Overman King Gainer (OVERMANキングゲイナー, Ōbāman Kingu Geinā) is a mecha anime television series, created and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, written by Ichirō Ōkouchi, and featuring character designs by Yoshihiro Nakamura, Kinu Nishimura and Ken'ichi Yoshida.
Following the 2012 closure of Bandai Entertainment, Sunrise announced at Otakon 2013, that Sentai Filmworks has acquired Overman King Gainer, along with a handful of other former BEI titles.
[1] The setting and plot of Overman King Gainer are a loose adaptation of the novel series La Compagnie des glaces by the French writer Georges-Jean Arnaud.
[2] After an environmental cataclysm, much of the world's population retreated into domed cities called Domepolis, which are run by an organization known as "London IMA" (International Management Authority) and its police arm, "Saint Regan".
The story begins in a Domepolis in Siberia, where championship video game player Gainer Sanga is arrested by Siberian Railroad policewoman Adette Kistler on suspicion of being an Exodus member.
Ironically he isn't, but his friends Sara Kodama and Bello Korissha along with his schoolteacher Mamado Azaf are members of the Gauli team, a militia unit of the local Exodus group.
As Gainer gets the hang of piloting a real Overman, he and Gain encounter shut-in Princess Anna, the Duke's daughter, who supports the Exodus and wants to see the world and people other than her tutor, Lioubov Smettana.
Other obstacles to the Exodus are Kistler's and Jin's subordinates Jaboli Mariela, Kejinan Datto, and Enge Gam, Siberian Railroad president Kizz Munt, Saint Regan policemen Asuham Boone and Zakki Bronco, and Overman aces Cynthia Lane and Kashmir Valle.
He lived his days as a high school truant and online gaming champion before meeting Gain Bijou, an Exodus specialist under the captivity of the Siberian Railway forces.
Gainer initially opposes the Yapan Exodus, but through a series of coincidences and his connections with Gain and Sara, he suddenly finds himself soldiering for their cause.
This is eventually revealed to be because King Gainer is actually part of the same class of Overman as the legendary Overdevil, which makes it capable of using the Overfreeze and Overheat Overskills.
Sara Kodama is a diligent high school student and member of the Gauli Squad, a rebel soldier faction which supports the Yapan Exodus.
He later pilots the pseudo-Overman known as Emperanza, which is built from both Overman and Silhouette Machine parts, including the salvaged left arm of Brunhilde.
Gain quickly thwarts her attempt, and with nowhere else to go, she begrudgingly starts a new life on the Exodus as a high school teacher for Gainer and Sara's class.
She eventually begins commanding a troop of Exodus soldiers fanatically devoted to her, piloting a Dorbeck-type Silhouette Machine painted in her signature red.
Initially Gainer's online gaming buddy with the handle "Queen," Cynthia is actually an elite Siberian Railway soldier, raised and favored by Kizz Munt.
Her trademark whimsy and inability to take things seriously comes with major consequences, as she ends up hurting a Gainer later in the series during a friendly piloting competition between Overmen.
The Operations Director of the Siberian Railway, a flamboyant man obsessed with maintaining the perfect "diagram," meeting any deviations to his meticulous scheduling with unchecked rage.