Anime: Brain Powerd 463b5e

To start off with, this anime was intended as a remake of Evangelion by Sunrise, and was probably only launched because of the chance for quick cash and names standing behind the production.
Overall, this is probably the worst of Evangelion ripoff series, although more original than Rahxephon.

Art & Animation: 3/10
The mecha animes have always tended to have more work put into animation, yet this is not the case.

1) To start off, the budget is minimal. 80% of the times mechas are on screen, they're sliding stills. You'll be watching a slideshow. Even when they do move, it's really short sequences. Never impressive, never awesome, maybe only some blur to not let you see how bad something is drawn.

2) Special effects - lots of simple lights on the screen, using cheapest methods possible. The robot summoning from... "plates" is a combination of this and the aforementioned still image appearing on top.

3) The robots are supposed to be biological, like in Evangelion, and show emotions, yet their very designs fail to carry this idea completely. They're clearly drawn as mechanical machines, without any means to change face expression, which all the characters are supposedly reading their mood from! It's like taking a medieval knight helmet and talking to it, pretending it's alive. Also how come they have mechanical cockpit with control switches inside it they're living beings? They seem to be already made with them when created from thin air by those "plates".

Sound: 5/10
1) The intro, both melody and visuals, is really cool, and the only good part about this anime. Yet it is deceiving: naked ladies all the time - fuck yeah. Show starts - what's the connection to all that? None. The OP alone would bring the rating to more mature levels so why not go all the way?

2) Japanese VA are quite good, yet the English dub is hilarious. You'll laugh at places you shouldn't - it sounds like Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged parody series from Youtube.

3) Background tracks are fine, yet sometimes lacking. It's mediocre, but somehow stands above the overall quality of other things in this show.

Story: 3/10
To understand the very beginning you'll need to see Evangelion before that, as it will make so much more sense.
It's because the setting is the same, only with different characters and one of the NERV mk.2 led by Ikari mk.2 family which he also is a part of decides that what they're trying to do is bad, so he suddenly defects from their lines later in ep.1 for no immediately apparent cause. Of course everyone's like "WTF" and starts chasing him and some dudesse who also has an alien mech, which makes up most of the plot. There's nothing much more to it, so it will be a boring watch. And the ending is limp as a Japanese ****, which, I must say, is common in animation made by a nation of indecisive herbivore males.

It does have its plotholes and everything, especially at that common sense part, yet it might have been better with correct choreography and screenplay. Nevertheless, the cheap and half-assed everything else suits this plot quite fine.

Character: 1/10
This is the worst mark I could give, and for a good reason.
Why? All of the characters are chaotic and impulsive in their actions and decisions, and mostly don't make any sense. Not only that, every single character is shallow and 100% artificial. You'll feel no association with any of them.

It seems like somebody who has only made cliche anime characters all of his life with 0 understanding about actual human relationships tried to make everyone seem deep.

Value: 1/10
None. Throw it out of the window.

Enjoyment: 1/10
Funny English dub... I guess?

Overall: 2/10
Not worth any part of your lifetime.

Intro:
There are several anime out there which claim controversy as part of their aura. These are shows like Evangelion, who for some reveal a mess of whine, and for others a complex basket of goods. Brain Powered falls in to this controversy in a matter I've never quite been able to fathom, because for many viewers this show is incomprehensible. The reason I can't fathom this controversy is because the show made perfect sense to me, and I don't exactly see where the confusion lies. Despite the fact that for many fans watching this is among the worst anime experiences in their lives, I am going to proudly proclaim this a masterpiece, and hopefully give a satisfying reason why.

Brief Description:
When Tomino (director most known for creating the Gundam series) promoted this film, he claimed it was “even better than Evangelion”. This is an extremely brash statement for any director to make, but in one sense he's right. It touches the same issues as Evangelion at many parts, but ultimately it's better for the soul. It is an uplifting defense of the power of love at its core, and thus while I would not agree that it's higher quality, it might be better to watch and enjoy.

So what exactly is this show that defends love against all? Brain Powerd is about biomechanical living mechs fighting for or against Orphan, a ship that will sail to the stars, but requires draining the energy of all life on earth to succeed. On both sides are troubled teens from broken families, who struggle to overcome their hangups as much as their enemies. Of course, it is their inner battles on which the fate of mankind hangs. 

Character:
This is what makes this show a masterpiece. I'll grant that they aren't by any means easy characters. They are difficult to understand, and some of them are almost impossible to relate to, such as the antagonist Jonathan. The way the characters behave is complex, and they hide a lot of their feelings. This is what underlies many of the complaints about this show. Without their hearts on their sleeves, sometimes a character will do something “random”, such as Yuu's defection in the first episode. But once you piece together the characters, everything they do makes sense. Until then, trying to read them is like trying to read real humans, except sometimes even more difficult. And it's important to note that the characters are weird. They aren't weird in the sense that they are incomprehensible, but rather that they have unique modes of expression that don't conform to stock anime archetypes. You can *try* to classify Hime and a tsundere, but you will just be setting yourself up for confusion later on down the line.

