Genre: Action / Drama / Giant Mecha
Anime Type: TV Series
Original Release: 1999
Original Story: Shou Aikawa
Director: Jun Kamiya
Character Design: Hiroto Tanaka
Distributor: A.D. Vision
ANN Link: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=1052
Availability: Common
Package: Complete Collections 6 DVD's, 48 - 15min Episodes (Equivalent to a typical 24 episode series).
Price Paid: $40.00
Retailer: Best Buy (Retail Storefront).

Have you ever watched one of the Toho Godzilla movies? Even if not you likely know what Godzilla is and the basic plot. And essentially that very basic premise is the starting point for Neo Ranga.

Neo Ranga begins very much like an old Toho Godzilla movie. A giant creature stomps ashore in Tokyo bay and begins moving through the city, destroying all manner of buildings and causing general panic. However this "monster" is not a hydrogen bomb irradiated ancient dinosaur-like beast, but rather a giant mecha looking creature, which gains the alias "Monster M", but which is actually named by the title of the show "Neo Ranga", literally "the new Ranga".

However in this show there is something that you can only do in anime. That is, create a premise whereby three bishojo (very pretty) girls, all sisters, come to be the masters of this "monster".

Unlike Godzilla, who as previously mentioned, came up from Tokyo bay because of nuclear bomb experiments, Neo Ranga is an ancient creature from a distant south pacific island Kingdom. And it just so happens that the three sisters are the inheritors of the rulership of this Kingdom, where Ranga is worshiped as a God. Ranga has come to Tokyo to serve his masters, the three "Kings".

What the producers of Neo Ranga did to add novelty to a fairly stereotypical moster-mecha show was to create a depiction of how a modern Japan would llikely deal with the appearance of Ranga and how the lives of the three girls is up-ended by the situation. The situations range wildly but almost all concievable reactions are touched upon. However the overriding theme seemed to be a very cynical expose on the modern world and the politics of Japan. Furthermore the Girls also use Ranga for varied purposes, from a mode of transportation to school, as a marketing device for making money, to a heroic fighter against the evils of society. For the most part this makes for a fairly interesting, yet tedious show. This also means that the series does have a very serious and mature plot. It also deals with some very hard concepts such as murder, rape, and even the implication of incestuousness.

There is also quite a bit of what can only be called gratuitous fan service. Breasts pop out on numerous occasions (often causing male characters to get the standard nose-bleed). We see the sisters in their undergarments a number of times, and even a few times they are shown completely nude, but with that anime barbie-doll look (no nipples or crotch detail). Not to say that's the point of the show, it's not hentai or ecchi by any stretch, but it seemed quite a bit more than usual. For you guys out there, this isn't any worry of course, but for you parents, or anyone offended by nudity (albeit animated), you have been warned. Fortunately none of this is that distracting from the plot of the show, well at least not to me.

Eventually other large monsters begin to appear called "Kyoshin" to challenge Ranga, of course. However this comes in small doses and only materializes in full very late into the second season of the show. Essentially the show centers around the daily lives and the political intrigue of three girls owning a 30 meter tall gigantic God-like creature in the middle of Tokyo. As well as a lot of Godzilla-esque military versus the giant monster stuff going on as well.

Essentially it is a very long drawn out Toho Godzilla movie with a very anime twist. And that would be the point of watching this show, to take in the central theme of the stark reality of modern life (in Japan).

However I kept watching for Neo Ranga to become something it wasn't.

First of all there is an awful lot of artwork and theme to the show suggesting something that it isn't. One, you never see the sisters covered in red swirly tatoo-like markings wearing islander attire, wielding big weapons (as is billed in the opening credits and abounds on the DVD cases, and as you can see at the top of this review). They don't ever actually fight anything (until the very end, but they do it with Ranga anyway). In fact we see them going to school, working jobs, or in other far more mundane situations than anything else. To that end the bulk of the show takes place either at their house in Tokyo or in the surrounding township that they live in. I get the distinct impression that was the main thrust of the show's original concept but for marketability the show got "sexed up" so it would sell and appeal better. And while there is what might be called "mecha on mecha fighting", that is only a side show to the series main theme, and used to cap off the end of the series with a supposedly climactic finish.

For my money more of the show should have focused on the main story of Ranga and what he was and why he existed, and in a more serious package, that would have been far more appealing in the end. The novelty of the meat of the show was interesting but I kept waiting for something to really materialize, and instead was taken all over the place more often than not...or getting bogged down in the mundane lives of the girls. Which would be fine sometimes. Shows that handle these arcs better, like Outlaw Star come to mind. That seires had mundane parts but in that case the the action parts paid off better, and the series story arc was never lost. Specifically Gene Starwind and crew never forgot about where the Outlaw Star came from and the quest for the galactic leyline, even when episodes divirged away from that arc. Whereas in Neo Ranga the main arc of Ranga was subjugated to the very beginning flashback and the last 10 episodes. The rest often languished in the mundane, tedium, and comedic far too much. Especially the "self defense forces" and the ASE crew, both of which were way over dramatized and were attempting at times to force feed comedy to the audience. Indeed even when the Kyoshins appear the battles are somewhat superfluous and often just silly. Only in the very end is Neo Ranga actually challenged by a respectable foe.

As for the technical. The series is from 1999, and therefore is almost 100% cel drawn animation. In fact if there was any CGI, I think it was only in the title and closing sequences and not actually in the show itself. Compared to more modern anime at the time of this writing some might dismiss the animation in Neo Ranga as flat or dull. However I enjoyed it, it was really well done for a TV show, and I didn't notice any major flaws or off model issues. However the second opening sequence in Season 1 did have a glitch with the flying birds scene (I think some cels were out of order).

The music was overall pretty good, most of it had a very tribal or east asian ceremonial sound to it. The main theme to the series featured in the opening sequences was rather catchy.

This is a pretty solid series, but I doubt I watch it many more times. Probably better as a rental, ideally for your Netflix queue. Overall I'd say just a tad below average at 2.75 out of 5, add half a point if you're in high school, male, and like a lot of gratuitous fan service. Half a point could also be awarded if you're just Japanese and the lampooning of modern Japanese society appeals to you, plus a quarter if you're a Japanese male and like the fan service.