Brainpowerd

—by Charles McCarter

Over a year and a half ago, Tomino Yoshiyuki, creator of GUNDAM, announced that he was going to start work on a new mecha show that would outdo EVANGELION. Rumors flew about what it would be about, who would work on it, and even where and when it would air.
When the dust settled, a pretty amazing production crew had been assembled. Character designs were done by Inomata Mutsumi (WINDARIA, UTSUNOMIKO), while the mechanical designs were created by Nagano Mamoru (FIVE STAR STORIES). And meanwhile, the music was to be composed by the name synonymous with amazing anime BGM, Kanno Youko (MACROSS PLUS, ESCAFLOWNE). With such a dream team on production, this could surely be the start of something big.
Well, fans in America, and many of those in Japan, have had to wait until a couple of weeks ago to see BRAINPOWERD (yes, that's the correct spelling) because it was on the satellite network WOWOW. But from what we had all been able to see in the magazines, it looked pretty impressive. The character designs were nice, and the mecha designs were very different from other shows out there.
So I sat down to watch the first episode, and the opening credits started. All of a sudden, there's a naked woman on the screen. Okay, it's like a JAMES BOND style opening, I think. The credits continue, and now there are a lot of naked women floating across the screen. They float over the landscape like giant balloons in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It seems to shout, "Look at this show!"
So on to the episode. Hime, a teenage girl, is walking with a group of orphans through the streets when suddenly a big metal disk crashes to the ground. Out from this disk comes a flurry of light and a mecha materializes. Hime recognizes it as an antibody; she's only ever seen them on television. This particular antibody, however, seems to be calling to her, so she gets in the cockpit. No sooner does she do this than two other mecha show up. The pilots, one a fiery guy named Yuu, demand that she return the mecha. She refuses, saying that it called to her, and a battle ensues. She easily wards off their attacks and carries her orphan friends home to safety.
Then a year passes. Hime has joined the Novus Noa organization in its fight against Orphan. Not much has changed, though. She and Yuu seem to share an uneasy relationship at best. We learn that the mecha are really organic devices.
The story seems to be getting off to a very slow start. Plus, it feels like we've seen it all before. The pilot who can fly the mecha without ever having seen it before, the orphans, the fighting, the angst and melodrama. It's like GUNDAM without a Gundam. And it's not even exciting.
The production values are ok, but not great. The animation is decent, but not amazing. And, surprisingly, the same can be said of the BGM, which tries too hard to fit the strange techno-organic world of BRAINPOWERD. And there is a gratuitous amount of CG. So much so that sometimes it becomes distracting; anime fans may not care for this.
The mecha are the only things to salvage this show. The designs look unique, and the weapons and devices they use are different from most other anime out there. While the idea of them being bio-mechanical creatures is not unique, it certainly gives BRAINPOWERD a much-needed shot in the arm. I hope that the mysteries surrounding the mecha become the focus of the story, rather than the angsty romantic triangles that seem ready to spring up all over.
I wanted to like this show—I really did. And it didn't do anything that was truly horrible. The art was good, the music was ok, the story seemed to be a rehash but it had potential. But after all the hype, I felt completely underwhelmed. BRAINPOWERD is off to a very slow start, and if it doesn't improve, it will be relegated to the halls of mediocrity in a year or two's time.