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Big Wars comes out of the period of anime history when Sci-Fi was the clear and present King of the medium. This stage in the development of the industry suffered a myriad of triumphs and epic failures. Big Wars is one of those obscure movies that falls somewhere in-between.
The basic storyline is familiar enough. Humanity has colonized Mars and, following the opening of transforming operations, is attacked by an alien race known as "The Gods". A massive, technologically advanced war ensues over the next several decades in which (it is implied) there has been no real significant progress.
Big Wars lives up to its name in principle (though it is limited slightly in its presentation). We are greeted by massive clouds of fighters, reports of whole cities being wiped out as if it’s nothing, sand Battleships (that's right: BATTLESHIPS! MANLY!), and a stealth carrier named "Hell". Without spoiling anything, essentially a cruiser/battleship captain is assigned a covert task-force (how they expect to keep a battleship covert is beyond me, but I didn't write this) and is eventually assigned to take-out the Hell.
The majority of the movie is taken up by references to the actual battlefield action and focuses more on cloak & dagger intrigue. The Gods have the ability to spread a sort of "mind control" virus enabling them to recruit spies and terrorists from within the human ranks. Really most of the story deals with this issue and the Post-Vietnam era "concept-of-war" dialogue. Likely, this movie would have fared better by sticking to the battlefield action.
If I wanted to be crude about it, I could sum it up thus:
Explosions-Sex-Spies-Sex-Spies+Explosions-Explosions
I've seen much better work in the art department, even from this period. None the less, the sand battleships are rather well-drawn and fun to watch. The characters are well-designed as well (artistically speaking anyway). The battlefield art varies, though should be given on the basis that it is mostly the standard issue of having massive amounts of units impacting presentation.
The dub did not make me cringe. It may just be me, but CPM's old dubs don't seem as bad as one usually expects. Though possibly this is just my primary exposure bias, or getting used to English versions. Battle sound effects are nothing unique, and often seem repetitive. I've yet to track down a Japanese language version, so I have nothing to compare it to. The sex scenes may be seen as overplayed (though this is common; note, however, that upon learning the actual story, the overplay actually fits).
This movie fails pretty hard on the issue of characterization. It's hard to sympathize with anyone, and I came out of it not even sure which side I wanted to win the war. To me Big Wars couldn't make up its mind as to whether the Gods of the Humans were the morally upright ones. This would actually be an interesting aspect, except I'm fairly certain it wasn't done on purpose, merely as poor writing. No individual is given nearly enough time (even with screen-hogging most of the movie Captain) for anyone to get a sense of the people. The best we get are vague references to past events and lack of real character development.
Summing everything up, I am surprised to say I enjoyed watching the movie to a certain extent. I have a fondness for large-scale war anime (they are a rarity these days), plus as an 80s movies I just had to see it. For those of you wondering if you should give this one a try: I'd say "yes". I am not one to shy away from the mediocre; if I did that I could hardly appreciate the good. Big Wars has a certain charm of its own in its massive battle scales and plot-deprived sex scenes; giving a rather decent feel for what entertainment really meant back in the early 80s: sex and explosions, with a token dash of espionage.
It's certainly not for everyone, and I'd recommend it even less than I would Space Adventure Cobra the movie. It's a movie for war fans, or for those of you that have a particularly boring day and want to entertain yourselves MTS3K style.
