UFO Robot Grendizer

UFO Robot Grendizer (UFOロボ グレンダイザー Yūfō Robo Gurendaizā) is an anime and manga created by Go Nagai, as the third entry in the original Mazinger series. It is also a reimagining of an animated short film also made by Nagai, Uchu Enban Daisenso.

Production
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, stated in an interview that the anime series was considered a fun side project and he does not considered 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 as Toei not paying him royalties for the shows overseas airings for several years which culminated in a 1986 court settlement that lead to Toei paying Nagai his royalty earnings.

Synopsis
Grendizer focuses on protagonist Duke Fleed, the crown prince of the now ruined Planet Fleed and the Super Robot Grendizer. When the Vegan Empire attack the peaceful Planet Fleed to expand their military rule as a result of the radiation emanating from their former home planet; they opt to steal the Grendizer for their own exploits. The robot was stolen by the surviving prince and using a Spazer to escape came to Earth. Duke is adopted by scientist Dr. Genzo Umon, as his own son and is renamed Daisuke Umon. Working on a ranch with his friend Hikaru Makiba and her family, they get a visit from space travel student Koji Kabuto who then goes to meet a swarm of UFOs that have been appearing around Japan, unaware that UFOs are the Vegan Empire. Duke saves Koji with Grendizer and begins a long battle against the Vegan Empire with Koji, Hikaru, and Duke's lost sister Maria Fleed joining him.

Anime Episodes

 * Comprehensive Listing of UFO Robot Grendizer episodes

Reception
Grendizer was the second longest running animated Mazinger series in Japan, having 74 episodes. Several people, however, complained about its connection to the other Mazinger series in the franchise, especially with Koji's status as a mere sidekick and giving him a different romantic interest who wasn't Sayaka as well as the lack of the other Mazinger mechs.

This created the popular assumption that the anime wasn't a success in Japan, especially since the merchandise based on the anime didn't sell as well as the merchanidise for both Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger. However, Go Nagai disputes this, saying the anime was actually quite successful in Japan; “''It was actually a hit in Japan. Maybe some people thought it was not as popular as Mazinger Z, because Mazinger was super popular''.”

International Releases
Regardless of its disputed success in Japan, Grendizer was one of the first anime programs to be a major success in both Europe and the Arabic regions of the Middle East and continues to have a strong following in those parts of the world to this day.


 * The Italian dub was titled Goldrake, it changed all the characters names and created a whole new soundtrack for the series. It was so popular in Italy that random episodes were compiled into films that was released theatrically in Italy and both the Italian theme songs were among the best-selling singles of 1978. It would also get it's own comic series titled Atlas UFO Robot Presenta Goldrake, whose story diverged even further from the source material. This comic ran for 89 issues and spawned several other similar comic adaptations of anime airing on Italian tv at that time.


 * The French dub titled Goldorak was the first anime series to be telecast in France and legend goes that the series was so popular among French viewers that it is rumored that several episodes scored an 100% TV rating. Like the Italian dub, it changed all of the character's names and insert songs and later had a completely different theme simply titled "Goldorak", which was sang by Franco-Israeli singer Noam Kaniel. Noam's performance earned him unprecedented celebrity status in France. It was also one of the first anime programs to be a major success in Canada, where the French dub was broadcast in Quebec airing on TVA and continues to have a strong following to the point of news of the DVD release and returning broadcast getting major coverage in French speaking Canada. In late 2020, a fully licensed "Goldorak" graphic novel which was released on October 14, 2021 by Editions Kana. According to the creative team, Go Nagai himself gave his blessings to the comics story, which serves as a sequel to the original Toei anime set 10 years after the final episode. The comic has received positive reviews from readers for it's detailed art and a story that keeps the spirit of the original series.


 * In the Arab World, it first aired in Lebanon on Télé Liban before being distributed to most Arabic speaking regions. Unlike the Italian and French dub the Arabic dub retained the characters names and insert songs from the Japanese version and had little to no censors (with the exception of some markets like Saudi Arabia and the UAE). Grendizer was so popular at the time that several long running Grendizer comics were published for the Arabic market, mostly translations of the Italian produced comics as well as some homegrown comics. The series' popularity continues on in the region, Lebanese popstar Sami Clark who sang the Arabic openings and endings continued to sing the songs in his concerts until his death in 2022. In addition there is a hobby store in Kuwait that produces and distributes exclusive Grendizer merchandise licensed by Dynamic Planning to be sold to the rest of the region.


 * In the United States, Grendizer was one of 5 mecha shows included in the 1980 tv anthology Force Five, where it was renamed Grandizer and only had 26 episodes dubbed out of order. Despite the low episode count, it enjoys a small but dedicated cult following among East Coast Americans who saw the show as children as well as children who grew up with military families as Force Five was frequently aired on the cable tv feed of US Military installations in Europe. This was the version of the show seen in the United Kingdom, India, Serbia and The Philippines (though an earlier local Filipino English dub of the show existed before it was taken off the air by orders of the Ferdinand Marcos regime).

Other Appearances
UFO Robot Grendizer appears in key roles Dynamic Super Robot Wars and Dynamic Heroes and has also appeared in several installments of Banpresto's popular crossover video game series Super Robot Wars, making its debut in the second installment of the franchise, 2nd Super Robot Wars. In recent years, however, Grendizer has made far less appearances in the mainline games.