Manga Entertainment, 1994 (UK release)

Running time: 72 Minutes, PAL VHS

Plot: Mia Alice, Lamba Nom, Rol Kran and Pai Thunder are four psychic warriors who are brought together by the Mysterious Doctor Tarsan to form the combat unit Dangaioh. Their mission is to prevent the evil General Garimoth from taking control of the galaxy.

Pretty standard anime fare, then.

Animation: The general character design won't win any awards, but the Mecha design is nothing short of stunning. Each robot has a very high level of detail. The animation can be choppy at times, but on the whole this is pretty competent, if a little uninspiring. The fight scenes are good, but not great. The finalie is also a little flat. If a few more battle scenes had been thrown in, things would have been a lot more interesting.

Sound: The dub is awful. The fights scenes are full of over the top shouting, and it sure does make you cringe. There's also the token needless swearing, which almost every Manga Video dub has. I'm not sure if a subtitled version has been released in the West, but I'm in no doubt that it'd be much better than this.

The music is average - the theme tune is pretty dire, but the soundtrack score does its job fairly well.

Summary: "Average" describes Dangaioh well. There is nothing here that hasn't been done before, in fact, it's all been done a lot better. Although the Mecha design and fight scenes are passable, the terrible western dialogue and dire dub mean that a lot of the impact is lost. I can't really recommend this over other Mecha classics, but if you're a robot nut, it might be worth picking up, even if it's just for the mecha design.

2 out of 5