"Dangaioh is a magnificent inter-steller sci-fi animation which portrays the battle of the forces of good and evil."
"Four psychic warriors are able to unite to form Dangaioh, the most powerful weapon in the Universe. Using their full cyonic force, they alone can stop the bloody tyranny of Captain Garimoth. But is their psychogenic wave strong enough to destroy his evil henchman, the notorious cyborg Gil Burg? Or will the warriors fall foul of Garimoth's trickery which finds weaknesses in their forgotten pasts?"
"An inter-stellar sci-fi adventure of mecha, androids and transformers, Dangaioh features two episodes originally known as 'The Spiral Knuckle of Tears' and 'Gil Burg: Demon of Revenge'."
Director: Toshihiro Hirano Character Design: Toshihiro Hirano Screenplay: Noboru Aikawa Copyright: Artmic/AIC Language Format: English Language Running time: 90 mins Certificate: 15 Label: Manga Video Catalogue no: MANV 1034 Price: £12.99 Release Date: 9th May 1994
Terrence C. Briggs:
To me, direct-to-video material is material that wasn't
good enough for feature release, but too intense/vulgar/sex-
ual/expensive to place on televison. Well, if you're as
biased against the "direct-to-video" market as some seem to
be, then Dangio won't hold too much for you. Then again,
there isn't much to be held in Dangio: Part 1, an utterly
forgettable video import as well as an utterly shameful
exercise in banality.
The concept (as superficially put forth as it is)
involves three Esper warriors who escape their warden/crea-
tor professor to return to the home of one of their members.
Earth, of course. The ships they escape on form up in true
Voltron style to form the most run-of-the-mill mecha you've
ever seen, Dangio.
Through their course of events, they manage to tick off
one of the local yokels, a prototype cyborg warrior who has
vowed (with the assistance of a Jabba-the-hut type pirate/
smuggler known as The Banker) to...destroy...the Esper War-
riors.
The plot isn't so much an appealing story as it is a
series of events that are simply thrown at the viewer for
purposes of advancement. There is absolutely no time set
aside for any sort of character definition, and what is done
is just as spiritless as the plot elements.
There is nothing in the area of appealing character
interaction, much less anything in the way of appealing
character personalities. For instance, the characters run
into each other in the beginning and say a few words to
introduce themselves. That's about the extent of THAT char-
acter interaction. Personality? Two of our female leads
are annoyingly innocuous; the other more aggressive one is
nothing but a bag of banal come-ons ("So, you want to fight
with me? Let's see what you're made of!" is extremely
typical), and the male has so little presence in this story
that he might as well not exist.
The animation is only as good as you make it. The rich
color scheme is quite good, but the animation itself is on a
television standard (one that's been around since the time
of the video's release). The action directing is more arti-
ficial than visceral -- nothing more than a tiresome series
of cutaways and explosions with no real sense of engagement
on my part.
Not that I choose to dwell too much on this, but Dangio
is one of the most superficial superhero stories I've ever
experienced. Trust me, folks, the only depth relating to
this video is what I had to dig out of my painful memories
to write it.
Now that I think of it, writing reviews for material as
bad as Dangio can be quite cathartic. Besides, I need a
reference point for the future -- Don't want to risk seeing
another Dangio. [D-]