UFO Robot Grendizer
Title card
UFOロボ グレンダイザー (Yūfō Robo Gurendaizā)
Genre	Mecha
Created by	Go Nagai
Manga
Written by	Go Nagai
Published by	Kodansha
Magazine	TV Magazine
Original run	October 1975 –May 1976
Volumes	2
Manga
Written by	Go Nagai
Illustrated by	Gosaku Ota
Published by	Akita Shoten
Magazine	Boken Oh
Original run	October 1975 –March 1977
Volumes	5
Manga
Written by	Go Nagai
Illustrated by	Eiji Imamichi
Published by	Tokuma Shoten
Magazine	TV Land
Original run	October 1975 –March 1977
Volumes	1
Anime television series
Directed by	Tomoharu Katsumata
Written by	Shozo Uehara
Music by	Shunsuke Kikuchi
Studio	Toei Animation
Original network	FNS (Fuji TV)
Original run	October 5, 1975 – February 27, 1977
Episodes	74(List of episodes)
Anime film
Directed by	Yoichi Kominato
Produced by	Masahisa Saeki
Written by	Shozo Uehara
Music by	Shunsuke Kikuchi
Studio	Toei Animation
Released	December 20, 1975
Runtime	24 minutes
Manga
Written by	Go Nagai
Illustrated by	Yu Okazaki
Published by	Kodansha
Magazine	TV Magazine
Original run	June 1976 –March 1977
Volumes	1
Anime film
UFO Robot Grendizer: Akai Yuuhi no Taiketsu
Directed by	Tokiji Kaburaki
Produced by	Chiaki Imada
Written by	Tatsuo Tamura
Music by	Shunsuke Kikuchi
Studio	Toei Animation
Released	December 19, 1976
Runtime	24 minutes
Manga
Grendizer Giga
Written by	Go Nagai
Published by	Akita Shoten
Magazine	Champion Red
Original run	September 2014 –July 2015
Volumes	2
Video game
The Feast of the Wolves
Developer	Endroad
Publisher	Microids 3Goo (Japan)[1]
Genre	Open world,Action
Platform	PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Xbox One Xbox Series X and Series S Nintendo Switch Microsoft Windows (Steam)
Released	Steam/PlayStation/Xbox WW: November 14, 2023 JP: April 18, 2024 Nintendo Switch WW: October 10, 2024
Manga
Grendizer U: The Inception
Written by	Go Nagai
Illustrated by	8KEY
Published by	Hero's Inc.
Magazine	Comiplex
Original run	June 28, 2024 – present
Anime television series
Grendizer U
Directed by	Mitsuo Fukuda(chief) Shun Kudō
Written by	Ichirō Ōkouchi Tatsuto Higuchi
Music by	Kohei Tanaka
Studio	Gaina
Licensed by	EU:Manga Productions[2]
Original network	TV Tokyo, BS TV Tokyo,AT-X
Original run	July 5, 2024 – September 28, 2024
Episodes	13
Anime and manga portal

UFO Robot Grendizer (UFOロボ グレンダイザー,Yūfō Robo Gurendaizā), also known asGrandizer,Ufo Robot Grendizer Raids,^[3]Goldrake andGoldorak, is a Japanesemanga andanimated television series created byGo Nagai. The series is the third entry in theMazinger series, later relegated into a spinoff series. The series is produced byToei Doga andDynamic Planning, directed byTomoharu Katsumata, and written by Shozo Uehara. It aired onFuji TV from October 5, 1975, to February 27, 1977.^[4][5] The mecha's first appearance in the United States was as a part of theShogun Warriors line of super robot toys imported in the late 1970s byMattel, then in Jim Terry'sForce Five series. A remake of the original anime series,Grendizer U, aired from July to September 2024.

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 ruthlessKing 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. The once verdant, idyllic Fleed is turned into a radioactive wasteland. Too late, the only known survivor of the royal family, the Crown PrinceDuke 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 atfaster than light speed, the Duke enters theSolar System and switches course to Earth, making a rough landing in Japan, on the slopes ofMount Fuji. He is befriended by Doctor Umon, a noted scientist who oversees a research laboratory called the Space Science Lab near a smallranch. 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 (based on Abashiri Daemon of Go Nagai's mangaAbashiri Ikka).

