We never clearly get to see what Remy currently looks like 40 years on, even though we get to see older versions of her fellow teammates. I struggle to this day to think of a more powerful visual representation of reclaiming your own life in the face of adversity.įinally, one of the other themes Time Etranger touches on is the idea that a hero (or heroine) is, in a way, immortal. She is injured, she is scared, she is weak, but regardless of everything, she takes her destiny into her own hands-literally strapping her gun to her injured hand, propping herself up against a gravestone with her own name on it, and using her last bullet to shoot it down. Remembering these things, along with the strong bonds she shares with her beloved GoShogun team, gives her the courage she needs to stand up to the physical manifestation of all her deepest inner fears and doubts, in a moving scene where she stands head-to-head with the snarling beast.
While typically this would be just another excuse to show a character’s “tragic past,” Remy defies this stereotype and it’s shown that while she has had much sadness in her life she got through it with her trademark wit and tenacity, even while shedding some tears. In fact, we see that this isn’t the first time that Remy has defied the odds and lived through harrowing situations.Īs her memories play alongside her dreams, we’re shown the struggles she went through growing up as a child. But both she and her teammates reject this and do everything in their power to fight back against it. While Remy is shown in the “real” world fighting for her life in a hospital bed, inside the surreal dream world of her mind, she’s pursued by mysterious people, claiming that it is her destiny to die soon. She was capable of taking care of herself, but even the best soldier can’t do everything alone and they were there to help.Īnother theme the film regularly returns to is how everyone has the power to follow their own path and chose their own destiny. Remy was their beloved teammate, their comrade-in-arms, their family. They were a family that had been through so much together, that respected and cared about each other, and they worked together almost effortlessly to help one another. And they were more than just a team of soldiers. Over and over again, Remy’s teammates helped her through various encounters, but Remy wasn’t just a damsel in distress that constantly needed saving. In Remy’s dream world of Time Etranger, the GoShogun team’s colorful uniforms are replaced by more conventional military fatigues, distancing the characters from their outrageous space escapades and grounding them more into something closer to real wartime heroes. The most notable being the themes of enduring friendships against all odds-more specifically between soldiers.
#Goshogun anime movie
The movie tackles a lot of surprisingly weighty topics for a spin-off of what was originally a parody of the “super robot” genre.
While her old team rallies around her bedside, the film takes the viewers inside Remy’s consciousness, where her mind and her memories converge in a surreal, symbolic dream world that she must try to navigate before it’s too late. Upon rushing to her side at the hospital, her teammates are shocked to learn she had actually been living with an illness for years and it’s become terminal. On her way to one of the rare times she’s arranged to meet with her old friends, Remy gets into a potentially-fatal car accident. I’ll do my best: 40 years after the GoShogun team retired from their duties of saving the universe, Remy Shimada, the team’s only female, has become a recluse. Time Etranger is both simple in its themes and complex in its story, making it tricky to explain without just telling you about the entire film. Because otherwise, I may never have even seen Time Etranger. But back in the days before anime was widespread and easy to consume, I pretty much devoured any anime I could get my hands on… Which was a blessing in disguise, to some extent. Secondly, it’s not exactly the kind of thing you imagine a young girl gravitating towards.
#Goshogun anime series
It’s a movie sequel to a somewhat tongue-in-cheek TV series with giant robots that, for many years, was never available to watch officially in English aside from it’s dubbed and edited incarnation known as Macron-1. First, it’s surprising because it’s not really well known. Hearing 1985’s GoShogun: The Time Etranger might be a surprise when folks ask me for anime that has influenced me or touched me the most, but let me explain. But when I think of heroines that I also admired and looked up to? Remy Shimada was one of the first. Growing up, there were many reasons that anime was so appealing to me and one that I often come back to time and time again was that there were many stories where the lead character was a heroine that I could relate to.