| Brain Powerd | |
 Brain Powerd Perfect Box Part 1 & 2 DVD cover | |
| ブレンパワード (Buren Pawādo) | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Yoshiyuki Tomino |
| Anime television series | |
| Directed by | Yoshiyuki Tomino |
| Written by | Akemi Omode Katsuyuki Sumisawa Miya Asakawa Tetsuko Takahashi Yoshiyuki Tomino |
| Music by | Yoko Kanno |
| Studio | Sunrise |
| Licensed by | |
| Original network | WOWOW,Animax,Bandai Channel |
| English network |
|
| Original run | April 8, 1998 – November 11, 1998 |
| Episodes | 26(List of episodes) |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Yoshiyuki Tomino |
| Illustrated by | Yukiru Sugisaki |
| Published by | Kadokawa Shoten |
| English publisher | |
| Magazine | Monthly Shōnen Ace |
| Original run | May 27, 1998 –January 29, 2001 |
| Volumes | 4 |
| Light novel | |
| Written by | Yoshiyuki Tomino, Akemi Mende |
| Published by | Kadokawa Haruki Corporation |
| Original run | December 15, 1998 –February 13, 1999 |
| Volumes | 3 |
Brain Powerd [sic] (ブレンパワード,Buren Pawādo) is a Japaneseanime television series produced bySunrise. It was directed and written byGundam creatorYoshiyuki Tomino and features mecha designs byMamoru Nagano, character designs byMutsumi Inomata, and music byYoko Kanno. The 26 episodes of the series originally premiered on thesatellite channelWOWOW between April and November 1998. The series was also aired across Japan on the anime networkAnimax, which also later broadcast the series across its respective networks worldwide, including its English language networks inSoutheast Asia andSouth Asia. Animax airedBandai Entertainment's localization, the series' English language television premiere. The anime series was licensed by Bandai and distributed across the region on DVD under the titleBrain Powered.
The series is set on a future, decimated Earth after the discovery of a mysterious, alien spacecraft dubbed "Orphan". A group of researchers scour the planet for Orphan's disc plates usingmecha called "Antibodies" in order to revive the craft, an event that would result in the utter destruction of all lifeforms on Earth. The protagonistsYu Isami andHime Utsumiya must utilize a special Antibody called "Brain Powerd" to counter the Orphan plans and save humanity.
It was adapted into amanga, with art byYukiru Sugisaki, which was serialized inKadokawa Shoten magazineShōnen Ace and later published in the United States in English byTokyopop. A series oflight novels, music CDs, and other merchandise relating toBrain Powerd also exist.
Brain Powerd is set in a future time in which Earth has been afflicted by earthquakes and floods. The source of this is a traced to a gargantuan, alien spacecraft dubbed "Orphan", which sits deep beneath thePacific Ocean. ScientistsKensaku Isami andMidori Isami work within Orphan in order to uncover its vast knowledge, reach the Earth's surface with the craft, and travel the galaxy, resulting in the annihilation of all lifeforms on Earth.[1] Their agents, the "Reclaimers", pilot living organicmechas (or "Antibodies") in the army Grand Cher, and seek to retrieve Orphan's vital disc plates which are scattered across the planet. The series begins with the teenage leadHime Utsumiya venturing upon such a disc plate, which revives into a unique Antibody, called "Brain Powerd", with which she forms a deep connection. Within a year, Hime joins a group wishing to counter the ideals of the Orphan researchers, stationed aboard the battleship Novis Noah. She is soon joined byYu Isami, an ex-Reclaimer who leaves Orphan after learning of the catastrophe his parents seek to unleash. Hime and Yu soon enter upon an adventure which may decide the future of humanity.[1]
Brain Powerd was produced bySunrise and directed and written byYoshiyuki Tomino, the creator of the long-runningGundam franchise.Brain Powerd is often compared to theGainax's popularNeon Genesis Evangelion, a 1995 anime series with similar themes toBrain Powerd.[1][2] He was enthusiastic about his first attempt at the "organic" mecha subgenre in place of the purely metallic robots he had worked with for so many years in his career.[3] He wanted to write an interesting story forBrain Powerd in order to allow those who watched it to do so without "having a nervous breakdown" and to show fans "that there were often other things out there better than anime".[4] Tomino has wished that more animators would see themselves as entertainers, though he admitted that he felt thatBrain Powerd was not very entertaining and thus a failure in this regard.[4]
Tomino was joined by a team of writers at Sunrise under the pseudonymHajime Yatate.[5] Other staff includedThe Weathering Continent andWindaria character designerMutsumi Inomata;The Five Star Stories andHeavy Metal L-Gaim mecha designerMamoru Nagano; andMacross Plus andThe Vision of Escaflowne music composerYoko Kanno.[1][2][3][6] Nagano had also previously worked with TominoMobile Suit Zeta Gundam.[1] Kanno described Tomino as "not detailed at all" when compared to other directors with which she worked. She found that he was concerned with human "age" in regards to each piece of music so that viewers of all ages would understand.[6] The opening theme "In My Dream" was written and performed byEri Shingyōji.[7] The ending theme "Ai no Fīrudo" (愛の輪郭(フィールド); lit. "Field of Love") was composed and arranged by Kanno, with lyrics written by Rin Iogi (a pseudonym for Tomino), and the song performed byKokia.[8]
