First Impressions / Super Robot Wars OG

「月下に妖精は舞う」 (Gekka ni Yousei wa Mau)
“The Fairy Dances Under the Moonlight”

I was expecting “big” things to happen once the Hagane and Hiryuu Custom crews met up, but even I didn’t anticipate the better part of the full twenty minutes dedicated to action upon action upon action of robot battle goodness. Did I mention there was a lot of action this episode? In fact, just about every personal trooper and super robot gave us a taste of a few of their trademark attacks, and there was even reference to the Twin Battle System introduced in the PlayStation 2 remake, Original Generations, before Latune and Shine gave us a taste of their Fairlions’ W-I­³NK System in action. This episode felt like a stage right out of the game as well, with the way the Hagane went in first and deployed Kai, Irm, and Katina’s Octopus Squad to act as a diversion. Once the Hiryuu Custom arrived with just about everyone else, it was nothing but pure mecha eye candy from that point as they charged in from both the ground and the air.

The sight of Cybuster, Valsione, Weiss Ritter, and Angelg taking off first quickly set the tone for the surprise attack, which was followed up by Bullet and Kusuha firing their Grungust Type-3’s Omega Blaster. A lot of the attention was then diverted to Alt Risen, R-1, and R-2 Powered on the ground, and befittingly so since Rai was a man on a mission to kill Archibald with his own hands. It was kind of cool to see Ryuusei insist that Rai lead in their two unit assault, since the two of them don’t get along all that well despite being team mates. During all that, one of the biggest homage was the way the characters screamed out their attacks in the exact same way that they do in the games, including Ryuusei’s “T-LINK Knuckle!” and Rai’s “Hi-Zol Launcher… Shoot!”

Story-wise, a lot of the heated emotions came from Rai’s attempt to avenge his sister-in-law, Elzam’s wife Cattleya, who was taken hostage by Archibald when his group of terrorists attacked his home colony of Elpis. Those feelings of hatred flared up quite a bit when Archibald revealed that he had taken the citizens of Riksent hostage in a similar manner, and had me hoping that he’d die a horrible death sooner rather than later. However, as a result of his underhanded tactics, Yuuki and Carla look like they won’t want to follow orders form Archibald much longer. The two of them have already earned some favorable impressions from the rest of the Earth Federation pilots for betraying Archibald and defusing all the bombs (with Gilliam’s help), so if there’s a side they ever need to jump ship to, the good guys would be it.

Unfortunately, the Neo DC commander didn’t get what he deserved in the gigantic Gravilion robot he came out in after Rai and Lamia put a nice dent in his battleship. For now, it was nice to see Latune and Shine give him an ass-kicking with their Fairlions’ synchronized Royal Heartbreaker attack with the help of Angelg’s Phantom Phoenix. I had no complaints with how the Royal Heartbreaker was animated given that it showcased every aspect of the attack sequence from the game, save for some more focus on the individual dance portions. They even threw in a vocal version of their “Fairy Dan-Cing” theme to go with it, which has me looking forward to seeing how well some of SRX’s attacks will be animated in this sequel. I can’t wait to see its variable formation either.

In terms of production, it’s probably worth noting that most of the Fairlion Type-G and Type-S were rendered in CG, but blended fairly well into the battle sequences regardless. I actually thought it made the scene look pretty cool since it was reminiscent of Macross Frontier’s use of CG, plus Shine didn’t hesitate to give us a close-up shot of her Type-S’ rear end. Now how’s that for mecha fan-service? Anyway, with Riksent liberated from Neo DC, the focus looks like it should be shifting to the Inspectors now. It’s time to go up against the big guns again.

 

Preview

33 Comments

  3. im a little disapointed they didn’t free arado from the brig in this one but he should be getting out soon. I do like how they did that combo makes me hopeful we will see tornado blade or rampaging ghost, though i know we will see the HTB cannon because thats what r gun is for in the first place

    chaos
    Reply

  4. During all that, one of the biggest homage was the way the characters screamed out their attacks in the exact same way that they do in the games, including Ryuusei’s “T-LINK Knuckle!” and Rai’s “Hi-Zol Launcher… Shoot!”

    What about the GIGA WIDE BLASTER ?

    Bossun
    Reply

    1. It’s a little later than in the game, but the R2 got similarly wrecked, and the R1’s shield getting busted is probably something more easily replaced than the R2 Powered equipment.

      Shiden
      Reply

  11. At this point, I’m wondering if we’ll get to see Giganspada before the series is over. Considering that this seems to be more OGS than OG2, and that they seem to be going through the mechs like crazy to get everything in…I’m really hoping we get to see Gigan’s original form. 🙂

    Shiden
    Reply

  12. Hey hey hey, if I remember correctly…

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Chikinyx
    Reply

  15. Pure mecha eyecandy, I loved it. HUGE epic Phantom Phoenix + Royal Heartbreaker (desu wa!) ftw, but damn the creepy guy for doing a cheeseball getaway.

    Does anyone know if this is one or two seasons long? Two or three episodes just doesn’t seem like enough time to wrap up ANY loose ends, much less all of them. Especially with sunglasses-guy escaping to fight another day.

    Guardian
    Reply

    2. Maybe they want to peeve us into buying a game and hunting him down ourselves. lol Also Rai’s mech, after taking a gravity bomb thingy to the lips i would like to know if it was known for being tough to kill off (high hp) in the game. I really like that design.

      Breedo
      Reply

    3. Too bad Arado wasn’t in the battle since they changed the story. I used Arado and a fully upgraded Boost Hammer in that specific mission to lure all the mechs out of the wall…

      The Enigmatic Moondogg
      Reply

  18. @ Adam: Seems that way, given that there’s a splitscreen showing both attacks; Offensive Support would have Rai attacking first, followed by Lamia, rather than a simultaneous attack.

    That said, Phantom Phoenix deployment appears to be offensive support.

    Wild Goose
    Reply

  19. One of the things that amaze me the most each time I watch this show is how they manage to blend perfectly every aspect into the game elements and story into it. Like the screen split up for that twin battle system attack and hearing about map weapons. This is turning into the best game into anime adaptation I’ve ever seen.

    Rockmanshii
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *