UFO Robo Grendizer TV Cover circa 1975

The 6th super robot TV production creation by Go Nagai.   Again, it’s helmed as one of his great super robot anime works since produced for television in those days.  I really loved it.

Though I remembered watching it on a different production crew ie the American version.  They renamed it as the Force Five Series and this is one of the series that came out from this.  I’d better check this one up before I give everybody the full story.

Here’s excerpt from the Wikipedia.org and MyAnimeList.

UFO Robot Grendizer (UFOロボ·グレンダイザー, sometimes romanized as UFO Robo Grendizer) is a super robot TV anime and manga created by manga artist Go Nagai. It was broadcast on Japanese television from October 5, 1975, to February 27, 1977, and lasted 74 episodes. The robot’s first appearance in the United States was as a part of the Shogun Warriors line of super robot toys imported in the late 1970s by Mattel, then in Jim Terry’s Force Five series, both under the title Grandizer. It is still widely popular in the Middle East and was especially popular in continental Europe and in the province of Quebec under the title, “Goldorak.”

Synopsis

The Vega homeworld has become unstable due to the exploiting of Vegatron, a powerful radioactive ore. Seeking to expand his militaristic empire and find a substitute planet to settle upon, the ruthless King Vega unleashes his armies — composed of flying saucers and giant robotic monsters — and turns first against neighbors such as Fleed, a highly advanced but peaceful world. In a tragically ironic twist, the invaders’ blitzkrieg turns against them: the once verdant, idyllic Fleed is turned into a radioactive wasteland. Too late, the only known survivor of the royal family, Prince Duke Fleed, manages to steal the Grendizer, the robotic embodiment of the Fleedian God of War, from the Vegan invaders who plan to use it to spearhead their invasion fleet. Grendizer is a giant robot that interfaces with Spazer, a flying saucer that enables the robot to fly.

Fleeing Vegan space by flying at faster than light speed, Duke enters our solar system and switches course to Earth, making a rough landing in Japan, on the slopes of Mount Fuji. He is befriended by Doctor Umon, a noted scientist who oversees a research laboratory called the Space Science Lab near a small ranch. The kindly Umon takes in the young humanoid alien as his son, under the assumed name of Daisuke, and assists him in hiding Grendizer. Taking the name Daisuke Umon, Duke Fleed works at the ranch run by Danbei Makiba (based on Abashiri Daemon of Go Nagai’s manga Abashiri Ikka).

Roughly two years later, Kouji Kabuto returns to Japan after studying abroad in a flying saucer he personally designed and built (called the TFO). He heads to the Space Science Lab after hearing of multiple sightings of “flying saucers”. He plans to contact the aliens if possible and make peace with them. Daisuke, however, scoffs at the notion and fears that these aliens, the Vegans, led by generals Blaki and Gandal, are preparing to attack Earth. Kouji ignores his warnings and flies out to meet the incoming saucers, only to discover the horrible truth. In order to save Kouji and protect his adoptive homeworld from destruction, Daisuke is forced to return to his true identity as Duke Fleed. He unearths Grendizer from its hiding place under the lab and sets off to fight his enemies.

The Vegans establish a base on the dark side of the moon and start to attack Earth from there. Kouji discovers Duke Fleed’s true identity and their bitter rivalry soon turns to friendship. The daughter of Danbei Makiba, Hikaru, also discovers Daisuke’s secret and becomes a pilot in order to assist him despite his objections. Later on, it is revealed that there were two more survivors from planet Fleed: Duke’s younger sister Maria Grace Fleed and a man who had rescued her and fled to Earth, raising her under the guise of her grandfather. Caught in a crossfire between Grendizer and a Vegan beast, he reveals to Maria that she is the last survivor of the royal family of Fleed (under the belief that Duke was killed) before dying from his wounds. Maria swears revenge on Grendizer and its pilot. She tries to ambush Duke, Kouji and Hikaru at the Space Science Lab, but the fight is short lived. Maria’s attacks brings Duke’s necklace (which is the same as the one she wore) into view and the truth is revealed. The lost siblings are reunited at last and Maria becomes the last addition to the team.

As the conflict nears the end, it is shown that Duke Fleed was engaged to King Vega’s daughter, Princess Rubina, prior to the attack on Fleed. When Rubina discovers that planet Fleed is no longer polluted with Vegatron radiation and that her fiancé is alive and well, she rushes to Earth to bring him the good news. Unfortunately, one of King Vega’s generals uses this opportunity to ambush Duke Fleed, and Rubina is killed when she takes a shot aimed at Duke. This makes Duke even more determined to wipe out the Vegan menace once and for all.

King Vega decides to gather his remaining forces and make an all-out attack on Earth, destroying the Moon Base to coax his troops into fighting to the end and finally succeed in invading Earth and taking it as their new home planet. Duke and company go out to intercept them in Grendizer and the newly-designed space combat Spazers. After a fierce battle, they finally manage to destroy the Vegan mothership along with King Vega himself. Soon afterwards, Duke and Maria bid a tearful farewell to Earth and their friends and return to help reconstruct planet Fleed.

TV Opening Theme – Grendizer

Production

The original concept was shown in a 1975 30-minute pilot movie War of the Flying Saucers. The movie had the same basic plot, with a few changes: Daisuke appears as the Professor’s biological son, the enemy was Princess Teronna from Planet Yarban, and the robot’s original name was Gattaiger (gattai is Japanese for “combine”). The series, which started later the same year, is considered another sequel to the Mazinger series, partly because of the inclusion of Mazinger Z’s pilot Koji Kabuto, and having giant robots, which made it a “Super Robot” mecha anime.

The Grendizer robot and Daisuke have been included in two short Go Nagai cross-over features: UFO Robot Grendizer vs. Great Mazinger, and Great Mazinger, Grendizer, Getter Robot G: Decisive Showdown! Great Sea Beast., in which the various super-robots combine forces to take on the seemingly indestructible Dragonsaurus which emerges from the sea and proceeds to destroy Tokyo; even Boss Borot makes an appearance.

Grendizer is best remembered as one of the first anime shows to have a huge success in Europe and Canada, particularly in France and Quebec (titled Goldorak), Italy and Malta (titled Goldrake), where it holds a strong following even today. Grendizer was also one of the most popular anime series ever shown in Arabic countries. Grandizer is also popular in Russia.

The French version of the show has the characters named after stars, planets and galaxies: Duke Fleed becomes Actarus (from the star Arcturus), as both his alien and Earth name; Kouji Kabuto is Alcor, Doctor Umon is Professeur Procyon etc. The Italian version, which uses the French adaptation, uses almost all the same names.

Although set in Japan, which can be seen from the air on several occasion, the series was given an American Western feel by including a ranch where Duke Fleed and Kouji Kabuto would work in their spare time. The ranch owner, Danbei Makiba, and his children would dress in cowboy/girl outfits (though they also appeared in traditional Japanese clothes on occasion) and even had a neighbour who wore a Mexican sombrero. In spite of this the series was not a success in the US. Only twenty-six episodes of Grendizer were shown on American TV as part of the multi-mecha show Force Five, out of the total of 74 in the original series. Many character’s names were changed: Grendizer spelling was changed to Grandizer; Duke Fleed was Orion Quest, and his alias was Johnny Bryant; Planet Fleed’s name was changed to Antares, and so on. This corresponds to the first season and story arc (ending with the death of one of the main villains, who is replaced afterwards). Although Mazinger Z was later imported to the United States, Kouji’s character appearing in both Tranzor Z and Grandizer was not acknowledged.

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The Mazinger Z sequel, also produced by Go Nagai.  A slightly stronger version of Mazinger Z with many mechanical functions that are superior to Mazinger Z’s fighting abilities (see weapons statistics below).

Said to be not as successful as the original series.  For its obvious reason since we never seen much return of the original characters.  Personally, it does ruin the entire process of enjoying the Mazinger Z franchise, when fans of the orginal series were really pinning hope of getting Kabuto Koji and his gang to ready to take on world of baddies.  Not much a good move.  But hey! It’s still remembered as one of Nagai’s great works.

Here’s the excerpt descrption of the series (sourced from Wikipedia.org)

Great Mazinger (グレートマジンガー Gurēto Majingā?) is a manga comic book and anime television series by manga artist Go Nagai, made as a direct continuation of the successful Mazinger Z series. It was aired on Japan in 1974, immediately following the end of the first Mazinger series. It lasted for 56 episodes.

Synopsis

The story centers on Tetsuya Tsurugi (剣 鉄也 Tsurugi Tetsuya?), an orphan raised by none other than Kenzo Kabuto (兜 剣造 Kabuto Kenzō?), the once thought dead father of Mazinger Z pilot Kouji Kabuto. Kenzo Kabuto is the creator of the new, improved version of Mazinger, made by refining his father’s Chogokin Z (Super Alloy Z) into a new, stronger form, designed to fight against humanity’s new enemy, the Mikenese Empire, led by the Great General of Darkness and his army of Warrior Beasts. Kenzo gives the Great Mazinger to Tetsuya to pilot, who is accompanied by a new token girl, Jun Hono (an orphaned half Japanese, half black girl), in her female robot Venus A.

Both Great Mazinger’s and Tetsuya’s training are completed just in time to come to Kouji’s aid as the Mycene Battle Beasts overwhelm Mazinger Z. With the original Mazinger destroyed, Kouji went to America to study space travel and left Japan’s defense in the hands of Tetsuya and the Fortress of Science. Tetsuya battles the Mycene Battle Beasts and even their mighty generals, cumulating in a bitter final battle with the Mycene’s military leader, Ankoku Daishogun (Great General of Darkness). After the Great General of Darkness’ defeat, the Mycene forces are led by Doctor Hell, the villain from Mazinger Z, back under the guise of the Great Marshall of Hell.

The series also includes some cast members the original Mazinger Z show, like Shiro Kabuto (Kouji’s little brother), and comic-relief robot Boss Borot. The series was not as successful in Japan as the original, and it was never shown in the United States. It was however shown unedited and in its entirety, like Mazinger Z, in Italy, Mexico and some other Latin American countries with great success, and occasionally footage from Great Mazinger’s sole appearance in the final episode of Mazinger Z would be shown in Tranzor Z.

Great Mazinger was also the star of the short theatrical “team-up movies” features released in Japan like Great Mazinger versus Grendizer, Great Mazinger versus Getter Robo G, etc., based on anime crossovers of the manga creations of Go Nagai.

Tetsuya and the Great Mazinger are featured, along with Jun in the Mazinkaiser OVA and movie Mazinkaiser: Death match! Ankoku Daishogun. The characters have been also a mainstay in Banpresto’s Super Robot Wars, a popular battle-simulation/RPG series of video games based on many anime mecha shows, including the original Mazinger Z and many others like Getter Robo, the Gundam series, and Neon Genesis Evangelion among others. Tetsuya also appears in Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z Hen.

Tetsuya also pilots an earlier version of Mazinger Z called Energer Z

Great Mazinger Z TV Opening

Statistics
Power Source: Photonic Energy
Armor Materials: Chogokin New Z (New Super-Alloy Z)
Dimensions
*Height: 25 meters
*Weight: 32 tons
*Neck Circumference: 6.2 meters
*Chest Circumference: 18.5 meters
*Arm Circumference: 6.5 meters
*Leg Circumference: 7 meters
*Arm Length: 9.8 meters
*Leg Length: 13 meters
*Foot Length: 4 meters (approximate)
Performance
*Walking Speed: 70 km/h
*Running Speed: 450 km/h
*Swimming Speed: 25 knots
*Flight Speed: Mach 4
*Flight Speed (docked with Great Booster): Mach 5
*Ceiling: 50 km
*Maximum Jump Height: 30 meters
*Maximum Dive Depth: 8 km
*Output: 90,000 horsepower

Weapons and Attacks
Navel Missile
Just like Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger mounts a missile launcher in its stomach.

Atomic Punch
Great Mazinger also possesses a Rocket Punch-like attack, though its fists spin while in flight, giving them extra force.

Drill Pressure Punch
It is like the Atomic Punch, except that the forearms sprout drill-like blades that add to the damage as well as the speed of rotation.

Great Boomerang
Great Mazinger can take the heat sink fin off of its chest and throw it as a giant boomerang.

Scramble Cutter
Just like Mazinger Z’s Scrander Cutter, Great Mazinger slashes the enemy with the Scrander’s wings while flying at high speeds.

Great Typhoon
Just like Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger uses turbines to generate powerful wind attacks. However, Great Mazinger’s attack is simply a wind-based attack, lacking the corrosive properties of Mazinger’s attack.

Knee Impulse Kick
Great Mazinger can sprout a spike from its knee, making its kick attacks more lethal.

Backspin Kick
Great Mazinger can also sprout a curved blade on the front of its leg for stronger kicks.

Mazinger Blade
The flanged compartments on Great Mazinger’s legs hold a pair of swords. Tetsuya typically uses the Blades for melee combat, but on several occasions he threw them at the enemy.

Breast Burn
Like Mazinger Z, the fin on Great Mazinger’s chest doubles as a heat sink and a weapon, unleashing incredible thermal energy.

Thunder Break
Great Mazinger can release energy into the atmosphere, stimulating the process that creates natural lightning. Great Mazinger then calls the lightning down onto the antennae on its head and redirects the energy towards an enemy. In the Super Robot Wars series, Tetsuya can perform this alongside the Grendizer’s Space Thunder or another Great Mazinger unit’s Thunder Break to perform the Double Lightning Buster.

Thunder Blade
A one-time attack where Tetsuya channeled the lightning from the Thunder Break through one of his Mazinger Blades.

Double Thunder Break
Similar to Thunder Break but Great Mazinger uses both hands to redirect the lightning.

Breast Burn Special
Basically a powered-up Breast Burn, almost akin to the Kaiser Nova of Mazinkaiser but with detrimental effects to Great Mazinger. Used in the manga to destroy Gilgilgan from within.

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3. The “father” of all the super robot genre (and, arguably, real robot)

One of the great super robot produce in the 2000s.  Quite a major hit I must say after watching it online.  I reckon it’s a certain must-have for those who are seriously looking for good quality mecha anime for a very long while.  Especially for a show that’s quite smart in blending both elements of super and real robot genres under one roof.   It couldn’t have performed so well if it wasn’t for this ‘groundbreaking’ success.  I strongly recommend for everyone to watch it.  It comes with plenty of great use of humor, mind-blowing action sequences, stupendous special effects, characters with incredible range of personalities we all could get used to love (or hate!!) and incredible foray of characters.

For those wanting to learn more about this show, here’s the info from Wikipedia.org and MyAnimelist.net.

Synopsis:
Gurren Lagann takes place in a fictional future in which human beings have been forced under Earth’s surface and live in isolated subterranean civilizations. These “villages” have no contact with the surface world or other villages.

Giha Village, one of the underground villages, regularly experiences earthquakes; because these earthquakes damage infrastructure, the village must constantly extend deeper into the earth—individuals relegated to this task are known as “Diggers”. Giha Village is the home of Simon, a fourteen-year-old digger who was orphaned when his parents were killed in an earthquake. Although Simon is respected by the village elders as the best of the diggers, he is ostracized by his peers. Simon discovers a special drill key deep in the ground and is soon recruited by an eccentric fellow orphan named Kamina into his group, the “Gurren Brigade”. Kamina dreams of the surface world, which he once visited as a child, though he had to return home as he was too young to survive there.

After a failed attempt at reaching the surface, Kamina is jailed by the village elder. Simon resumes digging, only to discover “a big face” deep in his tunnel. As he excitedly fetches Kamina to show him the discovery, Simon is also caught by the village elder. Kamina’s punishment is interrupted by the collapse of the ceiling over Giha Village, as an enormous mecha falls into the cavern. A woman named Yoko appears and tries to repel the machine with a large rifle. Simon takes Kamina and Yoko to the “big face” he found earlier and discovers that the small drill key can be used to activate it. Named “Lagann”, he uses it to destroy the invading mecha and effectively break through to the surface.

Once on the surface, Simon and Kamina discover there are more large mechas known as “Gunmen” (piloted by “Beastmen”) that terrorize the surface dwellers during the day. Simon and Kamina volunteer to help Yoko and her village; during the ensuing battle Kamina captures a gunmen and names it “Gurren” (meaning “crimson lotus”). Eventually, Simon and Kamina decide to embark on a journey to end the constant struggle between the Beastmen and humans, and are initially accompanied by Yoko and Leeron, a mechanic from Yoko’s village. As they head out to find the headquarters of the Beastmen’s Human Eradication Army, the group encounters various Beastmen warriors including the vicious beastman Viral.

Along the way, Simon and the others are joined by more humans, including the “Black Siblings”, led by Kittan, and Rossiu, a strict young man from an underground village, to form the “Dai (meaning “large” or “great”) Team Gurren”.

Team Dai-Gurren form a plan to hijack the giant fortress Gunmen the Beastmen have been using as a local base of operations. Kamina plans for Simon to steal the Gunmen using the Lagann. Later that night, while Kamina is talking, Yoko kisses him, and he reciprocates. Unseen, Simon follows Yoko and witnesses the event. This causes Simon a significant amount of psychological trauma and consequently he is distracted during the final battle, contributing to the death of his “brother”, Kamina.

Team Dai-Gurren continue on, adding the daughter of the king of the Beastmen, Nia, to their ranks, and encountering and defeating the remaining generals of the Human Eradication Army. They eventually reach the capital of the Beastmen and defeat the Beastmen’s king, Lordgenome. However, in doing so Simon learns of the power of the Spiral, and the destruction that it could cause. Lordgenome was once a spiral warrior who fought against the “Anti-Spirals” and failed. To preserve human kind, he forced all humans to live underground and keep their population to a minimum so they would not alert the anti-spirals to their presence.

The second half of the series takes place seven years later. Led by Simon and members of Team Dai-Gurren, mankind has become prosperous. Though all seems well, once one million humans have repopulated the surface, the anti-spirals arrive and begin attacking the humans, and Nia is suddenly transformed into their messenger. The conflict escalates, causing infighting within the Dai-Gurren members in the new capital government, and panic in the world’s population when it is learned that the anti-spirals have begun their plan to eradicate all life by crashing the moon into the earth. Simon, along with the rest of the Team and his old rival, Viral, lead the battle to defeat the Anti-Spirals and save Earth, first by averting the moon disaster, and then by confronting the anti-spirals in their home pocket dimension.

However, in destroying the Anti-Spiral, Nia’s fate is sealed. She holds onto life long enough to marry Simon before crumbling to dust. Simon then passes his core drill on to a new generation and spends the rest of his life wandering the earth as a nameless vagrant, while the human race begins to contact its fellow Spiral races throughout the galaxy.

Main characters
Simon (シモン Shimon?)
Simon is a fourteen year-old digger from Giha village. Although he is initially looked down upon because of it, Simon excels at drilling through the ground, and the drill quickly becomes his trademark symbol. One day, he finds a mysterious drill-shaped item, which is later revealed to be the “Core Drill” for a head-shaped Gunmen he also finds buried in the soil. With the help of the small Gunmen, Kamina, and Yoko, he fights off a much larger Gunmen that falls into the village. In the process of defeating the invader, they reach the surface world. Prior to the time-skip, Simon is mostly depicted as merely following Kamina’s lead and often acting as a counter-balance to Kamina’s impulsiveness, due to being very timid and weak. He is also shown to be somewhat jealous of Kamina’s strength of character. His personality changes to be more like that of Kamina, as he acquires his own fighting spirit and determination. His Gunmen “Lagann” has the power to produce drills from seemingly nowhere, which is handy, since they’re Simon’s weapon of choice. He can also produce a massive drill from the bottom to combine with Kamina’s Gurren to produce “Gurren Lagann” a much more powerful Gunmen.
Kamina (カミナ Kamina?)
Kamina is a young man from Giha Village who dreams of leaving the village and go to the surface, which he saw as a child. Ultimately, he can be summed up as “arrogant”. He is very passionate about his goals, expressing his wishes through energetic speeches which seem to affect all those who hear them. Kamina believes that with his manliness and honor, he can do anything he feels like, saying such quotes as “Go beyond the impossible and kick reason to the curb!” and “Who the hell do you think I am?!”. The leader of the “Team Gurren ” he convinces Simon to aid him in his plan to drill through the roof of the village and get to the world above, but the plan fails and he is imprisoned. After defeating an invading Gunmen, he leaves the village with Simon and Yoko in the cockpit of a tiny but powerful Gunmen Simon unearths and Kamina names “Lagann”. He is extremely impulsive, and sometimes acts with little regard for his life. His plans are rarely well thought-out, often relying solely on brute strength and determination to win, but for some strange reason or another, they seem to work most of the time. It is revealed that Kamina’s impulsive confidence is mostly a show to give Simon the courage to act, telling his “Bro” (they aren’t actually brothers, but share such a close relationship that he insists they call each other such) “Simon, believe in yourself. Not in the Simon that you believe in, and not in the Simon that I believe in either. Believe in the Simon who believes in you.” Kamina never lives to see his dream of freeing the human race come to fruition as he is killed in battle while trying to seize the giant Gunman Dai-Gunzan.
Yoko Littner (ヨーコ・リットナー Yōko Rittonā?)
Yoko is a young woman from Giha’s neighboring village of Ritona. She had been tracking the Gunmen, which subsequently crashed through the surface and into Giha. She wields an extensive arsenal of weapons and has substantial experience fighting the enemy. She uses her outstanding soldiering skills and wise counsel to advance the war of liberation. She wears short shorts and a bikini top: as she states in episode 5, she avoids clothing which restricts her movement in combat situations. In early episodes, it is shown that she has feelings for Kamina. Due to her looks, several characters are instantly attracted to her including Simon and Kamina. She loves children and has a dream to become an elementary school teacher.
Nia Teppelin (ニア・テッペリン Nia Tepperin?)
Nia is a mysterious young girl found by Simon sleeping in a capsule in the middle of a dump site. She has had no prior contact with humans except her father. She is very curious, pure and innocent, because of a sheltered childhood in a peaceful environment away from all the battles occurring in the outside world, and because she had only recently gained sentience. During her travels with the Dai-Gurren Brigade, she discovers the harsh realities of the world and has a very close relationship with Simon throughout the story. The two fall in love, Simon proposing to her immediately after the time-skip, before discovering she is an agent for the Anti-Spirals and is being forced by another personality (Messenger Nia) to fight against Simon, ultimately fighting against her other self and regaining control of her body.

