Okay, so what exactly do we have here?

That was the first question I asked myself at the beginning of the first episode of Panda Z. It tells the story of Pan-Taron, pilot of the giant robot Panda Z and fearless warrior who protects his friends from the Warunimal Army. Panda Z is no ordinary giant robot though: it is a giant robotic panda. As I said, what exactly do we have here?

My next thought was that Panda Z holds a certain appeal for younger viewers more than anyone. The whole affair has a distinct Hello Kitty cuteness and the battles, such as they are, fall squarely in the Saturday morning kids’ TV category with nobody suffering any lasting injury. Whether or not it will attract any interest from older viewers depends on its novelty value as a parody of the classic ‘giant robot’ and other mecha shows of the past twenty or thirty years; such references will probably go over children’s heads but it offers a few laughs for the rest of us. It has to be said that this novelty value is Panda Z’s main selling point.

Humour is subjective of course so if the inoffensive slapstick of Panda Z annoys you in the first episode the rest of them will do nothing to change your mind: the animation is so simple and straightforward it has to be intentional and there is no overall storyline to speak of. Each five minute instalment covers the battles with Skull Panda and the Warunimal Army as well as more mundane and everyday events that crop up in the life of a mechanical panda. For instance, how exactly does a robot eat a meal that consists of batteries? What happens when robots go for a walk in the rain?

Another quirk of the show is that the episodes are told with no spoken script whatsoever. Instead the dialogue appears as onscreen captions in the style of old silent movies with some rock guitar-driven background music which pleasantly enough seems to be different for every episode. It is worth mentioning that, although Panda Z is a very childlike show, the soundtrack is a lot of fun - particularly the brilliantly cheesy 80s-inspired opening theme!

Although I rarely bother to mention bonus features, the first volume of Panda Z has an extra selling point in the form of a presentation box that holds the DVD case along with a cute model figure of Pan-Taron aboard the Panda Z mecha. It’s a series that clearly has toys and other merchandise in mind but the figure is a cute little extra. It is currently standing on top of my TV set, to the amusement (not to mention bemusement) of visitors!

In summary

Panda Z is a show that is best described as good for a laugh if nothing else. The episodes are short, silly and laden with references to mecha fans’ favourite shows and the soundtrack quite literally rocks. Unfortunately is does come across as very child-orientated so if you are in the mood for something even remotely serious, this isn’t the series for you. It does earn a bonus point for the action figure though.