This show, basically, refuses to ever pander to the audience. It requires your full attention to understand. It's no secret that that which demands the most out of you gives the greatest rewards. I could talk about the plot and characters all day, there's plenty to chew on in those regards. Instead, I'll give a brief word to the other aspects of this work.

Art and Animation:
The animation is interesting, though maybe not conventionally beautiful. This especially applies to the fights, which are portrayed in a specifically non-fluid manner. The antibodies (mechs) sort of “blink” short distances, giving the whole fight a surreal vibe (and also negating normal fight dynamics). They often take place over water, specifically utilizing these two mediums in an interesting manner. I really think the fights over water are quite elegant, some of the more memorable mech fights out there. The fights aren't always fast-paced, but even the slower-paced fights are suspenseful. The character designs have been criticized as rather bland, but I never got that impression. I really liked the character designs, especially Hime's design. However, the animation does suffer a bit from age, and it aged poorly, actually looking older than it really is. This is a series I would love to see remastered for that reason.

Sound:
The music is the only thing about this series that is universally acclaimed, and that's with good reason. Yoko Kano, famous for Cowboy Bebop, is the one on charge of this front. The opening by Eri Shingyoji, “In My Dream”, is one of my favorite openings of all time. It is as catchy as they come, a good high-powered rocker. The closing is also very good, but not quite so memorable. It's very subdued and reflective.  

Miscellaneous/Read If You're Interested/Interpretations (there's no spoilers though):
While we're on the topic of the opening, the opening is another common gripe about the show. The opening features every character naked for no apparent reason. It's a bit abstract, but my interpretation has always been: when they are stripped to their bare emotions, at their core what they need is love. Of course, the lack of clothes represent the revealing of their emotions, and the lyrics are what implies that it's about needing love. The spiritual backgrounds just serve to drive home the core being part (ever wonder why nakedness and spiritual imagery go together?) This fits in because it is, arguably, the key concept of the show. As a matter of fact, if you're ever confused about why a character behaved a certain way, try looking at it from that lens, because almost every character has this fundamental problem. Going back to a comparison I'm sure you're tired of hearing already, this is very similar to Evangelion, where every single character can be interpreted as alienated. However, the key difference is that in Evangelion, love isn't enough to overcome alienation, giving that show a much more depressing outlook.

Overall: To sum up my overall impression of the show; Brain Powerd is a drama of the most intriguing characters whose outside conflict mirrors their inner struggles. It's a bit hokey at times, and it's not as philosophically deep as it thinks it is, but Tomino directs cheerfully and with a good sense of humor, leading to a show that is downright inspiring. It is basically the optimistic version of Evangelion, or even the antidote to Evangelion! I can't recommend it to everyone, only a few viewers will “get it”, but for those who do this is a fantastic and sublime show. Very rewatchable too.

Man, was this one a drag! It gives you the impression that it will be an interesting and weird series but in reality it is totally boring and simple. This is one of the worst titles Tomino (the Gundam dude) ever made and studio Sunrise was out of its mind when it allowed for this thing to be made.

The intro was full of naked chicks and weird imagery. And the song was catchy too. It really managed to make me interested in the series. And then the series begins… And it’s nothing much to look or listen to. Where is the nude? Where are the weird / spiritual backgrounds?

-The general artwork is just your average looking mechas, military bases and rural countrysides.
-The character figures look very generic.
-Animation was kept at minimum.
-Colors and details are done simply, without multiple layers of shading.
-The visual effects are very crude. Just laser beams and energy barriers for a few minutes per episode. Even the funky disks that were creating meckas got old fairly fast.
-On the flip side, voice acting was decent. And the context of the dialogues was full of science, metaphysics, teen angst and more. Too bad even that was ruined by repeating words. like ORPHEN, BRAIN and BIO-ENERGY were mentioned at least 20 times per episode, making the dialogues quite repetitive and tiresome.

The story? Alien powers threaten the balance of the world and a team of teens piloting mechas tries to salvage bio-energy disks and prevent the destruction. At the same time a secret organization plans to release an alien ship that will devastate the world, save for its chosen few believers that follow its cause. It’s not a typical “one-eyed monstrous aliens vs kind-hearted humans” story. It’s selfish people vs selfish people, so it is quite dramatic at times. The alien part is a plot device rather than the main story. The main theme is not really “saving the world”. It’s more like “mommy doesn’t love me” and “my family is obsessed and lost its way” kind of story. The several flavoring elements concerning science, philosophy and mystic powers help to create good foundations for an interesting story… But what was built atop was without the supervision of an architect.

-The characters are cardboards. Stereotypes that you can find in most mecha series. Undeveloped to the point of not caring about them. With generic looks and movements. There is no reason to any of them.
-The story is so slow-paced that could easily be summed up in 6 episodes. It didn’t deserve 26 boring episodes.
-The battles are awfully simple and short. I skipped them without missing a thing.
-The conclusion was sudden and rushed. The producers must have intended to create a movie sequel to wrap things up, but eventually didn’t; leaving us with a completely vague and dry ending.

TL;DR: I find no value in this series. Characters aren’t there, story is an illusion, ending sucks! It is boring, slow and anti-climactic. The only thing I really enjoyed was the one and a half minute opening song.