Blue Comet SPT Layzner

Blue Comet SPT Layzner is an old anime series produced by Sunrise between 1985 and 1986. Authored by Ryosuke Takahashi of Votoms fame, it takes place in an alternate 1996 where humanity has advanced enough to travel to Mars and the Moon, and establish settlements there. However, the Cold War is still going on, with ever-increasing tensions between United States of America and the Soviet Union, and the threat of a nuclear war looms on the horizon.

But soon, an unknown menace befalls humanity: on Mars, the members of an exchange program funded by the United Nations to promote peace and dialogue between nations find themselves trapped in a crossfire between four mysterious humanoid robots - three of which begin firing on the exchange program's base, killing almost all of the students. Only a few people survive, but they find themselves isolated on an inhospitable planet that has become a battlefield. And, as if this wasn't enough, the pilot of the fourth robot, who had been trying not to involve the civilians in the battle, actually presents himself to the survivors, introducing himself as Albatro Null Eiji Asuka, and telling them that the Earth is being targeted for occupation by the far-away Grados Empire...

This series provides examples of:

""You can't kill...but I love to!""
 * AI Is a Crapshoot:
 * Aloof Big Sister: Julia, to Eiji.
 * Another Century's Episode: Debuts in the very first game. Also appears in the second.
 * Anti-Villain: Ahmos Gale, Eiji's best Gradosian friend, all the way.
 * Anyone Can Die
 * Aristocrats Are Evil
 * Ax Crazy: Gosterro.
 * Back From the Dead:
 * Bad Boss:  GOSTERRO. 
 * Betty and Veronica: Anna and Simone, for Eiji.
 * Big Applesauce: Almost the entirety of the Ru-Kain 1999 arc is set in New York City.
 * Big Bad: Ru-Kain
 * Bigger Bad: Gresco
 * Black Dude Dies First: Poor Judau...
 * Blood Knight: Gosterro


