In the 28th century, a system malfunction sends the cargo ship Xebec through a warp gate to the distant planet of Garaga. After making a crash landing, the crew are forced to contend with a local genocidal war, giant monsters, military intrigue, and a civilization of powerful psychics.

One can look back at the anime features of 1989 and feel comfortably impressed. It was a year that included some all-time animated classics such as Kiki’s Delivery Service and Patlabor, as well as a number of popular hits at the time which managed to be exported to the nascent English-speaking anime fandom in the USA, UK, and Australia. Mention Riding Bean or Venus Wars to a certain generation of fan and you’re likely to see a flash of recognition; even more so if you dare mention the contentious but widely distributed Legend of the Overfiend from that same year.

You are not likely to see the same response to Garaga, as it was named in its brief American VHS release, or Hyper Psychic Geo Garaga, to give a blunt translation of its Japanese title. It is a science fiction film, originally produced as a low-budget OVA (original video animation) but given a last-minute funding boost and edit to become a theatrical release. Its obscurity is testament to its quality. This is absolute bottom of the barrel stuff.

I have long held the belief that a great script can overcome pretty much any fault in production or performance, but a well-made film with a bad script is pretty much going to fail creatively no matter how much glitter it is rolled in. The screenplay here is risible, with Hideki and Hidemi Kubo sharing both writing and directing duties. The story staggers through a series of twists and turns, as one antagonist after another is introduced and then seemingly discarded in favour of someone else. At first there are giant monsters. Then there are cybernetically modified apes with guns. Then a psychic warrior princess shows up. Then the bulk of the cargo ship crew are revealed to be a crack military infiltration team. It never seems to let up, and it never builds into something interesting.

The design work feels at least a solid half decade out of date. The actual animation is shockingly poor with limited detail, off-putting character models, and weirdly distorted bodies. If Garaga had remained an OVA such shoddy production values might have sufficed, but this was a theatrical released film. There is a bottom-level expectation that the Kubo siblings entirely fail to meet.

It is always worth checking out obscure or unknown titles, because there is always the chance of finding something worthy or interesting. Sadly the cost of the search is films like Garaga. It is not simply a bad film, but a boring one. It deserves to remain obscure.