Dai-Guard Review
Summary:
The story begins with a flashback of mysterious creatures called heterodynes. In the beginning scene, you see the creature destroying a
After the city was demolished, the military made a mechanic machine with the name Dai-Guard. Dai-Guard would now be the official protector of the city, and was created in order to destroy any future heterodyne attacks. Well, twelve years pass, and no appearance of a heterodyne has occurred. The military transfers Dai-guard into a company, and basically becomes a tourist attraction more than anything, and is just making the people of the community feel they are living in a safe environment.
Three officer workers, who basically file all the paper work for Dai-Guard (21st security corporation) one day decide to pilot Dai-Guard when a heterodyne (first in 12 years) attacks the city. Well, it takes three pilots to operate Dai-Guard. There names are Shunsuke Akagi, Ibuki Momoi and Keiichiro Aoyama. The main character is Akagi, who actually operates Dai-Guard, while the other two basically babysit him and tell him what to do. Eventually, the company makes them the official pilots of Dai-Guard (some controversy along the way). However, the army doesn’t like this, sense they think Dai-Guard and its pilots are taking the armies “job” away from them, so they have some issues throughout the story.
Join Akagi, Ibuki and Aoyama as they battle their way through numerous amounts of heterodynes (in all shapes and sizes) and save the world. Characters will bond with each other, many acts of controversy will take place, and memories will be remembered. Don’t miss such a great 26 episode series!
Review
My first impression on Dai-Guard wasn’t to marvelous, as I got the impressions that the entire series would consist of cheesy dialogue, forgettable characters, and a simple “Beat the monster and move on to next episode” story. Which is basically how it is, but it gets more dramatic and more complex twists occur throughout the series.
After I watched the first 4 episodes of Dai-Guard, the series just skyrocketed and just everything about it was overall better. You eventually learn that Ibuki has problems dealing with her dad (which you find out more about him as the series goes on) that passed away during the heterodyne attack 12 years ago, and has problems with her new dad who has a military standing. Aoyama always leaves work early; never telling anyone that he is caring for his sick mother in bed, so everyone is always thinking that he is running off with some girl, which is misleading I think. The only problem with Ikagi is that he’s a complete moron with no common sense, which you will see several examples of this throughout the series.
The animation flows well with the series, which I honestly think it’s a standard look, not much CG in backgrounds, just rich colors. The animation is just good, not good nor bad, just in-between. So the dialogue is a little cheesy, but it’s not so bad after you adapt to the characters personalities. The opening song will get “ba ba ba ba ba ba barra” stuck in your head, but it’s not like I watch the opening for every episode. The Story probably could have been better, but it does a decent job of delivering a unique concept with some twists and turns along the way. Character development gets applied midway through the story.
Overall, Dai-Guard is a well-made anime worth a viewing or two, and it’s pretty cheap for what I bought it for (just wait for an ADV sale, it will be 15 bucks). With its nice character development, nice looking animation, and interesting concept, you should be satisfied with your viewing of Dai-Guard.
8/10
Pros: Nice animation, likeable characters, nice old school looking robot.
Cons: Not very enjoyable until episode 5 (it is plain out boring until then), character development starts a little to late, and it’s cheesy lines just make you wonder why they even decided to add it in.
