By the mid 2000s, anime was big. Hasbro had already took Transformers down the anime route, producing mediocre titles such as Transformers Armada and Energon, both straight from Japan with all the typical bells and whistles of its genre. Action lines, cheap animation short cuts, lame humor, rambling dialog, "anime anatomy" like bulbous eyes and exaggerated expressions. G I Joe, being the next big property from Hasbro, naturally followed suit. So in 2005, Hasbro and Gonzo (the studio that animated Vandread, Full Metal Panic and Last Exile) teamed up to produce two new anime series based on Hasbro's toy properties. One was "G I Joe Sigma 6".
The series begins with a station in antartica getting attacked by cobra robot soldiers. This is all part of a clandestine plan to free Cobra Commander from his prison. AS the Cobra forces are once again united under cobra Commander's leadership, the G I Joe team, now christened "Sigma 6" must.............as usual, stop them.
G I Joe Sigma 6 was meant to be a continuation from where "G I Joe: Valor Vs Venom" left off. While the ensemble of characters were the same, the discrepant designs and different portrayals of the same character between Sigma 6 and its predecessor. For example, most of the G I Joe team got de-aged back to looking like young people in their early to mid 20s at most. Female characters like Scarlett, Jinx and the baroness seem to have undergone breasts enlargements for fanservice sake and it would not be a sci-fi anime without high tech gizmos and MECHA. The animation is an uncomfortable mix of stiff 2D animation for the human characters and cel shaded CGI for the vehicles, mecha and Cobra robot soldiers. And yes, the typical animation shortcuts like over usage of stock footage or camera panning across a still shot are apparent here.
Now the original G I Joe cartoon was not exactly "Apocalypse Now", it was simple enough to be enjoyed by children yet had a certain appeal to some adults. But Sigma 6 has got to be the most childish installment of the G I Joe franchise yet. Characters are one dimensional, the dialog is cheesy and episodic plots cross the line from simple to simplistic.
Even the voice acting is no better than a typical Saturday morning anime like Pokémon. But perhaps the worse offender is the sound effects. Nearly every single sound effect seems like they are commonly used in too many anime. And sometimes, the wrong sound effect is used. for example, one of the Cobra Dreadnocks fires and pumps a pump action shotgun. Yet the sound effect is one of a laser gun. Slip Shod sound engineering or stupid attempt at censorship? You decide.
Anime is not entirely bad. There are many great anime shows out there that G I Joe Sigma 6 could have drawn influences from. Instead it becomes a collection of all the reasons why some critics hate Japanese anime. Limited animation, clashing styles of 2D and CGI, rambling dialogue, over the top voice work, oh and Cobra Commander becoming some super powered mecha suited "warrior king".
