Shin Getter Robo: Salvation ADV 75 minutes English/Japanese English Subtitles 1/04/2001

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The world is a rough place, for those of you that don't know. I have a story to tell you, but it's one you might've heard before. Last night at the illustrious abattoir of my friend-by-proxy Ben, twin brother of the magnanimous Joel (who often demands I stop using that word entirely), I was having a brief discussion about tattoos with yet another brother of the white clan, by the name of Luke, who has an auspicious propensity towards slapping me in the back of the head as a form of greeting. If you knew Luke you'd be aware that he's nothing short of a man-mountain (though not the same man-moutain whose Beirut table Evan and I ruined) who literally dwarfs the already impressively sized Joel. Anyway, during this discussion over beer and cigarettes, Luke took it upon himself during a lull to inquire about my T-shirt. Now, fortunately I was wearing a relatively neutral one and Luke's no stranger to animated vices. UNfortunately, the girl standing directly next to me in the conversation was harder to gauge. Imagine my chagrin as I try to bat away the question while keeping an cool demeanor. Couldn't we just go back to talking about my "Golden Rice Bowl" tattoo and how much of an ass it makes me look? In the whole grand scheme of things, I guess it's a pretty astute judgment to say that my interest in anime has sizably waned in the past eight years.

 

I think it's also fairly sensible to say that I was never into anime per se anyway. As might be clear stuff without robots or exposition generally won't even get the time of day with me. Can I then, I ask you, be considered an anime fan? It's a tough call to make. Certainly the preponderance of DVDs and merchandise would tell a different story (that I'm a dork) but there are times when I might beg to differ. Getter Robo series, at their core, have always been about the power of one's heart. Don't get confused. This is not the same power of your heart that you might find in your average, crappy Sailor Moon series. No, this "power of heart" comes from totally beating the hell out of your opposition, whether on the ground or in the sky, and sometimes pummeling them into nothing more than a bloody mist. There's just something magical about these kind of shows, where a pilot's prowess doesn't come from years of training or being a whiny teenager, but from their ability to throw a switch back and forth and scream super moves as loud as they can while ramming into giant robots or dinosaurs, stuff like that.

Shin Getter Robo is certainly not my favorite of all the Go Nagai series, but that doesn't mean that it's not worth watching. This is like addressing me with the following question "Dave, which pie would you prefer, apple pie or cherry pie?" Well obviously I'm going to say cherry pie, because cherry pie is delicious. This, however, does not detract from the deliciousness of apple pie either. In a perfect world I would be able to have both, gorge myself and retire fat and happy. But, as far as I know, there's no such place your consumption of pie relates to your ability to retire a wealthy man. This is unfortunate, but it is also life. Consider Shin Getter Robo, this Shin Getter Robo, to be a scrumptiously baked cherry pie with a single slice missing. You'll still eat it, it's a freaking PIE. However, if you were presented with a similarly scrumptious pie that was fully constituted I'm sure that you, like me, would have no trouble in briefly setting your damaged pie aside. Shin Getter Robo is the perfect confectionary until its sorta lame 3rd act. I mean, there's fake science and then there's getter fake science. I was willing to deal with the crazy alien doctors turning Jupiter into a Getter Ray sun, but when the giant mouth opened up in the fabric of space and chomped down on Pluto even I had to roll my eyes a little.

 

But it was okay, because there was only like five minutes left in the show and they totally blew the mouth up with some missiles or a laser beam. Everything's totally cool again and the super triumphant music plays. Awesome. I refuse to argue more than halfheartedly with a show where giant robot's capes don't burn up on reentry into the planet. Not GETTER capes anyway, but those are a different type of one than those you and I might be used to wearing on a cold Halloween night. In a perfect world you could have all the pies you wanted and the pies would be varied in taste, flavor and texture. I don't know if a world like this exists, but I hope it does. I hope it does very much. Until then, take a little heart. You might not be able to get all the pie you want, it's been months since I got to gorge myself on one, but there's more than enough Getter Robo to go around for the whole planet and you don't have to pick just one! There are times like last night when I doubt my anime fandom. That's when I pop in Getter Robo and I'm right back in the game.