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ADV Films presents

Getter Robo: Armageddon #1: Resurrection (1998)

"This is the last Getter, Shin Getter."- Dr. Saotome (Muguhito)

Stars: Muguhito, Hideo Ishikawa, Naoya Yuchida, Shinpachi Tsuji, Shozo Iizuka
Other Stars: Yotsuaki Suzuki, Tomokazu Seki, Daisuke Gori, Masashi Hirose, Nerumi Hikada, Yasunori Matsumoto
Director: Yutaka Sato

Manufacturer: DVSS
MPAA Rating: Not Rated for (15+ for animated violence, mature situations)
Run Time: 01h:38m:10s
Release Date: 2001-07-17
Genre: anime

Style
Grade
Substance
Grade
Image Transfer
Grade
Audio Transfer
Grade
Extras
Grade
B+ B+BA- B+

 

DVD Review

Have you ever had the feeling that you walked into something right after some important information had been shared, and you are surrounded by goings on that make absolutely no sense whatsoever? Well, prepare to feel that way when watching Go Nagai's Getter Robo: Armageddon (aka Shin Getter Robo), as you are plunked down in the midst of the action, with a bunch of characters you don't know and desperately try to find out what the heck is going on. It is one thing to be teased with a bit of plot before vital information is revealed to tie it all together, but even after four episodes I'm still scratching my head wondering what's happened. Mostly...

The moon was overrun by some really nasty alien creatures, and Earth's response was to create the Getter Robots—huge, transforming machines piloted by humans. After a Getter attack on the occupied moon, the aliens were wiped out; years later, the Getters are abandoned, now seen more as a threat to mankind than its saviors. The Getter Team is in disarray, with its creator, Dr. Saotome, dead, and one of the team, Ryoma Nagare, in jail for his murder. After the doctor's death, pilot Musashi Tomoe became the guardian of Saotome's son Genki, who was struck dumb by witnessing his father's murder. At the request of the U.N., Musachi and a fellow ex-Getter pilot, Benkei Kurama, transport some secret cargo from Dr. Saotome's research laboratory, but they are attacked by an alien who has survived the annihilation. To their rescue comes a Getter robot—piloted by none other than the dead Dr. Saotome—who seizes their cargo and carries it off to his laboratory, which is surrounded by a massive army of Getter Draguns, proclaiming in his mad scientist fashion that Armageddon is at hand. The cargo turns out to be some form of cryogenic storage unit, and the military desperately wants it recovered. The U.N. watching the situation, decides that a Getter must be dispatched to foil Saotome's plan. Of course, the only person capable of winning such a confrontation is the only one the Getter team doesn't want piloting a robot—Ryoma Nagare! Rest assured that a massive robot battle is about to ensue, and as all hell breaks loose, the final response is the launch of a photon missile which will destroy all of Japan....

...Which brings us back to being lost again, as the third installment kicks in with another five minutes of action that bears no tie-in to the first two episodes. I have a feeling that we are going to go through this more than once in this series. The action is pretty good, the robots are extremely numerous, and the story, well, they really seem to like to leave you hanging. There seems to be a fair amount of "It can't be..., I don't believe it, it's..." and unlike a TV series from England where a naked man playing a piano would be the usual segue, in Getter Robo: Armageddon they just leave it unresolved, and I assume sometime later we'll find out what the mystery is. With four episodes on this initial disc, there is enough here to get us started, as we are already knee deep in the action, and are getting snippets of back story and character background. What we don't have yet is anything to really hold it all together. Maybe the next disc....

Rating for Style: B+
Rating for Substance: B+

 

Image Transfer

 One
Aspect Ratio1.33:1 - Full Frame
Original Aspect Ratioyes
Anamorphicno


Image Transfer Review: Black levels are a bit high, resulting in some blocking in dark regions. Some aliasing is present as are the odd rainbow here and there. Colors are well preserved, and with the above taken into consideration, this looks quite good.

Image Transfer Grade: B
 

Audio Transfer

 LanguageRemote Access
DS 2.0Japanese, Englishyes


Audio Transfer Review: Stereo audio is presented in original Japanese and and English dub. The tracks are clean and distortion free. There is nice use of the stereo field for the battle sequences, though dialogue is typically center focussed. Now if only they would say something to explain what is going on....

Audio Transfer Grade: A- 

Disc Extras

Full Motion menu with music
Scene Access with 20 cues and remote access
Subtitles/Captions in English with remote access
7 Other Trailer(s) featuring Farscape, Shadow Raiders,Samurai X, Robotech, Spriggan, SIN, ADV mix trailer
Packaging: Amaray
1 Disc
1-Sided disc(s)
Layers: single

Extra Extras:
  1. Textless opening and end credits
  2. Behind the scenes
  3. Series concept and laserdisc art
Extras Review: ADV has included a few interesting extras here. First is the show's clean opening and closing credits, which is always nice to have. We also get four screens of concept art and shots of the original laserdisc covers, which is nice, as the DVD releases will be limited to four discs. A behind-the-scenes section shows work on the dubbing stage with Edwin Neal performing scenes for his character, Gai. The menus feature animated segues between their various levels, most with background music.

Apart from the ADV mix trailer that opens the disc, there are trailers available from a submenu for Farscape, Shadow Raiders, the Samurai X OVAs, Robotech, Spriggan and SIN.

Extras Grade: B+
 

Final Comments

Even though I found Getter Robo: Armageddon pretty disorienting so far, there is plenty of action, some pretty horrific bad guys and what appears to be a deeper plot behind everything...butI wish they'd get on with it. The presentation is pretty good, though extras are a bit thin. We'll see if the next disc makes a fan out of me or not.

Jeff Ulmer 2001-07-12