Sheesh, just when I was getting over the crazy mess of SHIN GETTER ROBO, I walked into a Japanese video store and found these videos sitting around. Being a 1970s mecha kid in a Y2K body, I freaked out immediately. And I really went nuts at the end of each video, but more on that later.

The prologue of the first video showcases the original Getter Robo team taking on an army of monsters in the ruins of New York. Seeing his friends are about to be overrun, Musashi in Getter 3 (who's died so many times, I'm about to start calling him Kenny), rips out the Getter reactor from his mecha and crushes it, resulting in... anyone remember the opening scene from AKIRA?

Fast forward to several years later, when lead Getter pilot Gou is wrestling people in open matches. One of his opponents turns out to be much more than human and mutates into a huge monster. Fortunately, former lead pilot Hayato Jin arrives with the Neo Getter machines and his comrades in tow and the battle begins.

Volume 2 opens with the Neo Getter team in training maneuvers. They soon get a call from their friends in America who pilot Texas Mack (or as I like to call it, The Mech With No Name), a gun-slinging super-robot complete with cowboy hat and poncho. They're suddenly called to Washington D.C. to deal with a massive meteor shower, as well as the monster of the day. Neo Getter Robo arrives to help, but there's also the matter of the orbiting satellite launching the meteors, to which Texas Mack responds: "No problem!"

In the third installment, the monsters attack our heroes' headquarters, using their own Getter mechs. In the confusion Gou and Hayato end up separated from the team, but find a powerful weapon deep within the base: Shin Getter Robo.

This is fortunate because in the final episode, the monsters send their mothership to start wiping out cities (much like ID4) and our heroes take the Shin Getter Robo into combat while Ryoma takes a Neo Getter fighter to confront the enemy personally. The highlights of this climactic battle are the appearance of Texas Mack (whose method of transport is an absolute must see) and the way Shin Getter defeats his enemy. I've never seen any Nagai Go mecha do what the Shin Getter Robo does in this episode.

Now at this point, you're probably wondering what's the meaning to the title. I'm sorry, but this series seems to follow in the tradition of old Nagai mech shows in which the main fight is advertised, but never happens. (The only exception I know of is UFO ROBO GRANDIZER VS. GREAT MAZINGER.)

Well, there was MAZINGER Z VS. BLACK GENERAL, which the makers of this series seem to have liked, because at the end of each SGR/NGR segment is a series of two-minute shorts re-animating the climactic battle where Mazinger Z gets trashed and Great Mazinger appears to rescue him. However, in this version, the rescue is shared by Getter Robo G, Steel Jeeg, Psycho Armor Gobarion, God Mazinger and a couple others I didn't recognize. Watching these shorts reminded me of the aforementioned featurettes made to advertise the mechs for toy sales and upcoming series. Are the animators dropping hints for us?

It might explain the drive behind SHIN GETTER ROBO VS. NEO GETTER ROBO, which doesn't really seem to add much to the current GETTER ROBO series. The videos are pretty episodic, even though there's a master villain behind everything. The general feel of the series is much more fast and loose than the broodingly dark SHIN GETTER ROBO. SHIN GETTER ROBO VS. NEO GETTER ROBO plays out more like its 70s predecessors, and it seems to be a transition series for another project.

As for the animation, the mecha animation works well by using generally fluid scenes, similar to SHIN GETTER ROBO. However, the character animation bothered me a bit. The movements weren't quite as animated as SHIN GETTER ROBO (not that those had a high frame rate anyway.) I know they're trying for an old school feel, but compared to the combination of 70s and 90s techniques used in say, GIANT ROBO, these feel a bit cheap. Also, there is a noticeable drop in art quality with volume 3, one that affects even the subsequent short. I guess the sponsors were tightening their belts or something.

All in all though, this hasn't totally soured my experience with SHIN GETTER ROBO VS. NEO GETTER ROBO. I've had fun watching a show that doesn't require as much brainpower as some of my favorite anime. The supermech genre, which had mostly gone dormant in the 90s, seems to be reawakening, and I'm looking forward to being a kid again.