Ranked #825

UFO Robo Grendizer

Grendizer AKA Goldorak or Goldrake is a very special case as it is the very first Japanese animation series to be very successful in Quebec, Italy, France and central Europe at the beginning of the eighties.

It was because of this anime significant success that:
-audience from these countries became aware of what is Japanese animation
-Some parents and some politicians had a negative prejudice over Japanese Animation
- nearly all the public and private channels had broadcast almost everyday Japanese animation for more than a decade : until the beginning of the nineties (until the scandal of "hokuto no ken Affair").

Therefore, you understand easily that Grendizer/Goldorak had directly and indirectly a phenomenal cultural impact in those countries. At that time, songs and themes specific for each country even get several Golden records. Nowadays, it still enjoy a cult status in many places (but of course among the eighties generation :-) ).

Be as it may, what about the anime itself?

Created by Go Nagai (Mazinger, Cutey Honey), the anime is a classic super robot anime focusing on the adventure of a team of young heroes struggling against invaders coming from outer space. Sounds like a simple plot full of Manichaeism but it gives the opportunity to develop cunning ploy, funny robot design and original ideas for each episode.

Ok Let’s face it, the art is rather outdated by today’s standards. But hey! This was the charm of the Seventies/Eighties! and still thanks to the work of Shingo Araki (Saint Seiya, Lady Oscar) who was the animation director and was involved in the character design, this anime have pretty good art, far better than some seventies or early eighties anime (like Harlock 78 or Ideon).

Because many songs was created for different countries’ audiences, depending on which language you speak, the songs could be very enjoyable: good pop/rock heroic style.

Good character development through the episode as we understand the ties between the heroes. It is easy to feel empathy with the characters even the evil ones as they may be victim of their political system : instrument of a dictatorship, martyr of their people, brainwashed children, traitors and even lovers…

French Dubbing involved a great deal of effort and voice talents (especially Michel Gatineau and Daniel Gall), and is very enjoyable. I also heard that the Italian one is very good. Maybe some Russians can tell us about the Russian Dubbing? I have no clue about the English one if any. Maybe some of you can tell us about it...

Overall, this anime is part of a cultural phenomenon in Quebec and Continental Europe and if you can overcome the aged art, then you will discover a great heroic adventure full of optimism and charismatic characters and which have made a whole generation of children dream about future, space and hope for mankind…
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a very old anime i watched it dubbed when i was barely 4 years old

considering the animation nowadays it`s animation is bad but if you checked all the animations at that time you will see that it`s actually pretty good and better than all the animes at that time

it was dubbed in a lot of languages and i actually doubt you will find the original Japanese one easily if you want it

i checked out the French , English and Arabic dub they were all very good and more importantly easy to understand even for little kids

the story is about a guy who ran away from his planet and ended up on the earth later the people who invaded his planet tried to invade the earth but he drives grendizer and stop them as the time pass by his friends from earth join him and help fight the invaders

the plot is very much like hero stories but you will find it different if you tried to check the evil characters are not always so evil sometimes they are just doing that because they need to help their own family or planet or whatever is important to them so the emotional conflict in the anime is a very good and complicated one and i guess it`s one of the reasons of its success read more