UFO Robo Grendizer



UFO Robo Grendizer, known alternately by the names Grandizer, Goldorak and Goldrake, was the final series of the Mazinger trilogy, and one of the most well-received.

Grendizer is about a young prince of the Royal Family of Fleed, whose planet is turned into a radioactive wasteland by the invading army of the Vegan Alliance. The Vegans had invaded to steal the planet for themselves, as their own had slowly fell into ruin as well. After this tragedy, the young prince, Duke Fleed, managed to hijack the Vegan Alliance's prize UFO Robo - the Grendizer. Fleeing, he crash lands on Earth, two years ahead of the pursuing Vegan Army. There he is taken in by a kindly scientist named Dr. Umon. When the Vegans (*snicker*) attack, Duke takes the Grendizer into battle, along with Kouji Kabuto, the pilot of Mazinger Z.

When it was shown in the US, it was Macekred into Grandizer as part of the Force Five syndication block. Two episodes of Grandizer were released on VHS in America; it is otherwise hard to get in the US.

"Hikaru: “Why friends must fight each other? It’s all the same. It doesn’t matter who wins… There’s no way peace can result from this fight!” Rubina: "If this war continues, not only all Vegans but also Earth will be destroyed.""
 * Action Girl: Maria Grace, later Hikaru.
 * Adrenaline Makeover: As Hikaru decides to toughen up, her wardrobe changes from flowing dresses to miniskirts and boots.
 * Aerial Canyon Chase: Used in the last episode, when General Gandal (Minos) tries to ram his ship into Grendizer in a suicide attack. Duke Freed manages to make him crash into a cliff, since the Spazer (Grendizer's UFO) was still controllable, while Gandal's flagship was a flaming mess.
 * Alien Invasion: Maybe the earliest example in Super Robot Anime.
 * Aliens Are Bastards: This trope is played with. At the start Kouji believes he can try to communicate with the aliens and befriend them, but Daisuke tries to warn him they are NOT his friends and are NOT peaceful or reasonable. However, Daisuke himself was an alien and a decent person. And although most of the Vegans at the beginning are portrayed like bastards -and the Mooks are Exclusively Evil-, along the series more aliens -including Vegans- are introduced who are decent people at best or at worst are Well Intentioned Extremists who believe that Utopia Justifies the Means.
 * Alternate Continuity: As things currently stand, Grendizer is the most powerful robot in the Mazinger universe... but so is the Mazinkaiser. This means that the two are mutually exclusive and aside from a single piece of promotional material, they have never appeared together in a fictional work, be it animation or a Super Robot Wars game. Go Nagai often jokes that he doesn't want to establish one as more powerful than the other and avoids having Grendizer and Mazinkaiser appear side by side for that reason. There have been rumors that he intends to clear this up at some point, but so far the two remain exclusive.
 * All Your Colors Combined: The Mazinger trilogy series have extensively played with this trope:
 * In UFO Robo Grendizer, Mazinger-Z, Great Mazinger and Grendizer combined all of their attacks in one manga scene to destroy a Vegan Starship. And in one of the movies, Grendizer and Great Mazinger combined their Chest Blaster attacks to destroy a Saucer Beast.
 * The Super Robot Wars games have exploited this. When several of the Go Nagai mechas show up in the same game, they are given combination attacks. It is usually called Final Dynamic Special, and it is always impressive:.
 * Exclusively Evil: At the beginning it looks the trope is being played straight, but finaly it is averted. Several of the Vegans are decent people and many of them are given redeeming qualities.
 * Amnesia Danger: At the first episode of the Gosaku Ota manga, Duke does not remember anything about his past since Dr. Umon had wiped his memory's out so he could live peacefully without remembering anything about his destroyed home and slaughtered family. He got his memories back shortly after the Vegans attacked.
 * And This Is For: It happens at least once in the manga penned by Go Nagai. After the Vegans kill one of his oldest friends, Duke rips to pieces a Saucer Beast as he yells: "And this is for my friend!"
 * Animal Mecha: Several Saucer Beasts resembled animals, mainly reptiles.
 * Be Careful What You Wish For: Danbei Makiba (Hikaru's father) was obsessed with meeting aliens. He did not expect those aliens were hostile conquerors bent on taking over Earth. He didn't expect either that one of his employees was an alien, and his daughter would have fallen for him.