Roughly two years later,Koji Kabuto, after studying abroad, returns to Japan 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 generalsBlaki andGandal, 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 establish a base on thefar 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. 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.

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.

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. Soon afterwards, Duke and Maria bid a tearful farewell to Earth and their friends and return to help reconstruct planet Fleed.

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UFO Robo Grendizer's origins dates back toUchu Enban Daisenso (宇宙円盤大戦争,Uchū Enban Daisensō), translated and also known asBattlefield of The Space Saucers andThe Great Battle of the Flying Saucers, a 1975 animated short film created by Go Nagai and produced by Toei Doga. It is also known asSpace Disk War and was also released in Italy under the nameUFO Robot Gattaiger-La grande battaglia dei dischi spaziali. It was originally shown along with the short filmGreat Mazinger tai Getter Robot G: Kuchu Daigekitotsu, also from Toei and Nagai.^{[citation needed]}

Nagai and Dynamic Productions created Grendizer using some of the elements and characters from Daiseno including Duke, the Makiba family, and even Blaki. Some changes were made to make it more original. The most obvious are the changes in design and the addition of characters such as Koji Kabuto and Maria Fleed.

UFO Robot Grendizer was developed to be a sequel toGreat Mazinger after the initial concepts of a sequel were rejected by Toei. With the appearance ofUchu Enban Daisenso at the March 1975 Toei Manga Festival a remake was pitched using elements fromMazinger. 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.^{[citation needed]}

Go Nagai, however, at one point stated in an interview that the anime series was considered a fun side project and does not considerGrendizer 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 has Toei not paying him royalties for the show's overseas airings, which culminated in a 1986 court settlement that lead to Toei paying Nagai his royalty earnings. In the end,UFO Robo Grendizer is more of a stand-alone spin-off in theMazinger universe.^{[citation needed]}

The series was first aired onFuji TV from October 5, 1975, to February 27, 1977, with a total count of 74 episodes. ReplacingGreat Mazinger in its initial timeslot.Isao Sasaki performed both the show's opening and ending themes: "Tobe! Grendizer" (とべ!グレンダイザー,Tobe! Gurendaizā; "Fly! Grendizer") (with Columbia Yurikago-kai and Ko'orogi '73) and "Uchuu no Yuusha Grendizer" (宇宙の勇者グレンダイザー,Uchū no Yūsha Gurendaizā; "Grendizer, Hero of Space").Shunsuke Kikuchi composed the music for the series.

• Kei Tomiyama as Daisuke Umon / Duke Fleed
• Hiroya Ishimaru as Kōji Kabuto
• Jōji Yanami as Dr. Genzō Umon / King of Vega
• Kōsei Tomita as Danbei Makiba / Gandal
• Chiyoko Kawashima as Hikaru Makiba
• Kazuko Sawada as Gorō Makiba / Lady Gandal
• Rihoko Yoshida as Maria Grace Fleed

A reboot of the original anime series, titledGrendizer U (グレンダイザーU,Gurendaizā U), was announced on August 5, 2023. It was produced byGaina and directed by Shun Kudō withMitsuo Fukuda serving as chief director, Nagai serving as executive producer,Ichirō Ōkouchi overseeing and writing series scripts alongside Tatsuto Higuchi,Yoshiyuki Sadamoto designing the characters, Kō Inaba, AF_KURO and Junichi Akutsu providing mechanical designs andKohei Tanaka composing the music.^[6][7] It aired from July 5 to September 28, 2024 on allTX Network-affiliated stations in Japan.^[8][9] The opening theme song is "Kaishin no Ichigeki" performed byGlay, while the ending theme song is "Protect You" performed byBand-Maid.^[10]

Toei released the entire series in Japan on DVD from May 21 to October 21, 2006. In 2013, following an agreement with Toei, an official "fully remastered and uncensored" DVD release of the complete series is available onFrench-speaking countries following the controversy regarding the unlicensed DVD releases by Manga Distribution andDéclic Images which resulted to a court ruling to pay €7,200,000 back to Toei. The series has also aired on the FrenchMangas anime TV channel.^[11] The entire Arabic dub is available onIstikana, a paid streaming service that has On-Demand Arab movies and TV shows.^[12]

