Bomber X

Original title: Ekkusu bonbâ

TV Series
1980–1982

IMDb RATING

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Shigeru Chiba, Toshio Furukawa, Mami Koyama, Naoki Tatsuta, and Mikio Terashima in Bomber X (1980)

Action Adventure Animation Drama Fantasy Sci-Fi

Created by Go Nagai, this sci-fi/fantasy puppet series sees heroes Shiro Ginga, Bongo Heracles, and Bigman Lee protect a girl named Lamia from the evil Gelma Armada, with the supership X Bom... Read allCreated by Go Nagai, this sci-fi/fantasy puppet series sees heroes Shiro Ginga, Bongo Heracles, and Bigman Lee protect a girl named Lamia from the evil Gelma Armada, with the supership X Bomber and its giant robot component, Big Dai-X.Created by Go Nagai, this sci-fi/fantasy puppet series sees heroes Shiro Ginga, Bongo Heracles, and Bigman Lee protect a girl named Lamia from the evil Gelma Armada, with the supership X Bomber and its giant robot component, Big Dai-X.

Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.8/10

385

YOUR RATING

Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Episodes24

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TopTop-rated 1 season2 years

Photos108

+ 102

Top cast29

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Toshio Furukawa

Ginga

• 1980–1981

Jay Benedict

Hagen (1982)

• 1980–1981

Mikio Terashima

• 1980–1981

Peter Marinker

Ben…

• 1980–1981

Shigeru Chiba

Heracles

• 1980–1981

Constantine Gregory

Hercules (1982)

• 1980–1981

Yûji Mitsuya

PP Adamsky…

• 1980–1981

Naoki Tatsuta

• 1980–1981

Mark Rolston

Lee…

• 1980–1981

Mami Koyama

Lamia

• 1980–1981

Liza Ross

Lamia (1982)

• 1980–1981

John Baddeley

PPA (1982)

• 1980–1981

Banjô Ginga

Gozma

• 1980–1981

Jacob Witkin

Master (1982)

• 1980–1981

Yuzuru Fujimoto

Narrator

• 1980–1981

Denise Bryer

Makara (1982)

• 1980–1981

Sean Barrett

Orion (1982)

• 1980–1981

Tôru Furuya

Halley

• 1980–1981

User reviews9

7.8385

Featured reviews

s7r4nger-1

Amazing!!!!

I loved this show! I hope to find this on DVD anytime soon. When I was a kid, I enjoyed this series very much. I can't remember much about it, except for a couple of scenes. I would like to see it again. Many years later, many shows are made that are way worst than this piece of art. This is not only a classic, but it would be a great show by today's standards. To the ones who own the rights of Star Fleet: Make it happen again, please. IT has everything from a great plot, interesting characters, human drama. Even a movie could be made from this series. With all the garbage and stupid remakes being done nowadays, how come no one wants to redo X-Bomber???? Do it now. Use CGI, if you want, but do it. NOW!

8dsb-6

Japanese madness !

Lots of memories on this one! - from the perspective of someone who was a young kid at the time....

This show really appealed to me at the time as it was somehow more brutal than other series of it's ilk - thunderbirds, terrahawks etc. in this series people got blown up - done with, they didn't survive, the bad guys wore bandages as the series went forwards (!), main characters were killed off - this was not the usual! i also have strong memories of the evil guy's catfish shaped spaceship - the series built up it's showdown with the red robot in the same way a pro wrestling show would build up an upcoming match! - so when the showdown finally came.. what an adrenalin rush for a 10 year old boy!

i dare say if i were to view it today i'd be less forgiving of technical qualities - plus the undoubted fact that the series was re-cut and edited on it's journey from japan to england - but even so, great memories!

10mightymothra

Incredibly entertaining, thoroughly charming

I was extremely delighted to stumble across Star Fleet, aka X-Bomber. What a thoroughly entertaining, fun, creative show, whose rough edges only add to the charm. Alongside Captain Scarlett, X-Bomber makes a very very strong case for Supermarionette as a medium, and makes me mourn for its unceremonious passing as a genre back in the 90's. Thunderbolt Fantasy has been an encouraging return for it to mainstream, but I fear we'll never see a series like Star Fleet again.

In short, this is an 80's space anime about a transforming mech battling cartoonish villains. It's a tokusatsu series in a lot of ways, with all the fast-paced creativity that implies. The battle scenes kick butt and use real practical effects in wonderful ways. I cannot recommend this one enough.

msknight

Comments from a relived viewing

Known as "Star Fleet" in the U.K., I watched it as a child and never missed an episode. Having recently watched the U.S. version (cut to 24 episodes) from start to finish, this is a great series. Unique in it's time (in my opinion) for having an overall plot, plus other sub-plots which made each week exciting and making me eager to see the final fight.

Talking with a good friend we recounted the years, and were soon trawling the net. A week or so later and we're watching the show again.

The dub from Japanese worked very, very well and the music breathed extra life in to this truly unique work. Puppets controled from below are forgivable when you consider the overall effect of the production, which was leading edge for it's time. Come on, Jin, it's been too long - let's see it released on DVD - you've got one customer here just waiting for all 9 hours worth.

7lardinio

A puppet animation show that's dying to be made an epic trilogy

It's amazing how many people don't remember this series ever existed but I watched every episode over and over again. I can still remember the characters voices, "by your divine guidance" rings in my ears. And the theme music for Dai-X, "dun dun, Dir Der, Der Dir, Der Dir, d d Di!". I have been waiting for 20 years for someone to make this into a film. CGI is so good these days and the original story line was very strong it is bound to be a winner with the right director and cast. Hell, they're doing 'Transformers' so why not star fleet. It would be a Matrix, come Star Wars flick for a new (and old - for the few who could remember) generation. I cannot believe that no-ones picked up on this yet!!

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Trivia
The localized names in the UK English-dubbed version are as follows: Shirô Ginga (first name pronounced "SHEE-row"), the lead character, is called Shiro Hagen (first name pronounced "SHY-row" in the UK), Bongo Heracles is renamed Barry Hercules, and Bigman Lee becomes John Lee. Dr. Ben, the heroes' mentor/commander, becomes Dr. Benn Robinson, and his robot aide, P.P. Adamsky, is shortened to PPA. The main villain, Emperor Gelma, and his namesake fleet, the Gelma Armada, are abstractly renamed the Imperial Master and the Imperial Alliance, respectively. Gelma's field commander, Bloody Mary, is Commander Makara, her right-hand man Lieutenant Kozlo is Captain Orion. her scientist Dr. Gedora is Caliban, and the stock-henchmen, Gelma Soldiers, are called Termoids. General Kuroda becomes General Kyle, Captain Custer (Shirô, Bongo, and Bigman's former mentor/commander) is Captain Carter, and Shirô's father, Saburô Ginga, is Saburo Hagen. Characters like Lamia, Kirara, and Captain Halley remain the same, as does the eponymous ship X-Bomber. The super-vehicles Brainder (Shirô's vehicle), JumBody (Bongo's vehicle), and LegStar (Bigman's vehicle) are renamed BrainCom, MainBody, and LegTrax, respectively, and their gestalt giant robot form, Big Dai-X, is shortened to just Dai-X in the UK.

Goofs
In the final episode, both the Imperial Master and Captain Halley claim that it is the end of the 20th century. As it is the eve of 3000AD, that would mean it would be the end of the 30th century.