"In the distant future, mankind is forced to live in domed cities called Domepolis after an environmental cataclysm ravages the Earth's surface. These cities are maintained and supplied by private corporations, but at what cost to the inhabitants living within them? In a Siberian Domepolis, virtual game champion Gainer Sanga is arrested on suspicion of "Exodus", an unauthorized venture beyond the dome walls and strictly prohibited by the government, but why? In prison, he meets Gain Bijou, a mercenary bent on escaping and together the two will steal a mysterious Overman out of Duke Medaiyu's mansion. Fighting back the Siberian Railway Patrol forces, they both lead a massive Exodus out of the city to the east land Yapan, where their ancestors are originally from."

Okay, the premise is that in a futuristic society set somewhere in Siberia, people live in domed cities to protect them from the ravages of a past war or environmental problem. A large group of people decide that they don't want to live under an oppressive governmental regime so they make plans to find a new place to live. Much like the "runners' of the Logan's Run trilogy of books (or weaker movie), they want to live their lives elsewhere with perhaps the highest crime they could commit being to escape their sheltered lives (for reasons unknown). The people wanting to leave hire an expert at such escapes, a man called Gain Bijou, and after he becomes inadvertently caught in a sweep of potential criminals (the society apparently has few due process procedures to protect the citizens from the excesses of a brutal police force), he meets a young teenager also caught up in the sweep, named Gainer Sanga, well known as an internet gaming guru who always wins.

The two break out of jail and Gainer reluctantly joins the older Gain, since the young man is happy with life in the domed city but feels he has little choice as he's been pegged as a criminal, and the two make a run for it. Coming across a large robot in a rich man's collection of art, they make use of Gainer's superb gaming skills translated into the real life robot. The masses of people wanting to leave the city use a festival as cover and the chase is on between the discontents in the population wanting freedom and the governmental forces wanting control over them. As is standard in anime, the government employs a number of powerful robots to defeat the powerful "King Gainer" with poor results due to his supreme hand to eye coordination. If you think you've seen this before, that'd probably be because it borrows so heavily from other series and it's a decidedly light romp in the park made for those of you with lower standards than most of us. Don't get me wrong though, the volume wasn't terrible, it just had that "been there, done that" feel to it and it doesn't live up to the quality of the aforementioned Gundam Seed. If you like the general smash 'em up shows though, it will likely provide a decent diversion for a little while and the DVD had five full episodes so it's not like the value quotient was low.

The episodes this time were 1) Gain and Gainer, 2) Pay Me Back, 3) Explosion! Overskill, 4) Taste of Victory is Taste of Kiss, and 5) Eyes Shining In Siberia. To be frank about the matter, I thought the rating of "13 Up" on the back of the DVD case was a bit high since the stories were obviously designed for someone half that age (or maybe someone of limited intellect) but it had a decent cute factor going for it and aside from some general bloodshed and over the top villains, I wouldn't be opposed to giving later volumes a look too. I'm going to rate it as a Rent It unless you're getting it for preteen children since the material is pretty much written to their age range. If that's the audience you're trying to provide for, you'll want to elevate the rating at least one notch (based on my experience at least) or maybe even more. It was light fun with far too little exposition or character development and the reluctant hero routine by Gainer Sanga got old quickly for me.

Picture: Overman King Gainer: Exodus 1 was surprisingly presented in 1.78:1 ratio anamorphic widescreen color, as originally made for Japanese television by director Yoshiyuki Tomino. It looked quite retro in most ways so I was again surprised to find it was a fairly recent show, released in 2002, although looking much like an enhanced version of Aura Battler Dunbine from long ago. The colors were bright and cheerful, somewhat inappropriately for the subject matter, and the anime style was fairly limited in terms of frame movement and backgrounds but it wasn't the worst I've seen of late. I saw no compression artifacts but there was some grain, video noise, and minor pattern noise from time to time, even if not frequently enough to fuss about.

Sound: The audio was presented in the usual 2.0 Dolby Digital with a choice of either the original Japanese track with English subtitles or a new English language dub. In terms of quality, I actually preferred the dub over the original track this time although I was splitting hairs about the relative merits of each track when I made that decision. The music was fairly pleasant, and I'd listen to a music CD of the material offered; with some decent audio special effects to enhance the exploits of the cast. There was more separation between the channels with the music and special effects than in the vocals (particularly the Japanese vocals) but it was generally well made.

Extras: With five full episodes on the DVD, I'd be hard pressed to demand too many unique extras here. There were the usual trailers and promotional spots, some artwork, and my personal favorite was the double sided DVD cover that included a lot of information on the inside of the cover (if only all anime had such a value adding cover!).

Final Thoughts: Overman King Gainer: Exodus 1 will not set the world afire in terms of providing a new vision of giant robots smashing each other to pieces and the time distortion effect they employed during fights was as poorly explained as much of the rest of the show but folks that prefer mindless action over quality pacing and intelligent writing will probably find this one easier to get into than something they'll have to use their brain for, making it a mixed experience in my book. One thing I noticed as the episodes progressed though was how generic the formula was becoming; a very real threat considering the lack of storyline employed here. If it devolves into that type of show where each episode truly focuses on the eye candy of a robot fight, even the least jaded of you will soon look for something more intellectually stimulating to watch.

If you enjoy anime, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVDTalk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003 and Best Of Anime 2004 article or regular column Anime Talk