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Product Detail |
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Audio Format: DD 2.0 Stereo Video Format: Full Screen 4:3 Languages: English, Korean, Japanese Subtitles: English, Korean, Japanese Region Code: ALL Year Made: 1995 Running Time: 95/60/74/75
Albert, Ivan, and Genya listen to a report stating that the third sample has escaped their grasp but this apparently is not a big enough set back for them to stall their plans. Big Fire makes their move: In Paris, suddenly, a green fire rips across the city centering on Notre Dame. As Mursasame Kenji (a IPO expert) watches, a towering structure rises out of the ground. Suddenly all of the Shizuma drives begin to malfunction and stop in a pattern spreading out in a circle from Notre Dame.In Peking the next day, the IPO watch a report on the disaster in Paris. This happens as the Greta Garbo airship carrying Giant Robo and the crew from the previous night arrive. Dr. Shizuma, however, is an incoherent wreck muttering, "He is coming, Fogler is coming." All he was able to say or do was to give Daisaku the black attache case with instructions to give it to Go sensei. When Go sensei looks in the case that Daisaku hands over he is greatly alarmed. We later find out that this is indeed the third sample that was from the great disaster at Bashtarlle. He is upset because it should not exist and worries that they are going to be faced with the same disaster that struck ten years ago, or worse at the hands of Big Fire.
The Hallmarks of GIANT ROBO
Although GIANT ROBO does not really break new ground in many aspects (story, setting, fight sequences), it takes elements that may be worn, tired, cliched and puts them together in such a way that yield a whole that is far greater than the sum of its parts.
Every character, for instance, gets at least two monologues. These tragic and moving soliloquies serve to define the character within the story or to set the tone for a certain part of the story. For example, Taisou gets several chances to eloquently wax poetic on life. Since Taisou serves as an older brother figure to Daisaku, two of his expositions deal with him. The first is when he is out eating and drinking with Tetsugyu, where he provides viewers with background on Daisaku. He tells his tale in a sad reflective voice, attempting to make us feel the heavy weight that Daisaku must bear.
  
The soundtrack as a whole has a very dynamic range, covering all the emotions of the series with a very strong variety. It has more tonal and melodic variety than KISHIN HEIDAN but does not have the sheer range of pieces present in the entirety of MACROSS PLUS. It serves as an excellent aural setting for the story: grand and sweeping with an occasional light moment but filled with a certain set of repeating themes.
But what truly makes GIANT ROBO epic is the direction. This story was masterfully told; the direction is what ties it all together. The placement of the scenes, the lighting, all the little details add something. For example, although Giant Robo's face is supposed to be immobile, the angles from which we see it and the way the light plays on it imbues Robo with an impressive sense of feeling. When he fires blast after blast with his belt-cannons after the fleeing Ivan on what is left of Uraeneus, the ominous rumbling from Robo provide the sense that here is a being who can destroy buildings and he is very, very angry.
The direction also shows its strength in the way the viewers are cut back to flashbacks. Although viewers are shown the Tragedy of Bashtarlle many times, each time it is from a different angle. Viewers see a little more of what happened. This has the effect of making us think we are seeing a story told a different way each time. In truth, all that is happening however is that the director is adding a few more well-placed scenes and bits of storytelling to these flashbacks so that more is revealed. The flashbacks are juxtaposed with scenes of immense conflicts in the present of the storyline. This shattering dichotomy between harrowing suspense and tantalizing revelation makes us hungry for more of the past story line as well as what is going to happen next.
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