The Mike Toole Show

Rise of Super Robot Island

Saber Rider's odd localization is a fun artifact, but it's kind of a shame it had to be altered at all. There's nothing all that crazy about the original, other than the cast's frequent visits to bars ("soda fountains," natch) and the fact that the leader is the race car driver with the Japanese flag on all of his stuff. Originally Shinji Hikari, he'd be redubbed Fireball; blue-plated, rootin/tootin/shootin cowboy American Bill Wilcox would become Colt; pink-armored French girl genius Marianne Louvre would become April Eagle; and black-clad Scottish cavalryman Richard Lancelot (holy crap, that's a great name) would be redubbed Saber Rider. Like I said earlier, the folks at WEP, led by script guru Mark Handler, cleverly (and sometimes not-so-cleverly) rearranged footage and dialogue to give Saber Rider leadership of the group. This isn't that much of a stretch; in the original, Richard is the smart, handsome, strategic guy anyway. But it's kind of funny how they drastically altered the narrative of the show, at great cost, more or less on a whim. The really important thing about Bismark, however, is the titular robot, a gigantic metal cowboy with a ten-gallon hat, a chrome six-shooter, and a steel poncho(!!). Check this dude out:

It's an awesome robot and an extra-awesome toy, which does almost everything the cartoon version does. Perplexingly, Bismark himself (he was called "Ramrod" in the Nintendo DS game.

Now that I've whetted your appetite for super robotography, let's wind the clock back and talk about even more of those great old heroic robot adventures that didn't get the attention they deserved the first time around. I'm gonna start off with a doozy, and that doozy is called Gundam" Okawara as its robot designer. Infamously, the show's chief sponsor, toy manufacturer Bullmark (look, here's a great Mechander Robo toy commercial!), ran out of money in 1977, which forced Wako to reuse more and more animation as their coffers, robbed of precious sponsorship cash, emptied. You know how most shows get a recap episode, and some get multiple ones, and nobody really likes them? Yeah, well, Mechander Robo's finale was a recap episode. The show was dubbed in English for the Philippenes as "Mekanda" - drop me a line if you find it, because I sure can't, and god knows I've been searching!

Also in the great year of 1977-- the year of Star Wars-- the gods at Toei saw fit to bestow upon us Toei Robot Girls.

Look at this, right here. (That's Baratack-chan on the left.) To someone like me, it exemplifies just about everything right and wrong about the current state of anime. Here's a show - not really a show, just a set of commercial footage that's been packaged as a pilot film - that fondly reminisces about those great old robot heroes by reinventing them as adorable tween girls. I love the crisp, stylized animation! I really dig the fact that the girls are all personifications of lesser-known but deserving robots: OVA, silly nerd-catnip that it is, I'll be watching. I literally will not be able to look away. My name is Mike, and I'm a super robotaholic.

Okay, I'm starting to run out of space (ha!) so let's bring things home. I started this column by talking about a new animation that evoked the spirit of a great old cartoon - now let's cut to the chase and look at some lesser-loved super robot remakes. First on the list has got to be Geneon. I watched this show from start to finish - it does a great job of evoking the 1950s go-go economic miracle spirit of the original, but it's oddly free of Imagawa's signature high tempo and high tension. The director also helmed a Tetsujin 28 movie, which he has since disavowed - which makes me really, really want to see it!

If you want to talk shows that both came out here and were sorta-unnecessary remakes, the buck's got to stop at Manga Entertainment's release was a weird chopped-together melange of episode 2 and 3, and dub-only to boot. Robo-fans got a second dose of Dangaioh courtesy of 2001's TV series G-Dangaioh, and... wow. This thing is a spectacular piece of crap. I only saw the first DVD myself, but it sports ugly characters and mecha, nonsensical plotting, and some of the worst TV animation of its day. If you're in the US and you've always wondered about the quality of English dubs produced in the Philippenes, G-Dangaioh will get you hooked up. Nowadays, you can get the DVDs of this one for about a buck each; still too expensive!

The king of awesome super robot remakes and sequels is definitely Getter Robo! The original combining robot hero, a creation of Jun Kawagoe was brought aboard to right the ship, and while the series never regained the feverish highs of its first 3 episodes, it's still good stuff.

What happened after that remains at the top of my anime DVD wish-list: 2000's Takehito Koyasu. That's right, the famous courtier, subject of countless TV and movie depictions, uses evil onmyou magic to attack the world! This one's still fairly easy to find on DVD.

I'll close things off by pointing out a super robot saga that we're finally getting in English, 1998's Gekiganger III! This is one of the weirdest super robot shows ever made, as it started as a show-within-a-show on Martian Successor Nadesico. Ostensibly an in-world pastiche of Getter Robo that the Nadesico's crew becomes increasingly obsessed with, the series gained enough momentum to get its own little OVA, which featured a patched-together version of all of the animation created for Nadesico, as well as a short mini-movie sequel. In Gekiganger III's world, the plans for an amazing robot are discovered by a scientist - apparently, a race of super-cavemen left the plans for us to find! The stereotypical crew (hot-blooded hero, quiet smart guy, and wacky fat guy) are assembled, and Gekiganger III takes flight! Over the course of Nadesico, plot details (like the heroic death of one character, a direct reference to Getter Robo's finale) are revealed. Most amusingly, Nadesico's mid-series recap episode is narrated by the cast of Gekiganger III, who turn things around and comment on the actions of the Nadesico crew. I already own all of Nadesico, but I'm going to re-buy the whole thing when Nozomi re-releases it, because it'll finally include Gekiganger III!

I'm getting a little antsy these days, because there just aren't enough super robot shows around. What's your favorite current story of heroic heroes and their hero robots? Is it Daigunder - and more! Who knows when Super Robot Island will rise again?!