 * The rest of the Demon Death Squad as well.
 * Char Clone: Ru-Kain.
 * Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Gosterro
 * Commander Contrarian: David to Eiji, albeit for the very good reason of Eiji wanting no bloodshed whatsoever while David puts the survival of the Cosmic Culture Club as his #1 priority.
 * Darker and Edgier than even Zeta Gundam, and that's an accomplishment!
 * Eagle Land: David Rutherford is a sympathetic Type 1.
 * Evil Counterpart: Gosterro to Eiji.  to Rei. Zakaal to Layzner.
 * Evil Laugh: Gosterro & Ru-Kain, along with The Demon Death Squad.
 * Evil Is Petty: Ru-Kain all the way!
 * Evil Prince: Ru-Kain again.
 * Facial Markings: Gresco has a red lining around his left eye.
 * Fantastic Caste System:
 * Fantastic Racism: Humans & Gradosians, both ways. It's a major theme throughout the entire series.
 * The Fighting Narcissist: Manjuro
 * Five-Bad Band: Ru-Kain & The Demon Death Squad
 * Big Bad - Ru-Kain
 * The Dragon - Gosterro
 * Evil Genius - Bohn
 * The Brute - Getey
 * Dark Chick - Manjuro
 * Five-Man Band: Cosmic Culture Club
 * The Hero - Eiji
 * The Lancer - David
 * The Smart Guy - Roanne
 * The Big Guy - Arthur
 * The Chick - Simone
 * The Heart- Anna
 * Team Mom - Dr. Clabery
 * Five-Token Band: Cosmic Culture Club
 * Eiji: Japanese/Gradosian
 * David: American
 * Roanne: Swiss
 * Simone: English/French
 * Facial Markings: Getey.
 * Foil: Gosterro to Eiji.
 * Four Is Death:  & The Demon Death Squad.
 * Futuristic Pyramid:
 * Gainax Ending: Deliberately with the final TV episode. The Hallmark 2000 OVA fixes it somewhat.
 * Glowing Purple Eyes Of Doom:
 * Good Scars, Evil Scars: Bohn.
 * Half-Human Hybrid: Eiji and Julia are the children of a Japanese astronaut and a Gradosian woman.
 * Heartbroken Badass: Eiji.
 * Honor Before Reason: Eiji refuses to kill even when, in earlier episodes, Fouron has a kill-shot lined up on Gosterro, who has been picking off the various adults helping the Cosmic Culture Club one at a time.
 * Hot-Blooded: Eiji & David.
 * Human Aliens: The Gradosians
 * Humans Through Alien Eyes
 * Human Mom, Nonhuman Dad: Inverted.
 * It Got Worse:
 * Jerkass: Gosterro. At first David is one of these to Eiji but he eventually gets over it.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: David matures into this after his initial mistreatment of Eiji.
 * Kick the Dog: Gosterro calling Eiji's bluff  and gleefully egging him on to go ahead and do it. And it just gets worse from there!
 * Large and In Charge: Gresco is seemingly rotund, but appears to have some muscle underneath the fat. His son Ru-Kain is a hulking giant with a bodybuilder physique.
 * Law of Chromatic Superiority: Layzner, and especially the Zakaal, Ru-Kain's personal golden SPT.
 * Meganekko: Roanne Dietrich is a male version.
 * Martial Pacifist: Eiji uses judo.
 * Mook Face Turn:
 * Names to Know In Anime: Kazuhiko Inoue (Eiji), Fumi Hirano (Simone), Hiroko Emori (Anna), Eriko Hara (Rei)...
 * No Export for You: A particularly annoying example as BANDAI USA had actually purchased the license to release SPT Layzner in America but received damaged, blue-tinted masters from Sunrise. No replacements were ever acquired and the license expired in 2005.
 * Not So Different: Humans and Gradosians.
 * Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Averted: both the Cosmic Culture Club and the Gradosian Empire have a very real fear of the nuclear weapons possessed by the Americans and the Soviets.
 * Orcus on His Throne: Invoked with Gresco who spends
 * Omniscient Morality Licence:
 * Ojou: Simone Reflan
 * Phenotype Stereotype: David
 * Plucky Girl: Anna and Simone, in their own ways.
 * Psycho for Hire: The Demon Death Squad.
 * Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Demon Death Squad.
 * The Quisling:
 * Real Robot
 * Reasonable Authority Figure: Dr. Elizabeth & Gale
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Eiji and David definitely qualify. Even their mechs' paintjobs reflect this: with Eiji in the eponymous Blue Comet SPT Layzner, while David pilots the red SPT Baybull.
 * Conversely, Eiji & Layzner are the Red Oni to the Blue Oni of Ru-Kain & Zakaal. Eiji could also be the Red Oni with Rei as the Blue Oni.
 * Smug Snake: Ru-Kain
 * The Social Darwinist: Ru-Kain's whole philosophy can be effectively summed up as Might Makes Right.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Ru-Kain//Le Cain/Le Caine/Lu Klyne? Gosterro/Gostello/Ghostello/Costello? Gale/Gail?
 * Stealth Pun: Layzner becomes the "Blue Comet" when it activates V-MAX. The V-MAX Super Charge used by the Zakaal is referred to as "Red Power". Making the Zakaal a...Red Comet?
 * Super Robot Wars - Debuted in Shin and appears in J, GC and 64.
 * Survivor Guilt: David, in regards to Juno.
 * Technical Pacifist: Eiji doesn't want to kill anyone and deliberately tries to disable enemy SPTs rather than the kill the pilot outright.
 * We ARE Struggling Together!
 * What Could Have Been: The Layzner Mk.II. Thankfully SRW and ACE have both been very kind in that department.
 * The New Layzner add-on packs and the King Grados SPT, too. All of the above had to be scrapped in the series proper due to poor ratings causing a premature cancellation that necessitated a rewrite of the latter half of the story to fit.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?:
 * You Are What You Hate: The Gradosians constantly insist that they are superior to Earthlings.
 * You Are What You Hate: The Gradosians constantly insist that they are superior to Earthlings.