Series Recommendation: Genesis Survivor Gaiarth

“Stay close tonight… I’ll follow you…”
Hold on to your passion and set yourself afire.

Released in 1992, Gaiarth is a 3-ep OVA set in an Apocalyptic world where human lived in fortified city fortresses (sounds familiar?). Our main character is a young man named Ital, who was raised by a War-roid (a humanoid android built for battle). His life was thrown into turmoil when his home was assaulted by Beasts – mindless mechanical creatures controlled by an evil faction. Ital then set out to find whoever did this to him and swear revenge. On his journey he met many more characters and start to grow into a true warrior.

In a post-apocalyptic, dystopian future, Ital Del Labard sets out to avenge the death of Randis R. Khiezard, a war-roid whom raised Ital, that was killed by the beastmaster. For the first time in his life, Ital leaves his home and travels to distant lands looking for his surogate father’s killer. Along the way he teams up with another war-roid called Zaxon, and junk-hunter, femme fatale Sahari. Now the city of Bangor is under attack by the beastmaster and his army of autosoldiers, it is up to Ital and his friends to save the day.

+ PLOT: The anime put more emphasis on the overall plot rather than the backstory of the characters themselves. Ital and the War-roids could have a more interesting background to them as well as other characters rather than just main characters. However, the setting and the course of events are quite adequately interesting. At some point Ital did not really feel like a main character but subsequent development put him back (thankfully), like an apprentice coming out from his master’s shadow. The other characters are quite consistent and likeable.

+ Animation: Pretty fluid and nicely animated. Sometimes the color seems a bit off but overall is okay. The fight scenes are quite badass. Screenplay and choreography is amazing. The transition between scenes are really good and it just blend in perfectly. The studio that handled the animation is AIC and Big Bang. AIC is famous for lots of cyberpunk/apocalyptic anime so they really upheld their reputation in Gaiarth. Big Bang also handled episode 2 nicely since they are also veterans in the mecha genre.

+ Mechanical Design: The best part of the series. The War-roids, Beasts, the Fortress cities, even the weapons. Zaxon and Randis looks stunning especially Zaxon’s latter form. Warlock also got a regal and beautiful design. It’s a fine mix between Diesel-punk and Cyberpunk. The designs blend perfectly with the settings and atmosphere.

One of the unexpected design is Sentinel Prime. My man looks almost identical to the Saint of Braves Baan Gaan. And instead of red, he’s blue and gold. It carries a lot of Takara’s influence which is the origin of Transformers. And the alternate form of Alpha Trion is is super badass as well. Furthermore, there’s a certain tripple changer that will please long-time fans, especially those who loves terrorizing.

+ Music: The 2nd best part of the series. The soundtracks are just straight up METAL! Asai Yuu and Nakamura Daiki killed it on the vocals. Kazunori Ashizawa and Takehito Nakazawa composed for us beautiful songs for the series.

+ Conclusion: In conclusion, Gaiarth is a great series that was somehow became obscure over time. It is weak in characterization but made up for it with everything else. The designs and music can even make one forget about all the plot bases they didn’t cover (not too major but I guess time constraints). Genesis Survivor Gaiarth is just one of those stories that you enjoyed wholeheartedly for just how awesome it feels.

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