The very first line of the opener should serve as a warning about what you're getting into here. It translates as “turn your roaring libido into strength,” and that fully embodies the essence of the show, for better or worse. In other words, this is a sexually-charged parody of classic giant robot shows, even down to the old-school musical stylings of its opener and the suggestive announcements of the narrator in the Next Episode previews. If the “sexually-charged” part of that is not normally your thing then run far, far away from this one, as in some episodes literally half the dialog in English is double-entendres.

On the plus side, the series does do a pretty good job of thoroughly skewering giant robot series. It doesn't miss a single opportunity, whether it is the ridiculous ways that they get powered, how misshapen they sometimes look, the collateral damage they deal (and the way the public gets turned against them because of that), the way they sometimes pop up out of the ground anywhere, the bombastic speech patterns common in the genre, or the overblown melodrama which is also all-too-common in such series. It even pokes fun at a classic giant robot death scene (although that actually being a parody, too, does not become apparent until much later in the series) and at the odd, ill-defined nature of the enemy forces.

Beyond that, enjoying the series comes down to a matter of taste – or, perhaps more accurately, either not having any or being able to disengage it. The series is crude, rude, and socially unacceptable on a number of levels, especially in the lengths it goes to in demeaning women. Even for those who may not normally be very sensitive to the way anime fan service can objectify women, some of the content here can be uncomfortable; I often found myself cringing at the way Kyoko got treated. And yes, this goes well beyond just the normal breast fondling (none of it is accidental or playful here, and yes, that absolutely puts more of an edge on it), juvenile verbal pokes at breasts, and sexy displays. The series tries to balance that out some by making Ritz an especially empowered character, but at times that can simply mean that no one takes advantage of her without her being a willing and enthusiastic participant.

When not being edgy, the series can be funny in a dumb and perverse way. One of the more amusing scenes involves Ritz graphically reading a vacuum cleaner manual to the public (and the way they react to it), some of the cutesy antics of Kiriko and her boyfriend can be good for a chuckle (in fact, the series is generally better when focusing on her instead of Koichi), and of course there's the whole business with the “front tails” of the Penguin Commandos. Once in a while it pulls off an inspired bit of humor, such as how it makes a subtle joke out of Ritz sounding way too old for her age in one flashback scene, and the way Ritz integrates in with the Penguin Emperor and Penguin Commandos just like they're one big family can even be a little charming. That's good, because the series falls apart almost anytime it actually tries to take itself seriously. This is most evident in one late plot twist that is nonsensical even by this series' standards; in fact, the last couple of episodes in general are one big hot mess of storytelling.

On the technical front, Daimidaler is one of the rare examples of a series which starts off pretty awful but actually gets better as it progresses. The animation in early episodes is extremely limited at times, such as a few scenes where birds are shown supposedly flying but they are clearly just stills being moved across the screen. The animation stumbles also happen later on, such as one scene where even the audio commentators mention that a character looks like he's running in place rather than actually advancing towards his foes, but they are less pervasive than early on. Clearly most of whatever limited budget the series may have had was saved for the mecha action and fan service, both of which are articulated much better than anything else. The frequency of nudity and lingerie shots is almost on par with a top-end harem series, as is the quality; the designers seemed to have paid particular attention to varying the shapes of breasts as well as the size, which is a detail that often gets overlooked in nudity-heavy series. The giant robot designs show a nearly equal amount of love and attention, especially in some transformation scenes.

The musical score is about what you would expect for a series which immerses itself in its giant robot heritage: full of drama and bombast. Opener “Kenzen Robo Daimidaler” is an ode to the classic passionate, hyped-up sound of many a giant robot series from ages past, while closer “Suki Suki//Links” is more notable for the cross-section visuals it provides for Daimidaler's base.

The English dub practically makes this into a different series, as it loads and twists the dialog with all manner of sexual slang and references and other kinds of jokes that were only vaguely suggested or not there at all in the Japanese version. This goes a long way towards making the content less tedious, but it does significantly change the feel of the show compared to the more straight-faced approach taken in Japanese. That shift is also reflected in casting choices and vocal performances, all of which are at least pretty good as long as you are judging more on performance quality than how accurately they capture the essences of the original performances.

Funimation's main release of the title is their standard Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack, with all four disks coming in a single slipcover-enclosed case. The main on-disk Extras are a set of six short, dubbed OVAs, all of which are (of course) extra-heavy on the fan service and, on average, a little funnier than the regular episode content. Also present are clean opener and closer; assorted series commercials, trailers, and promos; clean opener and closer; and English audio commentaries for episodes 3 and 8. The only interesting details that come out of those are that Funimation jacks up the dubs on series like this in part because of differences in comedy delivery style between Western and Japanese comedy and that Tessa Ellory, the newcomer who voices Ritz, is British – and boy, you would not guess that based on her dub performance, so her voice in the episode 3 commentary is a shock.

Despite its giant robot elements, Daimidaler is ultimately at least as much of a bottomfeeding humor effort as the raunchiest harem romantic comedies. It has to be appreciated (or not) on that basis, as it really does not have much else going for it.