Tetsu kurogane komyunikeishon

This series was a pleasant surprise. It tells the story of Haruka a young girl who lives on a devastated Earth which has been overrun by killer robots. Her only companions are five robots: Spike, Trigger, Angela, Cleric and Reeves. In the distant past a war broke out and Haruka's parents put her in a cryogenic chamber for protection. After many years the five robots decided to wake her up but an unfortunate side-effect of the freezing is amnesia so Haruka only has vague memories of the past. Haruka has been awake a year now and occasionally worries about where her parents are. The robots don't want to dash her hopes by saying all life is gone except for her.

Spike plays the part of the bumbling kid-brother. Trigger is a trigger- happy marksman. Angela is an angry, human-hating sword fighter. Reeves is the cook and leader and Cleric is second in command. Angela looks human except for a few seams. Reeves and Spike are humanoid with visible joints and mechanical parts. Cleric and Trigger look like machines.

This show is aimed at younger kids so things are not as scarey as they could be given the setting. The episodes are only fifteen minutes long so generally each episode has to be self-contained. One cute adventure was the trip to the beach. The robots wore swimsuits which was good for a chuckle. The English voice actors did a good job and Julie Maddalena did a fine job as Haruka. I noticed the Japanese version was translated differently. Nothing too significant though. There are a few plot holes but the series is worth watching.

Well, I didn't enjoy this anime too much originally but it did pick up towards the end of the first DVD. And since then, it has been growing on me.

Basically, Haruka has survived a war that bombed the rest of the world to bits. She is cared for by by Spike (the young boy type of robot), Trigger (a bad trigger-happy robot), Cleric (a mentor, the Japanese version calls him "Cleric-sensei"), Angela (a mysterious human-hating warrior) and Reeves (the meanest-looking robot ever to wear a frilly pink apron).

The mysterious warrior Angela is probably the most interesting of the lot, on this show's small scale.

And although the DVD I have says "13 up", there's little I would stop a kid from seeing. Sure, there's some nudity, but in all three cases it's very brief and nothing is shown. Then again, I have only seen the first volume and I have no idea what's in the second or third.