Гигант Робо: День, когда Земля остановилась

Japanese OVA series

Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still (ジャイアント・ロボ 地球が静止する日) is a 1992–1998 OVA series based on Mitsuteru Yokoyama's manga series Giant Robo. It was written and directed by Yasuhiro Imagawa. Giant Robo is a homage to Yokoyama's career. The series features characters and plotlines from the manga artist's entire canon of work, effectively creating an all new story. The events take place in the near future, 10 years after the advent of the Shizuma Drive triggers the third energy revolution. The series follows the master of the titular Robo, Daisaku Kusama, and the Experts of Justice, an international police organization locked in battle with the BF Group, a secret society hell bent on world domination. The OVA is recognized for its "retro" style and operatic score. The character designs emulate Yokoyama's drawing style and the action setpieces are influenced by Hong Kong action cinema. The first installment of the series, "The Black Attaché Case", was released on July 22, 1992. Originally intended to finish within 36 months, the seven volume series was ultimately released over the span of six years. "The Grand Finale" was released on January 25, 1998. The OVA has since been translated into English, Cantonese, Dutch, French, Italian, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish.

The series takes place in a retro futuristic setting, where the Shizuma Drive ends the depletion of petroleum resources and the need for nuclear power. The system is a non polluting recyclable energy source that powers everything on land, sea and air. Ten years prior to the events of the series a team of scientists, led by Professor Shizuma, created the revolutionary system. In the process they nearly destroyed the world and one of their own, Franken von Vogler, was lost in the event that went down in history as the "Tragedy of Bashtarle." At the start of Giant Robo, the BF Group is in the middle of recreating the event with aid from the resurfaced von Vogler. The story explores a society completely brought down, within the span of one week, because of dependency on a single energy source and a state of prosperity tainted by compromise and deceit. The BF Group (BF団) is the main antagonist of the series. Their origin is unknown, but not so their reason to be: The leaders of the world acknowledged Big Fire as a threat to world security and signed the charter creating the IPO. The IPO's methods are information and espionage, looking to bring down the BF Group rather than defeating them in an all out war. However, to counter Big Fire's superhuman elements, "Experts" are recruited and granted special international jurisdiction. The agents assembled are known as the Experts of Justice (正義のエキスパート). Working with the Experts from the Peking Branch is Daisaku Kusama. While he does not possess any special powers, Daisaku is the one and only master of Giant Robo. Constructed by Daisaku's father, Giant Robo is the IPO's trump card against Big Fire.

In 1990, producer Yasuhito Yamaki approached Yasuhiro Imagawa about working on an animated version of the Giant Robo manga. Imagawa, a self proclaimed fan of Yokoyama's work, jumped at the chance of working on the project. The Giant Robo manga had started in 1967 and had never been adapted into animation before. It had a live action adaptation that premiered on TV Asahi in 1967–68. In pre production, Imagawa was informed he could not use any of the supporting characters from the manga or live action versions. The Giant Robo OVA still follows Daisaku and Robo, and the main antagonist is still called "Big Fire," but it features an all new storyline with a completely different cast of characters. The first episode was released July 22, 1992 with the following three installments staying close to the proposed schedule of six months between releases. Barefoot GinRei (素足のGinRei) is a humorous take on GinRei's job as a spy for the IPO. Mighty GinRei (鉄腕GinRei), a send up of super robot series, features Ken Ishikawa as guest mech designer. A third OVA, GinRei with Blue Eyes (青い瞳の銀鈴), was released after Volume 5 of Giant Robo. The final episode was released January 1998, almost three years after episode six. In between releases, members of the Giant Robo staff worked on other projects, including The Big O, Getter Robo Armageddon, and Super Atragon, a two episode OVA of Shunro Oshikawa's Kaitei Gunkan novel. Imagawa intended The Day the Earth Stood Still to be the second to final chapter in the conflict between the Experts of Justice and Big Fire. The OVA would be preceded by The Birth of Zangetsu the Midday, The Plan to Assassinate Daisaku the Canary Penitentiary, The Boy of Three Days, The Greatest Battle in History General Kanshin vs. Shokatsu Koumei and The Boy Detective, Kindaichi Shōtarō, Appears! The final chapter is titled The Siege of Babel. No further stories have been animated.