The manga adaptation was serialized in several magazines in Japan, notably inAkita Shoten'sBoken Oh magazine from October 1975 to March 1977. A remake of the series, titledGrendizer Giga (グレンダイザー ギガ,Gurendaizā Giga) was serialized inAkita Shoten'sChampion Red magazine from September 2014 to July 2015.^[13] Two tankobon volumes were released.^[14]

Grendizer makes several cameos in other media, one in 2002 in the sixth chapter ofDynamic Superobot Wars and in 2004 inDynamic Heroes, also known asNagai Go Manga Gaiden—Dynamic Heroes (永井豪まんが外伝 ダイナミックヒーローズ,Nagai Gô Manga Gaiden Dainamikku Hîrôzu) and asGo Nagai Manga Heroes Crossover Collection—Dynamic Heroes, a Japanese manga based on several works of Go Nagai, including most of his most famous robots, such as Mazinger Z, Getter Robot and Great Mazinger. It was originally published as a monthly manga magazine e-manga from Kodansha, from June 2004 to July 2007. The latest iteration, Grendizer U, will be published in English in 2026 by Titan Manga.^[15]

Characters from the series also appeared in several installments ofBanpresto's (nowBandai Namco Entertainment) popular crossover video game seriesSuper 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 but has recently been making a comeback starting withSuper Robot Wars MX.

Anopen world action video game adaptation titledUFO Robot Grendizer: The Feast of the Wolves (UFOロボ グレンダイザー たとえ我が命つきるとも^[16],Yūfō Robo Gurendaizā Tatoe Waga Inochi Tsukirutomo) was announced by French video game publisherMicroids in February 2021.^[17] The game was developed by Endroad and was released worldwide forSteam,PlayStation 4,PlayStation 5,Xbox One andXbox Series X and Series S on November 14, 2023,^[18] while it released in Japan on April 18, 2024.Nintendo Switch port was released on October 10, 2024.^[18]

Japanese Toy company Popy released several toys based on the mechs on the series in the show's initial run in Japan under both theChogokin andJumbo Machinder labels, which were later released in the United States in the late 1970s byMattel as part of theShogun Warriors line of super robot toys.The titular mecha is also included inBandai's line ofSoul of Chogokin figures, starting with the GX-04 Grendizer.

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Grendizer was the second longest running animatedMazinger series in Japan, having 74 episodes. However, it has been criticized about its connection to the otherMazinger series in the franchise, especially with Koji's status as a mere sidekick and giving him a different romantic interest who was not Sayaka, as well as the lack of the otherMazinger mechs.

This created the popular assumption that the anime was not a success in Japan, especially since the merchandise based on the anime did not sell as well as the merchandise for bothMazinger Z andGreat 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 asMazinger Z, becauseMazinger was super popular.”^[19] The average viewership metrics forUFO Robot Grendizer's original Japanese broadcast was around 20.9% audience share across its 74 episodes with a peak share of 27.6% for Episode 21.^[20]

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. It only had limited success in the United States, where it was one of 5 mecha shows included in the 1980 TV anthologyForce Five. The series was renamedGrandizer for the American market, and only had 26 episodes, which were run out of order. This was also the version of the show broadcast in the United Kingdom, India, 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).^{[citation needed]}

In Europe, Grendizer was a major success in France and Italy, known asGoldorak andGoldrake respectively.^[21] In Italy, the Italian dub theme songs were among the best-selling singles of 1978, with the first selling over 700,000 copies and the second selling over 1,000,000 copies.^[22] It would also get its own comic series titledAtlas UFO Robot Presenta Goldrake (Atlas UFO Robot Presents 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 television at that time.^[23]

The French dub was the first anime series to be telecast in France and legend goes that the series was so popular among French viewers that several episodes scored a 100% TV rating. Like the Italian dub, it changed all of the characters’ names and inserted additional songs, although it did translate the series’ original opening and ending themes into French. Some versions of the dub have a completely different theme simply titled "Goldorak", which was sung by Franco-Israeli singerNoam Kaniel. Kaniel's performance earned him unprecedented celebrity status in France; by the timeGoldorak had ended its original run on French TV, its theme song achieved platinum status in France.^[24] The Francophone dub was also one of the first anime programs to be a major success in Canada where it was broadcast on Quebec'sTVA network. The show continues to have a strong following, garnering widespread news coverage of its DVD release and return to broadcast TV in Canada. In October 2021 a fully licensed French-languageGoldorak graphic novel was released 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 its detailed art and a story that keeps the spirit of the original series.^[25] To coincide with the graphic novel's release, the French postal company,La Poste issued stamps inspired by the anime.^[26]

