Generator Gawl

Original Title: ジェネレイター ガウル
Romanized: Jenereitaa Gauru
Literal: Generator Gawl

Plot Synopsis

In the near future, in a quiet college town constructed as an experimental educational institution for the best and brightest, three young men appear from the future--two intelligent ones and a rather unruly fellow named Gawl. They don't seem to be much more than three new students, but the three of them aren't really there for an education--their mission is far more important than anyone in the world could know. But one classmate, the daughter of their landlady, is determined to find out what those three suspicious and studly fellows are up to!

Quick Review

Rating: 3.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2005-11-12

Generator Gawl has retread sci-fi action written all over the premise, but the series is solidly produced and the tale strikes a good balance of light banter, humorous attempts by the heroes at fitting in with normal folk, darker drama, and plot meted out as implications and hints. It starts strong and carries through smoothly, managing to be enjoyable, dramatic, and engaging from start to finish both as a mystery and a nice-looking action show.

It's not terribly deep, and not wildly original, but it is creative and solid enough that I'd recommend giving it a shot to anybody who enjoys a relatively light drama/action sci-fi yarn.

US DVD Review

ADV's DVDs (originally four individual volumes, later a 4-disc set of the same material) are basic but solid productions; the video is very sharp, the audio is crisp, and the subtitles are accurate, although the subtitles on the theme songs are hard coded for some reason (at least each disc does have the themes with translations, transcribed Japanese lyrics, and no subtitles at all alternating between episodes). There aren't a whole lot of special features--just some character sketches--but the menus are attractive and as with other ADV releases include clips of the soundtrack.

There are also a couple of other new-at-the-time things that set the stage for later ADV releases: On the down side, the preview trailers automatically come on when you put in the disc, which is annoying but can be skipped. On the positive side, they finally got the cast thing right--the credits list both English and Japanese casts, without any silly alternate angles or hoops to jump through.

Content Guide

Not terribly objectionable, but a bit of mildly raunchy humor and some violence account for ADV's 12-up rating.

Violence: 3 - Some big bad creatures killed and a few brutal scenes, but it's not very graphic.

Nudity: 1 - Nothing of note.

Sex/Mature Themes: 1 - Just some "pervert" allegations and a couple of mildly gross jokes, plus some innuendo.

Language: 2 - Some mild swearing in the subtitles.

Notes and Trivia

The only even mildly noteworthy thing about Generator Gawl is that it isn't based on a comic series, having gone straight to TV.

Availability

Available in the US from ADV Films on a 4-disc Perfect Collection of hybrid DVDs. Was originally available on four individual DVD volumes, as well as four subtitled or dubbed VHS volumes.

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