Gurren Lagan Mecha

Gurren Lagann

The Gurren Lagann (グレンラガン Guren Ragan?), the titular mech of the series, is piloted jointly by two pilots for most of the story, with the Lagann portion always operated by the series’ main protagonist Simon and the Gurren piloted by Kamina initially and then various other characters after his death. The mech was originally formed as a hotblooded response from Kamina to the Enki’s initial two-headed configuration. Later in the series the land-bound Gurren Lagann merges with another unnamed enemy Gunmen and gains a permanent set of wings. After the Battle of Tepplin, the Gurren Lagann is seen as a symbol of humanity’s triumph, and later, after the AntiSpirals, preserved as one of the last true Gunman and the personal machine of Gimmy and Darry.

Its powers and fighting capabilities are almost entirely based on its ability to generate drills of greatly varying size, shape and usage from multiple points on its body. Over the course of the series Gurren Lagann produced dozens of different uses for its drills, ranging from projectiles and missiles to shields, water screws and various melee applications. The most powerful attack seen used by Gurren Lagann is the Giga Drill Break and its variants, where the pilot forms a huge amount of spiral energy into an enormous drill or number of drills bigger than the mech itself. This special trait and its status as a fused machine (with two exceptionally spirited pilots) makes it one of, if not, the most powerful entity of its size seen in the series.

Its additional abilities shown in the series include a durable energy shield, which can deflect energy blasts even at short range, the ability to wield the sunglasses on the Gurren’s chest as a melee weapon (a sword or boomerang usually), a short-term regenerative function which can restore accumulated damage for the duration of the Gurren and the Lagann’s union and the power to rip open a wormhole in space to travel great distances.

Lagann

The Lagann (ラガン Ragan?) is Simon’s personal Gunmen which he finds in the first episode while digging tunnels in his village. It received its name, Lagann (羅顔), meaning “enveloping face”, from Kamina and draws power from the Core Drill, a small golden drill Simon uses similar to an ignition key. Unlike any other Gunmen in the series, the Lagann sports a unique cockpit and stands just short of an average human adult as opposed to the others which are all mostly the sizes of small buildings or larger. This physical handicap, in tandem with the usually average level of fighting spirit supplied to it by Simon, puts the Lagann at a considerable disadvantage in single combat against enemy Gunmen. However, when Simon is driven to give his best during combat the Lagann’s power increases exponentially, giving it the unique ability to generate drills from nearly any part of its frame. Lagann’s other and most notable power is the “Lagann Impact”, its trademark ability to combine with other machines by piercing them with its drills. It is through this ability that the titular Gurren Lagann is created, along with the other more large-scale mechas in the series. Physically, Lagann resembles a large statue-like head with arms and legs.

In Gurren Lagann Parallel Works episode 8, it is revealed that the first Laganns were found by Lordgenome as a child during the Anti-Spirals’ initial assault on Earth long before the series’ story begins and as such were used as a basis in the creation of the all Gunmen that appear in the show to use against their enemies. While most were cast into the Galactic Spiral Abyss by the Anti-Spiral, a maddened Lordgenome seemingly destroyed all the remaining Lagann except for the one that was placed deep underground until Simon finds it. Currently it is unknown who created the first Laganns, but it is speculated to be the Anti-Spirals (when they were still a spiral race).

In the second film, when Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is torn apart by the Anti-Spiral, the head sprouts a set of legs and arms of its own and continues to fight, just as Lagann would on the original mecha. Tengen Toppa Lagann is soon joined by the other new Tengen Toppa Gunmen and combines with the aid of Lordgenome, forming Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

Lagann shows signs of sentience. At one point, Lagann comes to Simon without any pilot. The most obvious evidence is in the second film. Lagann, becoming more and more damaged, grabs Simon, and throws him at the Anti-Spiral. Nia is shocked at this, and apparently was not controlling this action, meaning Lagann was doing this action on its own. Moreover, Lagann’s eyes are shown to have glowing green spirals.

Gurren

The Gurren (グレン Guren?), originally named the “Gunzar” as mentioned by other Beastmen in the manga, is initially an above-average sized Beastmen-piloted mecha, which attacked Litner Village the morning after Team Gurren’s arrival early in the series. The mech is subsequently captured, rebuilt, stylized and named by its eventual pilot, Kamina, who had the Gurren’s original swords converted into massive sunglasses similar to his own that could be used as a blade or boomerang in combat. Kamina took a liking to the Gurren the first time he saw it because it looked fearsome. Being of typical Gunmen proportions, the Gurren is able to fight without the Lagann’s power. While its individual power was initially not on the same level as advanced Gunmen/pilot pairs, such as Viral and his Enki, Kamina eventually became experienced enough to hold his own against multiple enemies. After Kamina’s death, the Gurren was mainly piloted by Rossiu and one-time pilots until the aftermath of the battle of Tepplin, pilotless until Viral becomes the Gurren’s official pilot during the battle against the AntiSpirals. Gurren (紅蓮) means “Crimson Lotus”. As homage to it, a white Gunzar unit is seen during the battle of Tepplin, sporting a pair of pistols rather than blades.

Gurren made a cameo in an issue of DC Comics’ Countdown to Final Crisis, appearing as a Green Lantern construct of Kyle Rayner’s.

Arc-Gurren

Named Arc-Gurren (アークグレン Āku-Guren?) by Rossiu, this is one of Lordgenome’s Gunmen battleships, a Dai-Gun, which his armies used when he was a Spiral Warrior in events prior to the series. Enormous in size, it is initially used to gather as hundreds of thousands of animals and people onto it as possible to escape world-destroying events later in the series. It uses Spiral Energy to run and only recognizes Lordgenome as its operator. It is capable of going into space for at least a year, and contains an array of large-scale defensive systems and weaponry.

When Simon uses the Gurren Lagann to merge into the Arc-Gurren, he converts the Dai-Gun into a Dai-Gunman called the Arc-Gurren Lagann (アークグレンラガン Āku-Guren Ragan?), powered up by one of the Gurren Lagann’s Giga Drills similar to how the Lagann is powered by Simon’s Core Drill. The power of this Gunmen isn’t fully displayed in the series, but it has the ability to rip the fabric of space-time itself through its sheer brute force on its debut. The Arc-Gurren Lagann is usually used exclusively by Simon and Viral, in the Gurren-Lagann, but was also operated by Gimmy and Darry, using both of their Grapearls. It can form massive drills or fight with punches.

The Arc Gurren-Lagann resembles the Gunbuster, another giant mecha produced by GAINAX.

Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren

The Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren (超銀河ダイグレン Chōginga Daiguren?), christened by Simon, is another colossal battleship-type Gunmen akin to the Arc-Gurren and first appeared in the prologue of the first episode before being formally introduced near the end of the third part of the series. Originally, it was called the Cathedral Terra and it was Lordgenome’s flag ship against the Anti-Spirals in the past and assumed the form of moon until the climatic battle during the Anti Spirals’ attack on the Arc-Gurren reveals its true identity and becomes Team Dai-Gurren’s flagship for the final part of the series on their crusade to defeat the Anti-Spirals and save Nia.

Because of its size, the people on board use teleportation technology to move around the ship. Its combat abilities are unparalleled by any other battleship-type mecha in the series, sporting an enormous array of missiles, beam weapons and shielding capabilities. It also has the capability to transverse to other dimensions and universes and has the manufacturing capabilities to create hundreds of Arc-Gurren Lagann-sized mecha in a small period of time.

During the final battle with the Anti-Spirals, when dealing with larger Ashtanga, Simon channeled enough massive Spiral Energy, with aid from the spiral energy of those before Team Dai-Gurren to battle the Anti-Spiral, to transform the battleship into a humanoid shape similar to the method that created the Arc-Gurren Lagann, the Transcendent Super Spiral Dreadnought Gunmen Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann (超銀河グレンラガン Chōginga Guren-Ragan?). Planetary in size, the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann is piloted by a cascading interface of Simon piloting the Gurren Lagann, which is in turn piloting the Arc-Gurren Lagann which controls the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann. Because it is so massive to be controlled by a single Gunman, it contains the bridge originally seen on the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren, in order to alleviate some of the stress in piloting such a powerful mecha (although Lordgenome displayed the ability to singlehandedly control it during his reign, as he either killed or ejected anyone else on board during his takeover). Similar to the Gurren Lagann itself, The Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann sports a colossal pair of sunglasses on its torso materialized during transformation along with a smaller pair for the head.

The sheer power of this mecha shows it to be what is almost certainly the third most powerful machine in the series, capable of both deflecting and destroying objects on a planetary scale with relative ease. Like the Gurren Lagann, it also has the power to create drills from many points on its body at once and even uses a colossal version of its signature Giga Drill Breaker attack. On top of this, the mecha is equipped with thousands of cannons that appear from the threads of the mecha’s drills (and, in some cases, within the threads of those cannons, which resembled drills), each capable of shooting a beam straight through the time-space continuum, used for hitting targets regardless of their locality and temporality in the multiverse, being able to hit targets in the past, present and future all at once. Leeron also noted that “a galaxy is being born from within the engines” of the mecha due to its large amount of spiral energy.

In Gurren Lagann Parallel Works episode 8, which focused on Lordgenome’s era as a Spiral Warrior, he used the Cathedral Terra in Gunman mode to wipe out the human race. Though it resembled the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann, it lacked the sunglasses and generally resembled Lazengann. It was piloted by Lazengann inside the Dekabutsu rather than the Gurren Lagann inside the Arc-Gurren Lagann. While in battleship mode, Cathedral Terra’s abilities are even more destructive, able to take down several Ashtangas and their escorts in a single blast of its mighty cannon, albeit with help from the surrounding ships. Also, it appears that the Cathedral Terra is a unique ship in the Spiral Warrior’s arsenal, as no other ships of this class are ever seen. In 8, Lordgenome also demonstrated his ability to use a Giga Drill Break with Cathedral Terra, hinting that this attack is an innate skill of all spiral beings, rather than a finishing move of any particular individual (as evident how Kittan’s one and only attack involving spiral energy was also a Giga Drill Break).

