Julien Neaves, Editor
Plot: A mechanic stumbles across Slave Trooper MADOX-01, a heavy powered armour suit designed to fight tanks. When he accidentally gets stuck in the suit, he has to fight off the military forces seeking to reclaim it while trying to make an important date with his girlfriend.
Review: Free streaming service Tubi has an anime selection, but it is quite limited (at least my geographical region). But within the meager pickings I was able to discover a gem, 1987 mecha OVA Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01 which was the directorial debut of Shinji Aramiki (Appleseed, Bladerunner: Black Lotus). I have often gushed about the quality of the animation from anime during this era, but the detail work here is simply incredible. The opening sequence where the MADOX-01 lays waste to a tank unit was exhilarating and had me pumped for what came next.
But don’t be fooled by the heavy action in the beginning, as this OVA is more of a Sci Fi comedy with some action and romance thrown in for good measure. The comedy aspects come from the protagonist Kōji and his fish-out-of-water misadventures causing chaos throughout the city as he tries to figure out the suit and runs from the military. He’s a likeable guy and his passion for his girlfriend Shiori is sweet.
Even better than Kōji is Eriko “Ellie” Kusumoto, the no-nonsense, tough-as-nails female test ace pilot and lead software developer for the MADOX project. First Lt. Kilgore, a trigger happy and vengeful elite tank driver, also makes for an entertaining bad guy.
As mentioned above, there’s not a lot of action here but the few battle sequences we do get are well done. And at just 41 minutes, the OVA makes for a breezy watch. So, if you’re looking for a cool retro anime with an offbeat sense of humour then don’t panic! Just watch Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01.
Editor Jules’ Score: 7 out of 10
Are you a fan of Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01? And you can check out more retro anime reviews from Robot Mango Reviews below:
Julien “Editor Jules” Neaves is a TARDIS-flying, Force-using Trekkie whose bedroom stories were by the Cryptkeeper, learned to be a superhero from Marvel, but dreams of being Batman. I love promoting Caribbean film (Cariwood), creating board games and I am an aspiring author. I say things like “13 flavours of awesome sauce”. Read more.