Weird Wednesday Anime - Genesis Survivor Gaiarth

The other night I went over a friend's house cracked open the Stars Without Number Mongoose edition. Grabbed a glass of soda. Opened up a box of VHS tapes & loaded this old jewel in the VCR. This one has it all for you post apocalyptic types like me.


A.I.s, forgotten technology, hover speeder bikes with transforming capabilities which are A.I. assisted, robotic knights & paladins, mecha dragons straight out of Gamma World, Robotica Magic which uses a basic language command, wild robotic life forms, junk hunters, etc, etc. 

The plot goes something like according to Wiki: 

Stage 1

The story begins with Ital in the care of an aging war-roid named Randis R. Khiezard. Raised from childhood by the machine, he is under the impression that a war is still going on in the world around him. Randis was once part of the imperial forces fighting against the republic, assigned to a distant outpost where he first found Ital. In a skirmish, Randis lost his old human partner and was apparently assumed destroyed. Left at his post, having no contact with the rest of the world, he raised Ital in isolation, and never heard of the end of the war.

Ital, now a teenager, has ambitions of becoming an imperial soldier and fighting the republic like his "father" Randis did. One day after his morning routine, the small outpost—which has become something of a farm in recent times—is attacked by a troop of autosoldiers, robotic assault units used in the war by the republic. These are guided by the beastmaster, an imposing individual atop a massive machine, who challenges Randis and demands to see an individual named Sakuya, of whom Randis has no knowledge. In the ensuing conflict, Randis is destroyed while Ital looks on, helpless to do anything. The beastmaster has his autosoldiers ransack the outpost, then departs, leaving Ital the only survivor of the incident.

A montage follows, in which Ital decides to depart the outpost with the few possessions he has left and track down the beastmaster for revenge. His travels take him across nearly 500 km of terrain before he winds up encountering a group of what he believes are imperial soldiers, hunting down republican units. When one of the supposed soldiers is chasing after an especially fast unit, Ital notices something hidden under the sand ahead of their position. He believes it to be a republican autobase, buried and still capable of attacking. Rushing down to assist the alleged soldier, he throws her from the robotic horse/hover cycle she's on and is consequently swallowed by the autobase as it rises from the sand.

Within the autosoldier, he encounters the warroid known as Zaxon, who has been deactivated. Ital attempts to revive him, only to realize he's attracted autosoldiers living within the autobase with Zaxon's newly-revived energy signature. His power sword, a weapon requiring power to heat the edge, fails him midway through the battle. Ital is saved by Zaxon, who as it turns out was sufficiently reactivated by his efforts.

After doing away with the autosoldiers, Zaxon and Ital destroy the autobase's main generator, then escape. From there, they enter the city of Bangor, where they are arrested for being suspicious individuals. They then encounter a powerful warroid in charge of the city, one Lord Warlock, protector of the people. He seems to recognize Zaxon, but his council protests. Here the viewer learns that Zaxon was the name of an old war hero, who vanished when the conflict came to an end. Zaxon, having no memory of events before Ital reactivated him, cannot confirm or deny Warlock's suspicions. At the very least, they both learn the war ended over a century ago. They are dismissed by Warlock and spend the night in a cell, to be released in the morning.

The next day, Ital and Zaxon run into Sahari, the soldier who Ital rescued from being devoured by the autobase. As it turns out, she and her group are not soldiers at all, but junk hunters, mercenaries of a sort who hunt down autosoldiers and salvage them for parts. She invites Ital to dinner, at which point a fight breaks out when Sahari makes an untoward comment about the cowardice of Bangor's populace. the viewer also learns that the city has been attacked more and more frequently by autosoldiers, whom the residents of Bangor claim to be "mindless beasts", acting on their programming.

When warroid marshals show up to break up the fight, the group is saved by Fayk, a junk hunter with a talent for electronic magic that jams the marshals' programming and allows the others to escape through the sewers. It isn't long, however, before the city of Bangor comes under attack by the beastmaster, and Ital and Zaxon are witnesses to a firefight between the beastmaster and Lord Warlock. Either side makes heavy use of electronic magic, but in the end the beastmaster gains the upper hand, overloading Warlock when he plugs himself into the city to draw energy from all of Bangor's systems.

With Warlock slain, the city is in danger of having its central reactor overloading, a problem only Zaxon can remedy. In his last moments, Warlock passes on his access codes to Zaxon, who enters the central tower and receives all the knowledge kept therein. He then unites with the city and shuts down the reactor. In the ongoing fight outside the tower, Sahari is almost killed by the beastmaster, but saved at the last minute by Zaxon. With Bangor safe, he challenges the beastmaster and seals off access to the city's network so that the beastmaster cannot use the same trick again. He and Ital overpower the beastmaster, then destroy him, although they appear to die as the beastmaster's massive chariot falls from the tower balcony, taking them with it.

When the smoke clears, Bangor's citizens crowd around to see the fate of the heroes. It appears Zaxon had caught Ital in the fall, and both rise from the wreckage, unharmed. The first episode comes to an end as the camera pans back, leaving the viewer to expect a sequel

.  

Genesis Survivor Gaiarth & The OSR 

Genesis Survivor Gaiarth is a great anime for any & I do mean ANY post apocalyptic fantasy setting.  Its mostly forgotten now because there was never a DVD released to the United States but that may have changed. I've only recently rewatched the first episode last night. 
Lots of the technology looks like it came out of Appleseed. The weaponry has that odd anime/Aliens mock up feel to it. This isn't a bad thing at all. The whole anime could fit into Mutant Future or be Mutant Future with no modification what so ever. The last couple of days this has been my vision of both Mutant Future & Metamorphis Alpha.


The world of  this anime is at times more compelling then the anime itself. Time & again I found myself matching stats to stuff on the screen. The junkhunters on speeder bikes hunting down wild robots was for me a scene straight out of a game of  Waste World  that I ran years ago. This whole world could be ported into any post apocalyptic world with the right technology level. Just add mutants & your ready to go.

Stripping Genesis Survivor Gaiarth Bare 

Genesis Survivor Gaiarth has a lot going for it. The anime moves very quickly & doesn't give much time to look through it. Upon a second viewing some things become clear. The waroids as their called are similar to the samuraiods from the graphic novel of the same name. They work with a human partner & are at their best when doing so.
There's also the underlying theme of man becoming or leaving in fear of his creations. This goes back to Frankenstein & even further back. Its also a great excuse for DMs to have the PCs beat the crap out of robots.
Ever wonder what those war robots in Gamma World could be used for besides fodder for your PCs? Well give them the traits of  the paladin class from AD&D then let them go.
Genesis Survivor Gaiarth doesn't have the feel of  a  Heavy Metal magazine series or as dark as something out of  Warren Comics. It does have the vibe to go that way definitely.
 

This is a big world with plenty of opportunity for adventurers. There are also nanite clouds called Ion Clouds that sweep in & drive the local robots into mindless killing machines.
The weather is wild & actually relates to the magic of this world that looks like something out of a Michael Moorcock order style world or more.
 
The world would make a great colony in a Terminal Space Game as well. Something slightly off beat for the characters to visit & adventure on. For a more D&D world add in more from the Visionaries world where the magic is starting to break down & eat the technology. 

Here's a quick action sequence with the original music from the anime. 

For a Stars Without Numbers game this world's technology is on the high side of  four if not better. The wild robots are something that could be swiped for both Carcosa & Mutant Future. They'r hunted for their parts called stones.

The Melee weapons are powered swords & such. They are straight out of  Star Wars but make sense given the robotic life on this world.
 Anyhow this is all from the first episode. You could do worse then to pull a few ideas from this anime.