[US DVD] Godannar!! Complete Collection

[Sean_Connolly]

Review by Sean Connolly
* Mania Grade: B
* Audio Rating: B
* Video Rating: B
* Packaging Rating: A
* Menus Rating: C
* Extras Rating: N/A
* Age Rating: 13 & Up
* Region: 1 - North America
* Released By: ADV Films
* MSRP: 89.98
* Running time: 650
* Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
* Disc Resolution: 480i/p (mixed/unknown)
* Disc Encoding: MPEG-2
* Series: Godannar

In Summary:
Godannar!! is a solid show built on the foundation of decent action, good production values and a strong cast of characters with a truly stand out main character. Boring monsters, dull fights and Anna's immaturity are the weaknesses here but I find that the show overcomes these problems easily because the cast is just wonderfully entertaining. The astronomical amount of fan-service sure doesn't hurt either.




I have also uploaded additional content to accompany the review with some musings, thoughts and more that came to mind after reviewing this show. It is entitled Godannar!! - Afterthoughts You can find it on Mania's blog or on the Anime on DVD forum blog.

If the image is too big, I'll use the smaller one. Just liked Shizuru's butt there... *ahem*

[Hayate Kurogane]

Good review, and a reminder that I should probably watch the show again. Like, right now.

A nitpick: the set you reviewed is actually the most recent set, and the set with the art of Mira and Shizuru on one side and grown-up Anna on the other is the older set.

A clarification: the glorious animation to assist in making the fanservice as fanservicey as possible is specifically attributable to the AIC A.S.T.A. division of AIC being in charge of animation production.

I don't know if it's good or not that, over the past several years, it's been AIC's different divisions acting somewhat autonomously that have been responsible for much more skillful animation work than anything overseen by the company as a whole, such as AIC A.S.T.A. on shows like Godannar, Gun Sword (again with Kimura's character designs), and Bamboo Blade; AIC Spirits on Girls Bravo, Tokyo Majin, Ga-Rei Zero, and Sasami: Magical Girls Club; and most recently AIC PLUS on G.A.: Geijutsuka Art Design Class.

After the deadpool of AIC TV series animation that was the late '90s (not the shows, necessarily, but the animation itself), it's been a long and good revival in this decade of the company that produced animation for all the good '90s OVAs (Tenchi Muyo, El-Hazard, etc.) of a quality that still holds up today.

[Sean_Connolly]

Originally Posted by Hayate Kurogane

Good review, and a reminder that I should probably watch the show again. Like, right now.

A nitpick: the set you reviewed is actually the most recent set, and the set with the art of Mira and Shizuru on one side and grown-up Anna on the other is the older set.

Doh! LOL. Too many darn sets. Thanks for the clarification.

[Vicserr]

I can always recommend Godannar, it is a great tribute to the Super Robot series of old, although I could have lived without the excessive fanservice.

[Otakufan]

Originally Posted by Vicserr

I can always recommend Godannar, it is a great tribute to the Super Robot series of old, although I could have lived without the excessive fanservice.

I can never get enough fanservice!

I really liked the beginning of this series, lots of humour, action and even some good tragedy as well.

It's one of my favourites, but I liked the first half better than the second half when it got a little too serious for my taste (compared to the first half) and the monsters just a little too over the top. But maybe that's just me.

J. A.

[Leon_Belmont]

So I take it the case art of this isn't stupid pics of the robots. I was insanely jealous of my friend's collection 1 (NICE box) until I saw the covers of the individual volumes. I'm curious if this one would make me more jealous, but then it's gotta be impossible to top the booklets of the singles release. Those are pretty awesome!

[Otakufan]

Originally Posted by Leon_Belmont

So I take it the case art of this isn't stupid pics of the robots. I was insanely jealous of my friend's collection 1 (NICE box) until I saw the covers of the individual volumes. I'm curious if this one would make me more jealous, but then it's gotta be impossible to top the booklets of the singles release. Those are pretty awesome!

The booklets were nice, but what really sold me at the time on the singles (TRSI bargin bin) over the first thinpak release was all the on-disc extras. I swear Godannar has more line-art and spec's, etc. than almost any other discs I have ever seen. If I remember correctly, I believe one disc took me about 20 minutes just to click through all the line-art.

And that's the reason I picked up the singles instead of the thinpak at the time as their prices were pretty much the same.

J. A.

[dragoon]

I've actually been waiting on this review a while, since I remember it was on your sig a while back. Good review. Though I myself rate it higher, I would have given it an A-.

One of my favorite fan-service + mecha shows, and I love all the little homage aspects to the older Super Robo series... like the music, really brings me back to the old 70s/80s type mecha shows I saw as a kid - though of course with contemporary twists now and certainly far higher production in the score - I dearly love the OP/ED themes too.

I found Godannar to be a ton of fun back in the day it was coming out and still do. I still remember the trailer and waiting for the volumes to come out... The show is a blast. The dub is supremely fun and excellent (Matt Greenfield hit a homerun and then some with the dub). I miss those days.

[davesimmons]

To me this is the show Gravion wanted to be, but failed miserably at. Harmless fun, giant robots, fanservice and a serious turn that was done pretty well.

[Kouji Tamino]

Ah, Godannar. One of the series that brought me out of my slump and had me watching it again and again over the course of several months. One thing that pleasantly surprised me about the show, especially with how raunchy it is at times, is the theme over the course of the series about the strength of women.