UFO Robot Grendizer Raid was released theatrically asGoldorak and became a hit at the French box office, selling 922,964 tickets upon release in 1979.^[27]

In Arab countries, the show was extremely popular, first airing inwar-torn Lebanon onTélé Liban in 1979 under the titleمغامرات الفضاء: يوفو - غرندايزر (Moughamarat Al Fada: UFO - Grendizer, Adventures In Space: UFO - Grendizer) before being distributed to most other Arabic speaking regions. Unlike the Italian and French dubs, the Arabic dub retained the characters’ names and kept songs from the Japanese version. Unlike most other Arabic dubs of anime, the show retained most of its plot details without any alteration or censorship in most Arabic-speaking markets, although some markets—such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE did censor certain scenes.^[28]

The Arabic language version ofGrendizer was so popular when it first aired that it spawned several long-runningGrendizer comics published for the Arabic market. Many of these were translations of the Italian-produced comics, the most well known of these being for the Lebanese comics anthologyما وراء الكون (Ma'Wara El Koun, Beyond The Universe). The magazine founded by Lebanese publisher Bassat Al Reeh (Flying Carpet) and headed by the company's editor Henry Matthews, published Arabic translations ofscience fiction comics ranging from one-off short stories to licensedStar Trek,Star Wars, andMarvel superhero comics, as well as TV licensed comics adaptations likeSix Million Dollar Man andThe Bionic Woman.Grendizer did not make its appearance until the fifth issue, but was so popular that it became the top feature on the title, running for 140 issues.^[29][30][31] It later spawned its own comic series titledمغامرات غرندايزر (Moghamarat Grendizer, Grendizer Adventures) that ran for over 70 issues. The series' popularity continues on in the region, asArab News journalist Hala Tashkandi stated; “Grendizer memorabilia still sell like hot cakes in the region, and its popularity has barely declined.”^[19] Lebanese pop starSami Clark, who sang the Arabic version of the opening and ending in the Arabic dub, had frequently sung the theme in his concerts,^[32][33] including an orchestral rendering in 2018 .^[34] Clark also performed a duet with the singer of the original Japanese themes, Issao Sasaki, at the 2019 Saudi Anime Expo.^[33] There's even a store in Kuwait that started out mainly sellingGrendizer merchandise, before expanding to selling other anime merchandise.^[35] In 2016, a Kuwaiti volunteer group made aGrendizer mural in Kuwait City during Urban Culture Week.^[36] Karim El Mufti, a professor of political science, said in his article about the anime, "UFO Robo Grendizer has surpassed the initial expectations of its producers. Although the conversion works of the original Japanese version into Arabic had kept the Japanese phonetics, sites and cultural references, the cartoon has actually blossomed into a life of its own. As such, the domestication process of this character and of its whole narrative set was intimately connected to the Arab context and politics at the inception moment of the series, thus mirroring the deep preoccupations of the generations of that time. High exposure to violence, aggression, and injustice in the Middle East had established a hospitable environment for the super-powerful resistance figure and pro-justice hero."^[37] Go Nagai stated in an interview withArab News that he believes the geopolitical climate in the Arab world played a big role inGrendizer becoming popular in Arab regions.^[38]

• Grendizer, Getter Robot G, Great Mazinger: Kessen! Daikaijuu
• UFO Robot Grendizer vs. Great Mazinger

• Official website atToei Animation(in Japanese)
• UFO Robo Grendizer (anime) atAnime News Network's encyclopedia
• UFO Robo Grendizer (film) atAnime News Network's encyclopedia

• Manga series
• 1975 manga
• 1975 anime television series debuts
• 1975 anime films
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• Fiction set around Vega
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• Television about alien invasions
• Television series about robots
• Television shows written by Ichirō Ōkouchi
• Toei Animation television
• Tokuma Shoten manga
• Transforming mecha
• TV Tokyo original programming
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