This version of the Gurren Lagann has a canny likeness to the Buster Machine 07. collective form: Diebuster from Top Wo Nerae 2, also called Gunbuster 2.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

By combining his own Spiral Energy with his comrades’, Simon created the ultimate entity, the titular Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann in the final battle against the Anti-Spirals. Not actually a mecha at all, it is a mass of materialized Spiral Energy on the scale of a large galaxy. Though being similar to the Gurren Lagann, its design is overall very different from other mecha in the series, its armor being made up of red skulls bound together by Spiral Energy that burns continuously from its core, giving it the appearance of Team Dai-Gurren’s emblem. Each of its many faces has one cockpit containing: Simon and Nia being the head, Viral the torso and the rest of Team Dai-Gurren in the limbs and joints placed in Lagann-style cockpits. Its abdominal mouth is clenched onto the head of the Lazengann, containing a fully resurrected Lordgenome. It has been confirmed in the data books that the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is more than 10 million light years in height. This makes it more than one hundred times the diameter of the Milky Way Galaxy, and also made it the largest mecha seen in animation to date, until the debut of the Chou Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann in the second movie.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann draws jointly on abilities from its many pilots, including Simon’s drills, Viral’s swords, Yoko’s rifle and so on. The actual limit of the mecha’s abilities is immeasurable, as it gains an infinite amount of power depending on the pilots’ will to win. At points, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and the Anti-Spirals’ Grand Zamboa fight at forces powerful enough to destroy entire universes; for example, the Infinity Big Bang Storm used by the Grand Zamboa had, according to Leeron, the “energy capable of creating universes.” The battle was so intense that it was shown to rip holes through various dimensions showing that the power of each was on a God-like scale. This is furthered by the fact that they can alter the fundamental laws of reality, such as altering probability and creating matter out of thin air (which is no small feat even by the series’ own standard, as the various drills and weapons materialized are larger than most galaxies). According to the creators of the Gurren Lagann anime, the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann also has the ability to create an entire Super Spiral Space universe within itself, allowing the pilots’ recognition to become reality.[2]

Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Released only in the second movie of the series, titled Lagann-Hen [Ragan-Hen], this form was the peak of the aforementioned Gurren Lagann forms. After Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann had been destroyed by the Grand Zamboa, Team Dai-Gurren split its power and pieces to form their own separate Tengen Toppa Gunmen, including Tengen Toppa’s head becoming Tengen Toppa Lagann. The rest of said team was composed of a Tengen Toppa gunmen for all surviving members as well as Nia [Note that in the film, all members of Team Dai-Gurren who had died in the final battle other than Kittan had been spared]. Those who normally piloted Dai-Gurren in the first half of the series then worked together to pilot Tengen Toppa Dai-Gurren, which was essentially the body of Dai-Gurren added on top of Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren with demonic features similar to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, holding the nose of Dai-Gurren as a weapon in its left hand and a Dai-Gurren flag made of spiral energy in the right. After a lengthy battle, Lord Genome sacrificed himself to create a mass of spiral energy, which Tengen Toppa Lagann split between the team and then used it to combine into Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. This form resembled a mass of spiral energy in the form of a faceless entity resembling both Simon (the current main pilot of the Gurren Lagann) and Kamina (the former pilot of Gurren, creator of the brigade, and Simon’s ‘brother’), complete with crimson cape and glasses. Its size is 30 times larger than its preceding form (itself previously regarded as the largest mecha in animation), with the Grand Zamboa and all the galaxies looking tiny in comparison.

Just as the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann contained all the smaller incarnations one inside the other, the final form does as well, with the original Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann restored and standing inside the head. During the short battle involving this form, its only notable attack was the powerful Super Tengen Toppa Giga Drill Break, which appears to be many times larger than the Super Tengen Toppa itself, almost approaching the size of a universe. Said attack, when collided with a similar and equal attack from the Super Grand Zamboa (the evolution of the Grand Zamboa), caused the very universe the fight was held in to collapse on itself as a side-effect caused by the ripples from their drills. A moment later the Giga Drill shattered, only to be replaced with a Tengen Toppa Giga Drill, then slowly downgrading until once again reaching simply Gurren Lagann, which alone gained enough power to destroy the massive Giga Drill created by the Super Grand Zamboa. In the end, the Super Grand Zamboa and Anti-Spiral are defeated by Simon alone, without his Lagann; in a fist fight with the Anti-Spiral, Simon uses some of his own blood to create a drill powerful enough to defeat the Anti-Spiral.

(More to add shortly…)

Related posts:

1. Aniplex plans to sell Gurren Lagann DVDs in July
2. Fun with Gurren Lagann on Iphone
3. Gurren Lagann Parallel Works 2 Promo Video

One of great works of art by Go Nagai, our godfather of Mazinger Z.  Since it’s long absence (going way back to 70’s here), Go Nagai’s given us the series reincarnation with super-buffed up version of Mazinger Z, dated back in early 2001.

He’s bigger, stronger, faster, fiercer and by far (arguably) the most powerful robot in the super robot category at this point.   Or so appears after what I read from Wikipedia.org and MyAnimelist.net.

Here’s the rest of series’ description (sourced from Wikipedia.org).

Mazinkaiser (マジンカイザー Majinkaizā?) is an anime OVA series, inspired by Go Nagai’s Mazinger series. The OVA follows Kouji Kabuto, Tetsuya Tsurugi and the rest of the “Mazinger Team” as they fight against Dr. Hell’s Mechanical Beasts.

An army of machines, led by Baron Ashura, defeats Kouji’s Mazinger Z and Tetsuya’s Great Mazinger. In the aftermath, Kouji stumbles upon a forgotten laboratory. Inside, he finds Mazinkaiser, the most powerful robot ever built. The series chronicles Kouji’s experience with the machine as he copes with Kaiser’s power while defeating Dr. Hell’s forces.

The OVA’s design is inspired by the original Mazinger Z manga from 1972, rather than Toei Animation’s TV series. Mazinkaiser emulates Go Nagai’s character designs and its operatic plot is supported by a “tongue-in-cheek” cynicism in regards to the gratuitous sex and violence.

An English language version was released by ADV Films in 2003.

Episode 1: A Fierce Fight! Double Mazingers:

Baron Ashura attacks Japan with an army of Mechanical Beasts, but is met head on by Kouji Kabuto and Mazinger Z. Ashura’s forces manage to get the upper hand, and despite the arrival of Great Mazinger, Boss Borot and Aphrodite A, Mazinger Z is disabled and Kouji hurled to parts unknown. Dr. Hell quickly modifies Mazinger Z into the Ashura Mazinger and launches an attack on the Photon Power Lab. Despite Great being damaged, Tetsuya Tsurugi attempts a valiant defense but is overwhelmed. Before he can be killed by a gloating Ashura, a mystery robot wipes out the entire attacking Mechanical Beast army with one shot. Overpowering Ashura Mazinger easily, the mystery robot begins attacking the Lab and Great!

Episode 2: A Descending, Malevolent Deity:

Great Mazinger attempts to battle the mystery robot, but is easily swept aside. Just as the machine begins to power up its heat sinks, Sayaka arrives and begs the pilot to stop. Kouji later awakens in bed, having little recollection of piloting Mazinkaiser to the rescue and attacking the lab himself. He describes how he was brought to a cave he found Mazinkaiser, the final creation of his grandfather. Unfortunately, Mazinkaiser taps into the pilot’s mind and is so powerful Kouji is overwhelmed and unable to use its power effectively, or even safely. Because of this, when Ashura uses the aerial fortress Gool and to attack a nearby city Great Mazinger, Aphrodite A and Boss Borot are dispatched while Kouji helplessly fumes back in the lab. Predictably, the three heroes are no match for the Mechanical Beast onslaught. When Kouji arrives, Ashura captures Sayaka and threatens to kill her if he does not surrender Mazinkaiser. Kouji separates the Kaiser Pilder from Kaiser itself, but as it is being loaded onto the ship the Great Booster arrives and cuts the chains, sending Ashura’s forces into disarray as it barrels through them. Taking advantage, Kouji quickly yells “Pilder ON!” and brings Mazinkaiser to life. After a short but sharp battle, Ashura is sent packing. Tetsuya decides to leave with Jun to give his wounds time to heal and entrust the safety of Japan to Kouji.

Episode 3: Kouji Assassination Order!: Enraged with the appearance of Mazinkaiser:

Dr. Hell is furious with Baron Ashura. However, the wily henchman informs his master that he has already dispatched his three cute daughters to deal with Kouji, since without Kouji to pilot it Mazinkaiser is useless. Ashura’s daughters attack Boss by mistake, prompting Dr. Yumi and Sayaka to forbid Kouji from leaving the Lab until the situation changes. Hot-headed as ever, Kouji sneaks out anyway and battles the three daughters of Ashura, who turn out to be killer androids. He defeats them just in time to rescue Sayaka and Boss from a Mechanical Beast. The episode finishes with the introduction of Lori and Loru, two busty American sisters who are Dr. Yumi’s assistants. This episode introduces the Mazinkaiser version of Venus A, piloted by Sayaka instead of Jun.

Episode 4: Sayaka Rescue Operation: On a day at the beach:

Ashura kidnaps Sayaka and threatens to publicly humiliate her by cutting off her swimsuit if Kouji and Mazinkaiser do not surrender. Kouji is brought aboard the submarine Salude, but manages to escape and rescue Sayaka with Boss’ help. Venus and Mazinkaiser make short work of the submarine. This episode is somewhat infamous for its crude sexual humour and fan service nudity.

Episode 5: A Narrow Escape! The Photon Power Lab:

Dr. Hell is fast losing patience with Ashura’s failures, prompting the half-male, half-female villain to carry out a desperate plot. He attacks Dr. Yumi as he and Lori are travelling back to the Photon Power Lab and then disguises himself as the doctor. Unfortunately, he had no way of knowing it was the doctor’s birthday and so was caught off-guard. Eventually losing patience, he attacks the Lab and is repelled. Dr. Hell angrily has him imprisoned and resolves to deal with Mazinkaiser himself. In the course of the episode Dr. Hell chances upon a group of more powerful, partly-organic giants (Mykene Warrior Beasts) which he utilizes in place of the previous mechanical monsters. This episode is notable for having a disturbing shower scene with Ashura.

Episode 6: Kouji Kabuto Dies in Magma!:

Dr. Hell launches a full scale assault on the Photon Power Lab, using a Mechanical Beast to infect Venus A and turn it against them. His attack is followed up by a ground assault that successfully captures Kouji and the others. Boss and Boss Borot distract the enemy long enough for Kouji to reach and activate Mazinkaiser, but shortly thereafter Kouji is taken by surprise by the Combined Mechanical Beast (Gattai Kikaijuu). Unable to effectively combat the flight-capable Mechanical Beast, Kouji and Mazinkaiser are dumped into an active Mount Fuji.

