The miasmatic aura of the name flouts itself loudly and proudly in its very catchy and oddly entertaining opening sequence.
And that's what kinda got me into it, ya know? I was watching 80s necha anime intros playlist (the music hypes me up while im at work), and I found myself drawn in by how different it was from the bombastic rock or silky disco tracks that otherwise fill the playlist. For one I knew it was from the same creators as my beloved Super Dimension Fortress Macross, that much was obvious fron the art and title. Comment sections seemed appreciative but wary and a little saddened by the series, and the freaky dragon character on the cover wasn't the show doing any favors. I really did not know what to expect.
Enticed by the ambiguity, i resigned myself to watching the anime. Further preliminary investigations told me that there IS an english dub, but it is unfinished. Unfortunate, but i decided to watch it either way.
Oh man was that the right choice.
Stop reading this review and watch Orguss! If you love classic mecha anime, if you have like me watched the likes of UC Gundam, Aura Battler Dunbine, Escaflowne, Evengelion, and other claesics of the genre, you absolutely owe it to yourself to watch this dub. I belive it will hit harder if you have already seen these other shows, but either way it will still hit you hard.
This is your final warning. If you do not watch this show.. know that i can see you reading this. I am in your home.
==========spoilers below==========
The orguss dub leaves the impression that it is a parody of itself. And in a way, i find that to be really really beautiful. The englush dub initially feels like a weird midpoint between a late 2000s fandub and a 1960s english dub. Many of the voices are pretty silly, and out of context nakes almost every line in the show infused with a very memable energy about it. Adding to this still is the show itself. It throws a LOT of very high concept things at the viewer, so many that just explaining the anime will make you sound bat shit insane. The silly dub and the wild goings on of the plot fit together so well that it makes the show both very trippy and extremely entertaining to watch. It's not Ghost Stories level of silliness, but i think it might even make you laugh more since the show is playing itself straight (more on this soon). Again, i enjoy old dubs and weird anime. You, good reader who watch anime and cartoon dubs from the post Cowboy Bebop era may not understand this appeal. I belive this anime was made for me. There are SO many little oddities about this show that are just arbitrarily made to work, it will absolutely mske you feel like the writers were just adding in shit they thought was cool. So much of it perpetually doesnt make sense, but what makes it so fun is that the characters just kinda go with it. They riff and react and bounce off of everything in the funniest weirdest ways, it kinda started to remind me of Fanily Guy after a while.
orguss is a really, really weird show in MANY ways. I understand a lot of people aren't going to like it. I found enjoyment in the amount of ways it continues to baffle me, the music, and the zany worldbuilding. Give the dub a chance if you want to have your expectations subverted.
This show's premise is chaos incarnate, so i think it all kinda works in a very very weird way.
Assorted thoughts and observations
Everyone in this show is a fucking freak (besides maybe Sley) and it will become exponentially more apparent over the course of every episode
This show opens on a fairly explicit sex scene, not what i was expecting from an early 80s mecha
Kei Katsuragi, the MC, finds a little girl for sale at a store. After raising hell to the shopkeep for apparently selling children, he is informed that the child is a robot. He immediately buys the robot. (This scene is incredible in the dub btw. everything i talk about is like ten thousand times funnier in the dub)
If Emarn women dont get married by the time they turn 18 they contract a sickness that ends in their infertility, making them "old hags" in the eyes of most emarn men (like WHAT)
The main character constantly sexually harasses his love intrest in the beginning. I understand this was a trope back in the day but it doesn't make it any easier to watch.
Most of the Emarns (on screen) are women and most of the Chirams (on screen) are men. I feel like they were trying to say something here. SDF Macross dealt with themes of the interesection between love and duty as a soldier, and i think Orguss tried to continue this plotpoint by just throwing shit at the wall when it comes to themes of Love and Conflict. Examples:
The dragon only gets sent to another dinension because he got caught cheating on his girlfriend, and in fleeing the scene he got swept into a dimensional warp. He later rediscovered his race to have died of extinction due to the global warming caused by dimensional lightning strikes... and sets his heart to live the rest of his life on the Glomar.
Kei has no loyalty to any woman, and openly flirts with anyone and evryone without remorse. (Except Mohm the robot, thankfully.. why is her name Mohm???)
Kei's girlfriend Tina was pregnat with their daughter before the dimension bomb explosion, and in the blast kei got sent 20 years into the future. Kei finds a woman who reminds her of Tina a lot, and after kindling a romantic relation ship with her, is told that that is his daughter by Olson. Making things officially weird and awkward for the rest of the show. His daughter grew up without a father. When she eventually sees Kei with Mimsy she goes total tsundere mode.
Kei's daughter has a crush on Keis best friend Olson, who is her uncle. (Big daddy issues, kinda over the top if ya ask me.. I also think that the dub made Olson and Tina siblings officially, but in the sub they aren't so idk. All the relationships in this show have some crazy drama surrounding them).