 * Berserk Button: Out of all pilots in the trilogy, Duke had the biggest Berserk Button. Nothing got his blood boiling like mentioning the Fleedian genocyde and the deaths of his family. And when a Vegan commander or soldier taunted him with it... let's tell it did not end up well for him.
 * Black and White Morality: At first sight the Mazinger trilogy seems belonging to this trope since the the heroes are mostly good guys and the villains tend to be CompleteMonsters, but in reality the morality in these series is more greyish than it seems. Dr. Hell became mad after having endured years of abuse, insults and mockery from everybody -including his parents- since he was a little kid, and even when he made a good action, he usually got beaten and scorned. Great General of Darkness wanted to take over the surface world because the Mykene civilization had been forced to live underground for millennia and he wanted his people to enjoy again things humans take for granted -such as seeing sunlight and breathing fresh air-. Emperor Vega began invading other planets because his own homeworld was dying, and several of his henchmen were Well-Intentioned Extremists wanting to establish a benevolent dictatorship because they genuinely believed Earth people would be better off. And, frankly, humans in the Mazinger trilogy often acted like utter bastards and forced the heroes to ponder why they bothered.
 * The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In: Sometimes the Double Harken would land like this.
 * Boss Subtitles
 * Brainwashed and Crazy: Kouji. Also, in the Nagai Heroes e-manga.
 * And in the manga penned by Go Nagai, Kouji and Tetsuya. And in another chapter, Brunhild, an old friend of Duke. Nonetheless, he was aware enough to warn Duke against come closer and beg to kill him.
 * Character Development: At the same time Duke is angsty because, his best friend Hikaru Makiba gets tired of being a Damsel in Distress and trains to become a pilot and Action Girl, etc.
 * Combining Mecha: The Mecha Expansion Pack Augment type. It combines with a space ship to form a Starship. And then you have its different Jet Pack to allow it move on space, underwater or underground.
 * Companion Cube: It seldom happened, but you still have in one of the manga versions, when Duke was fleeing from the Vegans he pleaded Grendizer carrying him far away. Nonetheless, Grendizer was the embomient of the Fleedian god of War, so he could have a point.
 * Convection, Schmonvection: Since Grendizer was a Humongous Mecha AND a Starship allowed Faster-Than-Light Travel between planets it was kind of justified Duke could efficiently protect Duke when he fought near from lava.
 * Cool Starship: Grendizer is both a Humongous Mecha and a Cool Starship. Vegans' spaceships and motherships also count.
 * Face Ship: When Grendizer combines with his flying device, its face shows up on the frontside.
 * Darkest Hour: In the finale of the first season, Duke was defeated and forced into hiding with Grendizer, Kouji was shot down, Hikaru was dying, the base was taken by Blackie and Professor Umon was tortured.
 * Dating Catwoman: Although there was not much dating after the annihilation of Fleed.
 * Demoted to Extra: Kouji was The Hero in Mazinger Z. In UFO Robo Grendizer he is merely The Lancer.
 * Destructive Saviour: When Grendizer and the Vegans nuke it out, the battlefield gets wasted. Duke tries to lead them away the cities, though, to prevent this.
 * Detachment Combat: All vehicles allowed Grendizer flying -or maneouvering more easily in sea or underground- were detachable and could attack separately.
 * The Determinator: Even though Duke is calmer and more focused than his predecessors and he actually was forced to run away once, he is not a quitter either. He has gone through battles where he was clearly losing but finally he pulled through due to effort, brains and guts and a downright refusal to lie down and die.
 * Dirty Coward: Emperor Vega tend to lose his coolness, get frightened and run away when someone is aiming a gun to his head.
 * Doomed Hometown: Duke Fleed's planet.
 * Earth Is the Center of the Universe: Kind of subverted. The Vegans had conquered many other planets before striking Earth. It is true Duke Fleed landed on Earth -from all places!- when he ran away from the Vegan troops, and the Vegans show a special interest for Earth, but that is because there are not so many habitable worlds (Fridge Brilliance which is utterly true!). Earth, Fleed and Vega had a similar atmosphere and enviroment, so Earth was the kind of planet they were searching for.
