Series Recommendation: Daimaju Gekito Hagane no Oni (Demon of Steel: Battle of the Great Demon Beasts)


Takuya , you’re the only who can save me

Daimaju Gekito Hagane no Oni (Demon of Steel: Battle of the Great Demon Beasts)
Hagane no Oni is a 1987 mecha OVA that spans 60 minutes. The story follows Takuya Goroza and his friend – Haruka Alford. 3 years prior to the event in the anime, they were members of a scientist team that attempted to get ahold of a new energy source, but instead they opened a portal to another dimension, where biomechanical demons lie. Now, Takuya returned to the reseach facility due to Haruka’s request. What is lying in wait for Takuya at the island of Demons?

The movie was released in 2005. The film follows three top fighter pilots as they join a project to develop an automated robotic stealth aircraft. In the movie, the US has successfully developed a super stealth aircraft – the F/A-37 Talon – but their ambition doesn’t stop there. They want to push the limits further with a UCAV – an unmanned combat aerial vehicle – called EDI (Extreme Deep Invader). The three pilots – Ben Gannon, Kara Wade and Henry Purcell – and their Talons join the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Philippine Sea to “grow” the EDI’s quantum brain. But of course, everything went well until…

+ PLOT: It is a standalone and comprehensive plot for a short OVA. Nothing too complicated, straightforward and easy to follow. The characters aside from the main ones aren’t very established but that is understandable. The 2 main characters got developed pretty well, enough for us to understand their personalities.
Animation: a combined effort of Masami Obari, Hirotoshi Sano and Naoyuki Onda, all of whom have seen extensive work in the mecha genre. And Obari’s mech fight animation really delivered. Not a flashy fight, not a fast-paced fight, but a gruesome, badass battle to the death.

+ Mecha Design: by Koichi Ohata – famed for MD Geist. The biomechs in the show are pure organic abominations of machine and flesh. It’s not just demons wearing armor, but both fused into one single entity. With Obari animation style, the mechs’ organic aspect got emphasized even more.
+ Music: True 80s music by Masahiro Kawasaki and J-Walk. The OST delivered the perfect atmosphere for the anime.


+ Conclusion: If you want to experience a simple, short and gritty story, then Hagane no Oni is a solid choice. It is truely a blast from the past. 

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