Grendizer

Infobox animanga/Header
name = UFO Robo Grendizer


caption =
ja_name = UFOロボ・グレンダイザー
ja_name_trans = UFO Robo Gurendaizā
genre = MechaInfobox animanga/Manga
title =
author = Go Nagai
publisher = Kodansha
demographic = Shōnen
magazine =
first = October 1975
last = May 1976
volumes = Infobox animanga/Anime
title =
director = Masayuki Akihi
studio = Toei/Dynamic Planning
network = flagicon|Japan Fuji TV
network_other = flagicon|Italy Rete Due
flagicon|France Antenne 2
flagicon|Canada TVA
flagicon|Taiwan CTS(1987)
first = October 5, 1975
last = February 27, 1977
episodes = 74Infobox animanga/Movie
title = UFO Robot Grendizer vs. Great Mazinger
director = Osamu Kasai
studio = Toei/Dynamic Planning
released = March 20 1976
runtime = 27 MinutesInfobox animanga/Movie
title = Grendizer, Getter Robo G, and Great Mazinger: Decisive Showdown with the Great Sea Beast
director = Masayuki Akehi
producer =
writer = Susumu Takaku
music = Shunsuke Kikuchi, Michiaki Watanabe
studio = Toei Animation
licensor =
released = 1976-07-25
runtime = 30 minutes

Nihongo|"UFO Robo Grendizer"|UFOロボ・グレンダイザー|UFO Robo Gurendaizā, is a super robot show created by manga artist Go Nagai.It was shown on Japanese TV in 1975 and lasted 74 episodes.In 1977 it was the greatestFact|date=July 2008 anime show in France, in 1978 in Italy, leading to a great merchandising, being the first mecha ever show in those countries. His first appearance in U.S. was as part of Jim Terry's Force Five series, under the title "Grandizer".

Plot

The Vega homeworld is becoming 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 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").

A rough 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 were reunited at last and Maria becomes the last addition to the team.

Near 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.

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" = 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 a seemingly indestructible beast 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 central Europe and Canada, particularly in France and Quebec (known as [http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldorak "Goldorak"] ), Italy and Malta (known as "Goldrake"), where it holds a strong following even today. Grandizer 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), both as his alien and Earth name; Kouji Kabuto is Alcor, Doctor Umon is Professeur Procyon etc.

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 then changed his name to "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.

DVD releases

The licensed dubbed version for some French-speaking countries was officially announced in 2006. In 2005, a major crisis led Toei to take legal actions against DVD customers, all French megastores, and two major French anime publishers in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg. The crisis started with the official release of unlicensed Goldorak DVD by Manga Distribution and Déclic Image websites and on Ebay. By November 28th 2005 the Manga Distribution and Déclic Images publishers were sentenced to pay €7 200 000 to Toei and Dynamic Planning for selling unlicensed DVD boxset.

"upcoming section material:"
*" [http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/english/press/press_goldorak1.html Crisis start] "
*" [http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/english/press/press_goldorak2.html Part 2] "
*" [http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/english/press/press_goldorak3.html Part 3] "
*" [http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/english/press/press_goldorak5.html Part 4] "
*" [http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/english/press/press_goldorak6.html Part 5] "
*" [http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/english/press/press_goldorak7.html Part 6] "
*" [http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/english/press/press_goldorak4.html Crisis end] "

Cast

* Duke Fleed
Kei Tomiyama
* Hikaru Makiba
Chiyoko Kawashima
* Kouji Kabuto
Hiroya Ishimaru
* Maria Grace Fleed
Rihoko Yoshida
* Doctor Umon / Emperor Vega
Jouji Yanami

External links

* [http://www.arabicshows.com/?UFO-Robot-Grendizer-Episodes Watch Grendizer Online] (Arabic Dub)
*jp icon [http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/lineup/tv/grendaizer/ Information of Grendizer in Toei Animation]
*it [http://www.encirobot.com/gold/gold-ind.asp Pictures and summaries of UFO Robo Grendizer’s chapters]
* [http://www.grendizer.co.uk The most important Grandizer Museum Online] all about Grendizer Toys, Stories, curiosities, Collections.
* [http://web.mit.edu/sseligma/www/grand.html Grandizer fan site] – Story, character profiles, weapons, image gallery, and sound clips.
* [http://www.gtgroup.info/ Grendizer Project] – A fan non-profit project to create episode 0 of UFO Robot Grendizer.
* [http://www.absoluteanime.com/force_five/ Absolute Anime] – General information, message board, links.
* [http://www.vex.net/~guru/goldorak/goldorak.htm Goldorak, also known as Grandizer] – Story, episode guide, links.
* [http://web.mit.edu/sseligma/www/grand.html Grandizer Fan site]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0185070/ Grandizer at the Internet Movie Database]
*it [http://www.uforobots.net/ Ufo Robot Project] :A non-profit 3D project dedicated to Go Nagai's Ufo Robot Grendizer (Goldrake).
*it [http://www.theufo.net/ Theufo.Net] :Another non-profit 3D project dedicated to Go Nagai's robots.
*fr [http://www.goldorakgo.com Goldorakgo.com]
*fr [http://membres.lycos.fr/goldotriomphe/ Goldotriomphe] : a Grendizer site made in Québec. Contains fanart, fanfics and online Grendizer cartoons published in Europe in the late 70s.
* [http://membres.lycos.fr/goldotriomphe/mp/ Home of the Monstrogoth Project] : A project that compares Japanese, Arabic, Italian, French and American versions of UFO Robot Grendizer. Part of the Goldotriomphe website.

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