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Description:
Originally released in 1991, the three-part OAV Detonator Orgun plays like a mixture of several popular sci-fi films. Tomoru, a teenage boy in the 24th century, is haunted by weird dreams partially based on the computer games he plays with his friends. He soon discovers he's telepathically linked to the mysterious mecha Orgun. Meanwhile, at the Earth Defense Force Intelligence Headquarters, Dr. Michi Kanzaki and supercomputer I-Zak decrypt a message from deep space that turns out to be the blueprint for Orgun's physical being. As they make these discoveries, an advanced race of aliens nears the Earth with plans to destroy it. Naturally only the combination of Tomoru, Kanzaki, and Orgun can defeat them. Director Masami Obari (Fatal Fury) handles the action sequences, space battles, and fist fights between giant robots with his usual skill. He's less successful at presenting Hideki Kakinuma's convoluted story, a needlessly complicated mixture of flashbacks, fantasies, quasi-religious mysticism, and warnings about the dangers of tampering with human evolution that is simultaneously too complicated and too simple for its two-and-a-half-hour length. There also seem to be problems with the translation: although Tomoru sees himself as a World War I-style pilot in his fantasies, he refers to his leather jacket as a "Luftwaffer uniform" (the Luftwaffe was the German air corps in World War II). Unrated; suitable for ages 14 and up: nudity, profanity, and violence, largely restricted to robot versus robot conflicts. --Charles Solomon
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