Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01 (1987) audio

Got an old one for you tonight. Yes, I have a ton of flicks to choose from, including some that are on my list - and some of those I have been kind of waiting to see if they’ll hit the already owned circuits instead of needing to rent it. Anyway, today also happens to coincide with Skulls day - a day for Warhammer folks to find out all sorts of a new games and stuff in the pipes- but I’ve already run out of all their movies (all their new stuff tends to be shows), so I can’t on theme that. Since I can’t on theme that, and I am kind of wanting to catch up on all that news before it’s too late in the night, I thought let’s do something a bit shorter. I hadn’t originally thought forty minutes short, by my buddy never saw toinghts flick that’s slightly younger than me, so that’s what we are going to do. Time to put on you most metallic suit and go for a mouthful of title, tonight is Metal Skin Panic MADOX.

Back in my day, we were lucky to get whatever anime we could get. This is both a true statement and a bit of an exaggeration, as by the time I’d garner any level of interest in it the animation from Japan would already be accessible (sort of) through television networks like the SciFi channel’s Saturday morning block (which started the interest) or the classics on Cartoon Network and Toonami. You might wonder what this has to do with anything, but what I’m so obtusely alluding to is that this movies plot is a paper thin series of unfortunate accidents and wackiness that basically feels like a mech-suit filled Mr. Bean goes on a date pitch. Don’t let me seem too harsh on it however, as it does (despite whatever contrivances and misunderstandings need to be forced to make it play out) provide enough to give a main reason for both the main plot - that of a boy trying to reach a girl - and the side plot - a warmongering tank commander who hates the new armored suit that’s made all his toys obsolete. It also manages to do it in 40 minutes, while finding time to dedicate at least a good five minutes to the effect of mechanical detail that would probably get a modern person questioned for autism.

Actors do a decent job, I think. I say I think because I went with what i could find - which is the hard-subtitled version of the flick, providing me with the lack of ability to know what actually was being said. Some of the lines can feel a little over the top - again, I think - while others can feel a bit melodramatic. The reason I largely decided it must be a decent job however is that I think it’s largely intentional. When your plot is largely “Oops, I’m an idiot and got stuck in a war-suit but I really need to go meet up with my maybe girlfriend before she ships off for three years” you kind of expect there to be wacky telenovela level of camp. I feel I totally have heard worse, less enthusiastic or more phoned in performances out of voice actors in the past, but there is stuff out there nowadays that would really blow it out of the water.

Characters aren’t really here for a ton of depth. Enough is there to set up the main story driver for the main character, but outside of that expect a lot of stuff to be pretty simplified and ready to go at mach ten. Our main villain, for example, is basically just a war loving tank commander that wants to blow stuff up - specifically the armored suit the movie is named after. Doesn’t matter if the situation is under control or he’s blowing up public property trying to deal with something on the down low - nah, he has a new tank and he want’s to blow that suit up because it showed him up. Likewise, the main character could literally have asked how to get out of (and gotten out of) the suit a couple of times, but it wouldn’t make for as good a movie (and at 40 minutes cutting it down any further would really knock it out of contention as a movie really) so he’s just to embarrassed - or suddenly it’s his job to kill the tank guy. He handles it well, managing to be a less annoying character than a certain cherished mech show’s main character, but also has less time or presentation to do much of anything besides not be annoying.

So if we aren’t here for the plot, characters, or actors, you may be asking yourself what are we here for? Well, the mech suit if you are me. That’s really all it takes for me to watch something a lot of times - put a giant robot in it, I’ll eventually watch it. Of course, there’s also that 80’s hand animated charm. I won’t say that all the animation is going to be up to the modern audiences quality levels, as it is of it’s time and I feel a lot of anime has it’s own distinctive style that people tend to love or hate. Past that, the people can look a bit goofy proportioned at times, and it isn’t the smoothest all the time even though I think it does a good enough job most the time. Where it will stand out though is pretty much any time it wants to show some neat mechanical thing - like the inner workings of the suit in the intro montage, or the box opening or various things on the suit engaging. It kind of lends to the idea that the passion was never really in the characters or story so much as the person behind it really, really wanted an excuse to nerd out on his powered armor suit and share it with others.

The hardware floating around is pretty decent as well. Has there ever been a type of helicopter that has appeared more in media then the Apache? I think not. We also get a few normal tanks before we get introduced to the metal slug-esque super tank. Said super tank is a bit silly looking, in some shots looking about the size of barely capable of holding more then the crazed commander, who himself is always about half sticking out of it. The mech suits themselves are pretty well done, with plenty of details. It also comes with well enough accessories in the armament department that I wouldn’t be surprised to hear there was some action figures or model kits made of this bad boy. The test model also looks similar yet different enough to feel unique which is a nice touch compared to the easy way out of just making the identical. Of course, the somewhat mixed attitude of the locals rarely flickering between “oh my lord what is that” to the way more common “just another sunday” is a bit comedic - like this secret project is something already see all the time.

There is some comedy there, I’d say mostly slapstick in style. I guess situational would fit as well. Audio is balance fine, although I’m not as worried about if I can hear the line when I have to read it to understand it anyway. Music is here, and in typical me fashion largely gone by the time it leaves the scene. It has your classic emotional melo-drama type music for the flashbacks, and some fun stuff for most the other scenes. The movie is short enough that it doesn’t have a lot of variety that I can remember at least, but what’s there doesn’t but me the slightest. When it comes to thinking, I think the movie might be more geared towards gear-heads then it is philosophers. Pushing that, I guess we could find some stuff about choice, relationships, and the importance of reading the full manual for heavy machinery before trying to operate it.

It’s short and has fun with its time while trying to fit in a story. If it was a full length movie that accomplished only as much as it did, then it might feel a bit more insulting, but as it is it feels like a fun time. You get some comedy, you get plenty of mechanical goodness, and you get some classic animation stylings to watch. The characters can be stupid and crazy, but they aren’t really annoying and preventing you from enjoying the action on screen. It’s one of those free-to-watch with ads movies on Prime (and I feel like it has been forever), so if you already pay for it i can think of worse ways to spend forty minutes.

@IMDB