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I'll start things off with the aforementioned show: Masou Kishin Cybuster, a delightful turd from 1999. Now, if you've played any of the Super Robot Wars games or watched the Original Generation animes, you may be familiar with Cybuster:
The hot-blooded young man in the green hair is its pilot, Masaki. The machine itself was created in another dimension and is basically powered by magic. If you have to kill everything on the map, you drain this guy's power to Cyflash everything into oblivion. And that's not even his most powerful move. He's also got a sword, a battery of missiles, and remote weaponry, all of which come in handy when dealing with his chief rival: the Granzon. It's piloted by Shu Shirakawa and has the power to shoot black holes at you.
Well, what they did when they made the show is that they took the names of things, threw away most of the awesome mecha designs present in the SRW games, added a bunch of new characters, and gave it no budget. And when I say no budget, I mean no budget. You can count individual frames and easily pick out numerous cost-cutting measures present in the animation. Now, I've watched plenty of mecha shows from the 70s and 80s with poor animation, but for something made in 1999, it's eye-poppingly bad.
But that's forgivable if at least the robot fights are badass, right? Maybe, except these robots are anything but. Even the advanced models rolled out by the villains as the show progresses retain clunky, plodding maneuverability. They spend a lot of time falling over. Even the robot gods like Cybuster end up getting knocked backwards by punches, kicks, or poorly-aimed projectile attacks (and their associated recycled animation). Granzon still has a black hole gun, but it was redesigned to look more like the Guntank than anything else. None of the battles really have any tension since they develop so slowly and result in little to no payoff. Even Big O, which prides itself on immobile clunky robots, at least looks awesome when it finally does attack.
So to summarize, it's a show about trans-dimensional elemental robot gods fighting an enemy which attacks using black holes and the robots are boring. They use Cyflash once, and you have to wait until the end of episode 25 for it. In fact, he doesn't even have his sword from the games or really any of his moves. He punches, kicks, throws wind at you, and... yeah. Why they would bother making a show if they couldn't retain the elements of the game that make him awesome is beyond me.
Most of the characters I won't complain about. They're pretty stock characters and the show plays every trope straight. What really annoys me is after the abrupt conclusion in episode 25, we get an epilogue which serves as backstory for someone who's already died, revealing a relationship that had been out in the open for half the time. And on a personal note, I really dislike what they did with Lune, converting her from a hot-blooded warrior woman into a selfish brat who can't pilot worth a crap.
So it's a cut-and-dried super robot show minus the fun and QUALITY that will keep you on the edge of your seat, because then it's easier to get up and go do something else. I must say that licensing this sure didn't do Geneon any favors. Back on my shelf where it shall forever remain.
