The Genre: Science Fiction

The Format: 4 DVDs with 3 eps per disk @ 24min each

The plot: In October 2007, Professor Takuma Nekasa uncovers a gene code that will unlock our body's greatest mystery and expose mankind to its greatest threat. So Gawl, Koji, and Ryo - three young scientists from the future - must travel back in time to correct this mistake from the past. The catch? They have only three months to save the world from the mysterious and cunning Ryuko Saito and her Generators, unearthly assassins posing as humans. As Ryo and Koji try to complete their mission, Gawl must become like his enemies to fight on their terms. And it may cost him his humanity. A thermonuclear fusion of action, comedy, and mystery, "Generator Gawl" draws you into its web of intrigue with eye-catching art, startling plot turns, and compelling characters.

I remember once getting home from school to discover a small electronic box sat on top of our VCR. Slightly puzzled, I poked it for seconds and, discovering it wasn’t edible, I proceeded to forget all about it. Much to my surprise it eventually turned out that this was in fact a sky digibox and that we now had satellite.

There’s nothing quite like a nice surprise.

I mention this because I was nicely surprised by Generator Gawl. Well, I was at the beginning, anyway.

So overall I’m saying Generator Gawl is a mish-mash of clichés and predictability then?

Well, yes, but on the whole it doesn’t really seem to matter that much. Despite the distinct feeling that you’ve seen it all before, Gawl starts very strongly and is highly enjoyable. Indeed, if it wasn’t for the ending, I would be recommending this series whole-heartedly.

That’s right, the ending sucks ass. I mean, seriously, I know the Japanese have a bit of a knack for poor endings, but this one really stinks. Not only does it not make sense, but it completely ignores common sense and leaves you with a hollow “so what was the point in that?” feeling. It really is that bad.

Still, there are some nice touches along the way. One of the best is the interaction between Gawl and Masami. Although this does generally follow the fairly predictable young male/female interactions seen anime, it is a bit more realistic.

For example, there isn’t too much in the way of “hilarious scene where boy sees girl naked in the shower, gets a nose bleed and the girl punches the boy into orbit, oh the never ending hilarity”. In fact, there’s very little fan-service, which is a very un-japanese area for the series to choose to be original in, given the target audience of teenage males.

One of the other areas of great strength is the character interactions. As usual, the Japanese VAs do a superb job, and you really feel that the 3 heroes gel well together. The interactions between them and the supporting characters are also very good, and the bad guys also work well together.

Seriously, within 5 minutes of the opening the dub has explained almost exactly what is going to happen and what the story is about. So instead of letting it unfold naturally and maintaining some sense of mystery, it completely spoils one of the reason you’d keep watching.

They also change the jokes. I mean what the fuck is the point in completely changing the jokes? So maybe you didn’t find the original funny, but you at least do a faithful translation instead of a complete rewrite. Bizarre.

Damn- after that first disk I was so hoping that this series was going to be a little gem. Ah well, can’t win ‘em all I guess.

The Summary: A good series horribly spoilt by a horribly poor ending and a quite frankly horrible dub.

The Score: 2/5

The Pictures:

(click for larger versions)