Grendizer
UFO Robot Grendizer, also known as Grandizer, Ufo Robot Grendizer Raids, Goldrake and Goldorak, is a Japanese manga and animated television series created by Go Nagai. The series is the third entry in the Mazinger series, later relegated into a spinoff series. The series is produced by Toei Doga and Dynamic Planning, directed by Tomoharu Katsumata, and written by Shozo Uehara. It aired on Fuji TV from October 5, 1975, to February 27, 1977. The mecha'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. A remake of the original anime series, Grendizer U, aired from July to September 2024.
Plot
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. The once verdant, idyllic Fleed is turned into a radioactive wasteland. Too late, the only known survivor of the royal family, the Crown 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 monster robot that interfaces with Spacer, a flying saucer that enables the robot to fly.Fleeing Vegan space by flying at faster than light speed, the Duke enters the 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.
Roughly two years later, Koji Kabuto, after studying abroad, returns to Japan 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. Koji ignores his warnings and flies out to meet the incoming saucers, only to discover the horrible truth. In order to save Koji 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 far side of the Moon and start to attack Earth from there. Koji 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 before dying from his wounds. Maria swears revenge on Grendizer and its pilot. She tries to ambush Duke, Koji and Hikaru at the Space Science Lab, but the fight is short. Maria's attacks bring Duke's necklace 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 its 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 mother ship 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
UFO Robo GrendizerNagai and Dynamic Productions created Grendizer using some of the elements and characters from Daiseno including Duke, the Makiba family, and even Blaki. Some changes were made to make it more original. The most obvious are the changes in design and the addition of characters such as Koji Kabuto and Maria Fleed.
UFO Robot Grendizer was developed to be a sequel to Great Mazinger after the initial concepts of a sequel were rejected by Toei. With the appearance of Uchu Enban Daisenso at the March 1975 Toei Manga Festival a remake was pitched using elements from Mazinger. To breathe new light into the series, the villains of the series were decided to be aliens, a trend that followed in other Toei mecha series while also making Duke a more Blue Blood character with his suit being based on a knight including more romantic elements with its characters and sense of adventure.
Go Nagai, however, at one point stated in an interview that the anime series was considered a fun side project and does not consider Grendizer to be part of the series timeline. This is mainly because he had many disagreements with Toei and Shingo Araki over the direction the show should take as well has Toei not paying him royalties for the show's overseas airings, which culminated in a 1986 court settlement that lead to Toei paying Nagai his royalty earnings. In the end, UFO Robo Grendizer is more of a stand-alone spin-off in the Mazinger universe.
Media
Anime
The series was first aired on Fuji TV from October 5, 1975, to February 27, 1977, with a total count of 74 episodes. Replacing Great Mazinger in its initial timeslot. Isao Sasaki performed both the show's opening and ending themes: "Tobe! Grendizer" and "Uchuu no Yuusha Grendizer". Shunsuke Kikuchi composed the music for the series.Japanese cast
- Kei Tomiyama as Daisuke Umon / Duke Fleed
- Hiroya Ishimaru as Kōji Kabuto
- Jōji Yanami as Dr. Genzō Umon / King of Vega
- Kōsei Tomita as Danbei Makiba / Gandal
- Chiyoko Kawashima as Hikaru Makiba
- Kazuko Sawada as Gorō Makiba / Lady Gandal
- Rihoko Yoshida as Maria Grace Fleed
Episodes
''Grendizer U''
A reboot of the original anime series, titled Grendizer U, was announced on August 5, 2023. It was produced by Gaina and directed by Shun Kudō with Mitsuo Fukuda serving as chief director, Nagai serving as executive producer, Ichirō Ōkouchi overseeing and writing series scripts alongside Tatsuto Higuchi, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto designing the characters, Kō Inaba, AF_KURO and Junichi Akutsu providing mechanical designs and Kohei Tanaka composing the music. It aired from July 5 to September 28, 2024, on all TX Network-affiliated stations in Japan. The opening theme song is "Kaishin no Ichigeki" performed by Glay, while the ending theme song is "Protect You" performed by Band-Maid.Home media
Toei released the entire series in Japan on DVD from May 21 to October 21, 2006. In 2013, following an agreement with Toei, an official "fully remastered and uncensored" DVD release of the complete series is available on French-speaking countries following the controversy regarding the unlicensed DVD releases by Manga Distribution and Déclic Images which resulted to a court ruling to pay €7,200,000 back to Toei. The series has also aired on the French Mangas anime TV channel. The entire Arabic dub is available on Istikana, a paid streaming service that has On-Demand Arab movies and TV shows.Manga
The manga adaptation was serialized in several magazines in Japan, notably in Akita Shoten's Boken Oh magazine from October 1975 to March 1977. A remake of the series, titled Grendizer Giga was serialized in Akita Shoten's Champion Red magazine from September 2014 to July 2015. Two tankobon volumes were released.Grendizer makes several cameos in other media, one in 2002 in the sixth chapter of Dynamic Superobot Wars and in 2004 in Dynamic Heroes, also known as Nagai Go Manga Gaiden—Dynamic Heroes and as Go Nagai Manga Heroes Crossover Collection—Dynamic Heroes, a Japanese manga based on several works of Go Nagai, including most of his most famous robots, such as Mazinger Z, Getter Robot and Great Mazinger. It was originally published as a monthly manga magazine e-manga from Kodansha, from June 2004 to July 2007. The latest iteration, Grendizer U, will be published in English in 2026 by Titan Manga.