Giant Robo

Giant Robo has become, above and beyond, my favourite anime of all time. The scope and execution of the story is masterful and the depth and/or intrigue to each and every character make the cast the greatest I have ever seen. To call it the Star Wars of anime wouldn't give it enough justice; it is downright operatic. There is zero cheezyness in the events that take place, nothing to make you cringe like so many animes do. It's simply a story with a great personality backed up by brilliant music and production quality.

There are only seven episodes in the series, though each episode is roughly an hour long. Therefore, there is only so much time to actually tell the story or work on character development, and it is in this limitation that lies Giant Robo's greatest strength: you have to figure things out as it goes along. There are too many animes out there that over explain every god damn detail. In Giant Robo, the scope of each character's backstory is epic, and you figure these things out through hints given by others characters so as to alude to this. No, Taiso's not going to sit there for an episdoe reminising about his past so the audience gains an understanding... we figure out his past through confrontations with his rival Alberto or a flashback that connects to the actual meat of the story. In other words, we get to know these characters naturally as if we're there and not just watching some show.

Another of the many aspects that make the show operatic is the individuality of every character. Everyone, good guys and bad, seem to know eachother because the backstory to the main plot is such an elaborate and strong foundation. Even the minor characters bring something significant to the table because everyone has traits that make them them and not just a part of the foreground. It is a truly great adventure with a story so sprawling that my standards have been raised to the point where I can now only watch one in every fifty animes.

Highly recommend.