超時空世紀オーガス /Super Dimensional Century Orguss/Orguss

The opening titles.

Chōjikū Seiki Ōgasu is an obscure science fiction Animé from 1983 that was rarely seen outside Japan. The series was developed by Big West, the same enterprise that would spawn the legendary Super Dimensional Fortress Macross series. The animé was known internationally as Super Dimensional Century Orguss or simply as Orguss. Big West not only developed Macross but also the Super Dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross and Orguss was the final installment into their space adventure trilogy. Like Macross, Orguss was also directed by visionaire director Noboru Ishiguro. The character design was also in charge of another fantastic artist that is well known among Animé fan for being the artwork designer for many mecha kits from the 80's, Mr. Haruhiko Mikimoto. American musician Casey Ranking wrote and performed the music for "Hyouryuu: Sky Hurricane (漂流~スカイハリケーン~)" & "Kokoro wa Gypsy (心はジプシー)" the opening & ending themes respectively.

The series premiered in the Summer of 1983 on July the 3rd and ran until to April the 8th, 1984. After the series was completed "The Super Dimension Century Orguss Memorial File" was made as a two part OVA summarizing the series in 100 minutes.

Years later in 1993, "Super Dimension Century Orguss 02", a sequel, was made as an equally imaginative six-part OVA series which picks up the story some 200 years later and involves the return of one of the key characters from "Orguss 1...". Stay tuned for in the near future we may review this sequel. 

The Glomar crew.

The mighty Orguss.

Orguss was "apparently" discussed as being the third season of Robotech in the USA since the other two Super Dimension series (Macross and Southern Cross) were used for the two first parts. However, the anime Genesis Climber Mospeada was used instead. Additionally, these three series are not sequels, prequels, or even in the same story universe as one another. They do share the drawing style, some mecha design similarities,  "The Super Dimension" moniker in their titles and were all presented by Big West. That was the only connection that each of the Super Dimension shows had with each other.

Out of the 35 Orguss episodes, only 17 of them were available in English in dub-only format in the early 1990s on video tape from U.S. Renditions, before the majority of the company's shows (excluding Orguss) were bought up by Manga Entertainment. Manga Entertainment did however release the OVA sequel Orguss 02 on both video tape and DVD.

On April 16, 2007, ImaginAsian announced that they would broadcast Super Dimension Century Orguss on ImaginAsian TV, and would thereafter give the series its first complete North American DVD release, with the first 17 episodes also having the old U.S. Renditions dub. Unfortunately, due to lack of sales, the program was discontinued.

Kei, our hero.

Kei meets the Glomar crew.

So, what's Orguss about?

The year is 2065. The world is at war. The two superpowers clash over the space elevator. Far more dangerous than atomic, biological, or chemical weapons are dimensional weapons, such as the Space/Time Oscillation Bomb. Despite the tremendous power of this bomb, it must be armed on-site by a team of engineers.

Desperately, the Freedom Space Corps launch an offensive to plant a Space/Time Oscillation Bomb and destroy the space elevator. During this attack, the engineers are forced to abort the mission and destroy the bomb before it can be properly armed. Enraged at the decision to abort and feeling that his comrades have died in vain, brash fighter pilot Kei Katsuragi haphazardly arms the bomb with severe repercussions.

A dimensional explosion transports Kei and his Bronco 2 variable fighter to another world. There he is pursued for unknown reasons by the militaristic Chilam and aided by the Gypsie-like Emaan. Both sides have some unknown interest in Kei referring to him as a "Tokuiten" (the "singular point"). Originally translated by US Renditions as "Differentiated Idioblast", it is more properly translated as "Singularity". In the ImaginAsian version, it has been translated as an "Idiosyncratic Point".

After Kei's fighter is damaged during a fight, the Emaan modify it into the Orguss, the eponymous mecha from the series...

The amazing Orguss.

Orguss, Valkyrie mode.

Crew of the Glomar

Kei Katsuragi 

Second Lieutenant of the Freedom Space Corps. Age 20. He was assigned on a mission to escort and provide cover to a group of engineers who were arming the Space/Time Oscillation Bomb in order to destroy the Space Elevator. When circumstances force the mission to abort, Kei decides to properly arm the Space/Time Oscillation Bomb himself. This resulted with Kei being transported 20 years into the future, where he is found by a group of tradesfolk from Emaan, believing him to be the Idiosynchratic Point. Aside from being a formidable pilot, Kei is also a womanizer, having several different girlfriends which he dates alternately before he met the Emaans, in which he begins a new romantic relationship with Mimsy. Even in his relationship with Mimsy, Kei still tends to flirt with any other woman that catches his eye.