Episode 7: A Decisive Battle!! Flaming Hell Castle!:

After Mazinkaiser is dumped into Mount Fuji by the Combined Mechanical Beast, it pursues Boss, Sayaka and the other members of the Photon Power Lab. Before it can kill them it is struck by a massive lightning: the Great Hero, Great Mazinger has returned! While Great battles the Mechanical Beasts, Jun arrives and takes the group to the hidden fortress where Kouji discovered Mazinkaiser. She explains that she and Tetsuya discovered and explored the base, uncovering another Great Mazinger. This Great is far more powerful than the one Tetsuya piloted in the previous episodes and is described as Shin Great Mazinger (New Great Mazinger). The original Great Mazinger was the prototype version made by Dr. Kenzo Kabuto. At that time, Dr. Juzo Kabuto, thought to be dead, was secretly making the final version of Great Mazinger in his underground laboratory. He was also able to finish Mazinkaiser as his ultimate masterpiece. They also uncovered Kaiser Scrander, the wings of Mazinkaiser. Unknown to the unconscious Koji at Mt. Fuji, his Pilder has activated an automatic homing signal, which will activate the Kaiser Scrander. Diving into Mount Fuji, the Scrander docks with Mazinkaiser and the now complete Mazinkaiser emerges from the volcano. After briefly assisting Great, Kouji decides to attack Dr. Hell’s base, which was uncovered when he launched his entire Mechanical Beast army. Great Mazinger faces the Mechanical Beast horde as Kouji arrives on Dr. Hell’s island and is confronted by Baron Ashura, now rebuilt into a Mechanical Beast. After a long and difficult battle, Kouji emerges triumphant thanks to Mazinkaiser’s Final Blade and thoughts of his friends and family. Dr. Hell attempts to win Kouji over to his side and when the hero refuses activates the island’s self destruct sequence. Unluckily for the villain, his escape craft is caught in the explosions as well, while Mazinkaiser emerges unharmed from the inferno.

Related posts:

1. Mazinkaizer SKL News Update
2. Another Mazinkaizer SKL Update
3. New Mazinkaizer – Number 2???

One of the very few great mecha classic of the 80s.  Personally, I never watched it.  Or should I say never the chance to watch.  It was never broadcasted in my home country.  I don’t know for what specific reasons it’s left out.  It’s an utter shame as sources indicated to me that the series was so good that it’s ranked the same level of outstanding recognition as Gundam and Macross achieved.  After reading them, I’m guessing they’re right.

It’s that nostalgically good.

Series’ them said to be more futuristic. It’s heavy militaristic material that many fans didn’t find that most appealing.  Rather they would go for something less realistic but more emphasis on fantasy-like elements ie like mixing a bit of super robot characteristics into the real robot series.  And it’s true.  Many prefered that.  At least that’s what I’m aware of, after reading a few forums around.  Anyhow, here’s what I’ve gathered from Wikipedia.org and MyAnimelist.com.

Synopsis

The series followed a main character named Chirico Cuvie (Kiriko Kyuubi), a former special forces Armored Trooper pilot and former member of the Red Shoulder Battalion, an elite mecha force used by the Gilgamesh Confederation in its war against the Balarant Union—both interstellar nations within the distant Astragius Galaxy. Gilgamesh and Balarant had until recently been locked in a century-old galactic war whose cause was long ago forgotten. Now, the war is ending and an uneasy truce has settled.

Chirico Cuvie is suddenly transferred to a unit engaged in a suspicious mission, unaware that he is aiding to steal secrets from what appears to be his own side. Chirico is betrayed and left behind to die, but he survives, is arrested by the Gilgamesh military as a traitor, and tortured for information on their homeworld. He escapes—triggering a pursuit extending across the entire series, with Chirico hunted by the army and criminals alike as he seeks the truth behind the operation. He is driven to discover the truth of one of the objects he was assigned to retrieve in that operation: A mysterious and beautiful woman who would become his sole clue to unraveling the galactic conspiracy.

The main characters of the series take their names from the Greek alphabet. Chirico, (Japanese transliteration, “Kiriko”), is from the Greek letter “chi” (Χ). Fyanna (Fuiana) is from Greek letter “phi” (Φ), and Ypsilon (Ipushilon) from the Greek letter “upsilon” (Υ).

Here’s the opening theme video.

Characters:

“As the central character around which Votoms revolves, Chirico Cuvie is haunter by two pasts – one he cannot remember and another he cannot forget. He has no memory of his life prior to his 10th year, in which he lived on the planet Sunsa with adoptive parents who found him in a refugee center and were studying his unusual healing abilities – until they were killed in the first of many enemy invasions. Chirico witnessed their deaths, and survived burns that would have killed an ordinary human … but over the subsequent years, he proved himself to be far from ordinary. Enlisting in the Melkian army as an Armored Trooper pilot, Chirico distinguished himself in many battles against the Balarant and was transferred at age 16 to the elite Red Shoulder Battalion. There, he was scrutinized by the commanding officer, Colonel Yoran Peruzen. Peruzen had been watching Chirico for many years, and had become convinced that Chirico’s miraculous recuperative powers made him unkillable; a supreme survivor. After nearly ending Peruzen’s life, Chirico was thrown into the final battle of Sunsa. He wasn’t supposed to survive it … but he did. This was the battle that brought the Hundred Years War to an end, and the Red Shoulder Battalion was disbanded soon after. In the last ditch effort to rid himself of Chirico, Peruzen transferred him to General Albert Killy’s rogue unit for the raid on Lido. Killy’s men were instructed to kill Chirico during the operation, but Chirico’s unusual abilities made him more difficult to eliminate than anyone could guess. Caught up in events completely beyond his control, however, Chirico became a renegade – haunted both by Killy’s agents and the Melkian army. Waiting only to uncover the lies and conspiracies that surround him, Chirico makes his way across the galaxy to find him destiny. His incredible stamina and resourcefulness are the result of his unknown heritage. When this truth is uncovered, nothing will ever be the same again.” “Beautiful and mysterious, she is at the center of the conspiracy that nearly cost Chirico his life on Lido. She is many things to many people, and her evolution through various identities changes her from a living weapon to a human being. As “Proto-One,” she is the deadly killing machine she was designed to be as the first Melkian Perfect Soldier. As “The Phantom Lady,” she is a figure of mystery on the streets of Uoodo City. Chirico later gives her the name “Fyana,” and from that point she begins to develop as a person with genuine emotions. Genetically engineered by the Melkian army, her enhanced fighting abilities make her as deadly as she is captivating. What no one could have foreseen, however, was that when she first awoke in Lido and saw Chirico, her destiny would be forever linked with his. From Lido, she is abducted by the Secret Society and later sent against Chirico in battle. When she meets him face to face for the second time, she feels a strong attractions to him which eventually inspires her to defect from the Secret Society and join him on the run.”

“Her dependency on the radiation of jijirium for re-energization leads to dangerous conditions when she cannot find appropriate regenerative facilities, but when in top from she is an excellent, refined soldier, highly skilled in many forms of combat. As indicated by his codename, Ypsilon is the second Perfect Soldier, having been “born” after Proto-One. She was with Ypsilon during his awakening in the underground sections of the former Red Shoulder base on Melkia. She gave him his name, and he formed an immediate attachment to her as would a child to its mother. She first attempted to teach him gentleness, but his pre-programmed killing nature emerged despite this, much to be pleasure of Albert Killy and the other masters of the Secret Society. Under the later tutelage of Borough and Prince Kanjelman in Kummen, Ypsilon matures as a warrior. His genetically-engineered combat skills are honed to perfection, and unlike Proto-One, he remains fiercely loyal to his commanding officers. Emotionally, however, Ypsilon is still very much a child. Arrogant and egocentric, he sees himself as the ultimate in human evolution. From his first encounter with Chirico Cuvie, Ypsilon becomes obsessed with killing him, convinced that Chirico has poisoned the mind of Proto-One … and only his death will end her “confusion” about whom she really loves. This obsession increases from one bloody battle to another throughout Kummen and all the way to their final showdown on Sunsa.”

“Coconna grew up as an orphan in Uoodo City, managing to hold onto her innocence despite the crime and corruption of the streets. She tags along with Gotho and Vanilla, constantly looking for her own profit margin and throwing in her services whenever she can. She develops a searing crush on Chirico early in the series and often has to push her reluctant companions to help him when he is in trouble. Her brashness (and screeching volume) tests everyone’s patience until later episodes when she becomes useful despite her constant complaining and argumentative nature.”

Mecha Units

ATM-09-ST Codenamed ScopeDog. One of the mass-produced medium-class armored mech used by Gilgamesh Confederation to beat the Balarant Union.

ATM-09-SA Codename Scopedog II.  An upgraded version of Scopedog 1.

There’s still a lot about Votoms I don’t know really know. So this is by far the most incomplete Armored Trooper Votoms I could compile. So there’s more to contribute here in the future.

Related posts:

1. Time for old school Votoms memory recap
2. Votoms Video Promo: Upcoming in March 2010!
3. Votoms Producers: On Promo Video

Brave Exkaizer Team

There are not many online facts I could find with regard of this mecha anime.   Very uncommon mecha show that anyone hardly knows (including myself, which is sad to say the least).

All my googling efforts ended nowhere until I later discovered that they were actually far more popular in Asia, than it was in European, USA, South America and Oceanic countries.

It’s fair to say  the content was more geared to suit Asian audiences.   After searching its material via Google Trends (and reading this link from Wikipedia.org), I could be right.  Here’s the following excerpt from Wikipedia.org

“Brave Exkaiser is a Japanese animated television series that began in 1990, created by Sunrise under the direction of Katsuyoshi Yatabe, and is the first of the long running Yuusha or “Brave” metaseries funded by Takara and produced by Sunrise. The story takes place on a present day Earth that was secretly visited by a group of space police led by Exkaiser who were chasing after an evil gang of energy beings called The Geisters (led by Dino Geist). Upon arriving on Earth, Exkaiser and his team called the “Kaisers” put their spirits (Similar to Sparks of the Transformers mythos) into vehicles all over Japan so that they could convert them into transformable bodies for themselves.”

Here’s the intro theme.

Some pics from the series

Exkaizer Hero Crew

Brave Exkaizer wall poster

Exkaizer

And here’s the list of heroes and villians.

Our Heroes

Exkaizer – Our Hero Intro

King Exkaizer

Dragon Exkaizer

Great Exkaizer

Dash Max

Sky Max

Drill Max

God Max

Blue Raker and Green Raker

Ultra Raker

The Villians

The Four Geists

Dino Geist – Ringleader of Geists

Lots of uncanny resemblances with Transformers G1 animated series. Here and there. In fact, it is said that they’re the new designs of Transformers G1 and they’re meant to showcase the “enhanced” design aspects of Transformers that were superior. Because of this enthused marketing ploy Takara wanted to do so much, that’s why it’s part of that long lineage of super robot series during the 90s.

Very intriguing.

Well, that’s all for now. I’m sure there’s plenty of facts to go I’m keen to find out why the series was only good amongst Asian audiences in the far east.  More will be posted in the future.

If anybody out there who knows better about the Brave series, feel free to guest post here.  I’m looking forward to hear your thoughts on it.

