Dangaioh


Hyper Combat Unit Dangaioh is a Japanese anime OVA series produced and animated by AIC and Artmic and released in Japan in 1987. Dangaioh featured character designs by creator Toshiki Hirano, mechanical designs by Shoji Kawamori, and animation direction by Masami Ōbari.

Plot

Brought together by the mysterious Dr. Tarsan, four powerful psychic warriors Mia Alice, Lamba Nom, Pai Thunder, and Roll Kran can unite four powerful planes to form Dangaioh—the most powerful weapon in the universe. Using their combined psionic force, the Dangaioh team alone can stop the bloody tyranny of Captain Galimos and Gil Berg.
The team hopes their psychogenic wave will be strong enough to destroy Galimos's evil henchman, the notorious Gil Berg, who has sworn by the taking of his right eye to utterly destroy the Dangaioh Team. Along with the threat of Gil Berg, the Dangaioh Team must also avoid falling foul of Galimos's trickery, which finds weakness in their forgotten pasts.

Characters

Main characters

;Mia Alice
;Roll Kran
;Lamba Nom
;Pai Thunder
;Dr. Tarsan

Antagonists

;Gil Berg
;Captain Galimos
;General Mestilla
;Colonel Goutilla
;Sub-General Santilla
;Commander Dartilla
;Yoldo
;Deela
;Shazarla
;Domdon
;Oscar
;Burst
;Flash

Supporting characters

;Kilkel
;Folk
;Mido

Music

The score was composed by Chumei Watanabe, with additional music for episode 3 by Kaoru Mizutani. The soundtrack for episode 1 was released by Nippon Columbia on CD on April 21, 1987, and on LP and cassette on August 21, 1987. It was reissued on March 21, 2007, as No. 169 of Nippon Columbia's "Animex 1200" series. The soundtrack for episodes 2 and 3 was released by Platz on CD on July 21, 1989.
The first opening and ending themes were released as a 7" vinyl single on July 21, 1987.
;Opening theme
  • "Cross Fight!"
  • "Cheap Thrills"
;Ending theme
  • "Kokoro no Honesty"
  • "Who's Gonna Win?"

Release

Japan

Dangaioh was reissued in a two-LaserDisc set by Bandai Visual in 1998. The OVA was released on DVD on January 25, 2002. It was reissued on September 24, 2010, as part of the "Emotion the Best" DVD line.
Dangaioh was released on Blu-ray by King Records on April 27, 2016. For this release, episodes 1–2 were remastered in 1080p HD from the original 35mm negatives, while episode 3 was upconverted from the DVD source to 1080i using Q-tec's FORS system.

North America

Episode 1 of Dangaioh was first released in North America on subtitled VHS format by U.S. Renditions in 1990 as Dangaio. It was infamously known for a subtitling error towards the end of the episode. Dangaioh's final attacks "Psychic Wave" and "Psychic Sword" were misspelled as "Side-kick Wave" and "Side-kick Sword." Episodes 2 and 3 were released in 1992 with a different translation staff behind the subtitling production.
Following the demise of U.S. Renditions in the mid-1990s, Manga Entertainment re-released Dangaioh in 1996 as Dangaioh: Hyper Combat Unit, which was an English-dubbed compilation of episodes 2–3. Episode 1 was omitted from this release, as episode 2 begins with a summary of the episode. This version was released on DVD on January 28, 2003.

Merchandise

released Dangaioh in the Revoltech action figure line in 2007. Studio Half Eye released a fully transformable Dangaioh model kit in 2014; it was then released as a completed toy in 2021. In May 2021, Good Smile Company released a model kit of Dangaioh as part of the Moderoid line. King Arts released a diecast toy of Dangaioh, based on the Moderoid kit.

Sequel

A new 13-episode series named Great Dangaioh ran from April 5, 2001, through July 5, 2001 on TV Asahi in Japan. The series was created and directed by Hirano, and produced by AIC. Hirano's wife, Narumi Kakinouchi, was the animation director. Originally perceived as a completely different story, the series was revealed halfway as the sequel to the OVA series.
The series was licensed in North America by Viz Media, featuring an English dub produced in the Philippines by Telesuccess Productions.

Video games

An Dangaioh adventure game was released for the PC-8801 in Japan in April 1990. Dangaioh's characters, mecha, and storyline elements appeared in Banpresto's Super Robot Wars games. They initially appeared in Super Robot Wars Compact 2 for the WonderSwan game system, and later in its PlayStation 2 remake, Super Robot Wars Impact, as well as the Nintendo DS game, Super Robot Wars K. Impact notably features voice acting from the original Japanese voice actors.
The Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast video game Bangai-O contains various references to the series.