Egyptpower
January 21st, 2009, 01:59 PM
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l84/Godaiger/grendizer.jpg
Grendizer was my true introduction to Anime along with many other Arabic speaking viewers who lived in the Arabic part of the Middle East (I used to live in Egypt), ask any Arab especially those around the age of 30 to make a list of their favorite cartoon shows growing up and it's likely most of them will mention Grendizer. One of the many reasons why Grendizer became such an enormous hit in Arabic speaking countries was because it was the first "Serious" cartoon Arabic viewers have ever seen and something different to other cartoons that were shown at that time like Disney, Looney Toons, Popeye and Tom & Jerry. The giant robot gimmick was an important factor as well.
Grendizer chronicles the tale of a young alien prince named Duke Fleed and his struggle to protect Planet Earth from an alien empire called Vega. Planet Vega 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.
Using Planet Fleed's highly advanced technology, the Vegan Empire constructed Grendizer, a highly advanced giant robot built in the likeness of the Fleedian God Of War to be used to lead their invasion fleet through other parts of the galaxy, the robot also interfaces with Spazer, a flying saucer that enables the robot to fly. However, the only known survivor of the Fleed royal family, Prince Duke Fleed, manages to steal Grendizer.
Fleeing the Vegan forces, Duke 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, he began helping out at Shirakaba farm, a ranch near the Lab helping out in Hikaru Makiba an human teenage girl who resides in Shirakaba farm with her UFO enthusiastic father Danbi Makiba and her little brother Goro. Duke Freed wanted to live a peaceful life, but when he realised that the Vegans, the same alien force that conquered his home planet have selected Earth as their next target, he is forced to use Grendizer, a robot built on planet Freed and which helped escape from his home planet to fight against the Vegan invasion. He isn't alone in his battle, joining him is Mazinger Z's Kouji Kabuto who unfortunately doesn't use Mazinger in this show, Hikaru joins in the fight and near the end he is joined by his long lost sister Maria Freed.
Mazinger Z and Mazinkaiser fans would be disappointed that Kouji isn't using Mazinger Z in his battle but he is still an important character, him and Daisuke started on the wrong foot but then became a reliable friend and has helped out Daisuke/Duke when he needed help. Hikaru started out as a usual damsel in distress type of role but with more character but then she becomes a member of the team and gets her own ship and is quite the fighter. Maria, Duke's lost sister appears in the later half of the show then developed feelings for Kouji and was also hinted that he became attracted to her as well. This become a running gag in many Super Robot Wars games as well in the Dynamic Heroes e-click manga that Maria and main female Mazinger Z character and Diana A pilot Sayaka Yumi are rivals for Kouji's attention.
The other characters are great Umon and his crew at the centre serve as the men behind the gadgets as well as Umon plays something as a father figure to Daisuke. Hikaru's father Danbi serves as a great comic relief of the show, who started from UFO freak to a caring father who would do anything to save his family while still being the comic relief.
The Vegan empire had a lot of great villains like Lord Vega who is your usual Galactic dictator, but not all of them are pure evil, some do it because of their loyalty to their empire like General Zuril, while were forced to fight believing that Grendizer was an evil threat to their planet like in the episode when Vegan assigned a group of young Vegans mostly children who were trained to be fight and who were learnt to believe from Vega that Grendizer was an evil force bent on destroying the Galaxy. While did because they were either brainwashed or doing it to save their planets from an Vegan attack.
Although not as popular in Japan as Go Nagai's other Super Robot classics Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger and Getter Robo, Grendizer is often credited as one of the major contributors to popularising Anime in Central Europe (particularly in France and Italy) and the Arabic part of the Middle East, I hear it also holds a strong following in the Quebec part of Canada, Russia and Malta. 26 episodes of the anime were shown on American TV as part of the multi-mecha show Force Five. However, it wasn't a big success in the US.
With all the remakes of Go Nagai works that came out recently, I've been waiting forever for a Grendizer remake. Well, I guess the original anime is satisfying enough.