Mimsy Laaz 

 

A 16 year old Emaan girl. In the Glomar, she serves as the Vice-Captain and provides battle info and tactics. Her interest in Kei at first was because he is the Idiosynchratic Point and thus was given orders by her family to return him to the Emaan country. As the series progresses, she begins to develop romantic feelings for Kei, even though she is engaged to Slay in order to bear children as she is at the peak of her fertility (see Shaya Thoov). Mimsy also acts as Kei's guide in learning the culture of the Emaans. Her family, along with Shaya's family, runs the Emaan country.

Mimsi, the lost twin sister of Misa Hayase.

Shaya Thoov 

Captain of the Glomar, she is also the head supervisor in the ship's marketing business as well as the Chief Operator of the Glomar's controls. Upon discovering Kei as an Idiosynchratic Point by Jabby, she is given orders to deliver Kei to the Emaan homeland as soon as possible. Shaya follows faithfully the Emaan customs and culture. Among those customs is dressing and taking baths even with men present and never being shy about it, which gives Kei an uncomfortable position of being a pervert when he and Shaya are together (this is because of the Emaan's biological nature as Emaan women lose their fertility at age 18, which at that point they are no longer courted by Emaan men and are considered no longer as 'females'). Her family, along with Mimsy's family, runs the Emaan country.

Mome

 

An android in the appearance of a little girl whom Kei bought from a small village. Her primary program is to faithfully serve the person who bought her, which in this case, was Kei. She is from the Mu race, a civilization known for its advanced machinery. Having a sophisticated AI, Mome possesses a variety of skills from cooking to nursing to repairing the Orguss with ease. Despite being an android, Mome is capable of expressing emotion and openly expresses her love for Kei and dreaming to be his wife.

Jabby  

 

A dragon-like talking creature of the Glomar crew who came from an alternate Earth. Jabby appears having brown skin, large hind legs, long arms with three fingers, a tail, and a long neck. Jabby's tail is capable of detecting any dimensional activity nearby and thus allows him to sense Kei as an Idiosynchratic Point. It was him that proposed the name "Orguss" on Kei's newly built unit, named after the war god of his world.

Slay 

Mimsy's fiancé. Slay serves as the secondary operator of the Glomar whenever Shaya takes a break or if the ship is not on auto-pilot. Slay highly dislikes Kei, blaming him for all the trouble and loss of the Glomar's crewmembers from the Chilam because of his status as a Tokuiten. Slay also dislikes Kei for forming a romantic relationship with Mimsy, making them rivals for her affections.

Maaie & Lieea  

 

Twin sisters and the only members of the Glomar crew who are fighter pilots, aside from Kei. The Morabbas are the sisters' personal Drifand Class ships.

Misa Hayase nude!

Sharing the bath.

Goovu 

The oldest member of the Glomar crew. His primary role in the ship is to negotiate with customers, persuading them to purchase whatever items the Glomar is selling. When asking for the name of Kei's newly built unit, he proposed the name 'Gamon'. He forms a close relationship with Kei.

Leeg 

Chief Engineer of the Glomar who oversaw the building of the Orguss. Like Slay, Leeg blames Kei for the Chiram's attempt to pursure the Glomar and the death of some of its crewmembers. However, upon learning of Kei's role as an Idiosynchratic Point, he accepts him as part of the crew.

Papty

Papty is a mother of two Emaan children and is often seen raising them. Her husband is killed in the first Chiram attack on the Glomar. When she is not raising her children, she works by providing maintenance and repairs to the Orguss and the Glomar. In one episode, she is seen putting her two children to sleep while simultaneously firing the Glomar's Machine Guns against enemy units.

Taii 

A Mu fighting robot. Taii's remains were recovered and later was rebuilt by Mome. Taii has a personality of an old veteran soldier and strictly observes the combat tactics in his programming, which makes him a nuisance to most of the crew. Taii is equipped with multiple missiles in his chest that gives him enough firepower to destroy a Chiram unit. His name means "Captain" in Japanese.

The original Bronco 2 valkyrie.

Orguss 80's toy collection.

But, what is Orguss about?

