GENERATOR GAWL is a recent anime TV series from the legendary Tatsunoko Productions. This production company is responsible for nearly all the classic anime series that was ingrained upon our subconsciences back in the 1970’s. Shows like SPEED RACER, GATCHAMAN (BATTLE OF THE PLANETS), TEKKAMAN, and the MACROSS saga were all products of Tatsunoko Productions, and many of these classic series were brought back in the 1990’s in some form or another. One of Tatsunoko Productions new shows is GENERATOR GAWL. It’s a show about a group of young time travelers who go undercover to accomplish a top-secret mission. Complications arise in form of their enemies, who send cyborg assassins after them, and the difficulties of keeping their mission a secret from prying eyes. ADV Films has released the first volume of this Japanese series on DVD.

The DVD contains three episodes:

1. The Visitors

Young Masami lives with her mother in a futuristic city of Oju. They earn their money from renting rooms to students who attend the local school for the gifted. Masami also works at a fast food restaurant. One evening she sees a strange light in the distance followed by a stroke of lightning. Elsewhere in the city two shady characters also see the lightning and comment that it is beginning. Unseen by city residents, three young men, Koji, Ryo, and Gawl are transported to this time and place from that same lightning bolt.

The trio wanders through the city, and Koji reads a newspaper headline that reveals the current time is September of 2007. Ryo taps his computer into a computer network, and the trio qickly assess their situation. A hungry Gawl wanders off and ends up drooling in the window of a fast-food restaurant. Inside Masami, who works there, notices Gawl and accuses him of being a pervert. Gawl and Masami immediately hate each other, and she tries to have him arrested for being a pervert. Meanwhile Koji and Ryo have been doing research via computer, and they conclude that their time traveling has brought them too close their intended destination in time. They were to originally have twelve months to accomplish their mission in this time period, but now they only have three. Koji flashes back in to a period in time where the three of them are attacked by a biomechanical monster. Gawl then transforms himself into an equally ugly monster and fights the creature until Gawl kills it. In the present, Gawl is let out of jail, and he hooks back up with Koji and Ryo and they rent a room near their school, Ohju Kakuen. It turns out that the rooms they are renting belongs to Masami’s mother.

2. Flowers and Girls

Gawl and Masami continue to torture each other, while Masami shows the guys around campus. The school is called Ohju Gakuen, and it is a special educational facility for gifted teenagers. But Koji notices strange surveillance equipment all around the campus. It is soon revealed that their enemies are the school staff members, Ms. Ryuko Saito and Professor Takuma. Masami gets suspicious of her three borders and their strange behavior, and vows to uncover the mystery. While exploring the campus by himself, Gawl enters the plant nursery and meets the soft-spoken Natsume, who is a friend of Masami. Later, she follows Gawl home as he is attacked by one of the biomechanical monsters. Gawl sacrifices his life to save Natsume, and finally earns a bit of respect from Masami. Ms. Ryuko Saito and Professor Takuma still control the situation on campus. And Gawl’s classmates are getting close to discovering his secrets.

3. Curiosity

More details spill out about the circumstances surrounding the mysterious time travelers, Gawl, Koji, and Ryo. Masami thinks she is piecing together the puzzle. What she doesn’t know is that evil forces abound on campus who know everything about everyone. They have also arranged for one of the biomechanical beasts to patrol the campus in the guise of a homeless person. Koji and Ryo eventually send Gawl (in his human form) to confront the robotic monster. While Gawl is still battling the beast, Masami witnesses Gawl employing superhuman strength, speed, and stamina to vanquish his inhuman opponent. Koji spins some white lies to avoid telling her the truth. Gawl, Koji, and Ryo win the battle but not the war. Gawl’s classmates are coming close to discovering the truth about him.

One common genre of anime is the hero who transforms into a superbeing or monster. Sometimes this transformation ability does not come from choice, so this type of story sometimes brings suspense and angst. The only problem with this plot is that it has been done to death since the 1970’s. What does GENERATOR GAWL bring to the table that we haven’t seen before? Not much, but the series does differentiate itself with its sense of mystery and the time traveling main characters. Also interesting is the way the filmmakers portray their characters and motivations. Plot threads were hinted at early on, but never revealed.

The viewer can see the setup immediately—Gawl and his potential love interest can’t stand each other in these three episodes, but you can see where their relationship will end up. This first volume in the Generator Gawl series sets up the story arch quite nicely. We come to realize that Gawl, Koji, and Ryo have traveled through time to the year 2007 to accomplish their goal. But something went wrong with the time travel process, and they ended up having only three months to complete their mission, instead of twelve. The barely glimpsed evil characters of Ms. Ryuko Saito and Professor Takuma constantly produce biomechanical creations called Generators (and Gawl is obviously one of them) to destroy Koji and Ryo, who always ending sending their own Generator, Gawl, to stop the evil Generators. What we don’t know is the secret mission of the time traveling youths, nor the motivations of their mysterious opponents. We also see characters like Masami slowly finding out the truth about Gawl. The narrative draws its power from this sense of tension and suspense.

The character designs are pretty standard, except for the Generators creations. They are not the most original mecha creations we’ve seen, but they are impressive nonetheless. The clothing worn by the people of the future is downright laughable. The animation itself is inconsistent, ranging from fairly good to below average in many parts. The human characters lack any definition, dimension, or detail. Only the scenes that depict the monstrous Generators include fluidity of motion. The action in GENERATOR GAWL is limited, with usually one battle per episode, thus allowing for plot progression and character development throughout each 25-minute episode. This is not a bad thing, but a little more action or violence would have been nice. Thankfully, the comic elements are downplayed, and the few moments of humor are natural and not forced. Traditionally, opening episodes to a TV series serve to establish the characters and story arc. This first GENERATOR GAWL DVD serves these purposes nicely, and this series could turn out to be an action packed, epic series.

From the Special Features menu, you can access the Generator Schematics. You can then navigate through the original character and mecha designs for Generator Gawl, Generator Cyclops, Generator Manta, Generator Locust, Professor Takuma, Ryuko Saito, Natsume, Masani, Ryo, Koji, and Gawl. Also in the Special Features menu, you can view the original opening and closing credit sequences (these sequences are Full Frame, Dolby Digital 2.0, and run 1:45). There are also trailers for these ADV properties which should be on their way to DVD:

• MARTIAN SUCCESSOR NADESICO (FF, DD 2.0, 1:30)
• GASARAKI (FF, DD 2.0, 1:30)
• BUBBLE CRISIS 2040 (FF, DD 2.0, 1:25)
• SIN: THE MOTION PICTURE (FF, DD 2.0, 2:08)
• GENERATOR GAWL (FF, DD 2.0, 1:30)
• BLUESEED (FF, DD 2.0, 1:30)
• ADV DVD Compilation Trailer (FF, DD 2.0, 2:11)

None of these trailers feature any form of narration, Japanese or otherwise. They all feature Japanese rock and techno artists performing over the myriad of images. As you would expect, the ADV DVD Compilation Trailer features rapid-fire scenes from all their top titles set to a pulsing techno score. There are also episode trailers that kick in between the various episodes of GENERATOR GAWL. These episode trailers provide a 30-second peek at the next episode, which is cool, but they also include some over dramatic, cheesy narration from one of the voice actors.

-  Tony Mustafa