Gad Guard Volume 1

Gad Guard is a series from Gonzo Digimation, the prolific studio responsible for such releases as Full Metal Panic, Hellsing, Kiddy Grade and Last Exile. And so like many of its productions, Gad Guard combines more traditional animation and CGI elements resulting in a very modern looking show.

Gad Guard focuses on Hajiki Sanada, a streetwise boy who works as a courier in Night Town; so called because it blacks out at midnight when all the electricity is switched off. Along with “Day Town’ and “Gold Town’, Night Town is part of a city which is known as “a unit’, and makes up the world in which Gad Guard is set.
Together with the perky jazz, saxophone-heavy intro music, the setting helps to conjure up an atmosphere of the US cities of the 40s and 50s (despite the obvious futuristic technologies!). Little touches like an abundance of adverts, posters and graffiti help make the setting feel alive rather than just a static backdrop for the action.

Over the course of the first episode, we are introduced to Hajiki, his friends and family, his boss Hachiska (who runs a courier business) and a new girl to Hajiki’s school, Arashi Shinozuka.
We also meet a gang who are after the valuable Gad stones, including Katana, the cold and single-minded Heavy Metal (labour mecha) pilot who uses his robot for various unlawful schemes.

During one of his courier assignments, Hajiki is knocked from his scooter and is confronted by the merchandise he is supposed to deliver; a strange stone called a Gad. Hajiki is uncannily drawn to the Gad, but manages to pull himself together and finish the job of delivering it.

Later that day, Hajiki has an encounter with the aforementioned vicious gang who, as it turns out, have gotten hold of the Gad stone. In the chaos that ensues, Hajiki regains possession of the stone and to everyone’s surprise, it promptly attracts every machine in the area to transform into a mecha called a Techode.
This Techode is vastly superior to Katana’s machine, and after a tussle, the gang flee the area, leaving Hajiki and his newly born mecha to avoid the police.

Over the next 3 episodes, Hajiki runs into three other Techodes and their pilots. Aiko is the daughter of the President of ‘World Electro’, the company we can only assume is responsible for plunging Night Town into darkness every midnight.
Takumi lives in Day Town and has a fierce desire to fight crime with her Techode, and after vowing to destroy Hajiki’s mecha, Katana finds his own Techode too, which of course can’t be good news for our hero.

Seeing as they are central to the series, it’s good that the mecha are so well designed. The Heavy Metals are a curious mix of the practical and unnecessary, but the Techodes are even more interesting. All successfully convey the bulk and power of 20 foot mecha, but the Techodes’ fluid movement, soft curves and gaudy colours bring to mind the designs of Osamu Tezuka (of Astroboy and Metropolis fame). It’s great to watch the Techodes in action with their huge size but surprising grace and flexibility.

All the pilots of the Techodes have a fascination with each other and there are lots of interesting questions raised that made me want to see more of the series, such as why the Gads hold such an influence over their pilots, where they come from originally and why, and then we have other issues such as the electricity problem too.
One bizarre element is Katana’s motives. He develops an immediate loathing for the Techode that Hajiki triggers (understandable as it makes him look rubbish) but after further hammering home the point that he wants revenge, he then decides to reclaim his pride by getting his own (Techode). This jarring plot machination aside, most of the story makes sense and doesn’t feel too forced or fake.

This disc comes with a few extras including; four ADV trailers, the clean opening animation (the opening theme also plays over the menu screens), a ten paged character art gallery and a nice little promo trailer that was originally made for the Japanese DVD release. Nothing fancy but better than nothing.

There’s little difference between the English dub and Japanese version, so here it’ll be down to personal preference.

In Summary

By no means original (what with the young teens and the mecha and all), Gad Guard is still enjoyable with enough going on in the story to sustain interest and a polished presentation that sets it above the average series. I can’t see it developing into anything to rival all the top rating series of late, but then we are only on the first volume.

I look forward to seeing how the Techode v Techode events will pan out (thanks to Katana), and also how Arashi will obtain her own Techode (you’ll see she’s due one thanks to the opening animation!).
 
This is shaping up to be a fun show, something to relax with after you’ve collected all the essentials.