Detonator Orgun

Detonator Orgun

Cover of English Detonator Orgun DVD
デトネイター・オーガン
(Detoneitā Ōgan)
Genre Adventure, Mecha
Original video animation
Directed by Masami Ōbari
Produced by Noburo Ishida
Satoshi Koizumi
Takanori Yaegaki
Written by Kia Asamiya
Hideki Kakinuma
Music by Susumu Hirasawa
Studio Anime International Company, Artmic
Licensed by
Released August 25, 1991 – August 25, 1993
Runtime 48 to 56 minutes per episode
Episodes 3
Light novel
Written by Hideki Kakinuma
Published by Kadokawa Shoten
Imprint Sneaker Bunko
Original run August 1991 – March 1992
Volumes 3

Detonator Orgun (Japanese: デトネイター・オーガン Hepburn: Detoneitā Ōgan) is a 1991 Japanese original video animation series by AIC and Artmic, directed by Masami Ōbari. It was released on DVD by Central Park Media in the United States in 2001.

Plot

Part 1 - Birth

Tomoru Shindo is a college student in City 5. Only months away from graduating, he cannot decide what he wants to do with his life. He ponders joining the Earth Defense Force (EDF). Tomoru begins having strange dreams where he is protecting a woman from mecha monsters. He also dreams about a mecha named Orgun fleeing from other mechas. They attack Orgun on the moon and are destroyed.

The supercomputer I-ZACK informs a professor, Kanzaki, that it is receiving signals from the moon. A meteor enters the Earth's atmosphere and is headed for City 5, when it suddenly changes course and splashes down in the ocean. The Earth Defense Force deploys a squadron of "bird-man" aircraft to investigate. The EDF bird-men engage the object, a hostile mecha, but cannot defeat it.

Without fully understanding the process, Kanzaki and I-ZACK have rebuilt Orgun's body, which wakes up and breaks out of its underground lab. Tomoru and Professor Kanzaki try to get to a vantage point to see the alien attacker, which targets them. The situation turns into a replica of one of Tomoru's dreams. Orgun shows up and invites Tomoru to fight. He takes the offer, joins with the mecha and defeats the invader, as well as a second one that has appeared.

After the battle Tomoru is released from the mecha. He has gained alien memories from the experience, saying the mecha's name is Orgun and that he has travelled 260 million years to get to Earth. Orgun is of the same race as the invaders, a species known as the Evoluders.

Part 2 - Pursuit

The EDF builds replicas of Orgun to defend Earth. It is revealed that the Evoluder are descendants of a space probe launched 200 years in the past. Due to the effects of special relativity, they have experienced millions of years of dilated time. The harshness of space has evolved them into half-human, half-machine hybrids. Some of the Evoluder have humans linked to them such as the oracle Kumi Jefferson with the Evoluder leader Mhiku, and Tomoru Shindo with the rebel Orgun.

Part 3 - Showdown

The Evoluders attack Earth. They are eventually repelled by the EDF and Orgun. Zoa, the Evoluder military commander, ignores the orders of Mhiku, whom he has installed as a puppet regent, and personally joins the fight. He fires the main anti-matter cannon, but Orgun stops it with his Grand Cross attack, which requires sunlight. Orgun dies in the process, while Tomoru survives. Zoa is killed and Mhiku resumes ruling the Evoluders, who peacefully leave Earth. Tomoru and Kanzaki walk off into the sunset.

Characters

Music

Detonator Orgun 1
ORIGINAL VIDEO ANIME SOUNDTRACK
Soundtrack album by Susumu Hirasawa
Released July 25, 1991
Genre Film score
Electronic, Progressive rock, Symphonic rock, Ambient, World music, Experimental
Label Pioneer LDC, Polydor K.K.
Susumu Hirasawa soundtrack chronology

Detonator Orgun 1
(1991)		 Detonator Orgun 2
(1991)
Detonator Orgun 2
ORIGINAL VIDEO ANIME SOUNDTRACK
Soundtrack album by Susumu Hirasawa
Released October 25, 1991
Genre Film score
Electronic, Progressive rock, Symphonic rock, Ambient, World music, Experimental
Label Pioneer LDC, Polydor K.K.
Susumu Hirasawa soundtrack chronology

Detonator Orgun 1
(1991)		 Detonator Orgun 2
(1991)		 Detonator Orgun 3
(1992)
Detonator Orgun 3
ORIGINAL VIDEO ANIME SOUNDTRACK
Soundtrack album by Susumu Hirasawa
Released March 25, 1992
Genre Film score
Electronic, Progressive rock, Symphonic rock, Ambient, World music, Experimental
Label Pioneer LDC, Polydor K.K.
Susumu Hirasawa soundtrack chronology

Detonator Orgun 2
(1991)		 Detonator Orgun 3
(1992)		 Glory Wars
(1993)

