On the planet Koam in the Pentagona System, a black-haired girl named Amu Fanneria runs across an almost deserted wasteland under pursuit by a large orange Zedda mecha. Although he appears to be chasing her, the mecha’s pilot, Hashamoja, makes sure to purposely miss when he fires at her. Amu eventually runs into a small transport called the Works, piloted by the blond-haired Kyao Mirao. Amu tells Kyao that she was robbed of all her belongings by a small group of bandits. Tricked by Amu into thinking that the bandits’ forces are small, Kyao heads out in a Desks flosser on his own to find them. With Kyao gone, Amu climbs up on the top of the Works, where she finds a white heavy metal, the L.Gaim. Amu thinks she’s alone, but actually Kyao’s colleague, Daba Myroad, is sleeping in the living quarters. He wakes up and sees the approaching bandits, who are led by a woman named Lilin Miyama. Daba starts driving the Works, surprising Amu. When the bandits catch up to him, Lilin jumps on to the top of the Works and fights Daba after he climbs to the top. Lilin repeatedly tells Amu to help her, but Amu has trouble going anywhere since the Works is still moving. Lilin tells her underlings to be careful and avoid damaging the heavy metal since they’ll make a lot of money selling it. Daba slices off Lilin’s arm with his beam saber and the bandits are forced to retreat. As she retreats with one of the other bandits, Amu looks back at Daba, who she seems very interested in. Kyao soon arrives and is surprised that he was tricked by Amu. He wonders why such a pretty girl is hanging out with bandits. That night, Daba does sit ups while Kyao cooks. Kyao wants to join the Poseidal military knowing that with the L.Gaim they should get in easily. Daba disagrees, and is looking for someone named Quwasan Olibee. A few of the bandits spy on them from a distance.
Lilin goes through the painful process of having a robotic arm attached. She immediately thinks of getting revenge on Daba. The next morning Amu sneaks over to the Works, finding Daba and Kyao asleep. When they awaken she tells them they should immediately leave. They take her advice and start heading off. Amu follows them, confirming in Kyao’s mind the idea that she is a spy. The bandits arrive on a number of mechas. Daba jumps off the Works, shooting a couple of the bandits. He heads back towards the Works and gets into the L.Gaim using the Flicker flosser to fly into the cockpit. The L.Gaim, much bigger than the enemy’s mecha, defeats a few of them, but its legs are damaged after multiple attacks. Daba heads back to the Works and uses the L.Gaim’s beam cannon to defeat more of the enemy. Lilin’s vehicle goes out of control and she is narrowly rescued by Hashamoja. The battle over, Daba gets down off the L.Gaim and tends to one of the bandits, who is dying from his wounds. He asks Daba to take a credit chip out of his pocket and deliver it to a man named Amandara Kamandara in the city of Prearmo. Amu shows up and tells them she didn’t know him too well; he just joined their group a few days ago. The man dies soon afterward. Daba and Kyao head off, with Amu following them.
And so begins L.Gaim, one of Tomino’s best non-Gundam anime (only Ideon is better in my opinion). Admittedly, the show starts off rather slow, but it will take off later. This episode introduces us to three of the show’s primary characters in Daba, Kyao and Amu. From the start, it’s pretty obvious that this show is going to be a bit more lighthearted than the typical Tomino show with the ‘rock star’ style character designs and the somewhat goofy bandits. Although she’s one of the bandits, it’s pretty easy to take a liking to Amu, who doesn’t seem like she really fits the group she’s with. That she warned Daba and Kyao makes it seem pretty likely that she’ll leave the bandits and join them.
L.Gaim Info
Director:
Yoshiyuki Tomino
Writer(s):
Sukehiro Tomita
Hiroshi Ohnogi
Jiyu Watanabe
Asami Watanane
Mechanical Designer(s):
Mamoru Nagano
Hidetoshi Omori
Character Designer:
Mamoru Nagano
Musical Composer:
Kei Wakakusa
Format:
54 episodes (TV); 3 episodes (OVA)
Airdates:
Japan 02.04.1984 – 02.23.1985
Streaming 02.17.2017
Video Release (OVA):
Japan 11.05.1986 – 03.28.1987
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