The Series:
The penultimate volume of Super Robot Wars: Divine Wars
(Volume 8 for those keeping track) continues in the same vein as the previous
installments. There're a lot of cool mecha battles, fights between
giant robots and giant aliens, and many action sequences. The plot
is pretty much an afterthought, and with a cast of over a dozen main characters
and countless secondary ones, it's hard to really care about any of the
cast.
Series background:
In the future the earth is a very different place. After being
hit by two giant meteors and going through a series of wars, the Earth
Federation Government united all the peoples of Earth under one flag and
restored the peace.
Then the third meteor struck, but this one was different. Inside
was a cache of alien technology and proof that invaders were coming to
take over. The technology that was discovered was harnessed by the
EOTI (Extra Over Technology Institute) Organization and used to create
mecha, called Personal Troopers, in order to defend Earth.
Ryusei Date is a teenager who is crazy about Personal Troopers and is
very good at the popular game Burning PT where opponents fight mecha in
a virtual reality world. Little does he suspect but Burning PT is
actually a training ground to find likely Trooper pilots. When aliens
attack just after a PT tournament, the government sends out an unmanned
Trooper that Date climbs in and uses to defend his girlfriend. Of
course playing in virtual reality and real life are two different things,
but with his life on the line, Date doesn't have a lot of time to adjust
to the differences.
Quickly pushed through training, Date is made part of a team that includes
the experienced pilot Raidiese Branstein and team leader Aya Kobayashi,
who is insecure in her ability to lead the small fighting group.
The group soon expands to include other PT teams, random fighters with
powerful mecha, and enemies who change sides. There's definitely
a full roster of characters here.
While the cast is growing, the EOTI Organization has decided that the
Earth Government's peace talks with the aliens are actually the powers
that be selling out Earth for the sake of their own skins. The EOTI
has renamed themselves the Divine Crusaders (DC) and with their new, very
advanced flying PT are determined to take over control of Earth.
With more advanced weaponry than the Earth government, the odds are definitely
in the DC's favor. Even if the DC can be defeated however, there's
still the alien Aerogaters to deal with.
This volume:
At the end of the last volume, the remnants of the Divine Crusaders
launched a last-ditch effort to conquer the Earth Federation Government.
This sort of Battle of the Bulge attack nearly worked, but ultimately they
were crushed by the Hagwane, and its allies.
There was little to celebrate however because just as the DC were defeated
the Aerogaters attacked with space-based weapons and attacked Geneva, the
capital of the government. The city was wiped off of the face of
the Earth.
With the war against the Aerogaters now in full swing, a plan to swiftly
end the war by destroying the Aerogaters base, White Star, is hatched.
For the Earth forces to have a chance however, they PT mecha have to be
significantly modified. While testing the new units, Ryu and the
Hagwane encounter a huge Aerogater ship that's spewing froth hundreds of
attack mecha.
The battle is fierce (and long) but the Earth's defenders are in for
a cruel surprise. At the end of the battle their leader, Ingram Plissken,
betrays the Earth Federation. It turns out that he was a spy, sent
by the Aerogaters long ago and he was just waiting for the right moment
to revel his true nature. He shoots Aya, grabs Kusuha and flees back
to the White Star. The Aerogater ship wraps back to its base, leaving
the defenders unable to retrieve their kidnapped comrade. With
the aliens stepping up their attacks, it looks like there's little hope
for Earth.
This can be an enjoyable series if you look at it in the right way.
It's all action, pure and simple, and the show does that pretty well.
The battle scenes feature CGI mecha in front of some nicely detailed backgrounds,
and if you're looking for just that and nothing more, this is the show
for you.
Unfortunately I find it hard to watch the show without having my mind
wander. Yeah the eye candy is pretty, but it's hard to enjoy it when
there is no emotional attachment to the characters fighting. The
cast is so large it's really hard to keep track of them all, much less
care about them. Even when someone is hurt or dies, I have to think
back "which one was that? Is that the guy who likes the nurse?"
There doesn't seem to be much logic to the battles either, with the
tide flowing one way or the other just to suit the writer's whim rather
than because one tactic or another worked. One PT can fend off 50
aliens with no problem, only to be nearly destroyed by the 51st.
Why? Because the writer needed that character in trouble, and that's
about it.
Even with only 26 episodes in the series, this is lasting way too long.
This volume takes us through episode 23, and it feels like it's much too
long already. The action is just too random and there's little to
hold one's interest besides the flashy battles, and they get old quickly.
The DVD:
Audio:
Once again Bandai Visual has released a disc without an English dub.
For the amount they are asking, you wouldn't think it would be too much
to provide an English soundtrack for those who prefer watching dubbed anime.
As it is the original Japanese audio is only in stereo but it sounds pretty
good. The track had a fairly wide dynamic range and the impacts when
two mecha were fighting had a fair amount of bass. Of course a multi-channel
mix with a dedicated subwoofer track would make the fights more exciting,
but you take what you can get. Overall this is a nice sounding disc.
Video:
The video quality of the 1.78:1 anamorphic image was very good, much
better than the OVA that was released earlier. The image was pretty
sharp with lines being tight and well defined. The colors were bright
and solid and the blacks were deep. With only two episodes on the
disc compression artifacts weren't a problem.
Extras:
Zip. Nada. Ziltch. Nothing. Just an 8-page insert.
For the amount that they're charging for this disc, I was expecting something
more.
Final Thoughts:
Watching the previous volume I realized I didn't care who lived or who
died, or who the story eventually turned out. This volume only reinforced
that opinion. Yeah, the show looks nice, but there's nothing there
besides the epic fight scenes, and they get old after a while. With
events seemingly happening at random and a cast of characters so large
it's impossible to remember who is who, this show is sinking fast.
If you've stayed with the show this far, this disc is worth picking up
for the battle with the Aerogater that takes up a lion's share of the running
time, but make it a rental.
