Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still
Giant Robo the Animation: The Day the Earth Stood Still is a 1992–1998 OVA series based on Mitsuteru Yokoyama's manga series Giant Robo. It was written and directed by Yasuhiro Imagawa.
Giant Robo is a homage to Yokoyama's career. The series features characters and plotlines from the manga artist's entire canon of work, effectively creating an all-new story. The events take place in the near future, 10 years after the advent of the Shizuma Drive triggers the third energy revolution. The series follows the master of the titular Robo, Daisaku Kusama, and the Experts of Justice, an international police organization locked in battle with the BF Group, a secret society hell-bent on world domination.
The OVA is recognized for its "retro" style and operatic score. The character designs emulate Yokoyama's drawing style and the action setpieces are influenced by Hong Kong action cinema.
The first installment of the series, "The Black Attaché Case", was released on July 22, 1992. Originally intended to finish within 36 months, the seven-volume series was ultimately released over the span of six years. "The Grand Finale" was released on January 25, 1998. The OVA has since been translated into English, Cantonese, Dutch, French, Italian, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish.
Plot
The series takes place in a retro-futuristic setting, where the Shizuma Drive ends the depletion of petroleum resources and the need for nuclear power. The system is a non-polluting recyclable energy source that powers everything on land, sea and air. Ten years prior to the events of the series a team of scientists, led by Professor Shizuma, created the revolutionary system. In the process they nearly destroyed the world and one of their own, Franken von Vogler, was lost in the event that went down in history as the "Tragedy of Bashtarle." At the start of Giant Robo, the BF Group is in the middle of recreating the event with aid from the resurfaced von Vogler.The story explores a society completely brought down, within the span of one week, because of dependency on a single energy source and a state of prosperity tainted by compromise and deceit.
The BF Group is the main antagonist of the series. Their origin is unknown, but not so their reason to be: to lead mankind down a road of ruin. The Group's forces consist of mechanical monsters, foot soldiers and Experts, individuals with superhuman powers.
The most powerful Experts form the ruling cadre of the organization, the cabal of the Magnificent Ten. Its members swear allegiance to Big Fire, the Group's founder and leader, with faltering loyalty punishable by death. At the time of The Day the Earth Stood Still, the Ten are gearing up for the final showdown with the IPO.
The International Police Organization is the BF Group's counterpart in the Giant Robo universe. The leaders of the world acknowledged Big Fire as a threat to world security and signed the charter creating the IPO. The IPO's methods are information and espionage, looking to bring down the BF Group rather than defeating them in an all-out war.
However, to counter Big Fire's superhuman elements, "Experts" are recruited and granted special international jurisdiction. The agents assembled are known as the Experts of Justice. Working with the Experts from the Peking Branch is Daisaku Kusama. While he does not possess any special powers, Daisaku is the one and only master of Giant Robo. Constructed by Daisaku's father, Giant Robo is the IPO's trump card against Big Fire.
Production
Producer Yasuto Yamaki was working on a spin-off of Final Yamato, titled Dessler's War, but it was shelved. However, since he had already invited many staff members to work on the project, he felt it would be a waste to do nothing, and so he began planning Giant Robo. As a replacement for Yamato, he chose a robot anime, which was the mainstream of mecha anime at the time. Yamaki initially thought of producing Tetsujin 28-go, but while that series had been remade many times, Giant Robo had reruns of the 1967 live-action adaptation but no anime remakes, which is why he chose it as his subject. Due to budget overruns, the project was stagnant for about three years, but while Yamaki was working on Urotsukidōji, he was approached by Masayuki Miyashita, who had moved from Nippon Columbia to Amuse Video, and the project was revived.The first staff member to be appointed was director Yasuhiro Imagawa. A self-proclaimed fan of Yokoyama's work, Imagawa jumped at the chance of working on the project. In pre-production, Imagawa was informed he could not use any of the supporting characters from the manga or live action versions. Instead, with Yokoyama's permission, he populated the series with characters from the artist's entire canon of work, including Akakage, Babel II and Godmars. Yamaki had intended to use a star system and feature characters from Yokoyama's works with the same appearance but different personalities, but Imagawa wanted to keep the characters as they were. Some characters were reinterpreted with Yokoyama's approval. The Giant Robo OVA still follows Daisaku and Robo, and the main antagonist is still called "Big Fire," but it features an all-new storyline with a completely different cast of characters.
After Imagawa, Makoto Kobayashi joined the staff as the image concept designer. Among the special guest key animators, Hideaki Anno heard rumors about the project and reached out himself. Although Yamaki does not remember how he called on Shōichi Masuo, he asked him to participate because he was "an animator with excellent effects technique and taste." Science fiction writer Chiaki Kawamata, who had connections with Yamaki through Yamato, created the traits for the Shizuma Drive. The title calligrapher, Teigan Tsuda, was the husband of a friend of Yamaki's wife.
