Brain Powered, Vols. 1-3: Birth, Family Feuds, and Resolution (1998)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Series Creator: Yoshihuki Tomino
Music by Yoko Kanno

Features:

• Each volume is a 2-disc set/9 episodes
  
• Textless opening and ending
  
• Yoshihuki Tomino interview
  
• Production art gallery
  
• Brain Powered karaoke
  

Doc's Anime Warnings:

• Confusing terminology
• Plot in absentia
• Unexplained backstory
• Spontaneous combat skills

Rating: NR, suitable for 12+

Anamorphic: N/A

My Advice: Stick to Gundam

Yoshihuki Tomino knows mecha. He's the father of all things Gundam, and for that deserves every bit of the recognition he receives. So when he promised to go one better with Brain Powered, people sat up and took notice. After all, as long as it involves big robots, the man ought to be cranking out solid gold, right? Right?

Maybe not. This series has all the same messed-up families in turmoil, blistering mecha combat, and bizarre pseudo-scientific, fate-of-humanity gobbledy-gook that made all the various incarnations of the Gundam series worth watching, but lacks any of the cohesion or compelling characters to keep viewers interested for very long. It doesn't help that the series starts in media res, with absolutely no information provided to the viewer, and a bewildering set of circumstances to piece together in order to make any sense whatsoever of what's going on.

The short version: a strange, partially-organic spacecraft has been revealed by seismic activity on the ocean floor. This ship, dubbed "Orphan," attracts a whole slew of people bent on raising it from the bottom of the sea and using it to explore; these people become known as the Reclaimers. What the rest of the world knows, and the Reclaimers are ignoring, is the fact that if the ship is powered up, it will suck all the energy available from planet Earth, leaving a desolate, uninhabitable chunk of rock behind it as it blasts off to the far reaches. So a good number of people are trying to stop the Reclaimers. Meanwhile, the seismic activity that uncovered the ship is also uncovering bizarre glowing discs that spontaneously generate symbiotic techno-organic mecha known as Anti-Bodies.

The Anti-Bodies come in two flavors: Grand Chers, used by the Reclaimers, and Brain Powereds, used by all those that oppose the Reclaimers. How can you tell the difference? In short, you can't. Why in the world anybody would use three different names to describe one thing is beyond me, and it serves no purpose except to confuse the viewer. As is wont to happen in mecha adventures, one of these Anti-Bodies falls into the possession of a simple teenaged girl out to protect a group of street kids from harm. Once inside the suit, she becomes an ass-kicking monstrosity dishing out damage on the Reclaimers and their Grand Chers (nevermind that the Grand Cher pilots have been training intensively to be combat pilots, and her biggest adventure is buying groceries, prior to the arrival of the suit).

There's more to the story, obviously, but none of that additional detail makes the fundamental premise any more interesting. It feels like Tomino's basically phoning this one in, to capitalize on the name recognition that the Gundam line has brought him. The story is a jumbled mess and derivative to boot, and the animation is mediocre at best (all the character and mecha designs are generic in the extreme). The music rocks, but it's not enough to save this one.

Extras are decent, though the interview with Tomino sheds very little light on what he was trying to accomplish with this series. The art gallery is okay, but since the art wasn't impressive to begin with, the gallery isn't really worth much. The karaoke feature in set two is just silly, and I can't imagine anybody actually wanting to use it whatsoever, but de gustibus non est disputandem and all that. Give this one a miss and watch some Gundam or Evangelion.