 * Eldritch Abomination: Several of them showed up in the trilogy, often overlapping with Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: Great Emperor of Darkness (Big Bad from Great Mazinger), Gilgilgan (of the Great Mazinger vs Getter Robo movie), Grangen (of the Great Mazinger vs Getter Robo G feature), Dragonsaurus (of Grendizer, Getter Robot G, Great Mazinger: Kessen! Daikaijuu movie), the Bigbad of Super Robo Retsuden (a Crossover penned by Ken Ishikawa featuring the most popular Humongous Mecha of Go Nagai)... and in the Shin Mazinger Zero manga
 * Enemy Mine: Subverted. In one of the manga versions, Great Mazinger Big Bad, Emperor of Darkness, offered Kouji Kabuto an alliance to fight the Vegans together. It was subverted because Kouji refused the offer and King Vega
 * Everyone Can See It: Duke averted this trope with Hikaru However, Kouji was absolutely oblivious to the feelings of Maria. Of course, he was the only one (much to Duke's amusement).
 * Evil Versus Evil: In the Gosaku Ota chapters, King Vega . Pretty fun, King Vega not only did it because he was a potential competitor -since he also wanted to Take Over the World-, but also because was wanting to ally with the heroes to overthrow him.
 * Executive Meddling: Go Nagai originally wanted Sayaka to be the 4th spazer pilot but was opposed by director and co-plotter of the series, Shingo Araki, who wanted and indeed did introduce his own character to the series, Maria.
 * Expository Theme Tune: "Come on, Come on, Duke Fleed! Fly, fly Grendizer! Across the land, the ocean and the blue sky! Joined for the peace, Keeping ourselves steady to protect everybody."
 * Falling Into the Cockpit: Duke -and Hikaru- play it straight after a fashion (in the case of Duke, it depends on what version we are talking. In the Gosaku Ota episodes, Grendizer activated on its own to lead Duke far away from Fleed and save his life). Maria, on the other hand, was trained to pilot the Drill Spacer.
 * On the other hand, Kouji avoided the trope twice: Kouji tried to pilot Grendizer once during an emergency and he was unable. He stated the controls were too complicated to him. And in another ocassion he got to pilot Great Mazinger, and he was worried he would have forgotten how handling it. Fortunately, Great Mazinger controls were pretty similar to Mazinger's and he got several years worth of experience for that time.
 * Fantastic Nuke: The Vegatron bombs. Capable to obliterate whole cities, and left the land polluted with radioactivity afterwards.
 * Final Battle: It varies depending on if we are discussing the Go Nagai manga, the anime series or the Gosaku Ota manga. In the anime version, Go Nagai manga version had no a definite ending, but Gosaku Ota version did it, and the final was very different from the anime series. Let's tell It Got Worse. Like in  worse.
 * First Church of Mecha: Grendizer was the robotic embodiment of the Fleedian God of War.
 * Giant Equals Invincible: Sort of. Vegan Robeasts could not be damaged by conventional weaponry, but neither did tinier Vegan combat ships. So it can be argued alien technology rather than sheer size was the cause of its invincibility.
 * Heel Face Turn:  decided turning on the Emperor after realizing they would never defeat Grendizer.
 * Heel Face Revolving Door: But then took control back and shot  on the grounds of high treason.
 * Hoist by His Own Petard: The Vegans managed to make huge technological breakthroughs by exploiting ores of the material radioactive known as Vegatron. However, it led to his planet becoming unstable, forcing them to find new worlds to colonize. The vegatron bombs they rained upon Fleed scorched the Fleedian army to ashes, but they also turned the planet they intended to colonize on a radioactive wasteland. And finally, Vegatron radiation destroyed their homeworld and rendered their Moon Space Base -their last safe haven- inhabitable.
 * Home Base: The Space Science Laboratory was the base of the heroes. The Vegans Home Base was a Space Base located on the Moon.
 * Humongous Mecha: It's the Mazinsaga, dammit.
 * If It Swims, It Flies: One of its Mid-Season Upgrade -Marine Spacer- was designed to combining with Grendizer and allow it swim and dive. However it also could fly.
 * Ill Boy: One of the rare cases where this character is the lead.
