OP1.5 Sequence

OP: 「MAXON」 by JAM Project
Watch the OP!: Download, Streaming ▼

There was a subtle change in the opening sequence back in episode fourteen after Lamia received the Vysaga. In this episode, there was one additional change, showing Dygenguar in all its glory without a dark shadow cast over it.

「オンリー・ワン・クラッシュ」 (Onrii Wan Kurasshu)
“Only One Crash”

At last! It’s the SRX Team’s time to shine and by that I mean busting out the Variable Formation. If you want some robot combination (gattai) of epic proportions, look no further than Banpresto’s original Personal Troopers that bridge the gap between real robots and super robots. It comes complete with their trademark “One-Shot Sure Kill” Hyper Tronium Buster (HTB) Cannon too.

The only things I would fault The Inspector’s take on the formation of the gigantic Super Robot X is the brevity of the sequence and the fact that they didn’t crank the music loud enough. Still, it was pretty awesome to see it in motion with the notable quality increase of this sequel, plus the fact that the transformation was largely animated by hand. There’s always the possibility that we’ll see a more heavily CG-based variation of it in a later episode, much like Divine Wars had. I love the amount of articulation in the prequel’s version, which required over a minute to complete, so it remains the best version I’ve seen to date. This is taking the games’ CG sequences into account too. See below.

Watch the SRX Variable Formation ▼

To those who haven’t seen Divine Wars, it’s as different as night and day in terms of the overall quality and the character designs. Even without taking the leap to high definition into consideration, Asahi Productions’ work is noticeably better than OLM’s, to the point that someone might think The Inspector is a remake rather than a sequel. As such, I’m hoping Asahi has a better Variable Formation in store to really wow me by showing me what their studio’s capable of. After seeing how nicely the heavily CG-based Fairlions blended in, I was admittedly expecting to see something similar.

Story-wise, this episode had multiple “big” revelations that were resolved just as quickly as they were introduced. Most of them won’t actually mean much unless you’re familiar with the backstory of the SRX team members, such as Villeta’s confession that she’s a clone of sorts of Ingram Prisken, a spy originally sent by the Aerogaters and sabotaged the SRX Team, and how she was instructed to carry on his will of guiding the SRX Team. Much like Rai’s reaction suggested, this is a pretty big deal, since Ingram was one of their main enemies in Divine Wars despite his attempts to break free of Euzeth Gozzo’s control — one of the commanders of the Balmer Empire (i.e. Aerogaters).

The other big revelation was of course the fact that Aya and Mai are not related nor Dr. Kobayashi’s daughters, but instead a couple of his test subjects who were implanted with fake memories to make them capable Psychodrivers for the SRX Project. This was Aya and Mai’s realization that they’ve been living lies all this time, which is pretty substantial given all that they went through in the war against the Aerogaters. Mai in particular, who was brainwashed into becoming Levi Tolar, the core of the Judecca “White Death Cross” mobile weapon. The one redeeming aspect of the episode is that they both overcame that shocking revelation and decided to live their current lives even if they started out as lies, which also led to Mai overcoming the remnants of Levi that were still plaguing her mind. That, and the satisfaction of knowing that their Twin Contact sent the old hag Dr. Setme and her Sol Gravilion packing.

If this episode didn’t make it apparent enough, the SRX Team is a pretty messed up bunch, or a bunch that’s been messed with a lot I should say. Even Rai’s got issues with his brother Elzam, so Ryuusei’s the only “normal” one if you’re willing to overlook how he’s a big super robot fanatic. However, much like the games with a single stage, most of their personal problems have been overcome in one episode, so things should be much more “rosy” for their team from now on. After all, there are some Inspectors who deserve to be shot with the HTB Cannon, and the SRX Team should be ready to oblige now.

 

ED1.6 Sequence

ED: 「僕らの自由」 (Bokura no Jiyuu) by 美郷あき (Misato Aki)
Watch the ED!: Download, Streaming ▼

This is pretty much the same ending sequence as last episode with Ibis and Carla added, except Excellen doesn’t get brushed aside by some “man-service”. More of that will come when they ride one another.

