Brain Powerd
A battle to save Earth from an alien spacecraft's revival.
Brain Powerd is a Japanese anime television series produced by Sunrise and directed by Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino. It features mecha designs by Mamoru Nagano, character designs by Mutsumi Inomata, and music by Yoko Kanno. The 26-episode series originally aired on the satellite channel WOWOW between April and November 1998.
Quick Facts
- Creator
- Hajime Yatate, Yoshiyuki Tomino
Facts from the source article.
Plot
Brain Powerd is set in a future Earth afflicted by earthquakes and floods traced to a gargantuan alien spacecraft called Orphan, deep beneath the Pacific Ocean. Scientists Kensaku Isami and Midori Isami work within Orphan to uncover its knowledge and reach the surface, which would annihilate all life. Their agents, the Reclaimers, pilot organic mechas called Antibodies in the army Grand Cher to retrieve Orphan's disc plates. She joins the battleship Novis Noah to counter Orphan, soon joined by ex-Reclaimer Yu Isami.
Production
Brain Powerd was produced by Sunrise and directed and written by Yoshiyuki Tomino, creator of the Gundam franchise. It is often compared to Gainax's Neon Genesis Evangelion for similar themes. Tomino was enthusiastic about his first attempt at organic mecha instead of metallic robots. He wanted an interesting story so viewers could watch without a nervous breakdown and to show fans that there were often other things better than anime. He wished more animators saw themselves as entertainers but felt Brain Powerd was not very entertaining and thus a failure. Tomino was joined by a team of writers under the pseudonym Hajime Yatate. Character designer Mutsumi Inomata worked on The Weathering Continent and Windaria. Mecha designer Mamoru Nagano, who worked on Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, designed for The Five Star Stories and Heavy Metal L-Gaim. Composer Yoko Kanno, known for Macross Plus and The Vision of Escaflowne, described Tomino as not detailed at all and concerned with human age in music. The opening theme In My Dream was by Eri Shingyōji; the ending theme was composed by Kanno with lyrics by Rin Iogi and performed by Kokia.
Media
The 26-episode Brain Powerd anime aired on WOWOW from April 8 to November 11, 1998, and later on Animax and the Bandai Channel. Bandai released the series on DVD as the Brain Powerd Perfect Box in two halves on June 25, 1999, and September 25, 1999. Seven individual DVDs were released from July 25 to September 25, 2002, and a remastered box set on August 24, 2007. The entire series was released as Emotion the Best: Brain Powerd on April 7, 2011. The English dub premiered on Animax in South Asia and Southeast Asia. Bandai Entertainment acquired North American rights in late 2000, releasing only a few episodes on VHS as test marketing; the original opening sequence with nude women was redone for that release. Three bilingual DVD sets totaling all episodes were released from May 21 to September 24, 2002, with the unedited opening restored. A manga prelude by Tomino and Yukiru Sugisaki was serialized in Shōnen Ace from January 1998, with four collections released from May 27, 1998, to January 29, 2001. Tokyopop published the English version as Brain Powered from June 17, 2003, to January 6, 2004, replacing color pages with monochrome; it went out of print by May 2, 2005. Three light novels by Tomino and Akemi Mende were published by Kadokawa Haruki Corporation.
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