Located on the grounds of a High School, and starring a young man who can metamorphose from an easily harmed flesh-and-blood human, to a massive hard-shelled super soldier, Generator Gawl isn’t exactly built on an original idea. BUT… It’s one of the best anime that many people simply haven’t seen. Perhaps it’s the run-of-the-mill bio-monster storyline that drives many to pass up Gawl in search of something with more flash, more unique concepts or more breasts on the cover of the DVD, but the simple fact remains that Gawl is better than 80% of the other stuff out there.

It’s October 2007 and mankind has been making huge strides in the fields of DNA re-combination and biotechnology. Professor Takuma Nekasa, a DNA scientist, is striving to find ways for mankind to become physically stronger. Humans are so weak and soft, and our skin can be torn open with the least scratch. Why not find a way for humans to be more resistant to our environments? This is Nekasa’s lofty aspiration. Unfortunately, this is exactly why the quiet professor must be stopped at all costs.

Crash-landing to earth and dressed like crew on board the Starship Enterprise, Gawl, Koji, and Ryo are three young newcomers to the year 2007. They know nothing about this time period other than the fact that this is when Professor Nekasa will establish his new “include” cells for the human DNA strand in an effort to improve upon nature. Why come to stop the noble progression of science, and the good intentions of a kindly old professor? Because the future that Ryo, Gawl and Koji come from is a horrible one where a single corporation has exploited Nekasa’s discovery and used the new technology to murder millions and rule the human race with an iron fist. The young men have only weeks to stop Nekasa from finishing his magnus opus, and while getting to the old man may be an easy task, fighting off the monsters sent from the future to stop them is most definitely NOT.

The art and design for Gawl is clean and decently imaginative, and the animation takes the usual, but luckily very small, dip in quality towards the middle of the series-to put it succinctly-looks are not what make Gawl so tasty. From cautious opening to spectacular finale, Generator Gawl is solid storytelling. And rejoice people of the land of the setting sun, for unlike many anime creations from across the pacific, GG flouts the old eastern adage “the journey is more important than the destination”, and proceeds to make the destination the most important portion of this particular journey. Impressively, all of its plotlines and remaining questions are tied up and answered by the time the credits roll on the final episode. Central to the highly satisfying story are the deep characters that invoke an almost immediate and true empathic reaction in the viewer to the stressful situations that each one faces. Add together all these things as well as a twist ending that would make M. Night Shyamalan proud and you’ve got anime gold on your hands.

So, with all the glowing compliments isn’t there a single point where Generator Gawl stumbles? Unfortunately, yes. GG, like everything, is not completely without fault. The fissure in this almost rock solid creation, are the glaring-positively stark-differences between the English Language version and the English Subtitled version. The scripts are so different, you might as well be watching two different anime. In spite of this small pothole, Generator Gawl embodies all the right reasons to be an anime fan.

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.

This is a solid Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. There is plenty of stereo separation and panning activity from all channels. The clarity is excellent and my only complaint is the bass is should be a little stronger when these huge Generator creatures clash onscreen. Both the Japanese and English dialog are crystal clear and without hiss or distortion. Strangely, the English track is surprisingly well done, though the translation is not clean; that is a lot of liberties are taken to Americanize it (including pop references to Marilyn Manson and Motley Crue). The voice actors are appropriate and the few moments of humor in each episode are not lost in the translation. There are a lot of people involved in bringing music to GENERATOR GAWL (including Masafuni Mima, Norimasa Yamanaka, Naohisa Hayakawa, Hirofumi Yamaguchi, and Chiharu Miyata), and the compositions including synthetic techno medleys and acid guitar licks. The opening theme is played by a Japanese heavy metal band, with clean male vocals. The dialog, score, and sound effects are perfectly synchronized and integrated, making this a decent audio effort from ADV.

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). 

Credit should go to director Mizushima Seiji, who successfully blends the various elements together, and never overindulges in one area for too long. GENERATOR GAWL has just the right mix of science fiction, melodrama, action, and comedy. The animation is lacking in some areas, but the battle scenes include some very detailed cel animation. The introductory episodes on this DVD serve their purpose by establishing the groundwork for the series. Hopefully future episodes will kick the action and scope up to the next level. Technically, ADV Films does their usual great work with their DVDs, including stylish menu systems (that match the DVD packaging) and multiple trailers. You can count on ADV to deliver solid eye and ear candy on nearly all their DVDs.

-  Phil Chandler