Super Robot Wars Original Generation: The Animation

Super Robot Wars Original Generation: The Animation (スーパーロボット大戦ORIGINAL GENERATION THE ANIMATION) is a 3-episode OVA that takes place after the events of Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation 2, a game featuring only original characters and mechs created by Banpresto for the Super Robot Wars franchise.

Synopsis
Set after Original Generation 2, an unknown fleet of enemy mechs called Bartolls suddenly attacks the populace of Earth, destroying all opposition, with millions of citizens instantly vanishing during the raids. ATX Team members Kyosuke, Excellen, and Bullet, along with Ryusei, Rai, and Aya of the SRX Team are sent to investigate, before the situation turns deadlier.

Episode One: Swarm of the Bartoll
Inside an unknown location, mechanical parts are being welded together, forming the pieces of a newly constructed machine. As production continues and the assembly line moves along, traces of human blood can be seen splattered against a wall...

Somewhere in Northern Russia, Kyosuke Nanbu and Excellen Browning are on their routine, daily patrol. Excellen reminds Kyosuke the broadcast is about to begin soon, saying they should return to base, though Kyosuke remains adamant to finishing the patrol, as the Alt Eisen Riese and Weiss Ritter speed through the snowy terrain. Meanwhile, high up in Earth's satellite orbit, the Real Personal Trooper Type-1 (R-1) docks into the hangar bay of the Hagane battleship. Too eager to complete his patrol report, its pilot Ryusei Date heads to the lounging area, where fellow teammates Raidiese F. Branstein, Aya Kobayashi, Villeta Vadim and Mai Kobayashi are waiting for the unveiling of the new mass-production mech on a televised channel. According to Villeta, this new mech, the VTX-001 Bartoll, was designed by Wong Heavy Industries, a fairly new contractor for mass-producing new mechs for the Earth Federation Army.

At the unveiling site, Kusuha Mizuha, representing the ATX Team at the event, awaits the arrival of the Bartolls, alongside Aggressors team members Lamia Loveless, Arado Balanga, Seolla Schweizer and Latooni Subbota. The show director is frustrated the Bartolls are late, until they are finally sighted. However, things do not go accordingly when the Bartolls attack the unveiling site. Elsewhere around the world, Earth Federation Army bases are under attack by more Bartolls, effectively destroying most resistance. On board the Hagane, Captain Tetsuya Onodera orders the SRX Team to prepare a sortie, while the ship descends back into Earth's atmosphere.

At the site of the ATX Team's backwater base, a base personnel responds to Kyosuke that Brooklyn "Bullet" Luckfield just left when he and Excellen returned to resupply their mechs. Excellen correctly deduces that Bullet saw the attack on the televised broadcast, and rushed to the unveiling site in his Grungust Type-3, hoping the Aggressors and Kusuha are safe. While Excellen suggest they go after him, Kyosuke receives a message requesting back-up at a nearby base from a Bartoll attack. As the two hurry towards the conquered area, they enter into their first fray with the Bartolls, quickly destroying the opposition. Excellen comments their opponents were not so tough, but Kyosuke seems certain the enemy has something hidden up their sleeves.

Kyosuke and Excellen catches up with Bullet at the heavily damaged unveiling site, and while Kyosuke chastises Bullet's rash conduct in rushing out without orders, Excellen scans the area, revealing trace amounts of gas, which has all dissipated. Exiting their machines, they search for any survivors and their friends, but find nothing. Kyosuke questions how an attack of this magnitude can be so efficient -- not a single body is found. His analysis is interrupted when more Bartolls arrive at the location. As the ATX Team engages them, the movements and response time of the enemy machines appear to increase, as if the Bartolls are able to read the attacks and maneuvers of each pilot. It becomes difficult to land a hit on the enemy, and things seem out of hand for the ATX Team, until a voice on the communication channel tells the team to pull away the incoming line of turret fire. The Hagane finally arrives, supporting the team with scattered cannon shots, and Ryusei, Rai and Aya deploy in their respective R-1, Real Personal Trooper Type-2 Powered (R-2 Powered) and Real Personal Trooper Type-3 Powered (R-3 Powered) units, reinforcing the ATX Team. Not long into the battle, the Bartolls retreat, leaving behind one unit disabled by Bullet during the fight, and the machine is quickly taken into the Hagane for investigation.

In the hangar bay, engineer Ryoto Hikawa does a thorough search of the captured Bartoll, revealing no emergency switch for the cockpit to open. The pilot inside is not responding either, so a cutting laser is used to force the cockpit open, on orders from Captain Tetsuya. However, the sight of the pilot brings shock to the crew of the ship, as the body of a young woman is suspended by wires from the cockpit, her life extinguished. The crew is astounded, and wonders what exactly could do this, until Earth Federation Army Intelligence Officer Gilliam Yeager appears, stating this is the result of the ODE System...

