anomaly known as the O. R. T. Manifests above the Earth, giant creatures known as Kaiju emerge from the anomaly and attack the Earth's cities. The Extreme Defense Force lead by Captain Creed and his ward three year old genius Alex Rose (Eva Airel Binder) enact their defense program with the giant robot codenamed Shiny (Eric Lopez) who in spite of his carefree and laidback personality proves a formidable match against the first Kaiju. When Shiny oversteps his mission and tries to travel though the O. R. T. To bring back Alex's missing scientists parents who disappeared into the O. R. T., Shiny emerges back on Earth and finds that 10 years have passed with the now 13 year old Alex (Marisa Davila) and the promoted Colonel Creed having developed Thunder (Chris Diamantopoulos) who's sleeker, sterner, and more serious than his "older brother" Shiny. Now with Shiny and Thunder, Alex, Creed and the EDF try to keep the kaiju threat in check while trying to figure out who's behind it while Shiny and Thunder deal with sibling rivalry.
Super Giant Robot Brothers comes to us from director Mark Andrews whose career spans a number of films across Warner Bros. And Pixar including working as a story artist on things like The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Cars, and many others as well as having directed the 2012 feature Brave. With this show, Andrews and co tackle the well-worn format of "monster of the day"/giant robot shows whose DNA traces back to golden age classics like Gigantor (Tetsujin 28-go as it was originally know) to long runny legacied franchises like Mobile Suit Gundam and Super Sentai/Power Rangers. While Super Giant Robot Brothers traverse well-trodden ground, it has a style and energy that oozes with personality and charm that immediately won me over.
With its ridiculous title the show makes no secret of just how goofy a show this truly is as it introduces us to our lead Alex Rose who despite being three years old upon first introduction managed to build a giant robot in Shiny. The show features a lot of humorous moments like this in its establishment of this world and while the show does acknowledge their inherent silliness, it doesn't call attention to them front and center and still allows itself to be a "monster of the day" show with legitimate stakes and intrigue in the plot as well as character development. Alex and Creed played by Marisa Davila and Delbert Hunt respectively are really solid characters with natural chemistry and you buy them as something of a surrogate father/daughter relationship that's also mixed in with a working relationship that adds an endearingly odd charm to the show. Shiny and Thunder are also well voiced by Eric Lopez and Chris Diamantopoulos respectively with Lopez' more laid back delivery fitting well with his more spherical design that harkens back to 1960s mecha designs like Tetsujin 28 or Giant Robo, while Diamantopoulos' more stern overly serious delivery coupled with a design that emulates the post Gundam mecha designs of the late 70s and 80s gives the characters a unique visual identity as well as personalities that match the inspirations of their designs.
The animation in Super Giant Robot Brothers is very solid and is structured around the giant robot concept in a unique fashion. From what I've gathered from behind the scenes info, all of the show is done in motion capture on a "virtual set" with the robot fights and character interactions acted out in mo-cap and then rendered in Unreal Engine 4 from the footage captured during the recording sessions. Thanks to this unique approach, the camera is allowed a greater degree of freedom than you typically see in many computer animated productions with some more dynamic shots and even bits of natural handheld camera shots that are surprisingly well integrated into the show without calling attention to themselves. This approach to the animation also works on another level as the fact the fight scenes are acted out on a virtual set with actual human movement leads to the show emulating the style you've seen in various tokusatsu shows such as Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and Super Sentai and stylistically it really works.
Super Giant Robot Brothers is pure fun. Shiny and Thunder make for an endearing set of leads who's conflicting personality and aesthetic designs complement each other nicely, and the show still allows itself to work as a traditional giant robot show without diving into full on parody and doesn't let the comedy overshadow the pathos or the action. Kudos to director Andrews and the production staff on the show and here's hoping we see more of these characters.
