UFO Robot Grendizer (ＵＦＯロボ グレンダイザー Yūfō Robo Gurendaizā), also known as Force Five: Grandizer in the United States, is a Japanese Super Robot anime television series and manga created by manga artist Go Nagai. It is the third entry in the Mazinger trilogy. It was broadcast on Japanese television from October 5, 1975, to February 27, 1977, and lasted 74 episodes(more than Great Mazinger but less than Mazinger Z). The robot'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, both under the title Grandizer. It is still widely popular in the Middle East, and it was especially popular in France and Quebec, as well as among French speaking Canadians in the province of New Brunswick, where it was aired under the title Goldorak. It was also very popular in Italy, where it was aired under the title Goldrake, starting in 1978.
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 Emperor 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(Sounds like a bad 50s movie plot). 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 (Spaizer), a flying saucer that enables the robot to fly.
Fleeing Vegan space by flying at faster than light speed(like the Flash), the Duke enters our 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 returns to Japan after studying abroad 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 (wait, Vegans?! like those dinks who think eating a burger is murder?!) 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 (under the belief that Duke was killed) 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 lived. Maria's attacks bring Duke's necklace (which is the same as the one she wore) into view and the truth is revealed. The lost siblings are reunited at last and Maria becomes the last addition to the team. So are they gonna fall in love? I mean if they're the last survivors of their race they kinda gotta.
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 (Just like with Akira Fudo After Miki Makimura got iced. Or Mad Saulus after Blue got chopped up).
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 (see you in Hell a55 hole!!). Soon afterwards, Duke and Maria bid a tearful farewell to Earth and their friends and return to help reconstruct planet Fleed. Wait, Aint they the only survivors?? Are they on an empty planet?! That's kinda f'd up. Also; I assume theyre gonna inbreed to repopulate.
Manga[]
Star Comics for a Space thing?
So it startz with Grendizer slagging some robots and going to Earth and Koji sees it land and goes there and meets Duke Fleed. Later he goes to the Space Observations Laboratory and meets Genzo Umon who he brought Duke and Dukes wounds have healed fast. Umon fakes Fleed being his son by saying he's Daisuke Umon so no one knows hes a gaijin. Later, Duke is riding with Hikaru Makiba and her dad Danbei Makiba watches as they are on a farm or ranch or w/e. Also is Goro Makiba, Hikaru's kid bro like Shiro Kabuto or Junpei Hayami and Duke is mastering horse a55 riding fast. Later at night he tells Koji and Umon about the Vega Empire Fleet comming to F Da Earth! They F'd Dukes planet and slagged his homies and fam and Duke escaped with his peoples ultimate creation; UFO Robo Grendizer! Then, Captaun Braki (Blacky??) comes over and sends saucer beast (Dick Saucer!!) GilGil who f'd up Tokyo cuz thats like a magnet for being f'd by monsters and Duke goes out in Grendizer and slags it. Braki reports to Gandar who sez they gotta ice Duke Fleed. Later Koji stops by the Makiba's to get Duke who's having Viet Nam Flashbacks of his planet bring f'd and Duke goes to fight UruUru in Grendizer and takes him out. Duke and Koji enjoy the sunset and Duke saying he's an Earthman now and will defend his planet. Later, The Vegans get Dukes homie Brunhild to take out Duke after figgering out the area Grendizer might be hiding. He chex the Makiba ranch by phazing through walls like Enpi or Sirene and finds Duke outside but warns him not to come close as he's not in control of his body (But can use his mouth?). The Vegans send DolDol to the area as the homie's brainwaves are going up and wanna capture Duke Alive. Duke beats out his homie but a Saucer Beast comes in and slags the homie. Dukes gonna get iced but the monster is stopped for a sec so they can find Grendizer and stop humans from using it even w/o Freed. They figger the place he's heading for is where Grendizer is and send saucers but Duke realizes they are tracking hi and keeps running so they don't bust it. Koji flys Grendizer and saves Duke and Duke gets in and slags the Saucer. Later, Greppel comes by the bad guys moon base (What is this? Power Rangers?!) and he has a brainwave control device that controls humans but can\t work on Duke. But he wants to use it to have Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger against Grendizer (Good thing they