| Machine
Robo: Revenge of Chronos Vol-2 (1986)
Animation Production: Ashi Productions
Domestic Release: Software Sculptors/Central Park Media
Episodes: 6-10
By Jeffrey
Couto
Introduction
Just a couple of days after having seen Machine
Robo Vol-1 on DVD I was itching to check out more of the show
so sure enough I grabbed the second volume and got ready to
travel back into the world of Cronos to see what Rom, Drill,
Jet, Reina, and the rest of the crew were up to.
Let’s see take a closer look at their
further adventures.
The Story
"On a quest to save his people from the
evil Gandora armies, the young robot Rom travels to an uncharted
jungle. There, his companion Reina is kidnapped by a tribe
of mysterious Rock People. But the Gandora is on the move,
and no one will survive the onslaught, unless Rom can unravel
the secret of the mysterious Wolf Sword, and unlock his own
hidden superpowers!" -- Software
Sculptors Website
Review
This DVD as with the previous one is made
up of various stand-alone adventures that Rom and crew run
into as they traverse the land of Cronos. In episode six they
find themselves in a harsh jungle-type environment that challenges
our heroes with difficult weather conditions and magnetic
fields. These take their toll on Rom’s sister, Reina
as she passes out, unable to take the local conditions. As
they look for shelter Rom, Jet, and Drill find the Gandora,
who are in search of a legendary temple that may contain the
secret of the Hyribead, now it’s up to them to put a
stop to these villains and rescue Reina, who’s been
kidnapped by the mysterious Rock people who guard the jungle
temple.
Episode seven has our warriors run into a
clan of Gypsies who travel planet Cronos in search of the
Wolf Crest, making their home wherever they find it. During
their encounter Rom accidentally ends up engaged to a warrior
woman in the clan, Sofia, who after being defeated by our
samurai-like hero falls for him in a romantic fashion. An
encounter later on with the Gandora and their honor-bound
henchman Jingi, who uses the power and abilities of a bull
to fight his enemies, end up leading our heroes to a very
dangerous and sad situation.
Episode eight takes us to the land where the
Mu Empire once stood proudly with its advanced culture and
technology before sinking into the ocean much like the legendary
city of Atlantis. Now the people of the long lost empire are
being misled by the evil Gandora, unknowingly contributing
to their evil conquest plans!
Episode nine’s adventure takes place
in a desert that’s been ravaged and malformed by science
that is being harnessed for evil by the Gandora. It’s
in this harsh environment that Drill runs into an old childhood
friend of his, Trim Sponsor, and his mysterious female companion,
Rudi. Is Trim up to more than Drill thinks? Is the King tricking
our adventurers into a superficially well intentioned, but
ultimately destructive mission?
Probably the best in this collection is the
10th episode in the series, which pits Rom against an old
ally and fellow practitioner of the Sky, Space, and Heart
Fist Fighting Style, Bug. After studying under master Kirai
alongside Rom, Jet, and Drill he disappeared overnight, going
off into the world to use the techniques he learned to become
a bandit. Will Rom be able to make him realize the error of
his ways or will he have to fight Bug to the bitter end?
The second volume of Machine Robo like the
last one is made up entirely of stand-alone stories that are
for the most part devoid from an overarching storyline. The
episodes although similar in structure and how they unfold
still prove to be a lot of fun to watch. Probably the ones
that I enjoyed the most here were episodes 7 and 10. In episode
seven we get to see some character development in Rom as Sofia
falls for him and his friends have fun at the expense of his
sudden romantic situation. We also introduced to an interesting
villain (Jingi) who despite a short screen presence made himself
of interest with his focus on honor and fairness in battle.
Episode ten was the best one here as it gives
us a peek at the protagonists' past lives when they trained
under Master Kirai. Having Rom fight against what is basically
and evil version of himself also proved to be interesting
as it forced our hero into figuring out how to defeat this
new adversary, who has techniques that even Rom is not familiar
with.
As with the previous set the production values
here are typical of mid-80’s anime. The animation is
smooth, featuring solid moving characters and good consistency
in the drawings. The mecha battles benefit from key sequences
that take the production values up a notch, making for an
even bigger spectacle when the stakes are high and Rom must
once and for all defeat that episode’s Gandora general.
The colors in these episodes seemed a little darker than in
the last set, although there were still many colorful and
brightly-colored landscapes.
The soundtrack is classic 1980’s anime
gold. From the energy-filled opening theme to the heroic instrumental
pieces that accompany our heroes into battle there is some
nice variety to the music used in the show. For the most part
everything seemed to fit well with the visuals, although some
of the more relaxed pieces seemed to fade into the backgound
and become almost unnoticeable.
The DVD itself comes with episodes 6-10 of
the show, which include:
Episode 6 – “The Rock People and
Mizuchi, The Mysterious Dragon”
Episode 7 – “Sofia, Warrior Woman of the Leo Clan”
Episode 8 – “The Demon Sea of the Lost Civilization
of Mu”
Episode 9 – “Dash Out, Trank Transer!”
Episode 10 – “Defeat Bug, User of Darkness”
Extras include an art gallery, which comes
loaded with tons of artwork and stills from the show, black
and white character sketches, a fight moves video, and trailers
for other releases from the company.
Conclusion
If you like action packed anime with a hint
of detective story elements Machine Robo is the anime for
you! Although the format doesn't change terribly from episode
to episode each one is still a fun story, that is worth checking
out. Needless to say that if you enjoy more vintage anime,
this is a perfect addition to your anime library.
Very highly recommended to all anime fans.
Now on to volume 3!
Jeffrey Couto
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