ブレンパワード

BRAIN POWERD

ANIME

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
26
RELEASE
November 11, 1998
LENGTH
25 min

DESCRIPTION

In the not so distant future much of the earth has been submerged under the sea or destroyed by earthquakes. At the center of the turmoil is the mysterious Orphan. Orphan may or may not be the original cause of the cataclysms. Orphan's goal is to raise a ship hidden deep beneath the sea to the surface, but doing so would result in the destruction of all humans except for the small number which are loyal to Orphan.

Orphan's agents pilot mysterious mecha known as Grand Cheres, and search the world for mysterious, giant disks which occasionally appear, flying at high speeds and wrecking much of the countryside, or cities, when they hit the ground. After a dying disc almost kills Hime, a Brain Powerd is born from the disc. Brain Powerds are another type of Mecha, similar to but not the same as Grand Cheres.

Hime becomes the Brain Powerd's pilot, forming a symbiotic relationship with the living mecha and joins an International Organization dedicated to stopping Orphan, or at the very least saving humanity should Orphan succeed.

CAST

Hime Utsumiya
Akino Murata
Yuu Isami
Tetsu Shiratori
Iiko Isami
Kumiko Watanabe
Jonathan Green
Gou Aoba
Kanan Gimms
Romi Park
Higgins Saz
Maria Kawamura
Anoa McCormick
Masako Isobe
Lasse Lundberg
Shinichirou Miki
Edgar Brankan
Keiichi Nanba
Irene Carrier
Shiho Nagoshi
Kant Kestner
Run Sasaki
Shiela Glass
Atsuko Tanaka
Mitsuo Minamotono
Narumi Hidaka
Winston Geybridge
Masato Sako
Nanga Silverly
Shinpachi Tsuji
Baron Maximillian
Masako Isobe
Comodo Mahama
Shoko Sakura
Kensaku Isami
Ryuuichi Horibe
Nelly Kim
Haruko Takahagi
Nakki Guys
Yumi Touma
Naoko Isami
Rumi Sugimoto
Midori Isami
Shouko Kanoki

EPISODES

Dubbed

| | | |

Not available on crunchyroll

RELATED TO BRAIN POWERD

MANGA AdventureBrain Powerd

REVIEWS

CodeBlazeFate
20/100
Yoshiyuki Tomino’s mentally handicapped potential answer to Evangelion.
“What do you think you’re doing to my brain?!”

That’s my line, fucker!

Welcome to Brain Damagd: Yoshiyuki Tomino’s mentally handicapped potential answer to Evangelion. Comparing the latter to the former is comparing Hyperion to a satyr. Perhaps that isn’t strong enough to indicate the sheer gap between the two, or what an utter waste of time this dreck is for those not seeking to witness every single Tomino, mecha, and post-Eva anime out there.

The writing is more detrimental than a lobotomy, and more nonsensical than lobotomizing an infant. Their horrendous Eva-inspired attempts at biomechanical pseudoscience and Gundam-inspired attempts at terminology, are as convoluted as they are nonsensical and inconsistent. The show is also spectacularly blunt to the point of telling you exactly what a character is like constantly despite how obvious it is just from the interactions, yet next to none of these characters have any real consistency. Half of what “characters” say and do, particularly early on, directly contradict what was told and shown to us prior, as early as the end of episode 1. Hell, the “characters” can’t even be called caricatures, let alone what I put in quotation marks, with the exception of a fucking scientist side-character and a boring yet remotely competently-written purple-haired girl. None of the rest have concrete personalities and all of them dramatically at the drop of a hat, often within the same scene. This is especially problematic at the beginning, not only because this is where it is most prevalent, but because this is supposed to be the first impression, where we get to know these “characters”.

