From Right Stuf, Inc.’s Nozomi Entertainment branch, the publishers behind Sound of the Sky, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Dirty Pair comes the military mecha drama series from the well-known anime studio Sunrise, Gasaraki.
The story of Gasaraki follows Yushiro Gowa, a teenager who serves as a member of a unit of the JSDF (Japan Self-Defense Forces) that is in charge of testing TAs (Tactical Armor), giant robots. Yushiro is also a son of the head of the Gowa Corporate Group, which has strong political ties and develops weapons for the military. In the past the Gowa family ruled Japan from behind the scenes until they abandoned their beliefs after a catastrophe cause by powerful demonic armor known as Kugai.
Blending in a bit of the supernatural with military drama, Gasaraki follows Yushiro as he attempts to discover who he really is after meeting a young girl in the Middle East named Miharu, a TA pilot from a rival group called Symbol. Sensing a connection the two meet again where Miharu reveals a secret about Yushiro that throws his whole world into chaos and the two embark on a journey to find out why they have memories of each other that seem to belong to someone else.
While Yushiro and Miharu work to find out more about each of their pasts, Yushiro’s TA team tries to find out the motives for the research that they have been taking part in and the Gowa family takes advantage of a rift in Japan’s government and attempts to restore their family to their former glory by attempting to use an ancient power that was abandoned by the family.
Gasaraki’s story actually offers some really intriguing plot twists and a lot of drama, which helped to make it interesting, but at times it feels slow, mainly due to so much talk about politics, and the lack of a lot of action seemed odd for a series with giant robots. Throughout the series viewers witness a futuristic version of conflicts that may resemble recent history while also adding a bit of magic and myth. It was also entertaining to see how the giant robots and the demonic armor tie together.
Visually the series is just what you would expect from Sunrise, the robots have simple but highly detailed designs and the overall look resembles what you might see in the Mobile Suit Gundam series. The character designs also fit in well and are unique enough that not many of the characters look too much alike, with the exception of the many random soldiers.
The Japanese voice cast was the better of the two available options and they seemed to match up with their characters and get their emotions across much easier than the English cast did. That being said the English cast wasn’t too bad and though a bit bland if you enjoyed watching series like Gundam Wing with the English dubs then you should be fine watching Gasaraki in English. The subtitles had a nice flow to them and remained on screen for a decent amount of time as well.
The five disc series comes in a standard DVD case with room for each disc to be packed in nicely and the box art features a very detailed image of Yushiro and Miharu in their pilots suits with one of the Kugai in the background. Included as on-disc features are the clean opening and ending, trailers for other Nozomi Entertainment releases, a behind the scenes video that gives viewers a little more information about the series and a look at some of the early concept work for the anime.
All-in-all Gasaraki is an interesting series that offers plenty of drama and a story that will appeal to fans of military conflict anime. While this reviewer did feel that it could have used a little more giant robot action the fights are entertaining and the story is still worth watching. Gasaraki is much deeper than most other anime and for some that may hurt its appeal as it can feel slow and the lack of easy answers may be frustrating to some, but those willing to give Gasaraki a chance won’t be disappointed.
If you’re a fan of anime such as Flag, Neon Genesis Evangelion and the Mobile Suit Gundam series then Gasaraki is one title that you may want to look into.
Score
3.5 Out of 5
Gasaraki Complete Collection
Publisher: Nozomi Entertainment (Right Stuf, Inc.)
Runtime: 625 minutes
Number of Discs: 5 DVDs
Number of Episodes: 25
Languages: English, Japanese with English subtitles
Age Rating: 13+
Release Date: February 7th, 2012
(A review copy of Gasaraki was provided by Nozomi Entertainment. If you would like to learn more about or purchase Gasaraki you can visit the Official Site.)
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