Preview

28 Comments

  1. Variable Formation will always be awesome, even if its not made that well…. screw what I said, most variable formations are awesome :3

    But I have a few questions, where is Rai’s cockpit in the SRX? Because during Variable Formation, the R-2 Powered hollows out leaving no space for a cockpit.

    And also, is it me, or is the BGM for Inspectors ripped directly from the OGS game? Because they sound exactly alike.

    and finally I share the same opinion as Divine about the variable formation. Its not long enough and the music isn’t loud enough :3.

    Suppa Tenko
      1. You may be right, my memory is a little fuzzy. At least in the Alpha series the SRX Altered Banpreios had the Tronium engine perfected so the SRX team could use the energy without worrying about exploding themselves 😛

        LightHawk
      2. I don’t think people know where Rai’s cockpit is. Heck, if you look at the way the R-2 Powered changes, it looks like Rai is just kind of hanging upside down while keeping check on the Tronium Engine.

        It’s not you. BGM from The Inspectors is from the game mostly. There’s a few remixes of Steel Beowulf, but other stuff is the same.

        It’s also been a while since I played OG1, but I believe “Only One Crash” refers to the combining of the SRX itself, the actual name for it. They only have one chance to form it and a screw up would get them killed. Ryusei calls it “Variable Formation” though because it sounds awesome.

        Overall I really enjoyed this episode. I would have liked to hear Marionette Messiah and Soul of Steel play, but it was awesome even without them. Also the whole Sol Gravion thing going on there with the Sol Gravilion had me laughing. Toga and Eiji included even. I loved that.

        Zack
  2. GATTAI DA!! I still get Kamina vibes whenever anyone says that.

    I was hoping the ugly hag would have evaporated from the Tronium Buster Cannon. I was misled when her cockpit area was already in flames. Tch, the HTB Cannon has let me down.

    xcswmboy
  3. Kinda surprised they didn’t mention one piece of information on this stage that they did in the game. I thought that tidbit was just as big of a reveal as the rest, but I guess they don’t have the time to go into the details… Or at least I’m quite sure it happened on this stage. I could be wrong.

    Also, awesome recap, Divine. I’m also glad you fill in the details with most of history in case people need it. Like me, who forgot about Viletta and Ingram.

    Dorian
  4. Variable Formation went a little too fast for my taste. Still it was made up by how the SRX GRABS ITS HELMET AND SLAMMED IT INTO ITS HEAD. That’d the beauty of Super Robots, you can make any seemingly mundane task look epic.

    fragb85
    1. If you paid attention, there were several Gravion nods. Jun Fukuyama (Touga) is the main pilot of the Sol Gravilion, and the two attacks it showed off are: Gravilion Arc and Sol Gravilion Sword. Yeah.

      Random Fact: I found out recently that the Gravilion was an unused design that was supposed to be featured in OG1 on the GBA, but never made it past concept art. Yes folks, the Gravilion is not exclusive to The Inspector. Banpresto always had it in mind, they just never used it until now.

      Thrudgelmir
  5. Another thing is that, during Variable Formation, Rai already said “Tronium Engine Full Drive” yet during the HTB Cannon, he says Full Drive again. But when I see the Banpreios using the HTB Cannon,he says Overdrive. Is that an error in script?

    Suppa Tenko
      1. You’ll have to ask the mech designer that question. For all we know, the Tronium Engine is relatively small despite its power. The cockpit (along with Rai) is probably shifted to the lower portion though, considering that R-2 flips upside-down during the formation.

  6. I was a bit disappointed at first because they didn’t play either Marionnette Messiah, Woman the Cool Spy or Soul of Steel, but then there was “HICHIGEKKI HISSATSU BUSUTAAA CANON” and I was like FUUUUCK YEAH.
    They didn’t top the ps2 version though, were the enemy gets blasted to the sun.
    I hope they’ll play Soul of Steel before the end with some Nendo Bakusai Ken action.
    The remixed Everywhere you Go was pretty awesome still.
    This is just too awesome.

    Rockmanshii

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