Getter Robo Armageddon - Resurrection (Vol. 1)
Getter Robooffers gun battles, cyborg monsters, explosions, and showers of blood--in the first minutes of the first episode. Created by Go Nagai and Ken Ishikawa,Getter Robowas originally broadcast in 1974-75. The series helped to spark the craze for combining robots: three rocket planes with pilots link together to form the multiform mecha of the title ("getter" is derived fromgatta, "combine" in Japanese). Tough, aggressive Kei looks a bit like Demi Moore inGI Jane; Go is the taciturn, noble hero and Gai, a big lug of a mechanic, offers semi-comic relief. The Getter Robots and their cyborg foes, the creations of the mad Dr. Saotome, are brilliantly designed machines whose angled, curving forms suggest power and mobility. The series is long on action and short on plot development. Every episode boasts at least one major battle, with flying metal tentacles, daring dive-bomber maneuvers, mechanical hand-to-hand combat, screams, gobbets of blood, and explosions. What's at stake in these conflicts and the relationships among the characters emerges more slowly.Getter Robois part of the same universe as the artists'Grandizerand was an important series in the development of contemporary mecha anime. However, fans ofNadesicomay have trouble watching it with a straight face, as this robot adventure is one of the series that was satirized inGekigangar 3. Parental guidance suggested; suitable for ages 14 and up: considerable violence, profanity, brief nudity.--Charles Solomon