The 26-episodeBrain Powerdanime initially aired weekly on Japan'ssatellite channelWOWOW from April 8 to November 11, 1998.[1][9] The series was also broadcast on the JapaneseAnimax and theBandai Channel.[10][11]Bandai first released the series on DVD in two halves on June 25, 1999, and September 25, 1999, as theBrain Powerd Perfect Box.[12][13] Seven individual DVDs containing fewer episodes of the series each were released from July 25 to September 25, 2002.[14][15] A "remastered" box set was released on August 24, 2007.[16] Finally, Bandai released the entire series on DVD asEmotion the Best: Brain Powerd on April 7, 2011.[17][18]
The English-dubbed version ofBrain Powerd premiered on Animax in South Asia and Southeast Asia.[19] In late 2000,Bandai Entertainment acquired the rights to distribute a dub in North America with the spellingBrain Powered.[20] As with the licensedSilent Möbius, only the first few episodes were released on VHS in the region as test marketing for the show.[21][22] The original opening sequence, which largely depicts nude women, was completely redone for the release.[23] Three separate bilingual DVD sets totaling all 26 episodes were made available in North American retailers May 21 to September 24, 2002.[24][25][26] The unedited opening sequences was restored for the DVD version.[7] On April 26, 2006, the company compiled and released the entire series asAnime Legends: Brain Powered Complete Collection.[27] Following the 2012 closure of Bandai Entertainment,Sunrise announced atOtakon 2013, thatSentai Filmworks has rescuedBrain Powerd, along with a handful of other former BEI titles.[28]
Amanga prelude to theBrain Powerd television series, featuring the original story penned by Tomino and illustrations byYukiru Sugisaki, was serialized monthly in the JapaneseKadokawa Shoten magazineShōnen Ace beginning in the January 1998 issue.[3][29] A total of fourtankōbon chapter collections were released from May 27, 1998, to January 29, 2001.[30][31] The original manga was licensed for English translation and publication byTokyopop in early 2003, also with the spellingBrain Powered.[32] All four volumes were published between June 17, 2003, and January 6, 2004.[33][34] Tokyopop replaced the Japanese version's color pages with highly saturated monochrome for their English release.[35] As of May 2, 2005, the manga is out-of-print in North America.[36]
A series of threelight novels written by Tomino and Akemi Mende were also published in Japan by Kadokawa Haruki Corporation:
| No. | Title | Author | Publisher | Date | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brain Powerd: Deep Origination (ブレンパワード 深海より発して,Brain Powerd Shinkai Yori Hasshi Te) | Akemi Mende | Kadokawa Haruki Corporation | December 15, 1998[37] | 978-4-89456-478-7 |
| 2 | Brain Powerd: Behind the Curtain (ブレンパワード カーテンの向こうで,Brain Powerd Kāten No Mukou De) | Akemi Mende | Kadokawa Haruki Corporation | January 14, 1999[38] | 978-4-89456-486-2 |
| 3 | Brain Powerd: Journey to Remember (ブレンパワード 記憶への旅立ち,Brain Powerd Kioku Heno Tabidachi) | Yoshiyuki Tomino (as Minoru Yokitani) | Kadokawa Haruki Corporation | February 13, 1999[39] | 978-4-89456-496-1 |
A two-volume soundtrack featuring a total of 38 background and vocal tracks from theBrain Powerd anime series was published byVictor Entertainment in Japan on August 5, 1998, and November 21, 1998.[40][41] CD singles featuring the opening theme by Eri Shingyōji and the closing theme by Kokia have also been released.[7][8]
A non-scale model kit of Hime's Brain Powerd mecha was released by Bandai shortly after the show's debut.[1] A Brain Powerd line of colored plastic non-scale model kits was released starting in November 2022 under Good Smile Company's Moderoid line. The line includes You (Yu) Brain, Hime Brain, Quincy's Grand Cher, Jonathan's Grand Cher, and a generic Grand Cher.[42][43][44][45][46]
A singleartbook titledBrain Powerd Spiral Book was published byGakken in Japan on June 28, 1999.[47] Characters and mecha fromBrain Powerd have been featured alongside other Sunrise properties invideo games published byBanpresto includingAnother Century's Episode for thePlayStation 2 andPlayStation Portable,2nd Super Robot Wars Alpha for the PlayStation 2, andSuper Robot Wars J for theGame Boy Advance.[48][49][50][51]
Jonathan Clements andHelen McCarthy ofThe Anime Encyclopedia summarizedBrain Powerd "as if Tomino and his crew were thrown in at the deep end and told to wing it", though they found it "curiously watchable, thanks largely to Yoko Kanno's wonderful music".[52]
