First Impressions / Super Robot Wars OG

「凶鳥の眷属」 (Kyouchou no Kenzoku)
“The Black Bird’s Kindred”

It lost its V-fin antennas and got the Banpresto logo shades treatment like SRX, but the Huckebein Mk. III makes its appearance in this adaptation as the Exbein, complete with the “Ace Attacker” theme. Ryouto goes all out with it as well and uses the AM Gunner’s Full Impact Cannon with the Boxer parts still attached to deal with the arrival of the Inspectors. Now there’s sheer robot awesomeness and then there’s that. I still remember the Alpha days when this Personal Trooper came into my possession and there was no way you could combine both add-ons and do what Ryouto did. Even on the OG2 stage that this episode is based on, it was only the base Huckebein docking with Rio Meilong (Natsuki Rio) in the AM Gunner, not the Boxer swinging it around like a huge cannon to counter Mekibos (Ishida Akira) in his Graterkin. However, I absolutely loved the way Ryouto utilized the T-Link System and piloted with reckless abandon to adapt to the situation, plus “manhandle” Rio a bit in the process. I’m sure she enjoyed the ride that he gave her on some level given her fondness of Ryouto, plus Marion Radom (Nakamura Kaori) and ex-husband Kirk Hamill (Kazama Yuuto) got to see the fruits of their labour in action. As the “black bird” family of Personal Troopers after the Vanishing Trooper Incident — where the first Huckebein’s Extra-Over Technology (EOT) based Black Hole Engine went out of control — this Tronium Engine-equipped version of the Huckebein/Exbein showed the results of continued development on it. The destructive power of its Geist Knuckle and Catapult Kick spoke for themselves as to why the Inspectors were after it.

This episode wasn’t all about Ryouto kicking ass in the Exbein as he and Radha Byraban (Sakuma Rei) fled Mao Industries to deliver the prototype to Earth though. Joining the cast of good guys was one of my favorite characters from the classic timeline, Ryune Zoldark (Hidaka Narumi), daughter of the former leader of the Divine Crusaders Bian Zoldark, in her revamped Valsione along with her “Flapper Girl” theme to mark her entrance. While those unfamiliar with the franchise will undoubtedly take notice to how her robot resembles a girl in a suit of armor complete with long flowing red hair, I was more focused on the skin-tight pilot suit that she had on. The attire I’m accustomed to seeing Ryune in from way back in Super Robot Wars 3 is a short white tank top with ripped jeans, but I’m really liking this new look instead of that fairly tomboy one. In any case, she received quite a thrashing at the hands of Mekibos after momentarily turning the tides upon arriving, before Ryouto bailed her out with the Exbein. I would’ve liked to see her use her Psycho Blaster like she planning to, but that will have to be saved for another day. What I’m looking forward to the most with Ryune though is seeing her interactions with her crush Masaki Andou, who’s slated to show up next time in Cybuster. There was also brief mention of Shuu Shirakawa as well, so it’ll be cool to see that “Lord of the Elemental” side of the story pick up at some point down the road. As far as I’m concerned, there’s always time for some Cybuster/Granzon action even though the Inspectors have arrived and attacked all the major Earth Federation bases at once.

As per the subtitle of this sequel, the Inspectors are undoubtedly a big part of the story, so it’s probably worth mentioning that their key members are the aforementioned Mekibos, Vigaji (Kusao Takeshi), Aguija (Asakawa Yuu), Sikalog, and Wendolo (Kaida Yuki), the last of which is their leader. A notable change in cast from the games is Asakawa Yuu playing Aguija in this adaptation. Also, Sikalog only communicates telepathically and never actually speaks, so he doesn’t actually have a voice actor. Not to be overshadowed by their sudden arrival are captain Lefina Enfield (Iwao Junko) of the Hiryuu Custom and her Octopus Squad led by Katina Tarask (Yaguchi Asami). Alongside her are squad members Russel Bergman (Aoki Takashi), Tasuku Shinguuji (Yamaguchi Kappei), and Leona Garstein (Sakakibara Yui), who played a key role here in helping Ryouto, Rio, and Radha escape from the moon with the Exbein. We didn’t get to see Tasuku’s gigantic Giganscudo Duro in action other than seeing it pick up Radha’s shuttle, but Leona did showcase a bit of what she’s capable of in her Siegerlion. Still, their escape doesn’t change the fact that Ring Mao (Ogata Megumi) and Rio’s father Yuan stayed behind at Mao Industries under the assumption that their attackers wouldn’t simply kill them. It took a while, bu the Inspectors have finally arrived as the new alien threat and now it’s time to see what our plethora of protagonists can do about it. The action was already pretty intense in this one and really well animated, so I’d imagine it’ll only get better from hereon in.

Hmm, I have a sudden urge to go and play Original Generations now…

* Gotta love how the Exbein’s weapons control are a page right out of the game (including attack power). They’re translated as well!
* There are a few variations in the spelling of certain characters’ names (e.g. Ryune vs Lune, Mekiboss vs Mekibos, Agiha vs Aguija, etc.), so I’ve decided to go with the official English ones according to Japanese sources.