Without giving too much away, Super Dimension Century Orguss' basic plot centers around two pilots, Kei Katsuragi and Olson Verne, whose mission is to set off a "time oscillation bomb". It's the "near" future and the two factions that govern the world are fighting over the control of an orbital elevator. When it comes to this conflict, we don't get much more detail than that, but we don't need it, because as soon as the bomb goes off, Kei is transported to another earth, one where dimensions phase in and out and the earth's atmosphere is affected by some sort of extreme greenhouse effect.

Kei is immediately discovered by a group of people who call themselves Emaans, a business-minded people who typically travel from place to place selling goods in sort of a floating spaceship-esque caravan, the Groma. Kei soon learns that he is one of two "differential points" (I kind of wonder if this could've been translated another way) -- this basically just means is that Kei is key to the restoration of the earth, which is becoming increasingly unstable. There is an antagonistic faction on the planet called Chiram who want Kei for their own purposes, and to complicate things, our heroes also have to contend with an entire civilization of genocidal robots hell bent on destroying all humans. 

Mimsi sunbathing.

Ready for some sports!

From there, politics get a bit more complicated, as to be expected from an anime directed by Noburo Ishiguro; it's not as sophisticated as some of the other anime he has directed such as Legend of the Galactic Heroes or even Macross, but it's still complex enough that the story plays more like a pulpy late 60s sci-fi novel than your typical 80s mecha anime. Unfortunately, due to the pacing of the show (there is some filler and the last handful of episodes seem rather rushed, and the ending is completely abrupt) the story suffers a bit. The story really begins to pick up around episode 15, after Olson is reintroduced into the show (my favorite character by far and probably the best example of a "main hero b" I've seen in a mecha anime). I also feel like the conflict with the Muu robots could've been introduced a lot sooner than it was. With some better pacing this show could've been a lot better, but it's not hard to see what they were shooting for and the show is still enjoyable to watch. There are several WTF moments (Palm tree monsters! Gigantic grapes!) but those just add to the charm of the series and are imaginative, I mean, in a world where different dimensions phase in and out, why not have fun with it?

The characters in this show are fun. Most of them are deeply flawed, but to get into detail about their flaws would spoil a lot of the show. The protagonist, Kei, is a "player" type of guy but has more charm than your typical Ataru Moroboshi-ish horny male anime lead. I started off really disliking him as his constant attempts to get with Mimsy were really annoying me, but over time you get to see a softer side of the character, a guy who is attracted to women but simultaneously genuinely cares for and respects not only women but everyone around him. In fact, this proves to be a major problem for him later in the series.

Nudity is nothing to be ashamed of onboard the Glomar.

Orguss features a lot of ass shots.

Basically, Orguss is a really fun show with some great art (great example of early 80s Haruhiko Mikimoto character designs, which I absolutely love) and sporadic bits of decent animation, with an intriguing and original story, and really good music. (My absolute favorite OP and some of the BGM is actually quite good -- listen for the Morricone-ripoff theme!) Watch and judge for yourself, don't listen to the haters.

​Being made right after Macross you can see how similar it is and how much they improved. The cels are a lot more detailed, the plot is just as complex. It wasn't until last year that I discovered this anime and I enjoyed it as much as I did the original Macross many years ago. It has everything you need, action, suspense, aliens and robots just like Macross.

After the gigantic success Macross had, Orguss was next in line, and a shoot 'em up game based on the original TV series was released in 1984 for the Sega SG-1000 game console in Japan and Europe. You can play the game if you find the right emulator, realizing it's pretty decent for its time, and you can even transform the Orguss!

The original SG-1000 Orguss game.

Sega SG-1000, a rarity.

Here's the above mentioned very first Orguss videogame:

But the videogame adaptations didn't stop there! Orguss was also included in the PlayStation 2 game Super Robot Wars Z released in 2008. In this game the plot of Orguss plays a central role, as it is the detonation of the Space-Time Oscillation Bomb (an event dubbed "Break the World") that unites the heroes, villains, and locales from the various anime featured in the game. Kei and Athena return in the game's sequel, Z2. Moreover, the Anime characters also appear in the 2010 videogame Another Century's Episode: R for the PlayStation 3.

The Super Robot Wars Z Orguss attacks:

Here's a complete video of the first mission from Another Century's Episode R:

 

The Macross cameo. 

A mecha from the Orguss series can be seen fighting alongside other Macross Destroids in front of the bridge of the SDF-1 Macross in the last episode of Television version of The Super Dimension Fortress Macross. The mecha in question was Kei's Orguss which was shown holding a shield and a rifle in the other arm for a moment before being shattered by incoming enemy fire.