Related posts:

1. Transformers – Origins

Voltron Lion - Armed and ready to defend the Universe

Synopsis:

Another childhood favourite from the 80s. As mentioned from Wikipedia, the story revolves a team of 5 young lads piloting 5 powerful lion robots, each with different unique abilities whose purpose is to serve and protect Planet Arus from the evil clutches of King Zarkon, ruler of the planet Doom.  The story revolves how 5 young men dispatched by the Galaxy Alliance were supposedly to do some space exploration as part of the mission, however led them in a war-torn planet.  They were later captured by King Zarkon’s men and taken back to Planet Doom for enslavement and King Zarkon certainly takes a huge interests in ensuring every planetary conquest he seeks will result in having human enslavement counts increases.  The lads broke free, escaped on one of the enemy ships and flew back to Planet Arus, sought refuge in castle Arus and piloted the 5 lion robots to form the greatest defender of the universe, known (which we all know so well) as Voltron.  Voltron, a combined robot with 5 lions each acting as its limbs to give us a giant robot that faces any evil monsters King Zarkon’s dispatches and ultimately destroys them (and succeeded in defending Planet Arus).

The epic sounds of Voltron opening music theme/transformation sequence thrills me to the bones! :)

Here are the list of the Voltrion Lions’ heroes, mecha and villians (as sourced from Wikipedia.org)

Characters:

Keith Kogane : Commander and leader of the Voltron Force, who pilots the Black Lion that forms the bulk of Voltron. Keith wears a red uniform in the original series, and a black uniform in Voltron: The Third Dimension. Keith is a quiet individual who spends much of his time pondering his decisions, thinking up new strategies, and simply being a leader. He also has a hobby of reading books. He can often be found doing so either in the pilot’s lounge, or in his room. He seemingly cherishes Princess Allura and is thought to be somewhat protective of her; his worst fear, according to Voltron: The Third Dimension, was that she would be forced to marry the evil Prince Lotor. In the “Devil’s Due” comic series, Keith originally ran a dojo prior to being recruited by Hawkins.

Lance: Second-in-command of Voltron, who pilots the Red Lion that forms the right arm of Voltron. Lance wears a blue uniform in the original series, and a metallic red uniform in Voltron: The Third Dimension. He is a tall man, both wiry and wily, Lance is always cracking jokes and teasing others whenever he gets the chance. He is the only one in the group who contests any of Keith’s commands. He is a ladies’ man and a great pilot, though reckless at times. In the “Devil’s Due” comic series, Lance was forced into the mission to Arus due to his criminal record.

Pidge: Pidge is the youngest and smallest of the group; he pilots the Green Lion that forms the left arm of Voltron, and wears a green uniform. His home planet Balto was destroyed by nuclear missiles from King Zarkon. Pidge graduated from the academy at a young age, and his specialty is science. Like the others, he is well-trained in martial arts, and uses his size and agility to his advantage. Pidge is not afraid to speak his mind, especially to the villains. His heart is often in his words. Pidge has a twin brother, Chip, who is a member of the Vehicle Voltron Air Team.

Sven: Sven, a Norwegian pilot, was the original second-in-command. He piloted the Blue Lion and wore a black uniform at the very beginning of the series. In Episode 6, he was badly injured during an attack by Haggar, and was sent away to the planet Ebb to be healed. He was killed in the Japanese version, with his younger brother appearing later in the series. Ebb was attacked and raided by Lotor’s Forces and Sven was captured. The prison ship on which he was transferred accidentally crashed on Planet Doom where Sven went into hiding becoming a hermit within the caves. He eventually encountered Allura’s cousin from the Planet Pollux, Princess Romelle, who had been sent to the slave mines after she rejected Lotor’s advances. During Sven’s time on Planet Doom he witnessed Zarkon and Lotor’s cruelty to their slaves, which drove him to the point of madness. He recovered thanks to Romelle’s emotional support and helped her escape Doom. Sven was later reassigned to the Planet Pollux with Romelle and her brother Prince Bandor. Sven eventually fell in love with Romelle, though he was reluctant to pursue his feelings because he felt he was unworthy of her. Sven was always very quiet and reserved, and spoke only when he had something important to say. Though he may not show it, he is a very emotional person, and his heart is always leading his mind in any decision. Sven does not appear in nor is he mentioned in Voltron: The Third Dimension. Although Sven no longer pilots the Blue Lion on a regular basis after Episode 6, he continued to be featured as a pilot for the Voltron Force in the opening credits of the series while Allura appears in the closing sequence. Sven does pilot the Blue Lion into combat alongside his colleagues on one more occasion, however, during the second season episode, “Who’s Flyin’ Blue Lion.”

Princess Allura: Princess Allura of the planet Arus is the ruler of the Kingdom of Altair, as well as de facto ruler of the entire planet, and is also the object of Lotor’s affections. Daughter of the late King Alfor, Allura inherited her father’s authority on his death and is commander in chief and head of state for the planet Arus, and thus Commander Keith’s superior. However, later she takes over for Sven as the pilot of the Blue Lion that forms Voltron’s right leg, and defers to Keith during operational engagements. Allura wears a pink uniform in the original series, and a metallic blue uniform in Voltron: The Third Dimension. Though a bit naïve, especially with matters of romance, Allura is a strong-willed person, and is very capable of ruling her planet, though some like Coran and Nanny tend to doubt this ability. She is capable of invoking the dead, particularly her father, the late King Alfor. In The Third Dimension, Allura later learns special mind skills that could allow the Voltron Force to control the Lions without having to be in the cockpits, and also helps the others to learn it as well. She also has feelings for Keith.

Hunk: Hunk is the strong-man of the group, piloting the Yellow Lion that forms Voltron’s left leg. He is shown wearing an orange uniform in the original series, and a metallic yellow uniform in Voltron: The Third Dimension. He may look tough and mean, but has a soft heart, especially when it comes to children and puppies. He is never late for a meal. Though his friends tease him about his appetite, most of Hunk’s bulk is muscle. It is revealed that he eats “-’Fruit Loops’ (almost) every morning”.

Voltron Mecha:

Black Lion: Piloted by Commander Keith. Piloted by Allura in one episode. Unlike the other Lions, the Black Lion did not have a “closed” hangar. Throughout the series, it was assumed that the Black Lion’s hangar was located on the large tower fronting the castle, which was previously occupied by a winged lion statue which hid it. When the Black Lion was first activated, this statue crumbled apart to reveal it, and the Black Lion folded its seldom-used wings. In Voltron: The Third Dimension, it is shown that the winged lion statue literally morphs into the Black Lion when the lion is launched, meaning that this statue is nothing more than a disguised form of the Black Lion.

Red Lion: Piloted by Lance. by Princes Allura in one episode since Lance was using the Blue Lion to find the cure for the deadly flowers. The Red Lion’s hangar was located inside a volcano near the castle.

Green Lion: Piloted by Pidge. Piloted by Keith in its first launch, before the Black Lion was recovered. The Green Lion’s hangar was located in a forest near the castle.

Blue Lion: Piloted by Sven up to episode 6, and thereafter by Princess Allura (although Sven would return to pilot the Blue Lion on one more occasion in the second season episode “Who’s Flyin’ Blue Lion?”). Piloted in one episode each by Keith, Coran, and Nanny together, and a replacement pilot (who turned out to be an agent of Zarkon). Piloted once by Lance when he went off to a distant planet to find the cure by which to heal the Princess. Lance piloted the Blue Lion because the planet had a special magnetic field that only the Blue Lion could overcome. The Blue Lion’s hangar was located underneath the moat that surrounded the castle.

Yellow Lion: Piloted by Hunk. The Yellow Lion’s hangar was located inside a cave located in a desert near the castle. In Voltron: The Third Dimension, its hangar was redesigned to resemble a sphinx-like form instead of an ordinary cave.

Villains:

King Zarkon: King Zarkon of the Planet Doom is one of the rulers of the Drule Empire, though by no means the absolute ruler. He is constantly using others as scapegoats for his own failure, including his son Lotor. In the Japanese version, however, he is the evil ruler of his own Empire, without anybody controlling him. Where as he was killed off the japanese version of the series finale, Zarkon resurfaces in Voltron: The Third Dimension, having redeemed himself prior to his final defeat, and became a member of the Galactic Council. His redemption, however, was a ruse by which he and his son worked together to take over the alliance.

Prince Lotor: Prince Lotor is the son of Zarkon. He dislikes his father greatly, and wishes to rule in his place with Princess Allura by his side, to whom he has developed a strong and obsessive attraction. So powerful are his feelings that he is unable to even destroy a holographic image of Allura. Lotor also has an even stronger hatred with Keith, because he’s seen Allura’s love towards Keith. Because of Allura and Keith’s love, Lotor is more determined to kill Keith than any other Voltron Force member. Lotor is a very sly, smart, smooth, powerful man, who exudes force and emanates what seems to be pure evil, except when Allura is around. In Voltron: The Third Dimension, Lotor was mortally wounded in the final battle, and was converted into a cyborg after he was placed in prison. However, he escaped and perpetrated his revenge on the heroes, though he still has feelings for Allura. In the “Devil’s Due” comic series, Lotor met Allura while they were children during Zarkon’s invasion of Arus. In the comics, Lotor follows a warrior’s code of honor and sees all non-Drule life forms to be inferior.

Witch Haggar: Haggar the witch is the one responsible for creating all of the Robeasts Zarkon uses. She is notorious for using her dark magic to cast hypnotizing spells over people. Though she was once good and beautiful, she is now evil and ugly. It was Haggar who was responsible for originally splitting Voltron into five components in the American version. In the Japanese version, she is hinted to be King Zarkon’s mother thus making her Lotor’s grandmother where she was killed in the end for revealing Lotor’s true maternity. In Voltron: The Third Dimension, Haggar went into hiding after the final battle, but rejoined Lotor in his conquest schemes. They strike a deal in which, if Lotor conquers the universe, she gets the magic of the lions while he gets the universe and the lions themselves. In the “Devil’s Due” comic series, Haggar had no part in Voltron’s origin story, replaced by an ancestor of Zarkon’s, though she is well versed in it. She also attempt to brainwash Sven under Merla’s wishes

So what is about Voltron became such a cultural phenomenon during the 80s got entire North America so crazy about these mechanical feline that seemed to woo in the youngsters of all ages?

Well.. Pretty much everything.

Its story telling.  Impressive cast of characters and mecha.  Unique monsters (or Robeasts) Voltron mecha gets to face. The way how the plot captures our imagination and makes our excitement all very electrying!  It couldn’t get any better than this I realise.

There’s further hidden truths or secrets about Voltron I never realised before whilst googling it for quite some time now.  Especially this series was originally created in Japan (produced by Toei Animation under the name of Beast King GoLion) and suggested it was far more violent and has more bloods and gore.   And it suggests plenty of human cruelty acts as human slavery is the strong theme behind the series.  And how World Events Production (WEP) decides to censor and edit the entire show, rebrand it to the American audience as a different product altogether.  It intrigues me a lot and that’s something I’ll look forward to writing more about sometime in the near future.

