UFO robo: Gurendaizâ

To all of you Lebanese people born in the seventies or late sixties, this review goes to you. Picture this: finally being able to set a TV inside a shelter of reinforced concrete in the basement of a 7 stories building in Beirut, watching Grandizer with all the building residents while bombs are falling on that same building and carelessly enjoying it! That's me from 1981 and 1989. The duke of Fleed cares about the earth and its people , Daisky cares about the flowers and birds and yet he is so courageous and powerful and protective. Damn, who cares about real wars, the war of Grandizer to defend the earth is all that matters. A big salute to all Lebanese actors who gave their voices to the Arabic version particularly Jihad Al Atrash and the great Sami Clark. Not less than 10 for the best cartoon ever.

The 3rd of Go Nagai's mecha, Grendizer carries over much of what made Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger successful, but manages to freshen things up. Even though Kabuto Koji is present, it feels a lot more like a standalone series.

The art and the animation are much cleaner than the previous entries in the catalog, often closer to the more polished OVAs. The sound design is also vastly superior.

The silly and often annoying comic relief element is not as omnipresent as it was in Great Mazinger, where Boss is often the focus of attention for much of the episode. In fact, thankfully enough, Boss is only featured in a handful of episodes. Grendizer's own cast of silly characters such as Danbei and Banta is somewhat easier to ignore for the most part. And thankfully, there are no such absurdities as taking crows either.

Even if it's made for kids, the tone is more serious, with romantic and even tragic elements, and the characters have a lot more depth.

And this is reinforced by the extraordinary music of Shunsuke Kikuchi, one of the great Japanese composers of the late 20th century. The score is full of pathos and remarkably dynamic, often reminiscent of Ennio Morricone. The music alone gives much more depth to the series than what you find in Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger.

Of course, the series has its share of fillers but overall it is very enjoyable.

I would recommend watching it in Japanese if you do have that option, as the progression of the series makes more sense. The translated versions can sometimes feel as though they were done in batches of a few episodes, without any real notion of the overarching plot. That being said, I grew up watching it in French, and I can attest that they did a fantastic job with that version, despite some issues. I assume that the same goes for the Arabic and Italian versions, seeing how beloved this series remains in France, Quebec, Italy and some Arab countries almost 50 years later.

Grendizer appeared for the first time in Arab World at the 80's as a complete two-season Arabic dubbed show. It gained a huge popularity among the Arab children in the 80s, especially because dubbed cartoons are very rare at that time. Grendizer popularity in Arab World even very much exceeded Mazinger's; especially in Saudi Arabia where Mazinger has never been shown on TV.

The show is still being aired occasionally on both Space Toon and ART Teens (free-to-air Arabic satellite channels) which can be received in Middle East, parts of Africa, Europe, and Asia on the Egyptian TV satellite (Nile Sat). Also VHS tapes for the complete show (19 tapes)are being sold in Saudi Arabia.

Grendizer fans can obtain more information about the show on this website (http://www.grendizer.net).

This bland robot show (which aired as 'Goldorak' as I remember it) lacked the amorality, female nudity and blood splattering violence of 'Albator, le corsair de l'espace'(another children's cartoon on French tv in Canada at the time) -- thus it was less interesting to young boys in my grade.

Interestingly, the Quebec courts passed a law in 1999 forbidding parents from naming their child 'Goldorak.' I'm not making this up.

There are at least two United States versions of this series. One (the superior in my opinion) was part of Jim Terry's Force Five, a show composed of five different animated series from Japan. Another is a feature-length "movie" composed of four or five of the show's pivotal episodes spliced together. The Force Five version went all the way through the original series while the "movie" only covers the first "boss villain's" introduction and defeat.

Either way you get it, Grandizer is a fun show. The hero, Duke Fleed (aka Orion Quest) is an experienced pilot right off the bat so they can skip the tedious training and such that seems to be the mainstay of most super and giant robot shows. Grandizer is also interesting in that he doesn't triumph because he is much more powerful than his foes (though he is powerful), he wins because he's *better* than they are.

Duke himself is an alien, physically superior to humans. Also, he is the reluctant hero type. However, he knows it was his fault the Vegan empire came to Earth and it's his responsibility to fight them. He only hesitates for the briefest of moments before unearthing Grandizer and heading into combat once more. His angst is there but not the alpha and omega of his character. Contrast this to shows like Evangelion, in which the characters' angst was all there was to them.

The supporting cast, including Koji Kabuto from "Mazinger Z", come off well with the exception of a midget cowboy apparently put in just to make fun of Americans. Fortunately, he doesn't do much. It's a lot of fun to see how Duke will prove himself superior to Koji from episode to episode. It's as if Go Nagai, creator of both "Grandizer" and "Mazinger Z", didn't really like Koji and wanted to humiliate him at every opportunity.

If you can find the "movie" version, pick it up. It's a lot of fun especially if you enjoy "old-school" super robots. The Force Five version is more satisfying, if you can get ahold of it. I am unaware of any subtitled in English versions of the original Japanese unless you can track down a fan sub.