The Orguss cameo.

In episode 2 of Orguss, several Macross characters makes an appearance at different times. Lynn Minmay, Shammy, and Vanessa are shown at 15:16 as the main character recalls past girlfriends. Misa Hayase appears for a brief second on the monitor of the alien fighter as it turns on at 20:28 among other images of apparent static. The image of Misa on the monitor is shown to not be wearing any clothes.

So, is it worth the try?. and moreover, does it withstand the passage of time?

Orguss has a lot more to offer than big Mecha fights and more big mecha fights. The love-triangle between Kei and the apparently happy couple of Sley and Mimsy is perhaps the strongest, most original sub plot in the story, hiding a firm society critic towards marriage and parenthood that is, or was unparalleled at the time Orguss aired for the first time in Japan. Kei’s feelings for the Emaan girl end up making her doubt her choice of fiance and putting off her impending marriage, while he questions whether it is right for him to pursue someone who is ultimately not human. His being of a different species while still trying to pursue a romantic attachment is an interesting spin on the questions of inter-species relationships raised in SDF Macross  with its characters of Max and Miria (incidentally, Kei’s voice actor also played the role of Max). Seeing the development of this – from his initial insensitivity to Emaan customs to his eventual arguments with Sley – provides a focus for in-depth worldbuilding while avoiding exposition. Kei learns of Emaan customs via his attempts at maintaining a laddish, oversexed personality in a culture with very different attitudes to gender and at first this simply contributes to the “alien-ness” of the new world. When the Glomar's captain, Shaia, invites him to share a communal bath with her he cannot understand the apparent lack of taboo over nudity – which seems inconsistent with his continued rebuffing by the younger women for flirtation.

This presents an implicit contextual cue for the viewer; the society being depicted has firmly differentiated non-sexual contact (simply seeing a woman naked) from sexual contact and so Kei is an antique and transgressor. As the love-triangle plot progresses, and Mimsy proves unable to decide between Kei’s attentions and her loyalty to Sley, she appears to be being pressured into marrying young – providing another clue to a somewhat intimate setting detail that may normally be ignored. Kei’s integration into this new world is providing a background for explanation of the Emaans’ sexualities and marriage-traditions and the love-interest character (a genre staple) is thus somewhat more significant that perhaps would be expected if the story were a more traditional militaristic one.

Are you talking to me?

Magnificent 80's Mecha.

What this steady building up of clues about what seem to be strange societal traditions ultimately leads to – and with it a new development of the love-story – is the explanation of one of the idiosyncrasies of the Emaans as a species. Their women are only fertile for a short period of their lives, and so the social pressure to marry young is a result of the need to procreate and further the species. Kei’s interfering in Mimsy’s relationship results in her almost missing her chance to marry and have a child, and his response to realizing this – attempting to reconcile himself with Sley – provides a major turning-point in the personal story. From this revelation, the apparent oddities previously seen (the lack of concern about Shaia’s nudity from male crewmembers) are thus contextualized – as Shaia is no longer fertile (and thus no longer marriageable), she is seen differently to a younger woman like Mimsy (who, being capable of having children, is desirable for marriage). With this, the entire love-story plot – and with it the Emaan culture depicted so far in the series – almost takes on a social commentary role, showing the endpoint of society’s obsession with parenthood, marriage and youth. Social pressures fetishise fertility, youth and beauty and marginalise women who do not conform; in Orguss this is made literal with women who do not marry young ostracised by society and seen as completely non-sexual.

Thus Orguss shows its ambition as a piece of science-fiction; for all its oddities, robot combat and amusing escapades, its apparently sympathetic species at the center of the plot – the Emaan – can be seen as subtle commentary on the flaws of human society. The Emaan culture with its biologically-necessitated social pressures is an extreme extension of more real pressures to conform to a family ideal and the idea that an unmarried woman past her “prime” is a failure. Kei enters this culture with a different set of social attitudes and a different form of conduct, and rather than the cultural clash being a gesture of peace (as Max’s progress in Macross is) it risks turning Mimsy into a social pariah.

So, is it worth the watch? Absolutely! This is one of the few super robot shows that are not only about a teenage rookie piloting a super secret weapon to save the world. Orguss is definitely like an onion, it has many layers, and each of them tangles and untangles the main story arch with some very interesting sub plots that will go unnoticed if you don't pay close attention to each episode.

Here's the U.S. Renditions opening and ending:

Here's the Japanese opening:

The Japanese ending: