'Metal Skin Panic Madox-01' Review: Getting trapped inside a mecha suit

The late 70s and onward produced a lot of fun cybperunk creations, and even birthed an entire subgenre that led to the rise of the mecha. A series of various giant robot stories that each focused on the struggles of modern life as well as the struggles of futuristic societies. Patlabor showed how giant robots controlled by police officers would help keep the city safer, while things like Mobile Suit Gundam aimed more at the younger generations by creating cartoonish space operas that still managed to throw in some general themes regarding high technology and low life conditions. I've seen a lot of mecha anime shows throughout the years, as well as a few films, but over time you start to realise their patterns. They tend to be quite similar to each other, offering only minor differences in their narratives. This led to the inevitable collapse of the cyberpunk and mecha genres in the earlier 2000s, where only few franchises managed to survive despite the declining interest. While I still love the genres, I certainly don't spend much time trying to find new and old entries within them. Though stumbling across Metal Skin Panic Madox-01 was a great surprise. A quick thing to add though: how cliche is that name? It really does scream epic mecha adventure from the 1980s! And it certainly is just that. One that really surprises, especially given it's an OVA and has no attachment to anything else. A one-and-done story.

Metal Skin Panic Madox-01 has a much more unique story to it than most mecha ones. While many focus on the more serious elements of war and high tech dystopian worlds with intense military presences, usually on the brink of or during a major war, here we have a story that doesn't really pertain to either of those. There's nothing majorly political nor serious about the story, and doesn't seem to be like the likes of Gundam in which young teens or literal children are the main characters caught up in this drama. Instead we have a more adult protagonist, one that serves as a mechanic for cars but stumbles across a new secret weapon which is effectively a mecha, allowing the person to step inside the suit as it builds itself around you. Not quite realising what he's doing, it activates the suit which isn't quite finished yet, leading to a bug in its code that leaves him incapable of getting out of it. Slightly related, but the film's term for these sorts of technologies: Slave Trooper. Pretty cool and dystopian, real cyberpunk! Anyway, with this comes the protagonist's panic which results in him trying to meet his girlfriend. I think this simple narrative relates more to traditional cinema in some ways, where the events are bad for the main character but they still try to live out their normal life without really knowing what else to do.

I quite liked this protagonist setup, it's a main character that's a little bit naive and doesn't quite understand the sheer idiocy and seriousness of his situation. And due to having seemingly stolen secret ant-tank military technology, the initial reaction on their part is to hunt him down and try to kill him. This leads to him constantly being chased down by other suits, as well as other areas of the military. This is where the animation really shines. Beautiful 80s hand-drawn animation that looks incredible in certain scenes. I really liked the way it handled lighting, reflections on the visor of the suit, the shining of metal and the mechanical, high tech style of the suit itself with its many intricacies. There's a lot of attention towards the suit and how it's utilised, with the wearer having little idea of how to control it, as well as it being a weapon: running out of ammunition. Having no idea how to control its weight during movement. It's not like the suit is put on and immediately people know how to control it, completely different to how other mecha shows and films tend to portray things. And this is even mentioned directly with our main character getting caught. With the military realising he's totally out of his depth.

Its story throws our protagonist into something much more serious with how people are bent on destroying the Madox, cartoonish military villains that are more interested in destroying things and seeming important. Despite being caught, there are people conspiring within the same forces for different agendas. The woman that had been hunting down the Madox realising the person within, stating he's best running for his life but also fighting for it, otherwise it won't stop and he'll never find a way out alive. Some of the film, due to its 50 minute runtime, feels a bit rushed, with there being little story beyond the main idea. Though I don't think I really mind this, it felt like a film. The way films used to be told, where exposition isn't necessary. We don't need to know a whole lot about our protagonist or even the antagonists. It's enough that we know of a secret weapon and a group of people are hunting it down. What I did like though was that the weapons used to hunt down the Madox were rarely anything all that similar, showcasing the superiority of the Madox and its significance in the first place.

It was quite a fun watch but it's nothing special. A short film that really shines in its animation quality and the style. I think it's pretty clear there was a decent budget and amount of skill going into it. Though I'm quite surprised that it took me this long to discover it, where it has never been mentioned anywhere online before when I've searched for something cyberpunk and mecha of this era. Perhaps it's generally not so well perceived, but I do think it's worth the short watch if this is generally your sort of thing. Especially if you are tired of the general tropes of the mecha genre.