Mixing genres is not always a successful endeavor with anime. For every time they successfully mix action and comedy like with Slayers, we get show like a forgettable show like Pretty Sammy which tried to mix comedy with the Magical girl genre. So a mixture of genres like harem comedy and Giant Robots could go either way but thats the set up we are given in Dual!: Parallel Adventure. Whats the result of such a mixture?

Kazuki Yotsuga is a boy who keeps seeing visions of Giant Robots fighting intense battles that no one else can see. He is approached by his classmate, Mitsuki, the class princess who takes him to meet her father who finds Kazuki fascinating as he has been researching alternate universes. Subjecting him to an experiment Kazuki is transported to the other dimension and finds himself able to control the Giant Robots that he finds there. Now he fights to find a way home while becoming the most eligible bachelor in this new dimension.

The characters respresent the standard troupes with harems from back then. Kazuki is the clueless guy who all the girls love, Mitsuki in the princess who denies she love him, D is the emotional awkward girl that tags around like a puppy, and Yayoi is the older woman who looks to him like the prince that saved her. Yes these characters are cliche now but back when I first watched it they were fun and made the series entertaining to watch. I also can’t help but enjoy the Moe, sweet girl that is Mitsuki Rara. She’s so adorable compared to the tsundare of the regular Mitsuki.

The giant robots to this series are the real weak point of their series. The main robots are mainly knock off s of the Evas from Neon Genesis Evangelion (complete with the type of weaponry they use) while the enemy machines look like your standard evil robots of death black, long armed, and hulking. The final robot that Kazuki pilots Zinv is impressive because of the fact is has laser blasts and has light hawk wings (making it have the connection tot he Tenchi Muyo universe that the director famously created). Still, I wouldn’t find myself created. I still wouldn’t find myself buying any of the model kits for this series anytime in the near figure.

Dual succeeds in mixing his genre but sadly it just doesn’t have a huge fanbase. Sure it was run on Techtv/G4 TVs (whatever you want to call it) but fans didn’t add it to their essential anime list. Instead we watched i once and forgot about it. Don’t believe me? There hasn’t been another release of the series since its initial release by the now defunct Pioneer/Geneon company. So sad. Its not a bad show at all. Just forgotten thought the test of time, licensing, and sales. Maybe if we are lucky Funimation will pick it up and people can finally stream it when they get a chance.

Rating: B-