Dangaio Review by Rashad Moore

	Audience:	16+
	Genre:	Sci-Fi/Action
	Contains:	brief graphic violence, language, psychic fighting
	Rating:	C-

First of all, Dangaio would have gotten a plain C if I hadn't seen the mangled Manga version of the anime. (One harsh fact is that I have seen no subtitled version of the anime except from Manga's former name, U.S. Renditions, in which it is very scarce.) Other than the addition flaws added on by Manga(a drastically shortened first episode, and god-awful dubbing in which I found it pretty damn hard to ignore in this review.) Other then that, Dangaio is your average late 80's mecha anime, and I mean average, Despite the great animation and mecha, (especially the transforming sequences) that is all you'll get from Dangaio. Plus a truly questionable ending.

Storywise, Dangaio is no Macross, Gundam or Gunbuster, the anime revolves a stereotypical cast of four teenagers with psychic abilities (still mostly women.) The beautiful (but somewhat wimpy) heroine Mia Alice, the sometimes immature for her age Lamba, the tough woman Pai Thunder and the only male member Roll Kranz. Each of which had their memories of their past lives taken by Professor Tarzan(who has a very questionable pet.), and called together to defeat the alien spce pirates of the Bunker, lead by Captain Garimoff using the psychically powered super-robot, (here it comes) Dangaio! And also rediscover the truth of their past lives. There's the plot, simple as it can be, the entire concept and look is pulled of as a combination of Voltron, Tekkaman Blade, Gunbuster, and Macross 2. It's all simplistic as hell, but fun, at least for the first two episodes.

Originally a three episode OVA, (condensed into one tape by Manga.) Dangaio falls prey to the same problem so many other anime have, a huge unsatisfying feeling of incompletion, and on Dangaio it's particularly nasty. The third episode had to be the all out worst of the three. It slows down drastically(it does have some rather gratuatous shots of Mia. :)) but with a huge finish, all of which leads up to a completely non-sensical and anti-climatic ending, guaranteed to pist off all who watch and leaving a whole batch of plot holes and unanswered questions.It all makes you wonder about the budget. Worst of all it's really the final episode! (At least there a little something called fanfiction.) And so as not to spoil it, it really proves the good guys don't always win.

The anime itself is very eye-catching with awesome mecha design and fluid animation, plus the character design is reasonably well also. The main fight scenes with Dangaio animate beautifully and are well-choreographed. There are also some average hand-to-hand fight scenes(mostly in the second episode.), but they definetly don't touch Dragon Ball Z. The score ranges for bad-to-average, which contains some very boring and uninspired action music. Plus the horrible dubbing will make your ears bleed. I definately recommend you find the subtitled version, It's way more enjoyable and plus it has the entire first episode. Plus, as most cases with the dub the dialogue also underwent some changes, in the subtitled version it's mentioned that Dangaio operates depending on the pilot's emotions, in the dubbed version this is never mentioned.

Overall Dangaio is simple fun (mostly huge robots and beautiful women), but nothing about it stands out. And the bad dubbing makes a wrenching experience out of a decent anime. I can't highly stress enough to find the sub.

 Image not created by me. Aug 99. Manga Ent/U.S. Renditions. Review by Rashad Moore.