New Getter Robo #2:
The Yin-Yang Master
Pioneer
75 minutes
English/Japanese
English Subtitles
Released: 05/31/2005
Reviewed: 06/16/2005
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Pioneer
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It makes me a little sullen that New Getter Robo was barely popular enough to eke its way onto the fansub circuit when crap like Mahoromatic is allowed to reign far and wide, corrupting young minds in whatever way it pleases. While junk like Naruto gets vomited out onto the internet with full color subtitles within 8 hours of a new episode's premiere the loyal fan sometimes has to wait weeks while a new episode of Eyeshield 21 putters back and forth in limbo. I do not understand the fansub game. I also do not understand why Pioneer decides it has to delay a year in releasing the first disc of the series. I tell you, those many months from the announcement of their license to the release of the first disc in March. The problem with fansubs, provided you're not a giant jerk who downloads them without a care in the world about the state of the industry, is that there's always going to be some overlap when you start buying the DVDs. It takes away a bit of that freshness. New Getter Robo only made it through the first four episodes on fansubs before it was licensed. This excites me, because it's a show that I'd want to come over to the US. It also absolutely kills me when I have to buy the first disc without a single ounce of new material. |
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But I can be a big boy with the understanding that downloading free anime off the internet isn't exactly the most moral thing you can do. It just makes the anguish of waiting for the next disc so much greater. Really, on top of a year another two months just makes me sad in the pants. It also makes me glad that I don't participate in the downloading of animated material off the internet with any regularity. Imagine how excited I was to tear off the cellophane when I got this DVD a week ago. Then imagine how much more exciting it was to wait a week for my buddy Joel to come over so he could watch it too. New Getter Robo, like many shows that aspire to greatness, realizes that there's only so much you can do in one atmosphere. While the smashing of evil demons from ancient mythology is always exciting to someone like me, the average viewer might not be so inclined to grin and bear it without the strong application of stuff like plot and character development. What he doesn't understand is that giant robots, and the destruction they cause, immediately supercedes anything you might've learned in a screen writing class. So what can the burgeoning anime staff do to draw it's fanbase in? |
| It's really quite simple. They go back in time. Yes, you read that right. New Getter Robo walks a path forged by Michael J. Fox and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3. Team leader Ryoma is told that he has no right to be tired of waiting around for the monsters to attack when there's giant portals in the sky that he can hop into at a moment's notice. In any normal world your boss would never suggest something like that. They'd tell you that middle management material doesn't ask questions. They would at least shoot out a probe or take a reading or something first! In the world of Shin Getter Robo every character must constantly and consistently pound the console of their jet plane while screaming "Damn the torpedoes" and other such cliches! In any other show I would be so outraged as to spit (and possibly vomit) on the man closest to me. Joel found himself lucky that we weren't watching Panties! Poncho! Paradise! that night or I'd be telling a different story! |
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As it is, the realization that characters were suddenly in feudal Japan gave me an erection so potent that I'm still not convinced it's entirely gone away. All the famous characters of Japanese myth are present.** Some, Like the great warlord Raikoh, have significantly more boobs than I remember hearing about, but that's really neither here nor there. Despite the addition of new (and very poorly drawn) breasts into the mix, something I fretted about in my first write up of the show, New Getter Robo just keeps chugging along the way you need a show of its genre to do so. Manly as ever, all I really expect out of something like this is high flying action and stunts that would make any Hollywood sissy pale. It might've taken me fourteen months to get to it, but the pay-off was so sweet that you won't find me complaining. Getter Robo already went to the space and the center of the Earth, but they've decided to one-up themselves again. I mean, seriously, back in time? I didn't realize Christmas was gonna come so early this year. |
