Synopsis

Episode 2: "Surprise Attack"

The village of Urajina burns while Daisaku and Taishi pilot the submarine mecha "Kishin Thunder" in pursuit of the Kanto army thugs who stole the invaluable control module entrusted to Taishi by his dying father. No sooner does the nefarious Colonel Shinkai's thug-in-chief Goto successfully return with the stolen module necessary to operate the Geo-Armor that Shinkai and his scientists are building for the Axis war machine, than the entire Kishin Corps counterattacks. At the epicenter of this chaos Taishi seeks out Maria Braun and demands to know why she betrayed him by leading Shinkai's thugs to his squat.

Did we mention that Maria Braun, kindhearted caretaker of injured orphans, happens to have an identical twin sister working for Colonel Shinkai as a research scientist and weapons designer? Naturally it was Maria's twin sister Eva who led the thugs to Taishi, and it is Eva Braun (historically better known as the woman tasteless enough to date Hitler) whom Taishi "rescues" from Shinkai's battle fortress.

Robert Burns wrote that the best-laid schemes of mice and men, "Gang aft a-gley," (which I think is Scottish for "often go astray"). Taishi has nothing but the best of intentions. But by the time he's done, the best-laid plans of Kishin Corps have ganged one hell of an aft a-gley.

Episode 3: "The Battle"

Bluntly titled "The Battle," this episode opens with a surprising revelation. Nazi scientist Eva Braun is an old friend of Bill Saguro, the scientist who leads Kishin Corps. In fact, because her only loyalty is to her own scientific research, she doesn't seem to mind having been captured by Kishin Corps at all. The converse cannot be said of Kishin agent Bareiho, who was captured by Shinkai in the failed attack on his battle fortress. Shinkai and Goto treat her quite inhospitably as the train transporting them and the Geo-Armor to an inland base chugs along.

As Dr. Saguro and Eva Braun share a bottle of her favorite wine and debate the proper moral role of scientists in war, Taishi engages in humbler activities. The fact that his screw-ups caused Bareiho's capture has wounded his pride deeply. So he pitches in as a manual laborer to make preparations for a bold rescue attempt. A trainload of Kishin soldiers aims to hijack Shinkai's train at once, rescuing Bareiho and stealing the Geo-Armor.

But in yet another surprising twist, Colonel Shinkai turns out to be intelligent enough to anticipate the attack and have a trap prepared. This may sound like bad news for Kishin Corps, but it provides an opportunity for Taishi to redeem himself.

Review

During one of the few interludes in the otherwise non-stop action, Eva Braun, Bill Saguro and Taishi argue about their moral duties regarding the new weapon technology under development. Saguro insists that the mecha should be used only to defend humanity against the aliens, Eva has no qualms about selling it to individual nations for each to use against the others, and Taishi disdains them both. He feels that only Maria uses science ethically when she provides medical treatment to wounded orphans (a noble sentiment, and a convenient one for an orphan and former patient to espouse).

Their argument very deliberately echoes the debates that raged in the real world scientific community after World War II. Robert Oppenheimer, the American scientist who helped develop the A-bomb, argued that scientists had a moral obligation to ensure that their work was not misused. Werner Heizenberg, a German physicist who had worked for the Nazi's despite having no political sympathy for them, argued that a scientist's duty is to advance the cause of knowledge without bearing responsibility for how engineers and politicians might use their work. Introducing these moral and historical dimensions, however tangentially, poses a new challenge for director Ishiyama who must balance this new thematic depth with the existing complexity of plot and style.

In terms of plot, "Geo-Armor" is an unabashed, unrelenting action series. Amidst the battles, though, Ishiyama develops Taishi as a character. He grows from his early abandonment, through his struggles to fulfill his father's mission, his humiliation and redemption, and finally his heroism. These themes are as familiar to the readers of Robert Louis Stevenson as they are to viewers of "Evangelion," and Ishiyama executes them faithfully. Meanwhile he contextualizes the violence occurring in an otherwise completely imaginary setting so that the conflict isn't merely a passion play of good versus evil, but a multifaceted conflict in which certain characters embody ideologies germane to the real history of the period. These ideas are kept very much in the background. Nevertheless the mere presence of genuine historical and moral ideas in an aliens vs. Nazis vs. mecha action series breaks the mold.

In other ways "Geo-Armor" hews quite closely to the conventions of mecha-action anime; but small surprises that strengthen the characters or sharpen the themes abound.

While exchanging mildly amusing insignificant banter about Taishi's devotion to Maria, Daisaku suddenly asks him, "What about your friends back in Urajina Banke (the village they left behind in ruins)? Why aren't you worried about them?" To which Taishi has no answer. Taishi had been a father figure to a group of small orphans, whom he abandons to rescue the woman he considers a surrogate mother because she cared for him after he was himself abandoned. The irony of his actions does not flatter Taishi at all. Taishi is an immature protagonist who, according to the formula, will overcome his pride and youthful flaws as the story progresses. A flawed young hero doesn't break the conventions of the genre, but the unexpected stark honesty with which Daisaku holds him accountable for his actions does. This moment may not alter the course of the story but the surprise of it stuns the viewer into seeing the protagonist with fresh eyes, as more flawed and irresponsible than he first appeared.

Another surprise that immediately improves the story is the ease with which Shinkai foresees the Kishin attack. All too often in action films and TV shows villains are defeated because they are essentially too stupid to see the obvious coming. The instant Shinkai demonstrates that he will not be a passive character but has the intelligence to scuttle Kishin Corps strategies; "Geo-Armor" becomes a more interesting and less predictable series. Thematic depth and an imaginative setting are well and good, but nothing keeps a viewer hooked as surely as the knowledge that in this series the next surprise could pop up anytime amidst the nonstop battles.

And a host of gratuitous but enjoyable built-in devices assure that once any battle starts it quickly erupts beyond anyone's plans. Whenever the alien control modules that power the Kishin mecha are activated, the aliens detect them and, within minutes, fall out of the sky to aggravate the existing tumult. Furthermore the aliens are immune to bullets but, conveniently, are susceptible to being cleaved open by a sword stroke. Thus every battle begins with the Kanto army and Kishin battling with guns, tanks and mecha but quickly escalates to include at least three opposing forces mixing katana, martial arts, alien blob-fu and lasers into the fray. The steady escalation and diversification of each battle builds tension and chaos, which more than justifies a few obvious writers' constructs.

Ratings

Overall: 8.0

An ambitious mix of relentless action with a surprising depth of ideas and metaphors.

Story: 7.5

A genuinely intelligent story insinuates its way into the nonstop battles and chases.

Character Development: 8.0

A hint here and a detail there make a number of background characters far more intriguing. But Eva's well-depicted ambiguity, and Taishi's growing pains earn this score.

Art/Animation: 7.0

Great design, nice painted cels, decent depth and detail - only a lack of one or two defining, outstanding visual shots keeps it from being higher than a 7.

Translation: 7.0

Action translates easily.

Acting: 7.5

Eva and Maria are both voiced by Hiromi Tsuru. Somehow her performance as Eva is markedly better.

MPAA Equivalent: PG

There's nothing in "Geo-Armor" inappropriate for children unless you care to protect them from ideas and moral questions.

Love it? Hate it? Buy it.