FIF#244-Gad Guard

In the future, Earth resources have almost totally run out and Humanity is in a state of stagnation.  Hajiki Sanada is a child of the new world, barely making ends meet with his family in one of the lowest dumps of Unit 74.  Everything changes when a delivery gone awry causes Hajiki to end up with a special piece of tech called a GAD.  In an instant, a new breed of robot, the Iron Giant, is born.  Now Hajiki is being targeted by everyone wanting to get their hands on this mech.  Luckily, he’s not the only one with a Robot like this and soon Hajiki finds the world around him changing as fast as his ever evolving mecha.

 
Today’s FIF entry comes as a request from a friend and we’re heading back to the early 2000s where Digipaint Anime reigned supreme.  Not only that but Gad Guard feels like a series trying to sort out a bit of an identity crisis.  It’s scifi/mecha/dystopia for sure but the more I watched the first episode the more I found it was trying to do a lot with its first 23 minutes of run time.  In fact, to me, there’s a lot going on but none of it is interesting.  Hopefully my friendship with this friend remains intact after this one.
 
I always go back and forth on Digipaint Anime.  Some look better than others but I still feel like this was a rough period for Anime trying to move into the new millenium while abandoning the animation techniques that made it such a high quality medium in the first place.  Gad Guard doesn’t look visually all that appealing.  Even for a dystopian Anime set in the far future, the abundance of faded colors stands out in the wrong way.  Also I cant look at Hajiki and just think he’s a rejected lead from a Yu-Gi-Oh or Medabots spin off.  He’s a pretty dull protagonist, generically drawn and lacking any kind of likeability right out of the gate.  Honestly, giving him a giant robot with Darling in the Franxx eyes isnt helping him become any more interesting either.
 
But yeah there’s a lot going on in the first episode that it feels as jumbled together as the junk the Gad used to form Hajiki’s Iron Giant.  You’ve got delivery kids on various modes of transportation trying to make Scooters, Skateboards and Roller Blades all a fad at the same time.  There’s Gangsters who think their the hottest stuff with equally sleezy women.  There’s a class divide that probably should have been explained a bit along with how the world is the way it is.  And to top it all off, there’s an emo rival dude who isnt menacing enough due to his default brood set.  Like I said, it’s all over the place what this show wants to be when it feels like its throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks.  Not to mention there’s the soundtrack that really wants to be the next Cowboy Bebop from the amount of saxophone used in the OP and various scenes in the premiere.  This bare bones dystopia doesn’t deserve such awesome tuneage.
 
Even though we only get a glimpse at the Iron Giant in action swatting Emo Guy away, I’m not too keen to see what it can do.  Gad Guard doesn’t look visually great, the world and protagonist are dull and the mish mash of ideas and genres are pretty much a turn off for me.  As far as early 2000s Digipaint offerings go, there’s better to choose from like Full Metal Panic of Hellsing, especially the latter with its better visuals and hauntingly groovy score.