Groizer X

In the New Testament, we are told the fate of Dismas, a thief sentenced to death and crucified beside Jesus. Dismas is penitent for his crimes and as such, upon his death, he is welcomed into the kingdom of Heaven. Groizer X is a penitent thief of sorts. Produced by Knack, the acclaimed studio behind Astroganger and Chargeman Ken, the series features similar production values that have made those series stand the test of time. Groizer X is about a group of aliens from planet Gaira who arrive on Earth but are frozen under ice in the Arctic. They wake up and decide to invade ... but Dr. Yan, a Gairan scientist, tries to escape with the aerial bombing super robot Groizer X. Dr. Yan is shot with a laser so his daughter Rita escapes and flees to Japan. In Japan she meets Joe and the pilots of the Tobishima Air Base. Together, Joe and Rita use Groizer X to fight against Gaira and protect Japan.

One of the most interesting aspects of Groizer X seldom discussed is the strange sense of nationalism throughout the series. Knowing Groizer X is hidden in Japan, Japan has become the target of their attack. There is an emphasis on protecting Japan and the heroes' love for Japan. At first it doesn't register as anything beyond simplistic writing as the show was intended for an audience of young Japanese children. However, these instances compound. For a "giant robot" anime there is a strange absense of giant robots as most combat is performed by way of dogfights. Its actually quite uncommon for Groizer X to transform probably performing this action 10 or less times throughout its 36 episodes. Because the enemies attack Japan with aerial bombers there's a lot of imagery invocative of the bombings of Tokyo from WW2. Reinforcing this imagery and creating an interesting continuity we have characters who show up recounted attacks from earlier episode and we see that these characters are both traumatized and suffering from illnesses caused by these attacks. The most notable is Masato-kun appears in a few episodes around the late 20s before his death said to be caused by an illness he contracted from the freezing attack done in episode 15. There is also the character Baku, a Zero fighter from WW2 who remembers the war quite romantically. He dies performing a Kamikaze attack that prevents the villains from stealing Groizer X. We also can't forget episode 32, where Joe and Rita sink into the ocean as they are fired on by Captain Golgo. Joe and Rita survive because the wreckage of a battleship sunk during WW2 protects them. Joe and Rita realize this and give the ship a moment of silence.

Some of the lore in this shows confuses me. The Gaira are humanoid aliens however while many like Rita and Dr. Yan are just straight up humans, others like General Dogos are cyborgs, clearly human with robot parts attached and then others like Emperor Ghelden are literal monsters. There is one instance where we're introduced to a character named Captain Dan. Dan is the son of General Dagger from episode 13 and is introduced alongside his brothers John and Gil in episode 26. John and Gil are killed in episode 26 but Dan survives and returns for revenge in episode 27. Strangely when he returns in episode 27 he seems to have morphed from a regular ugly man to a man with bug eyes and super-saiyan hair. I have no idea how this change occured, maybe I wasn't paying attention as I was grieving over the deaths of John and Gil. Speaking of inconsistent animation, there is another scene where Sabu, the Shiro (Mazinger) equivalent in this series, pilots the Groizer X. Instead of creating new footage of Sabu wearing the flight suit traveling towards the cockpit, his face is instead spliced over the pre-existing stock footage of the fully grown and muscular Joe creating a very odd image that disappears as soon as he actually reaches the cockpit.

In short, Groizer X is quite the ride. Having far less input from Go Nagai than advertised there isn't anything incredible in terms of the characters or action but the messiness of the production actually makes it quite enjoyable more so than some shows produced competently. I give Groizer X 5 golden yoshis out of 10. Thanks for watching.

Another monster of the week super robot series in the sea of many with a premise based around an alien invasion and a mecha piloted by two people, both of which end up being underutilized to the point of at times not being used at all. It also has a gimmick that ends up being a crutch due to who was in charge of making the IP come to life. The series unfortunately fails to stand out. Well... kinda. More on that part later.

The story starts with an alien expedition crashing on earth and deciding to go war craze and conquer the planet instead ... of just trying to cohabit. Not all of them are onboard with this idea, and thus, a civil war ensues, with the warmongers winning in the end. The father of the female lead, who happens to be their best scientist, is kept alive and is then forced to build a robot to aid in conquering the earth. He does so, but not before tasking his daughter to escape with it upon completion and to warn earth about the incoming attack.

This sounds like a cool start, right? Well, too bad, because all of that is crammed up in episode 1 at breakneck speed with the only part that ends up properly shown being the female lead's escape aboard the giant robot with everything else essentially happening offscreen, and being rapidfired by the female lead which she makes contacts with earthlings. And honestly, that's basically the only real plot the show ever gets. Every now and again, it does try to be nuanced by using the fact that the female lead is technically of the race of the invading aliens, but it utterly fails at that every time it tries to do so due to poor execution.

So, how about the characters? Sadly, they're one dimensional. It does try to give depth to the FL but it only ends up being superficial, since much like the plot, everything is always either black or white as far as who's good and who's bad, making any attempt at theme exploration surrounding her a pointless endeavour.

One more thing of note before I continue with the rest. For a series made for and aimed at kids, it has a pro bullying message for most of its runtime. The cast constantly spends their time bullying a lower class fisherman character, who wishes to become a pilot, and they do so simply because he's of lower class. They constantly tell him that he shouldn't aspire to be anything more simply because of conditions he has no control over (his birth/living status). It tries to do it in a comic relief type of way, but it always come off as them being cruel. It also never showcases what they're doing as a bad thing. In fact, it reinforces it. It would be fine if it was used as a way to portray the reality of life, and/or to teach some sort of good moral lesson to its young audience, but it's not. It constantly does the opposite where it shows that disrespecting other people is a perfectly fine thing to do. What a great message for kids!

Bad writing, dubious morals, and one note characters aside, at the end of the day, it's a super robot series. People already expect spectacle over substance before going in, with the core appeal being their action. So, how is said action? Oh boy...

You see, Go Nagai would go on to have a feud with Toei over the rights of Gaiking, which would lead him to seeking out other studios for his following adaptations/original works, one of which, as far as today's entry is concerned, would be Knack Production. Yes, THE Knack Production. The infamous studio behind works such as Chargemen Ken. Their works look cheaply and amateurishly made, and Grozier X is no exception to that. It not only looks bad, but the lack of talent behind the mechanical animation hinders how the action plays out. Let me explain.

At its core, Grozier X is a giant fighting plane housing a multitude of sub vehicles and small aircrafts. Said giant plane also happens to capable of turning into a full blown super robot. Honestly, not the worse gimmick for a toku to have. Well, it's all animated and drawn by Knack, which clearly CANNOT do a mecha anime. 90% of the series sees Grozier in plane form with close up shots of various artillery being fired at where the bad guy is before cutting away to a close up of whatever is hitting said enemy. Rinse and repeat over the course of multiple minutes to fill however much time is necessary, and there you go. That sums up most of the "high octane" sequences present in the entire runtime. All in all, there's very few episode where the super robot form is utilized. The few that are actually present are also pretty lackluster as far as choreography is concerned. All of this to say, the action sucks.

The one part of the show that doesn't blow is the sound design, so yay for that I guess.

In the end. I wouldn't recommend this. It's just another footnote in Nagai's repertoir which doesn't happen to be worth exploring. That is, unless you want to see him at his worst, then enjoy the train wreck.