But for now. Let’s embrace of what appears to be one of the best cartoon import series that was ever produced in our time.  I thank WEP and Toei Animations for making this happened.

Related posts:

1. Voltron – 25th Anniversary Collection Review
2. Voltron Lego
3. Miss Voltron?

One of my favourites (or everybody favourites, if you lived through the 80s) of all time. It was one of my first favourite mecha shows to watch other than Macross.

Who would have thought this long-line of Japanese toys made by Takara (aka Takara Tomy as of 2006) were reused or rehashed in this cartoon version that everybody get so much craving for? Having to learned that Takara’s toylines range Diaclone and Microman series were scooped up by Americans when American toy maker Hasbro came to see Takara at the Tokyo Toy Show in 1983. They were keen to have their toylines range because they were impressed how their scale models were designed to include humanoid figures to sit/drive in them and they’re able to transform into humanoid forms. Since Hasbro bought the rights to their product lines, the company and its key people began their marketing heavily on these as one major toy line range, hence the name “Transformers” was born. So what this evolution possible?
What started was that Takara made Microman toylines that were based on one of Japanese cyborg anime series called Henshin-Cyborg 1. The series’ popularity spawned many of these 3-inch cyborg models are that tiny many kids grew to like them so Takara made one of many great commercials on these such as below.

After its success, Takara made another spin-off of Microman series (using the same toy design development) which you have miniature size vehicles that are transformable into humanoid figures. Since then, Takara had made a number of Diaclone TV commercials in the early 80s such as this (featuring Optimus Prime in its formative days).

There are a number of countless Diaclone commercials featuring other familiar Transformers characters such as Ironhide, Ratchet, Bumble Bee just to name a few. And that’s probably the reason why Hasbro made a wise decision to have them and reinvented them into a branch so people in my generations would never forget how and why it was considered as one of the great childhood cartoon stories that’s ever produced of all time.

Henceforth, Hasbro decided to give us two distinctive factions.

Autobots Logo

Decepticon Logo

The story sets in a far away distant planet called Cybertron, and the two forces are battling out for the greater control of the planet. Autobots were fighting for peace and justice whilst Decepticons sought for power, domination and control. The battle was fought for many millennia. Several millennia later, the Autobots wanted to come up with an ultimate strategy that will end the war with Decepticons. They want to start the space exploration to find raw source of energy that will help them accomplish that goal. However, little did they aware, the plans were eavesdropped by Decepticons and so Decepticons decided to ‘join’ the exploration in their own space ship as well. Soon, once both of them caught up with each other, the intense fight took up in the Autobot spaceship. Next few brief moments, their spaceships made a collision course into the Earth’s stratosphere and Autobots crash-landed onto a volcano. All of them remained lifeless.
Four million years later, they were revived again as new technologies were invented. And Autobots and Decepticons learned to adapt the Earth’s environment and began to transforming into all sort of vehicles. Later in the series, the battle between the two forces ensues and once again the war of the Transformers resumes…
They are two great leaders of the two factions.

We have Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, seen as very honourable, compassionate, strong, pragmatic, possess strong leadership qualities and a very wise leader.

Then we have Megatron, Leader of the Decepticons, leader of the Decepticons, seen as the tyrant, vile, cunning, evil, greed for power and seeks for interplanetary domination with the final quest of eradicating all the Autobots in all galaxies, starting from our solar system.

And then you have the Autobots and Decepticons teams who follow their respective leaders, all of them share one purposeful goal of winning the Transformers war. With an impressive cast of characters, we see a large array of Autobots and Decepticons, each has a unique characteristics when they transform from robot mode into humanoid mode and vice versa.

Autobots

Dinobots

Aerialbots

Decepticons

Insecticons

Constructicons

Combaticons

Since the series ran for 98-successful episodes between 1984 and 1987, numerous toy production lines came out from the series and many new Transformers series came out such as Headmasters, Beast Wars, Machine Wars, Robots in Disguise etc etc. Transformers franchise really became a serious hit for many kids around that time and they just flocked to their toy stores like crazy buzzy bees sucking out all the last boxes of Transformers toylines to bring them home. I was like that one of them. All of the Generation Mechs were, I’m sure.

Transformer’s popularity was its raw power of attraction that has kept people for talking about it for years and generations, even after the series ended. And now we have several websites that are dedicated to these such as Transformers.com (by Hasbro), IDW Publishing, TransformersClub.com, Botcon.com and several other unofficial fansites more to come.

We’ve seen the two latest Transformers movies that’s recently came out towards the end of first decade of 2000 since Transformers: The Movie back in 1986.

And to remind ourselves that have seen Transformers G1 and recall those four seasons of episodes, here are their intros. (If you haven’t, then sit back, relax and watch the intros and I would put a recommended suggestion you get its DVD/Blue ray release.

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

I remembered after the entire series ended at its fourth season, the continuity of Transformers saga went on but it was divided into a couple of streams, and one of them was produced in Japan, where they gave us The Headmasters, Super-god Masterforce, Victory and Zone. They were broadcast mostly in Japan/Asia in the later years. Looks like I have another Transformers subcategory to write into my list of mecha chronology. It’s going to be a long while.

In the meantime, let’s us rejoice the fact what is to one of the best childhood cartoon series that’s ever produced, throughout our lives. For the past, the present and the future. And it’s all thanks to this one little figurine that turn Takara’s and Hasbro’s imaginations into a reality. A reality that results in achieving incredible scale of critical success to its franchise.

Microman toylines

Related posts:

1. New Microman Film about to debut…
2. Awesome!! Got myself some cool Transformers goodies :)
3. Transformers’ long time toymaker,Hasbro Inc, reaps majors earnings from its latest film

Foreground: Shinji Ikari (front); Rei Ayanami (back, left); Asuka Langley Shoryu (back, right) with their Evas in the background

From what I read online about this, is that this anime came out with an incredible big bang when it reached hundreds and thousands of TV screens throughout Japan via TV Japan’s television network. It’s helmed as the greatest ground-breaking form of mecha anime in the mid 90s that no ordinary people would expect to see. Meaning this is not one of your average mecha anime where good-giant-robots-come-out-to-save-the-day-from-the-monster-terrorizing-your-regular-neighbourhood format and each week there’s always a new monster featured in each new episode, as that’s part of the tradition of every mecha program we all watched like Mazinger Z, Getter Robo etc etc. Rather, the theme of the series breaks itself away from that classic style of mecha genre and set a new and yet unconventional design of a robot which is neither a super robot, nor real robot. In fact, it;s more of a fusion between the two forms, to put it more technically accurate.

The series is said to be a commercially and critically successful, influential, and controversial Japanese anime that won several animation awards in the Japan Media Arts Festival including the prize for best animation. It was so good that it’s recognized as one of the great mecha anime classics of all time after the awards were received. It sure was very impressive that they’re amongst the anime greats when considering the many controversies it had to face with its grave depictions of teenage boys/girls suffering severe cases of clinical depression(which the author Hideaki Onno personally experienced before making this film), several biblical references used throughout the series (eg the cross beam emitted after mecha monsters unleash the attacks on our heroes robots) that cause the big divide in the Jews/Christian world, and characters experiencing social and emotional problems that later introduces the psychological harm not only to the characters themselves, but also the viewers as well, as this influences children under 15 who have not reached emotional and mental maturity to cope with the graphic details that the main characters are experiencing, hence can lead to long-term permanent damage to their psychological wellbeing, not being supervised properly. Very perplexing indeed.

Nevertheless, onwards to the synopsis of the film. The year is 2015 and we have three main heroes of the series as depicted at the start of this post. They are the three chosen “Children” to drive their own mecha which deviates a lot from other usual mecha mainstream we’ve seen in the past recent years. And they’re on the mission to stop the threatening forces of the “Angels” whom wrecked havoc upon the world since the “Second Impact”

Shinji iKari, the main child star of the series, introduced as the ‘Second Child’. Seen to be very socially inept, very withdrawn, always lacking of self-confidence when facing tough challenges on the fields of battle whether at home, school or even against the Angels. Always have the tendency to run away from problems that he couldn’t handle. His mecha is Evangelion 01 (code named Eva01). It comes in purple color and its main traits (shown throughout the whole series) were of his ‘berserker’ nature. This ‘temperament’ of Eva gets triggered only when he’s in a losing battle against the Angel and the outcome of who’s going to lose was obvious. But just when you think all hope is lost for our young friend and his compatriot, the purple giant managed to turn things around to his advantage after completely taking the opponent apart. Piece by piece. Said to be born one of the original Angels that first appeared before the Second Impact on Earth. It has genetics properties of Adam and Lilith.

Rei Ayanami, our second main child star, has great beauty complexion with silver blue hair comes with a seemingly very introverted personality like Shinji, however she appears to be not friendly often so rarely interacts with anybody. Thus she does give everybody the cold feet whenever she refuses to react in a certain way a normal person would do when having a great conversation with someone else. Despite this, she’s nothing short of proving her great prowess in handling her own EVA, which is why she’s called “First Child”. Her Eva is codename EVA 00. It’s said to be the prototype EVA ie the first EVA ever produced before they were signed off for mass production (hence the codename 00). Eva 00 comes with one eye Cyclops, comes in orange colour, usually. Nothing much is said to describe its true origins compared to the Eva 00. Nevertheless, it’s proven plenty of valor in combat when facing Angels as it’s handled well by a very capable pilot. Unlike her counterpart, Shinji, who hesitates and doubts more often than he should in his attacks when he’s plenty of sometimes easy chances to win several battles in this war.

Asuka Langley Soryu, is the “Third Child”, who’s the complete opposite of Rei. A young woman who comes from Japanese and German descent, whose language skills as bilingual comes as no surprising manner. And said to be child genius as some sort when she obtained a university degree before any children ever hit their puberty soon. She’s born in a family of professors and scientists, whose mother, Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu, was part of the Evangelion Project and she assisted in working with Eva 02 Unit development project. She comes as an extroverted person, so she’s very outspoken and aggressive in making blunt and sometimes intrusive comments on people’s mediocre achievements and how she always has high regard of herself and look down on other people, trying to prove that she’s unmatched. Her Eva 02 is considered as the first Production Eva, ie is the first time it’s used for actual combat so it’s equipped with many various armour pieces throughout the body that Eva 00 and Eva 01 do not normally have such as its mouth and legs. It’s expected to handle any type of combat situations using various weapons at their disposal.

Together, our three brave young heroes are embarking on a quest to eradicate all the Angels that come to Earth in order to prevent another apocalyptic end to the planet Earth, aka “Third Impact”. They were selected by the secreat oganisation ‘Nerve’ as they’re the chosen ones and they’re only ones capable of piloting the mechas due to the high synchronisation rate with machines ie they’re able to get along with the Evas well. Their mission to defeat Angels would be possible without the help of these five people.