Susumu Hirasawa composed the music for all three episodes of the OVA, using a mixture of electronic and symphonic sounds, creating a broad range of music styles that Hirasawa would use for later soundtrack works. At the time the soundtrack was made, anime and movie soundtracks were considered only as enhancements and not as standalone works, and Hirasawa made the soundtrack considering it as "a job" and "entertainment"; he used an epic tone with dramatic exaggeration.[1] Hirasawa eventually got tired of Detonator Orgun, and considers Detonator Orgun 3 to be the worst album of his solo career, although he also considers the experience helpful in making the music for the BERSERK series.[2] The soundtracks were remastered by Masanori Chinzei and re-released on the HALDYN DOME box set on 29 February 2012; due to the soundtracks using tracks that were included in other albums ("DETONATOR ORGUN", which is present in all three soundtracks, "Venus" & "Root of Spirit" from Water in Time and Space, "Clear Mountain Top" from Virtual Rabbit and "Bandiria Travellers [Physical Navigation Version]", which was included in the same disc that housed Water in Time and Space), they had these removed from the box set to avoid duplication; the first two soundtracks were placed in Disc 8, and the third was placed in Disc 9 with the Glory Wars image album (which was based on a manga made by Detonator Orgun writer Hideki Kakinuma, who request Hirasawa to make it).

"DETONATOR ORGUN" was re-released on the compilation Music For Movies～World of Susumu Hirasawa Soundtracks, the track "YOHKO Mitsurugi" was remade by Hirasawa using the lyrics of the song "FROZEN BEACH" (from the SCUBA album) as "Frozen Beach'94", this version of the song was played in Hirasawa's shows in 1994; a different version of this arrangement, simply titled "FROZEN BEACH", was released a year later on the SCUBA RECYCLE album. "LEAVE" uses some themes from "A Tree of Sun" (from the Virtual Rabbit album), "SUNSET" is an instrumental arrangement of "Bandiria Travellers". "Water in Time and Space (Full Size)" is an extended version of "Water in Time and Space" (from Water in Time and Space), "CLIMAX" uses some themes from "DETONATOR ORGUN".

All songs written and composed by Susumu Hirasawa, except "Bandiria Travellers" by Hirasawa and string & choral arrangement by Hirasawa & Kayo Matsumoto. 

Detonator Orgun 1
No. Title Length
1. "DETONATOR ORGUN"    
2. "KUMI Jefferson"    
3. "E.D.F."    
4. "YOHKO Mitsurugi"    
5. "EVOLUDERS"    
6. "City-No.5"    
7. "MICHI Kanzaki"    
8. "P.A.S.F.U."    
9. "PROPAGANDA of E.D.F."    
10. "MUSEUM"    
11. "FÜHRER MEEK"    
12. "Bandiria Travellers (バンディリア旅行団 Bandiria Ryōkōdan) (Physical Navigation Version)"    

All songs written and composed by Susumu Hirasawa, except "SUNSET" by Hirasawa and string arrangement by Hirasawa & Kayo Matsumoto. 

Detonator Orgun 2
No. Title Length
1. "SUNRISE"    
2. "Clear Mountain Top (山頂晴れて Sanchō Harete)"    
3. "DETONATOR ORGUN"    
4. "LEAVE"    
5. "NIGHTMARE"    
6. "TERROR"    
7. "YOHKO & TOMORU"    
8. "ORGUN & TOMORU"    
9. "Venus (金星 Kinsei)"    
10. "LUNGE"    
11. "SUNSET"    

All songs written and composed by Susumu Hirasawa, except "Root of Spirit" by Hirasawa with string arrangement by Jun Miyake and titling by Toshiaki Minejima. 

Detonator Orgun 3
No. Title Length
1. "DETONATOR ORGUN"    
2. "PROPAGANDA of E.D.F. II"    
3. "DREAM QUEST"    
4. "DUAL MIND"    
5. "TOMORU & MICHI"    
6. "Water in Time in Space (時空の水 Jikū no Mizu) (Full Size)"    
7. "ZORMA"    
8. "SPACE FORCE"    
9. "CLIMAX"    
10. "HOPE"    
11. "Root of Spirit (魂のふる里 Tamashii no Furusato)"    

Personnel

Reception

Helen McCarthy in 500 Essential Anime Movies called the anime an "intriguingly fresh take on the traditions of giant robot shows", noting that three "hour-long episodes allow plenty of time to develop concepts and characters".[3]

References

  1. ↑ HALDYN DOME Disc 08 summary
  2. ↑ "RocketBaby's interview w/Susumu Hirasawa". RocketBaby. Neo Cosmic Industries. Retrieved 3 March 2001.
  3. ↑ McCarthy, Helen. 500 Essential Anime Movies: The Ultimate Guide. — Harper Design, 2009. — P. 55. — 528 p. — ISBN 978-0061474507

External links