Let Panzer World Galient show you how to prepare a proper artillery barrage:
This is a level of realism that I haven’t seen before in any mecha anime. The way in which these artillery panzers deploy their support pylons before firing to guard against recoil for example, giving a good idea of the heft and weight of them even if they seemingly fire bolts of light. Or how we see them correct their range and angle by first moving the missile pod they’re firing with and then correcting their mecha’s position, all using mechanisms that a real artillery piece could’ve used. That we see them firing ranging shots and have them corrected by an artillery observer actually using a stereoscopic rangefinder. A level of (correct) detail that lends verisimilitude to a scene with shows giant robots launching bolts of light from their shoulder pads, bolts that only explode a second after they land.
The irony is that Panzer World Galient is a super robot show at heart. The titular Galient is an ancient mecha, an Iron Giant that will manifests whenever evil rules over the world, to cleanse it again. Once it’s discovered in the second episode, it’s piloted by the twelve year old Jojo, the only son of the slain king of Volder, a country conquered by the evil Mardoul on the same day Jojo was born. A faithful retainer escaped the palace with the baby and trained him to fight while searching the world for Galient. Now it’s been recovered Galient and Jojo are the only hope for the world of Arst to be free. Arst being one of those medievaloid worlds with inexplicable pockets of high-tech littering it science fiction is fond of. Mardoul’s goons use blasters while their opponents use swords and spears. Mardoul has artillery mecha, the rebels have to use catapults and other ancient siege weaponry. Only Galient and JojJo are able to fight on an equal footing. If that isn’t a super robot setup I don’t know what is.
But there’s a grittiness to it that I haven’t found in other such shows like Giant Gorg, which came out the same year, 1984. Mardoul may use more advanced technology than the good guys have at their disposal, but the way his army uses it is still rooted in Medieval thinking. Those blasters are shaped like halberds and used as melee weapons as often as they are as rifles. They have artillery mecha but no APCs: their infantry either walks or has to ride some sort of giant lizard thing. Their cavalry mecha are giant centaurs using jousting lances as their main weapon (though they do have a laser mounted in their stomach too). You get the feeling these people only barely understand what they’re using. And this is partially explained in episode 5 when it’s revealed that their mecha aren’t build, they’re excavated from the ruins of a previous civilisation. In general, there’s an utility and logic to how these mecha are used that’s missing with e.g. Doctor Hell’s mechanical monsters in Mazinger Z. Each has a function and is used like such. Nobody just goes on a rampage, there’s always a reason they fight the way they do.
Ten episodes in so far and I love this series. Like Giant Gorge, which I watched before this, this is a kids’ show from the same era as a G. I. Joe, but it’s much more honest about the cost of battle. People die when they are killed, even people who pilot cool robots. A super robot show with a real robot mentality.
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