Episode Two: People = Parts
During a flashback to the Aerogater invasion, Megillots are systemically destroying a city, wiping out its inhabitants. A man is seen holding the body of a woman, grieving the loss of his wife and child. Claiming that if his ODE System was being put to use, none of this would have happened, and ends with a chilling cry...

Back on the Hagane, Gilliam explains to the crew on the origins of the ODE System. Developed by Professor Wilhelm von Juergen, formerly of the Divine Crusaders, he brought the Omni Dendro Encephalon System to Wong Heavy Industries. This networking system allows all units equipped with it to share data and information between one another. With it, an enemy's actions can be calculated and predicted, thus explaining why the Bartolls were able to outmaneuver the ATX Team's attacks. As for the woman found inside the Bartoll, the machine itself requires a living, organic core to function, and Gilliam theorizes the reason why legions of people disappeared is due to the Bartoll's need to acquire more information from their captives, through the ODE System, thereby improving their limitations. On the bridge, operator Rio Mei Long and helmsman Eita Nadaka receives a distress call from the Osaka Federation University and notifies Captain Tetsuya.

At the institution, Bartolls capture students and university staff through a gas that solidifies them, and ships them on transport units to an unknown location. The Hagane arrives at Osaka, and the ATX Team and SRX Team prepares to sortie out. However, Gilliam advises it is best if one team heads to Wong Heavy Industries' main factories and continue investigating there, while the other remains behind and deal with the Bartolls. As such, the ATX Team heads to mainland China where the factories are located, after the Hagane creates a diversion for them, while the SRX Team defends the ship and fights off Bartoll reinforcements in the area.

On their way to the factories, the ATX Team discover more Bartolls, but their attack methods are quite different from previous encounters. Both Kyosuke and Excellen recognize their patterns, concluding they have taken Lamia's piloting data into use. Similarly, the SRX Team is facing the same situation, as hordes of Bartolls swarm in, utilizing Lamia's combat skills. Backed into a corner, Captain Tetsuya allows the SRX Team to form up, and all 3 R-Units combine into the mighty Super Robot Type-X (SRX). With Villeta in the R-Gun Powered, the SRX uses the "Hyper Tronium Buster Cannon" and destroys all but a few Bartools, who escape the line of fire and retreats. Meanwhile, the ATX Team is having difficulty in breaking away from the Bartolls, until Masaki Andoh and his Cybuster appears out of nowhere, eliminating the enemy with a swift "Cyflash". Thanking his support, the team and the Cybuster heads to the factories. Reaching the outskirts of the facilities, Bullet hastily makes it to the factory grounds, but Excellen's scans find no readable life signs. Sensing a trap, Kyosuke orders to pull back immediately; sure enough, the entire area is vaporized by explosives, barely leaving any trace of evidence behind. Distraught at their inability to foresee this, the four mechs rendezvous with the recently arrived Hagane, and report the situation to the crew.

Gilliam's network of information from the Intelligence Division reports a large number of Bartolls congregating at an abandoned mining facility in satellite orbit, and intelligence indicates this is where they are operating from. However, the location dubbed Hellgate will be bombarded with nuclear weapons by the Earth Federation and the space colonies, unless the core of the facility is shut down and the Bartolls made inoperative within 180 minutes. The Hagane is the only ship closest to the Hellgate, and the crew sets out to rescue their imprisoned friends.

At the Hellgate, transported humans are screened and stored in the facility, and deep inside, Kusuha, Arado, Seolla and Latune awaken. Upon realizing they been captured by the Bartolls, they notice Lamia in the distance, physically linked to a Bartoll as an organic core. Suddenly, four Bartolls emerge, and as Kusuha lets out a blood-curling scream, they descend upon the four...

Episode Three: Prisoner of the Maze
The final episode begins with the Hagane under heavy Bartoll attack, and Tetsuya notes they have less than an hour before the nuclear strike is launched. Meanwhile, Lamia is still connected to the ODE System at Hellgate, and recalls a brief conversation with Kyosuke, stating he will be there to destroy her, if she believes she has lost her free will again. Snapping out of the vision, she forces herself out of the ODE System. Back in the battlefield, the Bartolls begin to react slower than usual, and the crew of the Hagane theorize Lamia's combat data has stopped transmitting to the units.