Whenever they even try to give these characters backstories and conflicts, they come from the most hackneyed and unforeshadowed of places, and that’s excluding things done offscreen. Then again, this series has a real penchant for introducing things right out of thin air. Not only do the aforementioned characters engage in excessive last-minute flashbacks as a result, but they also reveal themselves to humongous hypocrites...and we’re supposed to root for the protagonists when they suffer from this almost exclusively. The main protagonist (and yes, none of these cunts deserve to be named) is the worst offender of this, going from kissing to harassing the female deuteragonist -whom he barely even knows let alone seems to like- in a split second, constantly, and goes from acting like an insufferable jackass to an idealistic kid who can’t even get his reasoning straight for why he defected from an organization he previously white-knighted like it was his girlfriend -not like he had one to begin with but damn if they’re gonna try to make him seem like an actual human being worth keeping alive-. Then again, this is partially because they constantly try to play coy with why he left and make it such a mystery, much to the obvious detriment of absolutely everything. He is honestly one of the worst protagonists in anime, and out of all the nothing characters who leave next to no impression in your mind, he stands out simply by virtue of being toxically broken and hateful.

Maybe Tomino should have thought twice before trying to do Eva backwards.

The visual presentation is unfortunate as well. The mech designs are bland and generic, without any thought into making them look like anything other than unmarketable drones. The character designs are, if nothing else, pleasant for most part, and they are generally on-model, even if actual animation for both the characters and mechs is somewhat limited, if not incredibly awkward in some cases. Fight scenes are downright horrendous, especially since in these particular sequences, shots almost never flow into each other, and they either have very stilted and limited animation, or try the kind of shorthand that could only ever work in DBZ. Even outside of fight sequences, the editing is generally horrible and nonsensical. Whatever CGI techniques they used such as trying to make ocean water CGI, is almost embarrassingly done as well, but that is the least of the visuals’ problems when the show can rarely do rain in a way that isn’t mortifyingly obvious that they drew lines and moved them back and forth for ten seconds. When your opening sequence begins with a borderline laughable static moving background effect, you know you’re in for a production misfire.

The music is honestly the least atrocious aspect of it, not that it says much, as even Yoko Kanno couldn’t operate at full capacity. The music is largely, and said music often doesn’t fit when it tries to be more than just stand-in fluff, particularly in the first half. The OP theme is barely any better, and while the ED theme is probably the best piece of music here, it is hardly memorable past the first 10 seconds. The voice acting is also subpar at best, with line delivery that ranges from mediocre to terrible for a majority of the characters. Then again, the script they have to work with is honestly abysmal, so much so that some things just could not work, regardless of acting quality.

Brain Damagd is honestly a bothersome experience that stops being bizarrely horrible and just becomes a slog filled with a detestable and borderline nothing cast, and a narrative that works on absolutely no level. Even the audiovisuals are not worthwhile. I wouldn’t even recommend screenwriting enthusiasts to go in for a full autopsy of this disaster, or recommend it to anyone who desperately needs to suffer through every post-eva show out there. I'm not even sure why I’m talking about it or why I watched it; this braindead travesty is an absolute waste of time that should have never been made, barring its ridiculous concepts and some laughable moments. To be perfectly fair, there were moments when the show clearly tried to be meaningful and even human, but they are mere blips in a sea of embarrassment. Unless you plan to watch every Tomino, Post-Eva, or mech anime out there, or watch this with friends, you’re probably better off not acknowledging this show’s existence, unless you want a cheap laugh here and there. Perhaps someone can make a best hits of this show's schlockiest moments; that would be the definitive Brain Damagd experience.

Wait...the fuck do you mean it’s not called Brain Damagd?!
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Reldio
80/100
One for the Tomino fans. A unique and memorable mecha anime unlike many others.
Brain Powerd is one of the more unique and out-there mecha anime I've ever seen and although it wasn't the easiest watch in the world, it's stayed with me months after watching and certainly deserves more praise than it usually gets.

Penned and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, famous creator of the Gundam franchise, Brain Powerd shows his thematic writing in full force. This show is easily Tomino at his most, well... Tomino. Those that hate his erratic emotional characters and somewhat odd view of relationships will be frustrated and I would never in a million years recommend this show to such people. Anyone willing to put up with a lot of emotion, though, can find some genuinely interesting relationships written into Brain Powerd.