 

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51 Comments

      2. Yeah, I was doing some comparisons myself just now and noticed that it’s more similar to the original but still clearly redesigned. Either way, the R doesn’t appear in OG so it’s probably safe to say it’s the Valsione naming-wise.

        Divine
        Reply

    1. i agree calling the mark 3 the ex bein is a little silly in my view but it gets around the copyright issue so what ever works and i do like the fight it was interesting. The part where they use the boxer combined with the am gunner -something that you can’t do in the game. The other interesting thing was how the inspectors invade with their own model weapons this time -instead of units captured and piloted by bioroids.

      chaos
      Reply

      1. True. Using both the Boxer and Gunner modules was a big plus. However, if they decided to stick to how it works in the game, Ryoto could have used G Sword Diver to purge the Boxer Parts then dock with the AM Gunner for the Full Impact Cannon. That would have been awesome as well.

        Reginald
        Reply

      2. It’s not the Mk.III the last episode clearly stated the Mk.III was canned for the EX. For all intents and purposes this is an original mecha, albeit a flimsy replacement for the Mk.III. Who cares though? It’s still awesome.

        fragb85
        Reply

    1. It’s not really a spoiler. So far, there are three(ish) alien factions. The Aerogators (Balmarians) who were the primary antagonists of OG; the Guests (Zuvorg Alliance), who were only seen in one episode/stage in OG, and aren’t quite officially introduced; and the Investigators (also Zuvorg Alliance), who were just introduced.

      Shiden
      Reply

  7. The Valsione looks great too, to bad it jobed to Graterkin. Something tells me it was for that certain suggestive pose for unconscious Lune 😛

    Also Terada is a magnificent troll. He said he’d give us a Wildschwein EX and instead took a Huckebein, removed the Gundam-like V-fin and put goggles over its eyes and rechristened it “Exbein”. Still I love the Not-Huckebein if only to see it using the Boxer and Gunner frames AT THE SAME TIME.

    fragb85
    Reply

    1. “I’ve decided to go with the official English ones according to Japanese sources.”

      What, OG & OG2 arent official enough for you ? What are they, fan projects ?

      “it appears to be the accepted spelling among Japanese audiences. See here.”

      And since when did they suddenly became able to differentiate L and R ? You dont make any sense in this sentence.

      karry
      Reply

      1. If you’re talking about the North American releases by ATLUS, then that’s correct, I don’t consider them proper translations since they never checked with Banpresto for official spellings. As you can see, the official names do use L’s when intended, like in “Zoldark”. Besides, if Ryune’s name was Lune, it would be spelled ルーネ and not リューネ.

        Divine
        Reply

      2. I dunno about Banpresto’s spellings sometimes. You do know their official spellings for the ships are “Kulogwane” “Shilogwane” “Hagwane,” despite those being very much Japanese words, and a very clear way of Romanizing them. Just throwing that out there.

        Blue
        Reply

      1. ya but it was in bits and pieces. Also it should be in the next few episodes probably around 10 or so unless they delay it for the half way point. Also i looked at the line art and the exbein isn’t the mark 3 -wish it was because i like the larger thrusters and fang slashers but its mostly based off it -i kind of want to know if we will see a black one in the near future

        chaos
        Reply

    2. Well, as shown, the anime puts events in different order, so there’s no clear cut answer. However, if it does follow the game, we’re not going to be seeing it for awhile. Not at least until every single Earth Federation character is introduced.

      Dendoh_fanboy
      Reply

  16. I just hope after this series we get to see gaiden as well, Zanger was one of my favorite character in SRW universe but even he par in comparsion compare to Folka, he is the true definition of a Super robot.

    bullxx
    Reply

  18. Aside from the Exbein weapon’s page, another typical thing from the games which was the thing I liked the most in the episode, is the way the batte was executed, especially when Mekibos surrounded with his allies, smirked and suddenly charged at Ryune, playing his theme just after hers, when she started tunrning thet tide of the batlle. Just like in the game when you kill a certain number of enemy units, or after a certain number of turns, the boss starts making his move.

    Rockmanshii
    Reply

  19. Yay, once again even more people to keep track of for a SRW newbie like me. 🙂

    Just curious, so far we have been introduced to the following organizations if I’m correct.
    Earth Federation
    Neo DC
    Shadowmirror (or whatever their name are)
    Aerogaters (they are at least mentioned now and then)
    Inspectors

    Where Neo DC and Shadowmirror is working together at the moment.

    Just checking if I’m keeping some kind of track of things.

    Greg
    Reply

    1. That’s correct.

      – The Earth Federation are the good guys.
      – Neo DC are another human faction that’s trying to overthrow the Earth Federation because they think they’re incapable of defending the Earth against alien threats.
      – Shadow-Mirror are dimensional travelers who try to spur on war and destruction.
      – Aerogaters were the alien threat that was defeated in the Divine Wars prequel. That’s the name given to them by the Earth Federation, but they’re actually from the Balmer Empire.
      – Inspectors are the new alien threat.

      Divine
      Reply

    1. i agree its stupied to complain about a game that is honoring your series.

      though the way they fight with it was great. Also im kind of sad we didn’t get to see the map weapon i want to see one of those used in this series since so many of the enemies and heroes have them on their mecha

      chaos
      Reply

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