Kishin Corps

📖 SYNOPSIS

The year is 1941, aliens have invaded Earth, and the Axis and Allies are too busy fighting each other to care. That's the setup for Kishin Corps, a 7-episode OVA from 1993 that plays like someone smashed Indiana Jones into a mecha anime and set the whole thing during World War II.

Teenager Taishi Takamura is on the run across Manchuria, hunted by both Nazi agents and the Japanese Imperial Army. His late father, a scientist, left him a mysterious alien control module, and everyone wants it. After a tense train escape in the first episode, Taishi gets pulled into the Kishin Corps — a covert multinational unit operating massive dieselpunk mechas reverse-engineered from captured alien tech. These aren't your sleek Gundam-style robots. They're hulking, clunky war machines that look like they belong on a 1940s battlefield, all rivets and heavy plating. It rules.

The thing that makes this work is the three-way conflict. You've got humanity split between Axis and Allies who refuse to cooperate, plus an alien force that outclasses both sides technologically. The geopolitics stay messy and interesting throughout.

If you liked Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still or the retro-military aesthetic of Sakura Wars, this scratches a similar itch. Fans of First Squad: The Moment of Truth will also find a lot to appreciate here. It's classic 90s hand-drawn animation with genuine pulp adventure energy — espionage, chases, and giant robots punching aliens in an alternate-history WWII. Pretty specific niche, but if that's your thing, this delivers.