A colonel amongst the ranks of the officers in Nerve, whose love affair on her day-to-day job of focusing issues at hand when giving orders to the EVA team to fulfill many tasks in defeating the ever-menacing Angels. She’s a professional military strategist that would soon see herself move up the ranks amongst other officers and many of them do realize the value she’s provided in terms of strong leadership and making sharp judgments on tricky situations. On the other side of her life, she is very unskilled cook, prefers takeaways, tv dinners, large quantities of beer cans/bottles that comes with no limit, and smokes aplenty. A difficult atmosphere for Shinji and Asuka to live in for sure as she’s their acting guardian during the course of their mission.

A chief commander of Nerve, the head honcho who masterminds the entire operation of the Eva Research and on the ultimate quest to resume work on the Human Instrumentality Project to create humans as if they were done by the works of God, just like the Book of Genesis. He;s notably seen to be cold, mean and completely distant towards his son Shinji whenever they looked at or passed each other. As if he’s treating him like a complete stranger. Sources indicated that he’s so cunning he would perform any means by hook or by crook to achieve the success he seeks. Even at the expense of not affording to show any care for people around him. Especially Shinji.

Major scientist at Nerve whose specialist skills were military repairs, enhancements, and maintenance on the Tokyo-3 city’s defence system. She’s very intelligent and bright that she’s proven very capable in analyzing different states on data within MAGI (the supercomputer which she developed) that controls Nerv and suggests any resolution on technical faults under extreme pressure. One interesting fact about her involved with all this is that her mother Naoko Akagi, was romantically linked with Gendo Akari during the development of Nerv many years ago. But it was later found that Gendo intended to use her for his sole aim to succeed in getting the Human Instrumentality Project done. Ritsuko is said to have a brunette, like her mother.

Gendo Ikari’s right hand commander of Nerv. Formerly a professor at Kyoto University, whose subject interest is mainly meta-biology. How he ended up with being Gendo’s right hand man was that Gendo’s deceased wife, Yui Ikari, was Kozou’s mentor and the sponsor for the human science project she took. Along the way after Gendo married Yui, Gendo and Kozou travelled to the ruins of Antartica and Kozou learned the hard truths that Gendo’s association with Seele is a serious threat to mankind existence and after event of Second Impact (which Seele’s initiated) Kozou saw little choice to reject Gendo’s quest for creating a new future for the mankind after what Gendo has shown Kozou the full capabilities Salee could do. Kozo accepted his invitation inevitably.

Said to be Misato’s ex-boyfriend of 6 years, also bit of a playboy with his dashing good looks for any young innocent girls that he could hook with while working inside Nerv hub. He works as triple agent. He works for the Japanese government to track any activity within Nerv so they could make informed decisions on whether Nerv is seen to be ally or a much greater threat to the humanity on the whole and take any appropriate actions to deal the matters at hand. At time, he has his own personal agenda to sort out which has no bearing on his missions during the series to discover the truth behind Human Instrumentality Project, Nerv and Seele.

My final question still remains unanswered on the whole thing. Is this show considered to be an epic genius or an utter revolt of the 90s mecha shows? Unfortunately, I could not reach an conclusion to have an answer and it’s up to the general masses what they think of the whole thing. Some people say it’s fabulous and it’s deserved self-worthy praises. Some people say it’s not and it should be censored, otherwise they will received receive backlash from the smaller sector of the society who believe the anime company, Gainax, has created an abomination of its Christian symbols used throughout the series. So we have a strong divided opinion here.

But, without a doubt that it’s not your usual mecha program (like I used to know) where there’s a usual weekly routine of new monster featuring to attack the neighbourhood. It’s far different from the norm and it’s shifted into this whole new paradigm of science vs religion debate, which I find it difficult to comprehend both of them crossed over each other like that. We see how characters developed, each of them have their own difficult struggles with interpersonal relationships with people around them, including themselves. The story revolves around deep psychological thoughts of every main character that had difficult relations with their parents. Much like Shinji’s with his father for a start. Their portrayal of their struggles throughout the film were subject to controversial viewpoints that children under 15 could suffer mental harm due to several scenes that proved disturbing for the general audience to bear and such works should be banned or (at least) censored, and that argument is sure debatable. Despite this and the clear evidence of several biblical references usage from the Book of Genesis throughout the series’ story development, it’s made a great impact on the anime community and it;s not usually a negative one. Nor it’s a positive one either.

Rather, the series was likened so much by the public that the people pay special tribute to the show for its ultra uniqueness by making subtle references of the film into their works everything from musical influences, movies to video games etc over the years. It may take a while to get used with the theme as I’m not into metaphysical and psychological thrillers myself but as long as it’s got the mecha anime in a special way, then it’s alright. Since then, several reincarnations of the series were made during the last couple of years of the 2000 era so obviously fans of new and old are eager for its comeback to the big screens.

An epic that comes with twisted proportions, can hold this much appeal.  Stay tuned for more info on its myths, beliefs, data on the monsters the Evas faced in the series ,aka as Angels.

Neon Genesis Evangelion Gang

Related posts:

1. Sony launches new live news program software for Evangelion, featuring Misato, the anchor lady
2. Evangelion Announcements: English Dubbed Cast Found
3. Gainax Film: Eva 1.0 schedule for release during North American summers

After Go Nagai’s great success with Mazinger Z, he went ahead to pursue making another great super robot classic series. And this time, it is about having three air units that can “combine” into a robot. In three different ways. I keep thinking of myself “Oh, really? How on earth could they design something like that?”. So I questioned my doubt. And my curiosity grew as I researched and found out the truth further on how three futuristic warplanes have the capability to ‘transform’ into 3 different robots, with each of them can perform unique functions that’s different to one another.

Though it’s part of Go Nagai’s signature, the majority of the credits go to Ken Ishikawa, Go Nagai’s protege. He was the one notably contributed the ideas on making Getter Robo series a running success after so many years since its Getter Robo days, including several re-incarnated series during the 90s and 00s like Shin Getter Robo, Neo Getter Robo, Getter Robo G, New Getter Robo etc. It ran as part of the manga series with its main publisher, Shonen between 1974 and 1975, covered in 5 volumes. It was later converted into TV series and it become another great mecha anime sensation again, for Go Nagai.

Getter Robo story begins with a story with a brilliant scientist by the name of Professor Saotome, who invented the three planes that come with hidden special abilities of thwarting the evil plots of their nemesis, Dinosaur King, from Dinosaur Empire. The special planes are powered by Getter Ray, a rare source of energy ray obtained from outer space, which were originally used for deep-space exploration of solar systems, galaxies and beyond. However, this scientific project was called and “redubbed” for far more important use as Earth’s greatest defense against the might of the invading Dinosaur Empire whose attempts are nothing short of evil ambitions to take over the world, for they claim to be the ‘true rulers‘ of Earth since they existed several million years ago.  As the story unfolds, we learned that Professor Saotome went on a hunt for three pilots who are capable of riding such scientifically sophisticated machines. So a talented martial artist(Ryoma Nagare), a delinquent loner(Hayato Jin) and a judo expert(Musashi Tomoe) were called upon to take up such honorary task to defend the Earth, and they learned the secret powers of their Getter planes.

This robot series was helmed as the first Super Robot anime in history that produced a groundbreaking concept of merging (or combining) units into one super robot. And not only one type of super robot can be formed but in three types! Each robot is unique in its own way to handle different situations/struggles our Getter heroes face in the heat of battle. I was pretty dissapointed the fact I remembered back in the early 80s as a kid there was Getter Robo G whose licencing rights were bought by American company Force Five Series and later relabelled as the Starvengers and I couldn’t comprehend why is that Getter Robo was never queued to broadcast in Malaysia before Getter Robo G. Was it because of no money, or demand for Japanese robot was nonexistent? It’s a mystery to me. Nevertheless, it’s good to know that after all these years I finally know the truth behind the great legend of that is Go Nagai’s Getter Robo.

Anyway, I digress. The concept of combining units is this (at least in Getter Robo Universe). Getter Robo has 3 transformations, Getter 1, Getter 2 and Getter 3.  The three planes are named Eagle (red plane), Jaguar (white plane) and Bear (yellow plane). Getter 1 transformation goes with Eagle jet, Jaguar jet and Bear Jet, in an order.  Getter 2 transformation goes with pushing the previous order ‘up’ having Jaguar first, Bear second and Eagle last.  And lastly Getter 3 transformation goes with pushing Getter 2’s order up having Bear first, Eagle second and Jaguar last.  Here’ the illustration

Getter 1 Transformation – In this order

Eagle + Jaguar + Bear = Getter 1

Getter 2 Transformation – In this order

Jaguar + Bear + Eagle = Getter 2

Getter 3 Transformation – In this order

Bear + Eagle + Jaguar = Getter 3

The 3 Getter Robo come with unique and amazing fight capabilities when facing tougher mechanical monsters dispatched by the Dinosaur Empire with notable signature attacks. Getter 1 being very agile with its Tomahawk, Getter 2 with its highly-powered drill arm that can penetrate on any type of surface, and lastly Getter-3 with its overly-stretchy arms that extend up to several hundred metres in range to grasp any opponent to do a ‘throw’ ie Hammer Throw (as Musashi’s a judo expert). And they’re all come together along with Professor Saotome’s support and his children, Michiru and Genki Saotome to thwart the evil attempts of Dinosaur Empire’s conquest for Earth domination.

And so there lies a question I’ve been meaning to ask myself about. Was Getter Robo considered as the first “Transformer” ever in the history before the prime days of Transformers G1 that took over USA and the rest of the world? Well. Yes and no, depending on how you look at it. Facts gathered that even though Getter Robo succeeded in combining three units into one large unit, and its morphing capabilities into 3 robots suggest transformation is the valid description for this. However, another angle pointed out that a true Transformer is really a robot that puts itself in disguise of any object, be it cars, radios, trucks, construction equipment or even your Iphone! They can transform into robots that hold all the properties of their respective disguises, which shapes their robotic appearance. It makes you think logically Transformers do what they always do best. They always put into disguise. And they can always transform back to being robots again. Whereas Getter Robo can’t. It couldn’t fit in this category because the three units were not ‘transformable’, separately. So there’s no way Getter Robo is truly the first Transformers, so to speak.

But then again, you could also argue that if Getter Robo did not introduce this ‘morphing’ capabilities in its series, then it would have not inspired other countless super robot anime artists who incorporated this element into their own robot shows and continue to thrive their imagination to take place. Meaning, the Transformers as we know today oughta give plenty of credit to Getter Robo for bringing its own existence, doesn’t it? I really do believe it should. After all, you’ll come to know there are other startling facts behind the Transformers that the Japanese did invented the Transformers, whereas USA was responsible for the branding behind the titular name (and the catchy opening music).

Later on, I’m planning to add further interesting details about the series in regard of the plot and character development, once I get the original classics on DVD release in my hands.  More to come.

Related posts:

1. Getter Robo Music: On Gameboy?
2. Second Transformers movie was cool. But wait. What’s next? Another possible retro robot series movie in the making?
3. Transformers 2 Trailer is out now.