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In the final months of the devastating Hundred Year War between the Gilgamesh and Balarant galactic confederacies, unyielding soldier Chirico Cuvie is transferred into an elite motorized battalion of specialized infantry. Unbeknownst to the front-line troops, the shadowy military intelligence operative Yoran Pailsen has marked Chirico and four fellow soldiers as abnormal survivors who possess supernatural invulnerability to death. Deployed across frozen Arctic planetary battlegrounds into grueling suicide missions, Chirico pilots his mass-produced Scopedog mecha through brutal artillery barrages, fighting to survive while exposing the dark psychological experiments manipulating infantrymen as expendable pawns.
⚠ Background — may contain spoilers
The Answer Studio and Sunrise produced this gritty 118-minute military science-fiction feature film, released in Japanese theaters in January 2009. Directed by franchise creator Ryosuke Takahashi and written by Hiroyuki Hoshiyama, the movie condensed and rearranged the twelve-episode 2007 original video animation series, incorporating newly animated scenes and upgraded 3D CGI mecha combat. The production highlighted Takahashi's trademark hard-boiled realism, showcasing mass-produced, realistic humanoid armor without flashy superhero tropes. The film was praised by mecha enthusiasts for its relentless battlefield tension and atmospheric exploration of military trauma and soldier brotherhood.
The bare bones of a decent story are here, but they're buried beneath an incredibly clumsy theatrical adaptation which feels awkward, disjointed and often confusing.