The first episode was released July 22, 1992 with the following three installments staying close to the proposed schedule of six months between releases. Hideaki Yamamoto, the screenwriter for the first episode, passed away midway through production, and his name was combined with that of those who took over to form the name "Hidekazu Matsuyama," which appears in the credits. In order to alleviate the dwindling budget for the main series, a spin-off OVA series focusing on the character of GinRei was produced with the intention to create a lightweight but profitable work. However, costs exceeded expectations and the series made almost no profit. Barefoot GinRei, released between volumes 4 and 5 of Giant Robo, is a humorous take on GinRei's job as a spy for the IPO. Mighty GinRei, released between volumes 5 and 6 of Giant Robo, is a send up of super robot series and features Ken Ishikawa as guest mech designer. GinRei with Blue Eyes, which features an opening segment reminiscent of that of Sergio Leone's film Once Upon a Time in the West, was released between volumes 6 and 7 of Giant Robo. There were also plans for a fourth OVA, Space Detective GinRei, but it was shelved.
The final episode was released January 1998, almost three years after episode six. In between releases, members of the Giant Robo staff worked on other projects, including The Big O, Getter Robo Armageddon, and Super Atragon, a two-episode OVA of Shunro Oshikawa's Kaitei Gunkan novel.
Imagawa intended The Day the Earth Stood Still to be the second to final chapter in the conflict between the Experts of Justice and Big Fire. The OVA would be preceded by The Birth of Zangetsu the Midday, The Plan to Assassinate Daisaku - the Canary Penitentiary, The Boy of Three Days, The Greatest Battle in History - General Kanshin vs. Shokatsu Koumei and The Boy Detective, Kindaichi Shōtarō, Appears! The final chapter is titled The Siege of Babel. No further stories have been animated.
Music
The score of Giant Robo was composed, arranged and conducted by Masamichi Amano and performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir. The music ranges from grand pieces like "Charge! His Name is Giant Robo" to more light-hearted tracks like "Tetsugyu in Love." Amano makes use of leitmotifs, recurring musical themes associated with different characters, places or events.Giant Robo's "Dies Irae" is first heard during the destruction of the Champs-Élysées in episode one. The hymn, written in Medieval Latin, describes what is known in Christian eschatology as Judgment Day. Along with Amano's original compositions, the soundtrack features "Una furtiva lagrima" from the 1832 opera L'elisir d'amore. For Imagawa, the aria embodies one of the themes of Giant Robo: "the sorrow of others not understanding your true feelings".
The music of Giant Robo has been called one of the OVA's best accomplishments. The complete score was released in seven soundtracks by Nippon Columbia. The first two soundtracks were released in North America by AnimeTrax.
Episodes
Design
For series director Yasuhiro Imagawa, the world where the story unfolds must be convincing, for it is the setting and themes what determine the character and mecha designs. In the world of Giant Robo, "anything goes". The technology is futuristic and the morals are modern. The world's outlook is bright, but there is an underlying sense of some sinister motive beneath it. Wuxia heroes coexist with modern-day espers and giant robots as soldiers in a struggle between good and evil.Art style
The Giant Robo OVA is one of many anime titles based on old properties produced in Japan during the 1990s. While titles like Bubblegum Crisis 2040, Dirty Pair Flash and Tekkaman Blade gave modern spins to old classics, the creators of Giant Robo decided to go with a "retro" look.The characters were designed by Toshiyuki Kubooka and Akihiko Yamashita. The designers were asked to emulate Yokoyama's characters rather than create new ones. Yamaki recalls that it was a good idea to use their advanced techniques to create three-dimensional character animation to portray Yokoyama's characters. Admittedly "it took some time to catch on to Director Imagawa's intentions", but with repetition the staff was able to achieve Imagawa's vision of characters that look like they stepped out of anime from the 1960s.
The mechanical design is a case of high technology meets old school engineering. The titular mecha is an advanced piece of machinery, equipped with booster rockets and hidden weapons throughout. Sporting big stovepipe arms and exposed rivets, the hulking giant is more like a weapon of mass destruction than a "robot superhero". Vehicles like the Shizuma-powered Beetle or the Experts' airship fortress in the design of a zeppelin appear as if they had been conceived at the turn of the 20th century, giving the world of Giant Robo a timeless feel.
Giant Robo is credited with generating interest in re-imagining other artists' works, including Osamu Tezuka and Go Nagai, and creating a "retro" style that has been used in productions like Sakura Wars.