Brain Powered has a reputation for being terrible. I know, with the little sense I have left, that group thought does not dictate what I will think about something. You don't hop on the bandwagon. You build your own and drive it. As a result, I entered Brain Powerd after watching all of Tomino's main Gundam anime available to me, and experienced A bizarrely passionate experience. Brain Powerd felt like Tomino's strongest interpretation of love to me. It's not just between people, but between the pilots and their machines as well.

Unlike in Gundam, The Brain Powerd are organic machines that form a parent/child bond with their pilots. They can feel each others emotions, understand each other, and depend on each other in order to function efficiently as a team. When someone views the resurrection of a Brain Powerd, they see that they behave like babies, evidently so. It's made clear what they are supposed to be viewed as by the constant use of baby lullabies and baby cries that play in the background. At first, I was confused why they moved the way they did as machines. Eventually, I began to somewhat understand the method of presentation of the staff. That being, to remember that these are organic machines that look somewhat like insects. Unlike Gundam formations, the Brain Powerd spread apart in an unorganized fashion and stay still in the air near each other. I figured they were purposely animated to look like that to mirror how spiders in intertwined webs look like. It fits the organic and insect like approach the staff took with them.

But there is a tragedy to the Brain Powerd. They can be used for good or bad purposes. They don't know any better, as all it takes is the good morale of the pilot, and their words to get them to synchronize with them. On the other hand, if the pilot develops a really low morale, the Brain can reject them. Still, it can be tragic to see a baby be born, be used wickedly, and then crumble and fall. Because of the way they'd twitch and express pain, I could feel it.

Evidently so, this anime feels like a response to Evangelion. It almost feels as if Tomino took the synchronization idea of the EVA's even further, to the extent the Brains can feel like characters themselves as they to develop, hilariously gain passions for hobbies, act on their own much more, and continuously express their love for their pilots. By the end, I experienced true love and an optimistic feeling of inspiration. This anime took me places. Also, some of the surprise reveals in this anime did shock me.

What also makes Brain Powerd special is how ridiculous it can get with its characters. Brain Powerd was made during a difficult time in Tomino's life, and it shows, for a large part of it. Imagine the most outrageous moments in Victory Gundam, but happening for an entire episode instead of a short moment. It is that out there. Many times, the actions of the characters feel laughably irrational. Like bringing vegetables to a gun fight, random kisses, insane mother issues, one of the most dysfunctional families I've ever seen, Obsessive mothers, Jonathan's psychotic snort laughs, some of the most outrageous facial expressions, sudden, almost random violent decisions I can't take seriously, goofy voice effects, etc.

The story is among the most fascinating. I can see why even the most dedicated Gundam fan can get repelled by this. Just the OP itself is enough to raise eyebrows. Still, it will all make sense in the end. Trust me. Instead of being more focused on politics, the story is more about the science of the Brain Powerd, and how they, alongside The Orphan, work. It is still political, of course, though the amount of exposition about the science really makes you think. It's a story that picked at my curiosity and that left me with the desire to want to understand.

Yuu is next in the long line of good and passionately written Tomino protagonists. Before this new age, where this new mass of anime protagonists who are usually cowards and crybabies storm, there was a time were these types of protagonists had a real backbone. Not only that, his attitude and behavior feels as it can surpass Kamille at times. Misunderstood, he tries to make his appeal to humanity to not get involved with cosmic machines that can destroy them all. He looks for reason and logic, though sometimes he betrays those, and makes questionable decisions out of the emotions of his childhood trauma with his parents.

He is from Orphan. a "relic" that is more a ship that is not from Earth. The crew of the Orphan want it to take off into space and to take them to a new world. In order to do this, it is theorized that it would cause all humans on Earth to perish, in order for it to gain the energy to do so. As terrible as that sounds, it's because many of the people at Orphan are terrible themselves, and have grudges against humanity for different reasons. Yuu realized this, as the only one who questioned it, and left to join the Novis Noah. The Orphan has powerful abilities, and is a sort of judge with incredible powers that reminded me of the Ideon.

Novis Noah is an obvious reference to Noah's Ark, and is a ship made to counter the Orphan, and save the people. The problem is that the research they have isn't very reliable as they cannot prove many of their theories. The way the ship functioned in this anime reminded many times of the White Base from Gundam.

Besides Yuu, the other character I got the most from was Jonathan. Definitely the most memorable, I couldn't even bring myself to see him as the antagonist he was supposed to be. It feels now as if every moment he was in was amusing and entertaining. The first thing the viewers notice that tells them something is wrong this character is that he walks around like a T-Rex, rubbing his chest casually in public. Still, I could understand the pain he carried over his mother, and why he was the way he was. He was a lonely and tragic man who was born to weep.

Interestingly enough, Brain Powerd feels like a stepping stone towards Turn A Gundam. The theater influence on Tomino beings to really explode here. The voice actors here mirror their Turn A Gundam characters. Yoko Kanno also composed the music to this first, before Turn A. Her music did well to add to the mysterious, tense, organic creepiness of the Brains, and cosmic feelings of Brain Powerd.

Watching Tomino's journey, specifically from Victory to Turn A, with Brian Powerd in the middle, was an uplifting experience because of where his mind was going with each series. I took a gamble with Brian Powerd early on and had something to say that I wanted to wait on until I completely finished it to say. Sometimes an anime can feel great, you'll praise it, then it blows up in your face at the finale, and you feel like a fool. I was nervous. I thought Tomino might let me down, as it is understandable and normal for a director to make both hits and misses. However, I gambled correctly, and was brought to tears by the end. The anime I finished before this did blow up in my face, but this time I won. And now I can say it. Brain Powerd is good.