There's a significant focus on character & world building over the series' 2-cour run and by the end I was more curious seeing how characters would turn out rather than the plot itself. There are a lot of metaphors and implied deeper meanings, and overall I think it was handled pretty well. This show is significantly more subtle than Evangelion, a show it is often compared to purely due to it having organic mecha and a few psychological themes. Brain Powerd is about the relationship people have with their parents and about the identity you forge for yourself as you grow up, both internally and externally.

One thing not even those that hate the show can take away from it is a simply wonderful soundtrack by the consistently excellent Yoko Kanno. Ranging from frantic tracks to more simple yet beautiful ambience it all compliments everything near-perfectly. Voice actors deliver solid emotional performances to match their oft-neurotic characters, with Gou Aoba's unhinged Jonathan and Akino Murata's caring Hime as highlights.

Visually, the show is more of a mixed bag. Animation quality is somewhat weak throughout, but it makes up for it with some interesting direction and artistic choices made to hide the low budget such a teleportation and a lack of traditional super flashy mecha attacks. The designs will be divisive as they're very unique and unlike any other series I've seen. There are a lot of deathless skirmishes in Brain Powerd all contributing to quite possibly the lowest body count in any anime that Tomino's ever had a major hand in.

Overall I think Brain Powerd is one for the more alternative mecha fans. It wont convert anyone to the genre or director, but to those already interested it provides a unique and interesting experience more focused on giving you something to think about than anything else.
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BrainPowerdSTAN
100/100
The peak of storytelling!
The greatest piece of fiction ever made.
Tomino's masterpiece and an achievement of what storytelling can do!
He created a show that surpasses even the likes of Breaking Bad and Victory Gundam with Brain Powerd.
Brain Powerd is a Japanese anime television series created by the legendary studio Sunrise. The series is set on a future, decimated Earth after the discovery of a mysterious, alien spacecraft dubbed "Orphan". A group of researchers scour the planet for Orphan's disc plates using mecha called "Antibodies" in order to revive the craft, an event that would result in the utter destruction of all lifeforms on Earth. The protagonists Yu Isami and Hime Utsumiya must utilize a special Antibody called "Brain Powerd" to counter the Orphan plans and save humanity. Brain Powerd was directed and written by Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino. The series features mecha designs by Mamoru Nagano, character designs by Mutsumi Inomata, and music by Yoko Kanno. The series was also adapted into a manga, with art by Yukiru Sugisaki, which was serialized in Japan's Kadokawa Shoten magazine Shōnen Ace and later published in the United States in English by Tokyopop. A series of light novels, music CDs, and other merchandise relating to Brain Powerd also exist. Tomino was joined by a team of writers at Sunrise under the pseudonym Hajime Yatate. Other staff included The Weathering Continent and Windaria character designer Mutsumi Inomata; The Five Star Stories and Heavy Metal L-Gaim mecha designer Mamoru Nagano; and Macross Plus and The Vision of Escaflowne music composer Yoko Kanno. Nagano had also previously worked with Tomino Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.

Its full of masterfully written characters, phenomenal art and animation that puts everything that proceeded it to shame and Yoko Kanno's best music score by a large mile.
Brain Powerd is about the meaning of life and what it means to be born. Its best presented in wonderful characters like Yu, Quincy and Jonathan. Quincy in particular is my favorite and is the best and hottest girl in all of anime. Hime is fantastic as well though doesn't have as much depth as those 3.
The battles are epic with some spectacular fight choreography and visuals that will keep you on the edge of your seat and the stakes are very high. Its easy to see why this is such a beloved classic thats still discussed even after more than 20 years of its release. Its a timeless product that will be celebrated for centuries to come unlike its shitty infirior version Evangelion. Brain Powerd is everything Evangelion should have been and a 1000 times more. Its grand, its epic, its sexy, its profound, its everything you could want out of a story and we honestly don't deserve such a perfect masterpiece.
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