 * Infant Immortality: Horrifically averted in the manga, on two occasions.
 * Interspecies Romance: The Mazinger trilogy has several examples from romances between humans and humanoid aliens: Duke and Hikaru, and . And the you have . Both of them are aliens but they are from different species -and born in different planets-.
 * It's Personal: In the Go Nagai manga, Commander Barendos . In front of Duke. Duke is usually calmed when he is not piloting, but the only sight or mention of Barendos is enough to press Duke's Berserk Button.
 * Jet Pack: Grendizer had THREE of them (not counting its spaceship): Double Spacer -to fly inside and outside of atmosphere-, Marine Spacer -to fly and dive underwater- and Drill Spacer -to fly and burrow underground-.
 * The Kid with the Remote Control: Maria Fleed, in the Mazinger Angels manga (a Charlie's Angels spoof with Sayaka, Jun, Hikaru and Maria as the lead characters). She controlled Minerva X using a special helmet channeled her brainwaves.
 * Kiss of Life: Kouji finds a fainted Maria Grace in her spaceship. But before he gave her kiss of life, she wake up, slap him, and call him a commoner.
 * Latex Space Suit: The pilot suits for both the male and female characters.
 * Let's You and Him Fight: The manga has the Vegans mind-control Kouji and Tetsuya into going after Grendizer in Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger.
 * Lost Technology: In one of the manga versions.
 * Love Dodecahedron: Hikaru is in love with Duke. Duke may reciprocate her feelings. Rubina is in love with him. Duke certainly reciprocates her feelings. And Minister Zuril was in love with Rubina. It is even more complicated if you think about Kouji and Maria and add Sayaka to the mix.
 * Luke, I Am Your Father: It was inverted and played straight. told  she was daughter of, not knowing he was  The moment they played this trope straight with each other was definitely a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
 * Luminescent Blush: In one manga chapter, Hikaru bluntly told Duke she was interested in him. And Duke's face turned fully red!
 * Made of Indestructium: Grendizer was made with Gren, an incredibly tough metal. Nevertheless, it could not be found on Earth, so when Grendizer got damaged, he was repaired with Alloy Z.
 * The Man Behind the Man: In the original manga, Blackie is the first Vegan commander in showing up, and he seems being behind the invasion. However, in the next chapter Big Bad King Vega and Dragon-in-Chief Gandal (commander of the armies tasked with the invasion) are introduced.
 * Marth Debuted in Smash Bros: In various countries, Grendizer got aired before its predecessor Mazinger Z. So for many, Koji Kabuto was Duke's friend before being The Hero of his own series.
 * An even bigger problem, however, lies in the fact Koji's name was changed in a lot of foreign versions (for example, in France and Italy where Grendizer was absurdly huge, Koji was called "Alcor" after the star in Grendizer) and then got his normal, unmodified name back in other Mazinger works that aired after Grendizer was huge. These being the pre-Internet days, people didn't pick up on the fact that it was supposed to be the same character and so audiences assumed that Mazinger was simply a very blatant, cheap knockoff of Grendizer.
 * Mid-Season Upgrade: Grendizer got upgraded throughout the series with several attachable, flying vehicles allowed it maneouvering more easily in space, in sea or underground: Double Spacer -piloted by Kouji-, Marine Spacer -piloted by Hikaru- and Drill Spacer -piloted by Maria-.
 * Mind Control Eyes: Not permanent when victims are brainwashed but sometimes can briefly have them.
 * Missing Mom: Duke and fathers got murdered before the sereis began. Hikaru and her brother's mother passed away, and they raised by their father exclusively.
 * Mission Control: Duke and his partners were assisted by the Prof. Umon and the Bridge Bunnies of the Space Science Laboratory, that provide plenty information and suggested strategies when they battled.
 * Monster of the Week: Like so many Super Robot shows back in the day.
 * Eucatastrophe: One of the best examples happened in the two-part finale of the first season. Grendizer had been beaten by two Robeasts and forced to hiding, Kouji's TFO had been badly damaged, Blackie had taken control of the Science Space Center and tortured Dr. Umon. When Duke returned,
 * No Ending: The manga ends with a duel between Duke and one of the Vegans generals. Kouji got a minor moment of action, but Rubina and Maria had not been even mentioned, Hikaru was still in her pre-Action Girl days, Spazers hadn't been introduced, and there wasn't even a single instance of the Antigravity Storm attack.
 * Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Vegatron bombs. It is explicitly stated they are radioactive, they are able to easily obliterate whole cities, the explosion forms a mushroom cloud, and they leave the land polluted with radioactivity. But no, they are not nukes. They are vegatron bombs.
 * Obviously Evil: The decent or with more redeeming traits aliens are human-looking. The aliens who are more monstruous are pretty much bastards.
 * Pair the Spares:
 * Papa Wolf: Danbei Makiba. He is fiercely protective of his daughter, constantly menacing with shooting the brains off of whoever ever thinks about damaging her or hurting in some way, shape or form. And God helps you if he entrusts Hikaru to you, and she doesn't remain perfectly safe and sound.
 * Pietà Plagiarism: It happened near from the end, when and Duke held her as she died.
 * Pilot Movie: The eventual Mazinger Z spinoff UFO Robo Grendizer started off as a 30 minute movie named Uchu Enban Daisenso.
 * Precision-Guided Boomerang: Grendizer, moon-shaped shoulder blades. Not only they could be thrown but also they could be linked to form the Double Harken.
 * Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Vegans were a race whose society revolved around fighting and war. Many commanders of the army belonged to the Honor Before Reason school of thought and would rather dying taking their enemy with them before admitting defeat.
 * Robeast: Vega Beasts and Saucer Beasts
 * Rocket Punch: Its Screw Crusher Punch weapon.
 * Power Fist: Several triangular blades are attached to the wrists of the Humongous Mecha, and bent towards the elbow. When Duke shoots a Rocket Punch, the blades turn forward and shred their target.
 * Hand Blast: Grendizer's backhands shot energy beams.
 * Running Gag: Only in Super Robot Wars. Maria is interested at Kouji, so if she meets his other love interest Sayaka who is as Tsundere as Maria herself... they fight over him, with Kouji being completely oblivious.
 * Sadistic Choice: It happened fairly often, especially in the manga penned by Go Nagai. In one chapter Duke gets attacked by one of his oldest friends, whom he believed dead but was being mind-controlled by the Vegans. His friend could not control his body but he still could warn Duke stay away from him... and beg kill him.
 * Shiny-Looking Spaceships: Both Grendizer and the Vegan starships are shiny-looking, bright and very polished -although they may get dirty in battle, though-.
 * Sibling Team:
 * Not-So-Sinister Scythe: Double Harken, a pair of crescent-moon shaped scythes which pop out of Grendizer's shoulders and join together by attaching the ends. Usually thrown as a Finishing Move.
 * Sleep Cute: Hikaru and Maria. The former murmurs as she dreams: "Nnn... Daisuke..." Her dreams must be interesting.
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: It definitely leans in the idealistic side.
 * Space Base: Skull Moon Base, the base of the Vegan army. Seeing Supervillain Lair below.
 * Star-Crossed Lovers:Duke and Hikaru. Hikaru's father refused accepting their relationship (on grounds of Duke being male. Danbei was an Overprotective Dad was perfectly willing to kill any male came near from his daughter), but that was not the real obstacle (or an obstacle for that matter). The real obstacle was Duke wanted to return his planet to rebuild it if he managed surviving the war, whereas Hikaru did not want to leave Earth. Not matter what their feelings are, a separation is inevitable. Also, Of course, it ended up in tears.
 * Stealth in Space: King Vega's tactic during his army's offensive final depended on being stealth. Of course,
 * Super Robot Wars: Out of the trilogy this series has appeared the least but nevertheless has appeared a few times.
 * Rumor has it that Grendizer appears the least due to Go Nagai not wanting Mazinkaiser (which was created for the games and appears in many installments) or Grendizer to be shown as superior to one another in any way. Thus, the only times Grendizer ever shows up is when Mazinkaiser is omitted, which isn't very often.
 * Or rather, it's because Mazinkaiser has showed up rather frequently in most of the recent games. It did pop up in Super Robot Wars Z, though.
 * The SRW staff has said that there isn't an specific reason keeping the two series from appearing together. They simply just haven't decided to use them together yet.
