ack-country swordsman Ital was raised by an aging battle robot--a
War-roid named Raidis--to be a soldier in the Big War between the
slaughter-minded Republic and the human/robot alliance called the
Imperials. When a Republic Commander arrives at Ital's backwater home
seeking someone named Sayuka--murdering Raidis in the process--the
furious, grieving Ital begins a quest to find an Imperial battalion and
join up.
But when he reaches civilization, he finds the Big War has been over for
a century. Witnessing a battle between Republic robot soldiers and a group
of armored fighters, he enters the fray and saves the life of a woman named
Sahari. But he soon finds out she's just a junk-hunter who doesn't even
remember the War. Her people hunt drone-soldiers for salvage, but consider
them mindless Beasts, valuable only because no one understands their
technology or can reproduce their parts. Ital's description of Raidis'
murder causes a small panic among the elders of Sahari's city, because it
implies the existence of a Beastmaster, a Republic controller organizing the mindless robots
back into a force to be reckoned with.
But even the Beastmaster himself proves to be only a small skirmish in
the coming fight, which reawakens echoes of the Big War. A badly damaged
robot that Ital rescues turns out to be a significant figure from the old era,
and his resurrection marks a turning point in a secret war. The robots and
artificial intelligences of his time are trying to reclaim themselves and
their birthright. While Ital is eager to live up to his childhood training,
Sahari and her generation don't understand why they should be dragged into
an ancient conflict they consider long dead.
History lessons for the future
AnimEigo's re-release of the entire Genesis Surviver Gaiarth
series as a single, massive 142-minute movie makes for a perfect opportunity
to pick up a classic epic in the vein of the Star Wars trilogy. The
production quality's no more state-of-the-art than Star Wars is
today--the animation is generally impressive but sometimes degenerates
into jerky staccato, especially during some of the many battle scenes. But
the story is timeless, replete with the kind of well-developed archetypes
that would make Joseph Campbell swoon.
Anime often centers on the immediate action of conflict and the excitement
of the here and now. That's part of what gives the genre its intensity. But
Gaiarth is an exception in some ways. It makes copious connections
with the past and attempts to ground its action in historicity. Its heroes
come from different epochs and different paradigms, to the point
where they can barely understand each other. Every society works this way--in
America, World War II vets and Gen Xers can still mix freely, if they
have anything to say to each other--but it's exceptional to see a fiction
that addresses the generation gap this aptly.
As a result, this movie neatly brings across a complex concept that's
difficult to express--a dynamic sense of time passing and worlds
changing, with historical events being both dismissed in memory and
inescapably significant. The complex relationships between the characters
and their conflicts, both with each other and with themselves, is a
refreshing break from the usual shoot-em-up, but Gaiarth never
sacrifices action for mental maundering. There's plenty here for all types, from true
action fans to philosophy junkies. This is one movie that makes
full use of its length.
