Dai-Guard: Difference between revisions

 

{{quote|''Office workers saving the world!''}}

 

This is the motto of ''Dai-Guard'', an extremely non-traditional [[Humongous Mecha]] [[Anime]]. Set in [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future|the year 2030]], the show focuses on three employees of the 21st Century Defense Security Corporation, a company that owns a giant robot named Dai-Guard. Dai-Guard was originally built by the military to protect the world against Heterodynes ([[I Thought It Meant|no, not]] [[Girl Genius|those]]), aliens from another dimension that show up to destroy everything they can get their hands on. However, the first and only attack occurred 12 years ago, and when the series starts, Dai-Guard has been retired and is seen as little more than an overblown corporate mascot.

''Dai-Guard'' plays a lot of standard trope arrangements from both ends. It takes a [[Real Robot Genre|Real Robot]] and drops it in alongside the standard [[Monster of the Week|crazy monsters from another dimension]]. It uses [[Power Trio|common character arrangements]], but avoids many anime stand-bys, employing relatively little [[Fan Service]] or [[UST]]. It alternates its focus between the day-to-day "realities" of a company utilizing a giant robot and said giant robot punching things in the face.

 

* [[A House Divided]]: Surprisingly, the Heterodyne are a serious threat for only the first nine episodes... out of ''twenty-six.'' At the end of episode nine, the behavior and weaknesses of the Heterodyne have been figured out, and one gets [[One-Hit Kill|one-shotted]] for the first time in a repeatable fashion... only for Shirota to stab the team in the back and assist in the military's attempt to hijack the operation. It takes four more episodes to iron out the mess, after which they pull off a perfect Heterodyne elimination with ''zero collateral damage...'' only for the [[Pointy-Haired Boss|company executives to screw things up in an even more spectacular manner.]] Four episodes after that, just as they get that ironed out, things go ''international;'' [[Eagle Land]] purposefully interferes with a Heterodyne attack in the hopes of capturing one for study, then spins the resulting near-attack on their spy plane into an attempt to shut down the entire operation. While a Heterodyne is wandering around that can ''freeze entire cities solid.'' This arc only lasts two episodes, as it barely dodges a [[Space Whale Aesop]] about Japanese militarization. Safe to say, the Dai-Guard team spends at least as much time arguing with egotistical authority figures as they do fighting monsters.

* [[And the Adventure Continues...]]: It seems that the Heterodyne will ''never'' stop appearing. Like earthquakes and hurricanes, monster attacks are now a fact of life in 21st century Japan. Now that they've developed the tools, skills, and attitude to handle them, the story is over.

* [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]]: The series is shown in the 1st episode to take place in 2030, with the first Heterodyne appearing in 2018.

 

* [[Christmas Episode]]: One with a decidedly western feel to the holiday.

* [[Daddy's Girl]]: We see in one episode that Ibuki used to be one until [[Dead Little Sister|her father died in the first Heterodyne attack.]] When she realizes her biological father only studied the Heterodyne [[For Science!]], she has a [[Heroic BSOD]] in the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izAdFAkz_MI very next battle]. When she realizes her stepfather's heroism is real, she's one all over again.