I remember Metal Skin Panic: MADOX-01 being amongst the first anime titles I watched when I initially took an interest in the hobby back in the earlier half of the '90s. Here in North Carolina, there was no shortage of AnimEigo titles to be found for rent on Blockbuster shelves, so I ended up watching nearly everything they released back in those days.

MADOX-01 is a late '80s 50-minute OVA written and directed by Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed director and legendary mechanical designer), which largely amounted to Aramaki goofing around with a premise parodying mecha series that take themselves too seriously.

The OVA begins with a military demonstration of the Slave Trooper MADOX's combat capabilities - in particular, its effectiveness against tanks on the battlefield. This sequence calls to mind the first scene in Gasaraki (which Aramaki also worked on), and involves MADOX test pilot Ellie Kusumoto offending tank-driving tough guy/big-foreheaded psychopath Lt. Kilgore, who vows to get revenge on the MADOX for defeating him in battle.

When en-route to another military base, a transport truck gets into a wreck, conveniently losing the MADOX-01 unit. Enter Kouji, poor college student and part-time mechanic, who comes across the boxed secret military weapon, and does what all good inquisitive college students would in his position: activates the robot and begins charging around the city as he gets the hang of its controls. You'd think the people of Tokyo might be a little more bothered by a robotic armored suit smashing through their buildings and convenience stores, but so long as the joyriding pilot actually BUYS something and takes a moment to apologize, it's no big deal. (This sort of thing DOES happen every other day in anime Tokyo, after all.)

Saddled with a bit of angst over whether to break up with Shiori - his delicate, sensitive, rich two-dimensional girlfriend who's going to study abroad soon - Kouji decides to meet her on the top floor of the NSR building as she'd asked him. This sets an end goal for the story.

But if there's one organization all about stomping all over underdeveloped young love, it's the military. Assuming the MADOX-01 has been acquired by terrorists, they brilliantly dispatch Lt. Kilgore (This military doesn't believe in psychological tests, it seems.) with a squadron to recapture the MADOX unit. Kusumoto takes the only other operational MADOX unit and sets out to speak with Kouji herself. And for the rest of the OVA? Violence ensues. Violence UNDER WACKY PRETENSES.

If you haven't gleaned that much from this review yet, MADOX-01 is not exactly a stellar anime work. The direction is straightforward, but the story's too simple - even to the point of being overly limited in how it's presented - and too cheesy to amount to anything remarkable. The mechanical designs are excellent, as you'd expect of an Aramaki work, and are one of the main draws to the OVA, along with its sense of humor. The animation looks good, and there's certainly fun to be had with the OVA, but particularly in regards to the writing, MADOX-01 hasn't aged all that well. It's not a bad rental, but unless you're a diehard mecha junkie, I'd probably have to advise passing on a purchase. There are certainly worse ways to kill 50 minutes, though, and AnimEigo's done an excellent job with the translation.