 * Supervillain Lair: The lair of the Vegan invaders was a Space Base set in the Moon.
 * Tagalong Kid: Goro, Hikaru Makiba's little brother. Hikaru finds him very irritating.
 * Take Over the World: Planet Vega had become unstable due to the overexploitation of ores of vegatron, a highly radioactive material. King Vega needed to find another world to settle his people on, and so he began conquering other worlds. That expansionist campaign finally led them to Earth.
 * Taking the Bullet: During an aerial duel between Grendizer and another Starship in the episode 72, flies her own ship between Grendizer and an energy beam to save Duke. She  is done more tragic because Duke had accused her from betraying him shortly before. The whole episode was a Tear Jerker.
 * Telescoping Robot: Grendizer had one scythe stored into each shoulder could be joined to shape a double-edged shaft. The blades also worked like a Precision-Guided Boomerang. And that is not counting all weapons hid into its flying device.
 * Thematic Rogues Gallery: Grendizer only fought alien ships and mechas.
 * This Is Unforgivable!: Uttered by Duke when he remembered an unpleasant memory from the invasion and destruction of Fleed or when the Vegans had got him REAL pissed off. In the second instance you really did NOT want being the focus of his anger.
 * Took a Level in Badass: Hikaru Makiba.
 * Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: Subversion enforced. To start with, the Headquarters of the good guys is not in Tokyo but in the vicinity of Mount Fuji. Therefore, the enemy feels aren't compelled to exclusively target and attack Tokyo. Not only are a lot of Japanese cities destroyed but also the Vegan army attacked many countries, not only Japan.
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Hikaru and Maria subvert the trope. Hikaru usually wears pants and male clothes and is a very femenine Yamato Nadeshiko. Maria, on the other hand, constantly and consistently wears dresses and skirts, and is a tomboy and a Biker Babe Tsundere. Not matter what, they are good friends.
 * Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Several characters. The more prominent of them was Rubina. She was a good person sincerely loved Duke, and wanted reuniting with him to end up the war and rebuilding his planet together. Unfortunately, when she managed meeting Duke to talk with him,
 * Tsundere: Maria Grace,
 * Two-Faced: Lord/Lady Gandal is a Baron Ashura Expy with two personalities, a male one and a female one. During the first season, his body was male, but when the female side wanted taking control, his face split in two halves, revealing a tiny female human inside the head. Afterwards, his face changed every time he switched personalities. Due to their different personalities he combined being The Dragon with being The Starscream.
 * Ungrateful Bastard: In all series of the Mazinger trilogy, humans barely need a little push to side with or become puppets of the people who want to enslave them or annihilate them and turn on the people who are protecting them with their lives.
 * Duke Fleed and his Humongous Mecha is the only thing stands between the human beings and global genocyde. What he has in exchange? Danbei Makiba insulting him, bossing him around and threatening with killing him if he does so much like breathing near from his daughter Hikaru. Danbei also uses to complain if Grendizer did not exist, they could be such a good friends with the aliens.
 * Unobtainium: Grendizer is built with an alien metal called Gren. Since it can not be found on Earth, when Grendizer gets damaged, Alloy Z is used to repair it.
 * Vegatron is a highly radioactive material only can be mined from planet Vega. The Vegans used it to create powerful weapons, but its overexploitation led to the planet becoming highly unstable.
 * Use Your Head: Duke uses this tactic sometimes, although he has a good excuse: usually he is trying to ram the enemy rather head-butt it, but his Humongous Mecha head is on the front of his Starship when both mechas combine, so that it is the first thing hits the enemy.
 * War Is Hell: The message is core to the series and it is delivered in a pretty heavy-handed way. The Vegans tried to take over Fleed to settle on it but their own weapons turned the planet into an inhabitable, radioactive chunk of rock. The only thing their expansionist war achieved was the destruction of several planets and their own annihilation. The war scenes were depicted in a very harsh fashion. And several characters argued nothing could be gained from that conflict:


 * Weapon of Mass Destruction: Vegatron bombs.
 * Yamato Nadeshiko: Hikaru, in the beginning.
 * You Killed My Father: The parents and whole family of Duke got murdered by the Vegans. It is one of the resons because  want defeating them.