‘Overman King Gainer’ Blu Ray Review: A Fascinating Anime That Champions The Value Of Gamers

Following Victory Gundam , Yoshiyuki Tomino took a break from anime. When he returned in the late 90s, his work was a lot more upbeat and hopeful, with Overman King Gainer being an excellent example of this. After the mixed reaction to Brain Powerd , Tomino took a different route entirely with King Gainer .

Gone were the attempts to mimic Evangelion and instead an entirely different inspiration was utilized. Specifically, that of La Compagnie des glaces by Georges Jean Arnaud . Admittedly it was a loose inspiration, mostly in terms of its futuristic frozen setting, but it set up a different type of anime for Tomino and one that found an eager audience at the time.

Originally released back in 2002, Overman King Gainer dealt with life in the future following a global environmental cataclysm, which had rendered the Earth a frozen wasteland. With humanity living domed cities, many wanted to escape and go on an Exodus to find warmer lands. So begins the series, with an Exodus underway.

However, the authorities aren’t best pleased about this and obviously want to keep their taxpayers under one roof. With the help of Gain Bijou, an Exodus specialist, they steal a type of strange mecha called an Overman. Thankfully gaming legend Gainer Sanga, also known as King Gainer, is able to pilot this Overman and gives it his gaming call sign as a result.

Compared to other Tomino anime, the story and pacing are pretty ad hoc and frenetic. It all just about makes sense, but things move along quicker than his older works and are generally more cheerful. 'Overman King Gainer' has a lot of great artwork by Akira Yasuda. Tomino’s later works also retain much of this style seen in King Gainer , with Reconguista in G being relevant (although that is far less coherent in terms of its story).

King Gainer also lays the groundwork for the older and younger siblings setup used in later shows, in the form of Gain and Gainer often bashing heads. The story in King Gainer is also told well and much of the backstory, as to what happened to leave the Earth in this frozen state and the part the Overmen played in that, is gradually revealed over the course of its 26 episodes.

What stands out though is the designwork throughout. From Kenichi Yoshida’s warm and rounded characters, to the thoroughly alien Overmen designs by Street Fighter artist Akira Yasuda (although Kimitoshi Yamane contributed quite a lot to the mecha design in the series as well). Coupled with excellent animation and a wonderful musical score by Kohei Tanaka , you have the makings of a modern mecha anime classic.

Not least because Tomino placed a gamer, Gainer Sanga, at the heart of this story. With his gaming skill being an integral plot point later on as Gainer develops his “overskill” in piloting his mecha. King Gainer has also been a staple in games, from the Super Robot Wars series to the Another Century’s Episode games, so its whole gaming slant is definitely catered for outside of the anime.

As for this Blu ray release, it’s based off the Japanese remastered Blu ray boxset from 2014 and as such looks and sounds amazing throughout. While there is an English dub, the original Japanese audio is far superior, as Tomino chose some fascinating voice actors for the anime’s cast. The English subtitles are also decently done.

While I have the older DVDs for this series, the Blu rays are obviously much better. Considering that Overman King Gainer was the real beginning of Tomino’s new almost happier creative phase ( Brain Powerd was just a halfway house really), I am glad it’s now finally on Blu ray and widely available again.

You can purchase this Blu ray release of Overman King Gainer via Amazon for $49.95. Disclosure: I purchased this Blu ray set with my own money. Follow me on Twitter , Facebook and YouTube . I also manage Mecha Damashii and do toy reviews over at hobbylink.tv . Read my Forbes blog here ..