Customer Reviews

SD Gundam Force - The Hero Arrives (Vol. 1)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Most anime fans will be familiar with Gundam, the popular anime franchise which sparked the equally popular real robot genre. What slightly less may be aware of is SD Gundam, a comedy sub-franchise starting in the late 1980's which poked fun at the main Gundam franchise and presented the characters and mecha as squashed down, cuter versions. Whilst there have been games, model kits, etc the SD Gundam anime was short lived. With the normal series performing well in America, Bandai have chosen to bring SD back to animated form...with a slight twist.

An evolution of a cancelled made-for-the-US show called Doozybots, Superiour Defender Gundam Force aims itself for the market more likely to play Pokemon and buy Yu-Gi-Oh cards. The basic story is simple yet enjoyable- in the not too distant future, humanity and robots have managed to turn Earth into a utopian paradise free of war, violence and poverty. Its for this reason that the central city of Neotopia falls under the evil mono-eye of the Dark Axis, resource stealing robots who plunder other worlds via a dimensional gate. The Dark Axis advance force is discovered by a young boy named Shute and they attempt to silence him. However, Shute is saved by a mysterious robot hero. Called Captain Gundam, he is Neotopia's first line of defense in the secret war against the Dark Axis...
These early episodes are pretty simple- Shute and Captain are minding their own business/Dark Axis forces arrive/the two sides fight/Captain activates his Soul Drive and knocks them back to their own dimension. The enjoyment factor more comes from the various parodies and homages within. The average Neotopian and Dark Axis robots are based on the classic series GMs and Zakus, wheras the more central heroes and villains are based on Gundams and some of the more advanced Zeon mobile suits. The idea of alternate dimensions is used quite nicely to follow the idea of alternate, standalone series that has kept Gundam alive for the last few years (on this disc, we see that Neotopia is based on the classic Gundam series and another world full of pretty-boy robot knights is based on the popular Gundam Wing).

As said above, the show is really targetting a younger crowd as evidenced by the numerous robots and a kid sidekick in the form of Shute. But the show is so well handled that you won't really care. I was suprised to find moments of long silence in the dub, since most such anime available in English is full of constantly thumping music or non-stop talking. The voice cast are great and all fit and play their roles perfectly (Deborah Sale Butler should give Zoe Slusar lessons on how to sound like a young boy).

This show really isn't for everyone. If you don't mind parodies and can except that Gundam is just a TV show and not some religious scripture, you should enjoy this show. Others should just stick to the more traditional Gundam.

The animation is beautifully fluid, definitely not el-cheapo Korean animation. The stories seem to keep the kids totally riveted. I found some SD Gundam toys at T*rget which delighted the kids.

Buy both DVD volumes AT ONCE and hope and pray that more SD Gundam episodes are produced!

There is no "dark" side to SD Gundam -- a really nice change from some of the other weird animation I've seen over the years. I like this show. My kids LOVE this show.

THERE'S SO MANY DIFFERENT KINDS OF GUNDAM.PERSONLY I'D HAVE TO SAY THAT SD GUNDAM FORCE IS MY FAVORITE.THERE'S SO MANY CHARACTERS.THE SHOW UNFORTUNEANTLY ONLY HAS ABOUT 28 EPISODES.THE SHOW IS ABOUT AN EVIL FORCE CALLED THE DARK AXIS TRYING TO TAKE OVER ALL THE PLANETS THAT EXIST.WHEN THEY REACH NEOTOPIA THEY REALLY HAVE TO BRING IN THEIR TOUGHEST WEAPONS.CAPTAIN GUNDAM AND ZAPPER ZAKU WERE THE ORIGANAL CHARACTERS.AS THE SHOW GOT FARTHER INTO THE SERIES THEY BROUGHT IN A WHOLE LOT MORE CHARATERS.ALSO SOME OF THE HEROES WERE SOME HOW TRANSPORTED TO NEOTOPIA.ONCE YOU WATCH THIS SHOW YOU'RE LIKE OH THIS IS STUPID,BUT ONCE YOU SEE A FEW EPISODES YOU GET HOOKED ON THE SHOW.THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED TO ME.I'D LIST ALL THE CHARACTERS,BUT IT'S BEEN SO LONG SCINCE SD GUNDAM FORCE HAS BEEN ON T.V. THAT I FORGOT ALMOST EVERYBODYS NAMES!ON THE FINAL 5 EPISODES THE ENTIRE DARK AXIS ATTACKED NEOTOPIA!MOST OF THE CHARACTERS WERE KILLED IN THE WAR THOUH.

The gundam series used to a very deep action action series that was never a kiddy series. This is completlety different. It is a paper thin story with bland charecters nad stupid villain. sd gundam is just kiddy seires like pokemon with know real depth what so ever. Stupid kids under 7 may like. any besides that should stay far far away.

i just happen to catch this show because it had taken over the time slot of dbz. at first i was reluctant to watch a new show and i have never been a fan of gundams or robotic anime characters. but after watching the first 5 min. i was hooked. i enjoyed the way how the gundams are shrunk to miniature sized characters compared to the usual gigantic counterparts in classical anime portrayal. the tone of the show was hularious with there witty comeback dialog and light, yet packed with intense fighting and anime style battles. I also liked how the show was produced using computer animation rather than hand drawn.

great show. great fun. enyoyable by all ages.