Brain Powerd

So I decided to watch Brain Powerd, due to a combination of the catchy op and my desire for 90s character designs. I know I've made fun of it in the past (Andrew might've suggested it to me 5 years ago, and I made fun of him for it) but actually watching it I don't think it deserved a lot of flak it gets.

I mean, robot anime has really been going downhill recently:

Macross F: TRAINWRECK
Code Geass/R2: TRAINWRECK and bigger TRAINWRECK
Gundam 00/S2: Were I the director of a Gundam series it would turn out exactly like this and therefore, by definition, a TRAINWRECK

It was much better than any of those. I think it definitely inspired some of the imagery in RahXephon and probably some of the plot in Eureka 7 as well. And it's funny, what little submarine action took place was better than all of Blue Submarine No.6 so suck it, Gonzo.

Of course it's not the Eva killer that Tomino wanted it to be, definitely not as influential. The character relations shift virtually every episode, which isn't implausible per se since the intermittence between episodes are months or longer. But it doesn't make for good story telling. The cast is spread too large for substantial development and why does everyone in the show have an unfortunate background that's only exposed by shouting loudly in the midst of battle?

Considering the pedigree of its crew, it probably undershot its potential:

Tomino of Mobile Suit Gundam fame and originator of the real robot genre; this show is clearly a Tomino production. I mean, what's with him and children? Why are they always there?

Mech designs are by Mamoru Nagano, pioneer of the revolutionary movable frame concept. Notably, the Antibody designs were originally meant to be Hyaku Shiki but he submitted a revised design for the Zeta Gundam project.

Yoko Kanno provides the scoring and is super tank as per usual.


By the way, that op is just silly. That part with the volcano and the naked girl? How can you not laugh?