The third volume of New Getter Robo keeps the action coming and the blood flowing.   This update of a classic anime series has a few twists and turns in it that I wasn't expecting, which keeps me interested.  While the first volume played like a "monster of the week" show, the program has evolved into something better than that.

Oni, monsters from Japanese mythology, have started appearing on earth.  They take over regular people and turn them into blood thirsty ogres.  In order to battle this threat to humanity, Dr. Saotome creates three special planes 'Get Machines' that are powered by mysterious Getter Rays.  When these ships combine together, they can transform into various different giant robots that are able to take on the giant Oni.

Dr. Saotome has managed to prefect the Get Machines, but he needs special men that can pilot them.  Men who are brave fighters that won't be bothered by the violence and blood that fighting the Oni will entail.  In the first volume he gathers a trio of unlikely heros to protect humanity:  Ryoma, a martial artist whose deeply in debt to the mob, Hayato, the leader of a street gang, and a Buddhist monk, Benki.    Being of vastly different temperaments, these three need to learn to work together and fight as a team, but that is easier said than done.

Having traveled through a time wrap into the ancient past in the last volume, the getter pilots find themselves in trouble fighting an army of very powerful Oni.  These monsters are lead by a powerful magician named Seimei.  He's able to deflect just about any attack, and even though things are going good for the troops heading toward his castle, it may be impossible to take him down.  When the three getter pilots manage to invade Seimei's stronghold, he mentions that he's been waiting for them for some time, and that he plans to drain their getter energy.  How he knew they were coming, and just who or what he Seimei is is still a mystery.

When the pilots get to the present day, they discover that three years have passed since they disappeared into the past.  While they were gone, Dr. Saotome has become even more reclusive and odd.  He's been holed up in the basement of his lab, working on a new power source for the Getter.  After they install the new engine, Ryoma takes the machine for a test drive and loses control.  Traveling faster and faster, Ryoma passes out and when he awaken he finds that he and the Getter are in the middle of a destroyed city.  Other Getters fight each other, trying to capture valuable parts and steal the other's Getter energy.  Ryoma discovers that these fighting machines are more than just Getters, they have merged with their pilots, replacing the human's organs with Getter parts.  This is Dr. Saotome's dream, the melding of man and machine.

After seeing this bleak future, Ryoma wakes up in the present and leave the Getter complex and the doctor.  Seimei shows up in this time frame though, and he's not going easy this time.

This show is actually improving as it goes along.  I have liked each volume more than the previous one.  It certainly isn't a monster of the week type show like the first volume.  The direction the plot is traveling in keeps surprising me, and I like the use of time travel.  It gives the show an interesting twist.  There is also a good amount of action to keep the show flowing along at a fast pace.

Another thing I like is that tere is a lot of ambiguity in the series too.  I like the fact that Dr. Saotome may turn out to be the big villain in the show.  He seems to be corrupted by the Getter Rays, and they may have driven him insane.

Being a Go Nagi show, there is a lot of violence.  The show is rated 16+ for good reason.  It is a fairly bloody show, with people getting their heads sliced in have vertically revealing a nice cross section of their brains, and limbs are frequently severed.  There isn't very much nudity, but this still isn't a show for younger viewers.

Audio:

This DVD comes with the original Japanese soundtrack and an English dub, both in stereo.  I alternated between the tracks while watching this series, and liked both of them.  In both tracks good use was made of the front sound stage, with the voices and action panning across the front speakers effectively.  It's too bad that they didn't include a 5.1 English track.  With all the battle scenes this show would have benefitted from one.  Audio defects and hiss weren't present, making this a good sounding DVD.

Video:

The widescreen transfer (1.78:1)  is anamorphically enhanced and looks very good.  The lines are tight, and the colors are bright and vivid.  Digital artifacts are practically nonexistent, with even aliasing being a minor problem.  A very nice looking transfer.

Extras:

The only extras on this disc are a music video along with three previews to other Geneon anime series.

Final Thoughts:

This is turning out to be a better show than I thought it would be.   I still think the violence is a little excessive, but the plot is entertaining enough and there is a good amount of action.  The plot keeps changing direction, which makes it unpredictable.  That's adds some mystery to the show.  While it isn't the greatest anime to come across the Pacific this year, it's still worth a look.  Recommended.