Taking the advantage, Masaki attempts to destroy the Hellgate facility with the Cybuster's "Akashic Buster", but a barrier encompassing the whole facility successfully prevents the attack. With little time remaining, Tetsuya orders Eita to ram the bow of the Hagane towards the barrier, using the ship's "Tronium Buster Cannon". However, the Kurogane battleship appears alongside the Hagane, where Rätsel Feinschmeker commands the ship. Using its "Titanic Drill", the Kurogane breaks the barrier, and as Bartoll reinforcements swarm the ship, Sanger Zonvolt delivers a thunderous swipe of his Dygenguard's "Colossal Blade" and destroys them. With the path to the Hellgate open, the ATX Team and SRX Team rush to facility, while Sanger stays with the ships and provide backup.

As both teams near the facility, five customized Bartolls launch and attack, each equipped with different weaponry than its mass-produced models. Using his Psychodriver powers, Bullet senses Kusuha's presence in one of the five, noting they are equipped with cockpits, though she is temporarily unconscious. While Ryusei states the rest of their friends must be inside the others, one of them attacks and grapples onto Kyosuke's Alt Eisen Riese, and Lamia communicates to her former superior, stating a way to free the rest from Bartool control. However, her words are cut short as she is briefly possessed by Dr. Jurgen, exclaiming the futility of their rescue. Taking his chances, Kyosuke unleashes a hail of the Riese's "Avalanche Claymore", freeing himself, and drives the "Revolving Bunker" into the Bartoll, destroying it, but retrieving Lamia out of harm's way.

As the rest of the teams free Kusuha, Arado, Seolla and Latune from control, Kyosuke has the conscious Kusuha take Lamia back to the Hagane, while the ATX Team and Masaki storm the Hellgate. The SRX Team and the Aggressors stay outside the facility, defeating reinforcements and preventing further Bartoll transports from entering Earth. Encountering more enemy units inside, Bullet and Masaki agree to hold them off, giving Kyosuke and Excellen the chance to evade them. Reaching the core, the two pilots encounter Dr. Jurgen, bound to a lone Bartoll unit, Hellgate's core, insisting he give up. However, the doctor, or rather, its creator, does not respond -- it is the system that has been communicating with them.

Demanding why it's been doing this, the system claims unless humanity unites as one, future alien threats can be easily defeated, with little to no human suffering from the loss of loved ones, what its creator Dr. Jurgen intended. Kyosuke scoffs at the mere idea the sentient ODE system could not accept the realities of war, opting to choose another way out, and Excellen, while reminiscing the loss of her "other self", states casualties of war should not be what stops them from fighting their enemies. Hearing enough, the system summons Bartoll reinforcements in the area, intent on completing its goal. With little time to spare, Excellen provides cover fire and Kyosuke destroys the core. As all the Bartolls begin to cease function, a stream of data is seen bursting out from the facility. On the Hagane, Ryoto notices the data stream and informs Gilliam, who looks on with a puzzled face.

All operations inside the Hellgate have ceased, and Kyosuke and Excellen begin a search and rescue for survivors. The Aggressors and SRX Team reunite on the Hagane, and Sanger and Elzam retreat with the Kurogane, returning to hiding until they are needed again. Back in space, a lone, inoperative Bartoll drifts slowly, as it starts transmitting information to an unknown source...

Connections with Super Robot Wars Original Generations
In the Sony PlayStation 2 remake of the two Original Generation games on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance, Super Robot Wars Original Generations, the bonus segment of the game deals with the events of the OVA, with new content and some taken from the Super Robot Wars Original Generation: The Sound Cinema drama CD.


 * Excellen Browning utilizes the Rein Weiss Ritter, as its reversion was retconned in Original Generations.
 * The ATX Team is not dealing with Wilhelm von Jurgen alone; the Shura, the antagonists of Super Robot Wars Compact 3, make their debut as adversaries, as well as the appearance of Fighter Roar and the Compatible Kaiser, which made its debut in The Great Battle IV.
 * Lamia Loveless' Bartoll is kept inside the Hellgate Facility, instead of being sent to attack the ATX and SRX Teams. However, all appearing characters in the OVA are sent to confront Juergen. Characters who did not appear in the OVA, such as Irmgult Kazahara and Ibis Douglas, also join in the assault.
 * Juergen is not grafted within the core Bartoll unit of the Hellgate Facility; instead, he is inside a Valsion Custom Type-CF, fully piloting the machine and still able to maintain his consciousness.
 * The most drastic change occurs when Kyosuke Nanbu does not successfully rescue Lamia. Right after he ejects her out of the Bartoll, Jurgen delivers a shot towards the Alt Eisen Riese's hand, seemingly aiming for Lamia, who was grasped in its fingers. Thrown out of the reach from the team, the Original Generation characters proclaim a missing-in-action status on Lamia, while they proceed to defeat Jurgen. Just before the final blow can be dealt, Duminuss, the main antagonist of Super Robot Wars Reversal, appears and destroys Jurgen, claiming he has served his purpose. Lamia's fate is later cleared following a reprogamming by Duminuss, turning against her allies.