April 30th, 2020 
Charles Solomon 
The outré sci-fi adventure-comedy RobiHachi (2019) presents the future as a tourist trap.
Tall, lanky, and self-indulgent, Robby Yarge is a shameless if unsuccessful skirt-chaser and ne’er-do-well. After a series of get-rich-quick schemes crash and burn, he’s left owing a fortune to Mr. Yang. To collect the debt, Yang sends bright, eager Hatchi Ika. Hatchi is determined to get the money, but Robby’s evasions expose him to things he’s never experienced and he gets caught up in the excitement.
Hatchi and Robby find themselves aboard the Nagaya Voyager, an eccentric old spaceship. Accompanying them on the journey is Ikku, a grumpy robot-butler in the shape of a rabbit. They travel first through the solar system, then interstellar space, trying to stay ahead of Yang and his henchmen. Robby hopes to get to Isekandar, a world in the Andromeda galaxy billed as the place where dreams come true.
(Iskandar or Iscandar was the planet ruled by Queen Starsha in Leiji Matsumoto’s early anime adventure Space Battleship Yamato. The spelling varies as it’s the Japanese transliteration of the Persian version of the name of Alexander the Great.)
The ongoing chase takes the cast from one weird planet to another, but each society is essentially a tourist attraction. The humans on Mars dress up as octopi and sell octopus puffs, because people expect them from H.G. Wells “The War of the Worlds.” Another planet is an enormous hot springs resort, with alien girls for Robby to chase. A third, dedicated to hunting and eating monstrous eels, is inhabited exclusively by bald, muscular men who look like clones of The Rock.
As the plot stumbles along, an odd homoerotic subtext develops. With each episode, Yang grows less interested in the money he’s owed and more interested in Robby’s body. (He tries to yank Robby’s Speedo off during a giant eel race.) But unlike the yaoi romances Yuri on Ice!!! or Gravitation, there’s a slobbery, leering quality to Yang’s passion that’s distinctly off-putting.
RobiHachi often plays like a mash-up of Space Dandy, Tiger and Bunny, and Martian Successor Nadesico, but the soufflé never quite rises to the heights the viewer might expect. Like Tiger and Bunny, the series pairs a more experienced guy with a newbie. But Robby and Hatchi lack the idealism and complex backstories of Kotetsu “Wild Tiger” Kaburagi and Barnaby “Bunny” Brooks, Jr. Robby suffers from a lack redeeming qualities, and Hatchi becomes enthralled with new experiences a little too quickly.
The first time Yang attacks Robby’s ship, the defenders discover a bunch of odd hardware fuses to form Hizakuriger, a giant robot in the Mazinger Z mold. It’s taken from an imaginary black and white TV series Galaxy Traveler Hizakuriger. The planet in Episode #9 is inhabited by anime fans, who are ecstatic to learn Robby’s grandfather directed Hizakuriger. The mechanic who built the Nagaya Voyager, reveals that the robot they’ve been trying to use in battle is actually a giant collectible figure.
This subplot is often funny, but it’s too obviously derived from Gekiganger 3, the hilarious mecha spoof in Martian Successor Nadesico, a send-up of fanboy culture that initially angered some viewers–although it’s take-no-prisoners humor soon won their hearts. The Hizakuriger gags can’t quite match the effortless insanity of Nadesico and Gekiganger.
In the final episodes, RobiHachi abruptly shifts in new directions neither the characters nor the audience are prepared for. The multiple endings suggest that Robby and Hatchi prefer being together to wealth or prominence. Romance? Bromance? It’s deliberately left unclear. RobiHachi is decidedly off the wall, and entertaining in places. But it’s best experienced one episode at a time. Binge watching all 12 episodes would be like eating an entire bale of cotton candy at a sitting.
- REVIEW: “Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle” - July 2, 2024
- Charles Solomon’s Animation Year End Review 2023 - December 28, 2023
- INTERVIEW: Makoto Shinkai on “Suzume” - November 27, 2023
Posted in 
Tags: 
