With the fifth volume of Super Robot Wars the Noah-class battleship Hagwane takes to the stars and battles the Earth Federation's foes in orbit.  With some spectacular-looking action sequences and fun mecha designs this is a great show in a lot of ways.  There's so much action that it's almost possible to overlook the thin plot that isn't developing as much as it could.

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.  Though they fail in their first full-scale training exercise, the group is put on active duty since the situation on Earth is getting pretty bad.

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.  The Earth Space Stations and Moon colonies quickly align with the DC, which leaves the Earth Federation Army fighting a war on several fronts.  Out gunned and out numbered, they really only have one chance left:  the Noah-class space ship Hagwane.  Armed to the teeth and able to function in the air, water, or in space, the Hagwane is loaded with the latest PT craft, including a few experimental models that can fly.

This volume:

Heading towards the DC base, the Hagwane is attacked once again, but this time the strategy is much more cruel and insidious.  The DC wants the Noah-class ship stopped at any cost, so they send out a small sortie of inexperienced pilots.  Most of them are shot down and destroyed before getting anywhere near the Hagwane, but one of the rookie pilots is able to get right on top of the vessel before his engine inexplicably gives out.  The EFA finally gets a chance to study an advanced DC PT, but should they take it?

The next episode felt like a filler with not a lot happening to advance the plot.  A transport vessel carrying a VIP comes under attack, and the Hagwane launches their PTs to defend it.  Date is among the fighters, and he comes up against Tenzan, the person who beat him in the PT tournament finals.  Will history repeat itself?

The Hagwane really goes into battle in the final installment on this disc.  The Earth Federation realizes that their base in Geneva is going to be attacked from outer space by the DC allies, but there's not a lot then can do about it.  Though outnumbered the Hagwane and her sister ship the Hiryu Kwai start climbing into space to meet the attackers, and utilize their Tesla drives in a new manner; overpowering them so that they generate a shields.  Even with the shields the competition is tough, and whoever wins the battle will determine the ultimate destiny of Earth.

These three episodes continue the trend set in the last volume of de-emphasizing Date and any other single character and making it more of an ensemble piece.  While that means that a lot of different mecha are showcased, it does create a confusion program.  It's hard to keep all the players straight, and more than once I was scratching my head wondering if I had seen a pilot before, and if so where.

The battles continue to be fun and exciting, but it's clearly a case of style over substance.  The plot seems to be little more than an excuse to have the different PTs clash and fight.  Luckily that takes up a good portion of each show so most viewers won't even notice the meandering plot until the disc is done.
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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:

People who are looking for a dynamic show need look no further.  This anime has some great fights which are animated with some very good CGI.  While I'm still enjoying the show, the cast of characters is becoming a bit large and unwieldy and the plot, which seemed to be fairly detailed in previous volume, is only being used as an excuse to show more fights.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  Recommended.