is a 1992–1998 OVA series based on Mitsuteru Yokoyama's manga series Giant Robo. It was written and directed by Yasuhiro Imagawa.

Giant Robo is a homage to Yokoyama's career. The series features characters and plotlines from the manga artist's entire canon of work, effectively creating an all-new story. The events take place in the near future, 10 years after the advent of the Shizuma Drive triggers the third energy revolution. The series follows the master of the titular Robo, Daisaku Kusama, and the Experts of Justice, an international police organization locked in battle with the BF Group, a secret society hell-bent on world domination.

The OVA is recognized for its "retro" style and operatic score. The character designs emulate Yokoyama's drawing style and the action setpieces are influenced by Hong Kong action cinema.

The first installment of the series, "The Black Attaché Case", was released on July 22, 1992. Originally intended to finish within 36 months, the seven-volume series was ultimately released over the span of six years. "The Grand Finale" was released on January 25, 1998. The OVA has since been translated into English, Cantonese, Dutch, French, Italian, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish.

Plot

The series takes place in a retro-futuristic setting, where the Shizuma Drive ends the depletion of petroleum resources and the need for nuclear power. The system is a non-polluting recyclable energy source that powers everything on land, sea and air. Ten years prior to the events of the series a team of scientists, led by Professor Shizuma, created the revolutionary system. In the process they nearly destroyed the world and one of their own, Franken von Vogler, was lost in the event that went down in history as the "Tragedy of Bashtarle." At the start of Giant Robo, the BF Group is in the middle of recreating the event with aid from the resurfaced von Vogler.

The story explores a society completely brought down, within the span of one week, because of dependency on a single energy source and a state of prosperity tainted by compromise and deceit.

The is the main antagonist of the series. Their origin is unknown, but not so their reason to be: The leaders of the world acknowledged Big Fire as a threat to world security and signed the charter creating the IPO. The IPO's methods are information and espionage, looking to bring down the BF Group rather than defeating them in an all-out war.

However, to counter Big Fire's superhuman elements, "Experts" are recruited and granted special international jurisdiction. The agents assembled are known as the . Working with the Experts from the Peking Branch is Daisaku Kusama. While he does not possess any special powers, Daisaku is the one and only master of Giant Robo. Constructed by Daisaku's father, Giant Robo is the IPO's trump card against Big Fire.

Production

Producer Yasuhito Yamaki was working on a spin-off of Final Yamato, titled Dessler's War, but it was shelved. However, since he had already invited many staff members to work on the project, he felt it would be a waste to do nothing, and so he began planning Giant Robo. As a replacement for Yamato, he chose a robot anime, which was the mainstream of mecha anime at the time. Yamaki initially thought of producing Tetsujin 28-go, but while that series had been remade many times, Giant Robo had reruns of the 1967 live-action adaptation but no anime remakes, which is why he chose it as his subject. Due to budget overruns, the project was stagnant for about three years, but while Yamaki was working on Urotsukidōji, he was approached by Masayuki Miyashita, who had moved from Nippon Columbia to Amuse Video, and the project was revived.

The first staff member to be appointed was director Yasuhiro Imagawa. A self-proclaimed fan of Yokoyama's work, Imagawa jumped at the chance of working on the project. In pre-production, Imagawa was informed he could not use any of the supporting characters from the manga or live action versions. Yamaki had intended to use a star system and feature characters from Yokoyama's works with the same appearance but different personalities, but Imagawa wanted to keep the characters as they were. Some characters were reinterpreted with Yokoyama's approval. The Giant Robo OVA still follows Daisaku and Robo, and the main antagonist is still called "Big Fire," but it features an all-new storyline with a completely different cast of characters.

After Imagawa, Makoto Kobayashi joined the staff as the image concept designer. Among the special guest key animators, Hideaki Anno heard rumors about the project and reached out himself. Although Yamaki does not remember how he called on Shōichi Masuo, he asked him to participate because he was "an animator with excellent effects technique and taste." Science fiction writer Chiaki Kawamata, who had connections with Yamaki through Yamato, created the traits for the Shizuma Drive. The title calligrapher, Teigan Tsuda, was the husband of a friend of Yamaki's wife.

The first episode was released July 22, 1992 with the following three installments staying close to the proposed schedule of six months between releases. However, costs exceeded expectations and the series made almost no profit. , released between volumes 4 and 5 of Giant Robo, is a humorous take on Gin Rei's job as a spy for the IPO. , released between volumes 5 and 6 of Giant Robo, is a send up of super robot series and features Ken Ishikawa as guest mech designer. , which features an opening segment reminiscent of that of Sergio Leone's film Once Upon a Time in the West, was released between volumes 6 and 7 of Giant Robo. There were also plans for a fourth OVA, , but it was shelved.

The final episode was released January 1998, almost three years after episode six. In between releases, members of the Giant Robo staff worked on other projects, including The Big O, Getter Robo Armageddon, and Super Atragon, a two-episode OVA of Shunro Oshikawa's Kaitei Gunkan novel.

Imagawa intended The Day the Earth Stood Still to be the second to final chapter in the conflict between the Experts of Justice and Big Fire. The OVA would be preceded by The Birth of Zangetsu the Midday, The Plan to Assassinate Daisaku - the Canary Penitentiary, The Boy of Three Days, The Greatest Battle in History - General Kanshin vs. Shokatsu Koumei and The Boy Detective, Kindaichi Shōtarō, Appears! The final chapter is titled The Siege of Babel. No further stories have been animated.

Music

thumb|[[Donizetti's aria serves as theme to the events of "The Tragedy of Bashtarle", always seen in flashback and shades of gray.]]

