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[series:1918#628] | ||||||
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(11 episodes watched): It's not often that I go into a new show with such low expectations yet find myself so delighted with the results. Such a pleasant surprise was Brave Police J-Decker. At first glance it seemed like a sort of children's version of Patlabor meets The Transformers; the CG animation during the station break especially reminded me of Patlabor's OP sequence. One thing which immediately pleased me were the exceptional character designs--kawaii with style. Then there's Deckerd's first opponent, "the magnetic energy freak, Dr. Gauss" (that name actually makes a good deal of sense), who I've pictured above. Better yet was the fact that it soon became apparent that J-Decker had a relatively clever plotline. The close friendship between Yuuta and Deckerd quickly instilled each with a likeable personality. I especially liked the way that the basic premise was skillfully explained largely through flashbacks, rather than through an either overly lengthy or implausibly quick chain of events. "Plausibility" is important to me; for a "kid's show", the plot of J-Decker was more plausible than those of many adult series, and had a touch of wacky humor as well (take a look at the commissioner's hairstyle). Some suspension of disbelief is necessary, but the humor and style make whatever unlikely events remain completely excusable. I was thrilled at the moment during the climactic battle with Dr. Gauss when Deckerd employs a cool move which Yuuta taught him. This was pretty neat! I'd delayed watching this for a long time because my expectations weren't very high, but I ended up enjoying it much more than I thought I would. There's no telling if all additional episodes will match the quality of this first one, but I would be delighted to find out. Indeed, a second episode has become available. Artwork is annoyingly crude at times, and action animation are nothing to boast about. But this is pretty damn funny at times! The behavior of adults is often far more childish than that of Yuuta himself. Clearly this is (in part) a parody of kid's giant robot shows, with a number of clever jokes which even an adult would enjoy. Also, in this episode we learn what the "J" prefix to Decker means. J-Decker kind of reminds me of a comment I once heard about the old Batman TV series: children could enjoy it for the action, while adults could enjoy it too, as they realized what a parody it was. I think the same could be said about this show. It has great style to it--everything from the spirited OP song to character designs, to the good animation. Deckerd may have the most colorful personality of anyone, even though he's a robot. Best of all is the wit--it leaves me LOLing at times. How's this for an absurd episode premise: a Dinosaur-like monster has been created through illegal bio-engineering. It swallows a soldier whole and, while the robots restrain it, Yuuta volunteers to climb down it's throat and retrieve the man! Surely there's no way that we're being expected to take this seriously, is there? Did I mention that Deckerd is backed up by the "Build Team", which consists of "Power Joe", "Dumpson" and "McCrane", mecha who can transform into a bulldozer, dump truck, and truck mounted crane respectively? The three of them can combine into the Dancougar-like "Build Tiger" while Deckerd (who can become a flashy Police Car by himself) can combine with his transporter truck to form J-Decker, a giant mecha. Following Deckerd's example, each of the other three robots has been programmed with a personality of it's own, which makes them interesting and likeable. It's completely ridiculous, but that's not a major problem because it's great fun as well, what with the hammy, tongue-in-cheek spirit of the show. Just thinking about it leaves me with a smirk on my face. Some episodes are predictable and not terribly interesting while others are a good deal more sophisticated. Episodes ten and eleven were pretty cool, with not one, but two mysterious mecha which also possess Super AI appearing. We meet Shadowmaru, a ninja-like mech who will be joining the team and specializing in intelligence gathering (he is now featured in the OP sequence alongside the others). Appropriately enough, Shadowmaru is programmed with cutting edge spyware. It took awhile to dawn on Yuuta that the two newcomers would almost certainly appear at the display of high tech appliances, given their behavior in the past, but otherwise this two-parter was original and fun. My favorite line: "What are you doing!? Are your Super-AI circuits overheating, or what!?" --McCrane Last updated Wednesday, April 15 2009. Created Thursday, August 21 2008. | ||||||||
