This weekend I sat down and started watching what can only be fairly described as the greatest Giant Robot series ever devised by man: Giant Robo. I had loaned my cassettes of this title to a buddy several years ago, and was overjoyed to see them finally returned. Giant Robo has everything you can ask for from a Giant Robot cartoon: a young boy entrusted with the care of the World’s Most Powerful Robot, an international cabal of terrorists bent on total world domination, a cast of characters that are simultaneously over-the-top and subtle, background music that oscillates between the Warsaw Philharmonic to classic 1970’s tokusatsu battle anthems.

Giant Robo is a seven-episode OAV that chronicles the seven days when Big Fire, the aforementioned international terrorist organization bent on world domination, uses the legacy of the Shizuma drive and the tragedy of Bashtarelle to wreck havoc upon the Earth. Interpol’s elite Experts of Justice, accompanied by Daisaku Kusama and Giant Robo, struggle to thwart the efforts of Big Fire throughout the series.

The craftsmanship behind this story are excellent; at the beginning of each episode we are re-introduced into the bold world of our future, where the Shizuma drive has brought clean, recyclable power to the world. We are reminded time and again of the many perfections that have been brought to humanity through this marvelous invention. Of course, Doctor Shizuma and his creation have a dark history which comes back to haunt the world; the Bashtarelle Incident, in which an entire nation was catastrophically destroyed during the final stages of the drive’s development. The attitudes of the cast towards this technology and their reactions as the terrible truth comes to be revealed is truly wonderful to behold.

If you get an opportunity to, rent or buy this classic. It has comedy, action, romance, tragedy, redemption, hope, honor, betrayal, vengeance, and forgiveness all bundled up into a few hours of stylistically-executed cartoon format. Heck, even the English dub isn’t that bad. EX has a more comprehensive review available, but reading it is a waste of precious time that could be better spent watching Giant Robo.