Detonator Orgun

Publisher
Manga Entertainment
Country of origin
Japan
Format
OVA
Year
1991

Detonator Orgun, DVD

By Joseph (Joe) Wood
12th Dec 04

Detonator Orgun was amongst the first real anime 'movies' I saw on the UK Sci-fi channel several years ago. I say 'movie' because originally Detonator Orgun was an OVA with each part about forty-fifty minutes long. However Manga Entertainment decided to remove the opening and closing animations and release on to one video. With DVD they had the option of reintroducing those sequences but chose not to, meaning that we have a two and a half hour feature with no obvious breaks. Another oversight is the lack of a Japanese audio track something that turned me off from buying the DVD over other titles.

Set in the year 2292, Tomoru Shindo is currently unsure what to do with his life after his imminent graduation. He idolizes fighter pilots of the Second World War and longs for adventure and excitement. As you would expect it comes, not quite in the way he hoped of course! A mech lands on Earth to search for Tomoru, it tries to contact him in his sleep to warn him of a race of beings like himself who are coming to destroy the Earth, and the only way to stop them is for Tomoru to join up with this mech known as Orgun and fight.

The English voice acting is fairly good for the majority of main characters, but a number of secondary characters are cringe worthy. The animation is still of a fairly high quality given today's standards. The music is ok but the feature is presented in 5.1 surround sound.

There's quite a slow arch to the story, it's not until a fair way into the film we get to see our first non-flashback/dream sequence action and it's pushing the boat out as far as it will go before we get into the serious fights. The action sequences are amazing to look at and do partly make up for the long wait. Sometimes it's rather difficult to find out what is going on due to the sheer number of flashbacks and dream sequences that cause unintentional confusion. The overall plot is average, it's suspenseful and full of twists but there is nothing in the twists a seasoned anime fan won't have seen before. Mysterious alien race bent on Earth's destruction, young unsure pilot/hero and a love triangle are all there and accounted for. Even the large plot twists will have been seen a few times before.

The extras on the DVD include trailers for other Manga products (that you'll of already seen if you own another Manga DVD) a photo gallery (which can only be seen on a DVD-rom). The best extra is an audio commentary by Jonathan Clements, which lasts for the first third of the film and is very interesting and quite funny (It even mentions a Orgun drinking game!). It is rather annoying that they would include an audio commentary track and not a Japanese audio track.

Detonator Orgun is an enjoyable Sci-fi romp, but is best picked up cheaply or if your new to anime.

-- Joseph (Joe) Wood 12th Dec 04

Detonator Orgun Images