The work was announced when JVC opened its official website in May 2005, but the fact that it was a robot anime was completely hidden until broadcasting began.

Director Goro Taniguchi asserts that even though the work has a Western-styled appearance, it is not merely a "Western anime," and he deliberately incorporated mechanical elements from the first episode to convey the complexity of the work.

Scriptwriter Hideyuki Kurata wrote this work with homages to the then-popular robot anime, and the influences include not only the robot anime Voltron but also Hollywood films like Independence Day.

The protagonist Van is often compared to Vash the Stampede from Trigun, but while Vash was written as a pacifist warrior, Van is characterized as a "lazy character" who avoids battle.

Episode 13 was intentionally written as the exact midpoint of the narrative, and from that episode onward, the work's style shifts to a more serious and dramatic tone heading toward the climax.

While enemy characters were depicted comically in the first half of the story, to make the main antagonist, the Hooked-Claw Man, stand out, he was given contrasting traits of politeness and murderous intent.

Scriptwriter Hideyuki Kurata, using ideas cultivated through READ OR DIE, attempted to make each episode's enemy characters imposing. Kurata's favorite villain is Lucky the Roulette, whom he describes as the "archetype" of a B-movie villain.

The staff considered that Van and Wendy's story was completely concluded at the narrative's conclusion and judged that a sequel was unnecessary.

Character designer Takahiro Kimura examined numerous similar design proposals during the design process for Van, but the designs for Wendy and Carmen were determined more quickly. The overall character design work took approximately half a year.

The ending theme "S.O.S" from Episode 17 is a cover of the same-titled song by Pink Lady, sung by four voice actors of Carmen, Wendy, Yukiko, and Priscilla.

The "99" in Carmen 99's alias is said to derive from her bust size or the number of mysteries surrounding her, and the name itself was named after Pink Lady's hit song "Carmen '77."

The name Chiduru, the lone female member of the Eldra Team, originates from the character Chizuru Minagohara who appears in Super Electromagnetic Robo Combattler V.

In Animage's "28th Anime Grand Prix," the work itself ranked 47th in the Grand Prix work category, protagonist Van ranked 37th in the male character category, heroine Wendy ranked 65th in the female character category, and the opening theme ranked 89th in the anime song category.

The sales of the Blu-ray BOX released in 2017 were 4,818 copies in Japan.

This work also appears in the Super Robot Wars series; in 2009's Super Robot Wars K, it did not yet have voice acting, but in 2019's Super Robot Wars T, it participated with voices for the first time, and in 2021's Super Robot Wars 30, the setting of the planetary stage Endless Illusion was replaced with Mars.