Ask John: What’s John’s Opinion of Dinagiga?

Question:
Do you have any thoughts Super Mobile Legend Dinagiga? It seemed like the only goal for this OVA was to create and show off a gorgeous opening animation sequence. Its two episodes were rushed and incomplete, and the OP seemed a bit out of place given the shabbiness of the rest of the production. Are there any other examples of an OVA series where the focus was less on the content of the show and instead focused elsewhere?

Answer:
Among the relatively few people that are familiar with the 1998 Chou Kidou Densetsu Dinagiga OVA series, I think that yours is the prevailing opinion. I’ve watched the series twice, and I even own both episodes on original Japanese VHS cassettes (which I acquired pre-owned, at a tremendous discount, at a shop in Tokyo several years ago.) While I can’t defend the series as suffering from unjustified criticism, I’ve personally never thought that it’s quite as bad as the common sentiment. I like the show’s character designs by Atsuko Nakajima, and I think that the series succeeds reasonably well at being a hybrid of Evangelion and the first episode of Gunbuster. I’ll admit that Dinagiga is not particularly outstanding nor memorable, but it’s certainly not the only OVA title that deserves that criticism. In fact, compared to numerous other OVAs I can think of, Dinagiga deserves some small amount of respect for at least being an original franchise.

Countless OVA spin-offs from video games seem to be equally compromised, or of even lower production quality. OVA titles including Eien no Aseria, Growlanser IV, Haru no Ashioto, Kingdom of Chaos, Mars of Destruction, Spectral Force, Skelter Heaven, and Generation of Chaos seem to exist for no reason other than to draw attention to their originating computer games. These OVAs have virtually no story or character development, minimal production values, and seemingly no point or purpose.

While the primary purpose of any anime should be to entertain viewers, there are other OVAs that seem to exist for entirely different purposes. The widely panned Space Travelers the Animation OVA from 2000 was seemingly created primarily to buoy the release of the higher profile live action Space Travelers movie. The three Kujibiki Unbalance OVAs serve as a unique background for the Genshiken manga and anime, but don’t provide very involving or entertaining viewing on their own. The 2000 Angel Sanctuary OVA commemorated the conclusion of Kaori Yuki’s manga, but otherwise left even die-hard Angel Sanctuary fans feeling a bit unsatisfied.

Speaking of OVAs concentrated on a goal aside from merely entertaining viewers, it’s coincidental that just a few days ago the Japanese government released its “Megumi” OVA designed to generate awareness of a political situation. And while they’re theatrical movies rather than OVAs, anime titles like The Golden Laws are designed to promote a specific religious theology.

Ultimately, not every anime OVA is good, but it’s the variety of anime OVAs that contributes to the spectrum of diversity that makes anime so interesting.