The score of Giant Robo was composed, arranged and conducted by Masamichi Amano and performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir. The music ranges from grand pieces like "Charge! His Name is Giant Robo" to more light-hearted tracks like "Tetsugyu in Love." For Imagawa, the aria embodies one of the themes of Giant Robo: "the sorrow of others not understanding your true feelings". In the world of Giant Robo, "anything goes". While titles like Bubblegum Crisis 2040, Dirty Pair Flash and Tekkaman Blade gave modern spins to old classics, the creators of Giant Robo decided to go with a "retro" look.

The characters were designed by Toshiyuki Kubooka (Lunar series, The Idolmaster) and Akihiko Yamashita. (Princess Nine, Tide-Line Blue) The designers were asked to emulate Yokoyama's characters rather than create new ones. Yamaki recalls that it was a good idea to use their advanced techniques to create three-dimensional character animation to portray Yokoyama's characters. Admittedly "it took some time to catch on to Director Imagawa's intentions",

The mechanical design is a case of high technology meets old school engineering. The titular mecha is an advanced piece of machinery, giving the world of Giant Robo a timeless feel. The works of Go Nagai (Mazinger, Getter Robo) created the genre and the debut of Yoshiyuki Tomino's Mobile Suit Gundam in 1979 solidified it. In this genre, the mecha is the focal point of the action. But for a genre anime, Giant Robo does not feature many giant robot battles; instead, it is the human characters who do the fighting.

Most of the "Experts" featured in The Day the Earth Stood Still come from Yokoyama's manga adaptations of Outlaws of the Marsh and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, both wuxia novels and half of the "Four Classics" of Chinese literature. Wuxia are martial arts adventures populated by skilled, honorable fighters. In Hong Kong action cinema, the genre is associated with swordplay epics sprinkled with mysticism.

Given their origin, the heroes and villains of Giant Robo are superhuman combatants who share many elements with the errant knights of wuxia like strength, magic powers and the ability to fly. In wuxia adventures, the characters are given nicknames that allude to their mastery of weapons, their physical appearance or their demeanor (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). Imagawa, inspired by Yokayama's adaptation of Outlaws of the Marsh, followed this convention and gave Giant Robos characters similar descriptive names like "Shockwave Alberto", "Silent Chūjō" and "Kenji The Immortal."

In jiang hu, secret societies plot against the status quo (House of Flying Daggers) and powerful clans do war with each other. Giant Robo features the ongoing conflict between the Experts of Justice and the BF Group.

Themes

Giant Robo is structured as a "character driven drama," where the story traces the main character's development from childhood to maturity. The two most important characters in the boy's coming of age are his fellow Experts Tetsugyu and Kenji Murasame. Tetsugyu is a grown-up, but still a "child" at heart. In the course of the story he and Daisaku grow up and mature, creating a parallel between them. Kenji, on the other hand, is what Daisaku sees as an "adult." Willing to sacrifice others for the sake of happiness, Kenji contrasts Daisaku's idealism. The characters of Daisaku and Genya lost their fathers at a young age and have been entrusted with a legacy that turns them into adversaries during The Day the Earth Stood Still. Mirror images of one another, the characters fight to fulfill their respective fathers' dying wish at the expense of the other's.

Release

The series was originally released by Bandai Visual on VHS and LaserDisc from 1992 to 1998. On March 24, 2000, Toshiba Entertainment released the series on Region 2 DVD. The Giant Robo Giga Premium Collection (ASBY-1600) features digitally remastered video and audio, interviews with the creators and a companion book. Then, Media Factory released a limited edition Blu-ray Box on October 26, 2012, with the video remastered to 4K, as well as the NYAV Post English dub, interviews with the staff and Japanese cast, audio commentary by the staff, and a performance by the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra. A standard edition Blu-ray Box was released on April 24, 2015, this time with English subtitles included.

The distribution of the English-language version has been handled by five different companies. A LaserDisc edition was released by L.A. Hero in 1994. After L.A. Hero's license expired, it was released on VHS by U.S. Renditions and Manga Entertainment. After Manga Entertainment's license expired, Media Blasters released Giant Robo on DVD. Media Blasters' 2004 release includes the Japanese language track, the Manga Entertainment dub, an all-new dub by NYAV Post and subtitled Japanese commentary tracks on some of the episodes. After Media Blasters' license expired, Discotek Media announced at Otakon 2018 on August 12 that they have picked up the series for a Blu-ray release. Despite the included Gin Rei OVA being in a separate DVD release, it would include everything from Media Blasters' previous release. Discotek has also hoped to produce brand new extras for this release as well. It was released on December 24, 2019, while the Gin Rei release was released on December 29, 2020.

Giant Robo was distributed in the Netherlands by Manga DVD and in Hong Kong by Asia Video. The French version, dubbed by Saint Maur Studios, was distributed by Pathé. The series was released in Italy by Granata Press.

Along with the animated version, Imagawa scripted a manga illustrated by Masami Ozone (under the pseudonym of Mari Mizuta). Serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Comic Genki, it delves deeper into the machinations of the BF Group and introduces as Big Fire's counterpart in the IPO. The feature suffered from high running costs and low sales, published in January 2001. In July of the same year, the series appeared on a list of the all time top 50 anime, according to Wizard Magazine.

Critical reception has been largely positive. Hyper magazine rated it 10 out of 10 in 1996. Three different reviewers from the AnimeOnDVD site gave Giant Robo an "A+". John Huxley of Anime Boredom "highly recommends" the series and Anime Academy gives it a grade of 88%.

Giant Robo has been called "one of the true timeless classics of Anime."