After the Emarns make apparent peace with the Chirams, the Chiram supreme leader, Jeffrey Wright starts very awkwardly flirting with Shaia over a zoom voice call, then scheming to kill them right after. Fucking oppressive rizz. It's so weird but incredibly funny.
There's a point where Kei starts trying to lecture Athena like he's a father figure and it always falls flat bc they're like the same age
All the scenes with Mohm trying to flirt with kei give me the heeby geebys (WHY IS HER NAME MOHM!?!?!?!)
Olson buries his emotions so deeply he comes accross as Kei's stoic glazer.
Kei: Whats up olson?
Olson: stop having sex and winning so much bro you have to think of the future🗿
Kei: *punches him*
When olson gets on the Glomar, Kei and Mimsys relationship takes an actual toll since Kei spends way more time with Olson than anyone else. (I have seen people on twitter ship Olson and Kei for this reason)
Kei kisses mimsy on the mouth whole she is unconcious in order to try to recessitate her from being drained of her blood by vampire bats. He knew it wouldnt work, he just wanted to kiss her while she was out.
The animations are constantly obviously being reused, even in the same scenes. It's so cheap it feels like a parody.
There is a useless robot that got added to the team that does literally nothing but annoy the crew until the last 4 episodes of the show
The futuristic space ship got nearly totally destroyed by some cavemen with axes, clubs, and like 3 granades
They rented a super weapon to Mary Antronette of france and when she started oppressing the citizens they broke in, took the weapon back, and blew up the whole caslte with said weapon
Emarns kidnapped and tried to mind control Kei by tying him up to a bed and zapping his head (it fails). Chriam also did this but the plan was bungled and it failed.
Shaia is really stupid and yet she is in charge
Did the time travel scene make the timeline split and change the world? Did it make it so the dimensional mess doesnt happen? Did killing themselves just stablize the current combined dimension of earth? I didnt get the ending, despite how aesthetically cool it was (it is incredibly cool)
This is one of the first isekai anime btw. Did i mention that?
The way the Mu robots disrupt the time travel scene is a literal jumpscare it's so funny.
The state of planet earth is the most batshit concept i've seen in an anime so far and i am HERE FOR IT! Basically due to Kei activating an unconfiguired dimensional bomb, all the other dimensions of planet earth started to fold into each other and combine onto one planet. Hence all the weird creatures and alternate reality histories they keep encountering. what makes it really interesting is that everyone knows this concept is tearing the earth apart, as each time a peice from another dimension is brought over, it has an impact on the planet's atmostphere and contributes greatly to global warming. Earth is quickly becoming uninhabitable and cramped with people that hate each other, hence the constant fighting. Also they can't go into space due to some weird dimensional shield that KILLS you when you try to fly too high in the sky. Everyone is trapped in hell.
You could not pay me to call them singularities. Kei and Olson are the IDEOBLASTS.
Super Dimension Century Orguss 02 SPOILERS
Watch orguss first. Then watch this. This is your reward.
Orguss's weirdness came from the relationship between it's ambition and execution: it wants to be to be a big brain sci-fi series, but it was held down a lot by super constrained resources. This struggle I think made the anime kinda unique, and that it felt like it was doing whatever the fuck it wanted to do in spite of it's budget. Orguss 02 took this feeling of doing whatever the fuck it wanted to do WITH a budget, actually did what it wanted to do AND stayed weird on purpose while doing so!
oh boy some of the lines in this show are a DOOZEY
Bro what is the my queen WEARING (crazy out of pocket design but tbh i fuck with the aesthetic of this show VERY heavily)
The little kid is a FREAK
Oh man i really really love the way this ends. The way Lain keeps Nataruma's bracelet on the wall while ignoring Torria is fucking priceless and very much in the spirit of the original orguss. Lost love accross dimensions. I suppose he does reconcile with it by promising to tell her over dinner, but oh man it's just so tragic. This anime knows what the fuck is up.
Nataruma being the last ideoblast to heal the world is like so sad but kinda cathartic in a way. The dimensional bomb finally ended the war, but she had to restart life AGAIN.. but at least this time it wasn't in a place that was trying to kill her constantly.
The precog mentat monk dudes controlling the mechs was an interesting touch. Seeing one literally die whenever they ran out of juice and being replaced was really interesting, and I am so glad they did not explain it. I like how unique this world feels.
The sound design is absolutely fuckin insane. All the vocal tracks are amazing, which is really sad since the ending of the last episode is my favorite song in the series and it's impossible to find. Like 0 information on it other than the title and singer. If any of you guys have any information on 旅人-Tabibito by Hiroe Ueda please let me know..
Extremely worthwhile watch. Very much a show don't tell show until (nearly) the very end. Please watch orguss and orguss 2.