Grendizer was my true introduction to Anime along with many other Arabic speaking viewers who lived in the Arabic part of the Middle East (I used to live in Egypt), ask any Arab especially those around the age of 30 to make a list of their favorite cartoon shows growing up and it's likely most of them will mention Grendizer. One of the many reasons why Grendizer became such an enormous hit in Arabic speaking countries was because it was the first "Serious" cartoon Arabic viewers have ever seen and something different to other cartoons that were shown at that time like Disney, Looney Toons, Popeye and Tom & Jerry. The giant robot gimmick was an important factor as well.
Grendizer chronicles the tale of a young alien prince named Duke Fleed and his struggle to protect Planet Earth from an alien empire called Vega. Planet Vega 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.
Using Planet Fleed's highly advanced technology, the Vegan Empire constructed Grendizer, a highly advanced giant robot built in the likeness of the Fleedian God Of War to be used to lead their invasion fleet through other parts of the galaxy, the robot also interfaces with Spazer, a flying saucer that enables the robot to fly. However, the only known survivor of the Fleed royal family, Prince Duke Fleed, manages to steal Grendizer.
Fleeing the Vegan forces, Duke 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, he began helping out at Shirakaba farm, a ranch near the Lab helping out in Hikaru Makiba an human teenage girl who resides in Shirakaba farm with her UFO enthusiastic father Danbi Makiba and her little brother Goro. Duke Freed wanted to live a peaceful life, but when he realised that the Vegans, the same alien force that conquered his home planet have selected Earth as their next target, he is forced to use Grendizer, a robot built on planet Freed and which helped escape from his home planet to fight against the Vegan invasion. He isn't alone in his battle, joining him is Mazinger Z's Kouji Kabuto who unfortunately doesn't use Mazinger in this show, Hikaru joins in the fight and near the end he is joined by his long lost sister Maria Freed.
Mazinger Z and Mazinkaiser fans would be disappointed that Kouji isn't using Mazinger Z in his battle but he is still an important character, him and Daisuke started on the wrong foot but then became a reliable friend and has helped out Daisuke/Duke when he needed help. Hikaru started out as a usual damsel in distress type of role but with more character but then she becomes a member of the team and gets her own ship and is quite the fighter. Maria, Duke's lost sister appears in the later half of the show then developed feelings for Kouji and was also hinted that he became attracted to her as well. This become a running gag in many Super Robot Wars games as well in the Dynamic Heroes e-click manga that Maria and main female Mazinger Z character and Diana A pilot Sayaka Yumi are rivals for Kouji's attention.
The other characters are great Umon and his crew at the centre serve as the men behind the gadgets as well as Umon plays something as a father figure to Daisuke. Hikaru's father Danbi serves as a great comic relief of the show, who started from UFO freak to a caring father who would do anything to save his family while still being the comic relief.
The Vegan empire had a lot of great villains like Lord Vega who is your usual Galactic dictator, but not all of them are pure evil, some do it because of their loyalty to their empire like General Zuril, while were forced to fight believing that Grendizer was an evil threat to their planet like in the episode when Vegan assigned a group of young Vegans mostly children who were trained to be fight and who were learnt to believe from Vega that Grendizer was an evil force bent on destroying the Galaxy. While did because they were either brainwashed or doing it to save their planets from an Vegan attack.
Although not as popular in Japan as Go Nagai's other Super Robot classics Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger and Getter Robo, Grendizer is often credited as one of the major contributors to popularising Anime in Central Europe (particularly in France and Italy) and the Arabic part of the Middle East, I hear it also holds a strong following in the Quebec part of Canada, Russia and Malta. 26 episodes of the anime were shown on American TV as part of the multi-mecha show Force Five. However, it wasn't a big success in the US.
With all the remakes of Go Nagai works that came out recently, I've been waiting forever for a Grendizer remake. Well, I guess the original anime is satisfying enough.