didn't make Mazinkaiser yet!). Later, Danbei interrupts Hikaru and Duke thinking they might b0ne and spanks her bare a55 for it. So Koji Kabuto and Tetsuya Tsurugi get mind controlled and they break into the Photon Power Lab and jack Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger with Cameos from Boss, Sayaka Yumi and Gennosuke Yumi. So Dr Umon is gonna slag the pilots but Duke tells him its Koji and Tetsuya who are mind controlled like what happened when his planet got f'd. Despite Grendizer being Fleeds ultimate creation, everyone thinks it can't beat 2 Mazingers (So I guess Mazinkaiser IS stronger). So Grendizer takes a beat down but starts fighting back and takes off Great Mazingers arm and Prof Yumi sez Sayaka will tell Duke the weak points in Mazingers. Goro goes to Boss and gets Boss Borot to go to da woods and f'd the ufo base the bad guy was using. Koi and Tetsuya are free but their Mazingers are busted and the bad guys send Zardan who takes care of Boss Borot but Grendizer saves him. He grabs Grendizer but Great Mazinger and Mazinger Z come by and slag him. Later, Great Mazinger is jacked from the Robot Museum (Like in Mega Man and Bass?). Koji and Duke go out and face Sauser Beast ZagiZagi and GoriGori and Grendizer goes inti this hole in the sky's a55 and finds Barados, the guy who f'd up his planet, Duke gets p-ssed and gets caught and blows the Saucers and Koji gets caught. Barados at the moon base sez he's gonna replace Gandar and dump him on some butt hole planet when he's done. So Duke sees Koji gets melted by a beam but its just a dream and the gang asks why he didn't save koji and he sez he was too focused on Barados who iced his fam in from of him. The fight between FLeed and Vega was equal until Barados came in and wacked the women and kids so thee planet would die out (Just like china did to itself!) and caught the Kings kids and ransomed em for weapons. The king payed but Barados released the kids from the sky and they splattered! Later Great Mazinger and Saucer Beast BigaBiga attack Tokyo and are catching kids like Pokemon in the Safari Zone! Grendizer goes out and takes out the saucer beasts JinJin, GaruGatu and BekiBeki but its revealed they were just there to bust him up and the Vegans attacked the lab and caught Dukes homies. Tomorrow Barados will face Grendizer or all his homies are brown bread. At the next day, he Great Mazinger shows up and has Dukes droogs tied to Great Mazinger on the outside as a human shield. A Rocket Punch with kids on the knuckles splatters em on Grendizers face (Modern manga would NEVER do that! Lets see One Punch Man show kids being mashed into mush? Hokuto no Ken had kids getting it though!) and Saucer Beast GubiGubi grabs Grendizer from behind. Goro uses a gun to blow off Koji's rope and he gets it, swings up, and blasts the driver of G M(Good guy with a gun!!). Koju sez Great Mazingers weak point is da head like in Castlevania and Duke chops the head of Great M. After finishing off the saucer beast, he splatters Barados with his huge blades (Can't have the good guys intentionally slag bad guys anymore! Might make the kids turn gay or something!). Wtf, the next chapter just changed the art style and has a new bad guy called Zuril. Is this the same series? Or another thing added on after? Either way, its all I have translated with the same art style. The end?
Characters[]
- Duke Fleed
- Koji Kabuto
- Maria Grace Fleed
- Grendizer
- Genzo Umon
- Danbei Makiba
- Hikaru Makiba
- Goro Makiba
- Emperor Vega
- Blacky
Trivia[]
There is some debate on who is stronger; Grendizer or Mazinkaiser. Both are kind of the 3rd chapter in the Mazinger saga and both are seen as some of the strongest Mecha in the franchise. In that Dynamic heroes or w/e 3 part video thing to promote Mazinkaiser, Grendizer was the one who took out the Great General of Darkness. Also, some say Mazinkaiser fought weaker enemies than Grendizer. On the other hand, Mazinkaiser showed some pretty overpowered attacks in the OAV and in Mazinkaiser vs The Great General of Darkness took on some pretty heavy duty sh-t. Sorta like the debate over who is stronger between Devilman or Mazinger Z.
Cameoes[]
- In the Academy Comics Comic Book Robotech Return To Macross was 1 scene in Issue 20 Page 1 Where in the apartment of Lisa Hayes and Lorry Hill was a poster of him.
I assume they didn't draw the face for Copyright Reasons, even though Macross had Astro Boy in 1 ep and Spain has a statue of Mazinger Z.
- Also in a chapter of Robotech Academy Blues, a cadet asked Roy Fokker if a CF-1 Valkyrie could beat Grendizer. As those are pretty much regular jets and Grendizer is a Supe Robot, Its like Hercule vs Xicor in DBAF.
- In Hanappe Bazooka was a scene where Hanappe Yamada imagines Grendizer and Great Mazinger cuz of aliens.
Tonight, on Ancient Aliens!