Dai-Guard
A Parent's Guide to Anime
Rated: PG
Parental Guidance Advised
Reviewed by Derrick J.:
Think Evangelion with a positive, upbeat shine. Instead of despairing, hating children, imagine 20-somethings who want to help. Dai-Guard is about 3 office workers who are trained to pilot Dai-Guard as a public relations stunt and then are called upon to fight in it against other-dimensional invaders. Funny, lighthearted, encouraging. I loved it and highly recommend it.
Additional review by Daniel:
[This is a review of the dubbed version.]
In the year 2018, there was a sudden attack by a race of evil alien beings called the Heterodyne. This attack resulted in much damage to the surrounding area. To wage a counterattack against the Heterodyne, the government developed a giant robot called Dai-Guard. When Dai-Guard was completed, however, the aliens mysteriously vanished. Twelve years have passed, and Dai-Guard has become nothing more than a marketing gimmick. However, the Heterodyne come back for Round 2, and three average civilian workers must pilot Dai-Guard in order to combat this new alien threat.
Dai-Guard, in my opinion, is an excellent anime series. The animation is detailed and well-done, and the US voices really fit the characters. The music is good, but nothing too remarkable. I also enjoyed the very gripping and exciting plot that the series presented. It had me hooked through the entire 26 episodes, nonstop (it even makes me wish it was longer!)
All in all, Dai-Guard is a very good (albeit underrated) anime series that is suitable for many families.
Parent's Guide Rating:
yellow (parental guidance advised)
Violence - Typical for a giant robot show. Dai-Guard gets banged up, enemies are destroyed (enemies being mindless creatures called Heterodynes) and lots of buildings get crushed when Dai-Guard falls over (which happens alot).
Sex\nudity - None. As far as I can remember. Even romance is only hinted at.
Profanity - A couple of D*s and H*s when things aren't going right. But that is it.
Discussion: The biggest thing that I noticed was that these characters were fighting FOR something, not just because they had too. Akagi (the number 1 pilot of Dai-Guard) typifies this; he is always reminding the others that they are fighting for the people and the lives that they live. A real look at selflessness and true heroicism.
Additional comments by Daniel:
Violence: There isn't too much of this throughout the series. While there is combat, mostly between Dai-Guard and the aliens, nothing graphic or disturbing is shown in combat. There is some blood shown, but none is shown in conflict. In one of the later episodes, there is damage done to a certain location in Japan, and there are wounded people shown in one particular scene. Again, nothing graphic shown here, but please use discretion.
Nudity No nudity or intercourse is shown in this series, and there is no innuendo (at least that I'm aware of).
Language There is some coarse language used in this series (d-word, h-word, ba-word), but it is used relatively infrequently.
To sum it up, I would recommend this series to the age group mentioned on the back cover of the domestic DVD: 12 and up.