What They Say:
Dancouga contains episodes 1-38 of the anime, The Requiem for Victims OVA, and Blazing Epilogue directed by Seiji Okuda.
Deep in outer space, the Emperor Muge plots his next conquest – an out-of-the-way planet known as Earth. Mustering all the forces of his own personal Empire of Death, the Emperor is by far the most formidable foe humans have ever faced. And now he’s even more fearsome thanks to the defection of Shapiro Keats, a power-hungry Earthling reborn as an Empire informer.
Army after army crumbles in the face of an onslaught of the Empire’s seemingly indestructible robots. But now there’s a team that just might be able to stop them: an ace pilot named Shinobu, Sara (Shapiro’s one-time girlfriend), and Ryo, a very unlikely young hero. Together, they’re in command of a new secret weapon developed in a laboratory hidden deep in a lake in Japan. Enter Dancouga, the Super Beast Machine God – and the battle’s just beginning!
The Review:
Audio:
The audio on the episodes themselves come through fine in Japanese LPCM 2.0 Audio with no distortions during playback.
Video:
The picture is very nice and clear. Lines are well defined and there’s no blockiness or distortion. The colors are vibrant as can be for high-quality blu-ray production. It’s definitely an upgrade from the Software Sculptors VHS releases and Discotek’s initial DVD set, living up to the remastering hype. There are intermittent glitches in the top section likely from the original broadcast masters.
Packaging:
There is a slipcover with three of the lead male characters somewhat shaded standing around the team’s lone female member who is lit better comparatively. The Dancouga robot stands behind them all front of a dark blue-ish background with the title masthead below them. The back has the text of the ‘what they say’ section taking up the upper left area. Although it’s clearly distinct in white lettering against the dark screencap background, it’s rather small and hard to read. The upper right has very detailed artwork displayed prominently. There are more screencaps next to this text as well as displayed horizontally across the lower section, with credits listings and technical information taking up the bottom 1/4. The actual case is a clear plastic blu-ray case designed to hold 4 discs on individual pages. There is a reversible insert here. One side is exactly like the slipcover and the other has a different bit of artwork on its front but the rest is exactly the same.
Menu:
Each disc has a still shot of a different characters off to the right side. The first and 4th disc have the Dancouga itself, the 2nd has the Empire villains and the 3rd has the Cyber Beast Force. The opening theme “Ai Yo Far Away” by Rie Fujiwara loops in the background of the first 3 menus, while the 4th disc has the closing theme “Burning Love” by Takeshi Ike. Blue text options presented vertically list the individual episodes and playback options. Selections are highlighted in white. The title masthead dominates the top section. All text is large and very easy to read.
Extras:
We get creditless versions of the 1st opening and closing sequences. It’s strange not to get them solo for the 2nd sequences even though both are part of the Requiem OAV. We also get a couple vintage toy commercials. It’s always fun to watch these and see how they handled such promotions, stop-motion and all in contrast to American commercials.
Content: (please note that contents, portions of a review may contain spoilers)
I’m a big fan of giant robots and have been ever since I was a kid, billions of years ago. Whether it’s the super robot genre where the hero or heroes with multiple machines would join together to create a giant gestalt and save the day, or it’s the real robot gene where characters would use giant mecha as instruments of war and casual transport. The 80s were the height of such shows as many stories got told (which didn’t hurt toy and art book sales at all.) What set Dancouga apart from many similar shows of that time though was the intensity of the storyline as well as the way the “big bot saves the day” routine would actually come into play, at times blurring the line between the two genres. Believe it or not, it was quite different from, say, Mazinger Z, Voltron or similar fare.
The initial premise starts off rather grimly in that the Earth has been invaded by the Muge Zorbados Empire, an alien force with powerful weaponry whose occupation army is being led by General Death Gaia (AKA Mr. T with a red mohawk). What makes things worse is that one of Earth’s military, an officer named Shapiro Keats, has turned traitor and is leading the enemy, giving them tactical advantages and finding Earth’s hidden military bases with ease. Humanity’s armies are overwhelmed and on the verge of losing the planet completely.
In these desperate times, leading Earth General Ross Igor (whose son Alan left to develop hos own team) and Dr. Hazuki decide to recruit hothead pilot Shinobu Fujiwara to fly a new experimental fighter plane, which resembles an eagle, feeds off his anger and becomes nearly invulnerable to attack in the process. He’s soon joined by Sara Yuki who pilots a tank that can change into a cougar, Masato Shikibu who pilots one that transforms into a liger-like mode, and Ryo Shiba whose mech turns to a mammoth-type creature.
These special fighters give the enemy all they can handle for about half the series, but eventually they a third mode that can only be activated by their combined fighting spirit, as well as shouting out the letters “D! A! N! C! O! U! G! A!” Sure enough, the music kicks in and the fighters reconfigure to interlock into the big butt-kicking ‘bot Dancouga, which looks like a cross between lion team Voltron and autobot Fortress Maximus. This stack & attack sequence becomes the money shot for fans to see in just about every episode thereafter, and audiences are better for it.
The transformation isn’t the sole appeal of this TV series. Its violently intense story is full of intrigue and good characters. It has very much the feeling of a war story so there’s heroism and death aplenty. Sara has a bit of a running subplot since she was romantically attached to the traitor Shapiro Keats, who came to have delusions of becoming a god if this invasion succeeded. Lead pilot Shinobu is a bit of a hothead (to say the least) and doesn’t completely get along with Ryo but still works with him despite differences. Ryo becomes handy in melee combat at times as Dancouga has a system to emulate his martial arts style in certain fights. Masato is a free spirit who comes to care about Laura Sullivan, a young girl who becomes a mascot of sorts for the team, along with her dog Becky. Still, it is a show about a giant robot fighting aliens, so the target audience back then was kids who can watch and buy the toys afterwards, but are given credit for having the ability to decipher complex themes for themselves.
Director Seiji Okuda (Dream Hunter Rem, Future Police Urashiman) put his prior mech show experiences from Combattler V and Psycho Armor Govarion to good use here alongside writer Keisuke Fujikawa (God Mars, Grendizer Vs. Great Mazinger) and produced a rather effective show for audiences in 1985. They oversaw a well-written story and energetic characters which were the foundation for the great production values of the ’80s, particularly in the fight sequences which utilized highly detailed art pieces prevalent in mech shows back then. Designs and art direction from Masami Obari (Bubble Gum Crisis, Cross Fight Dangaio) and Hisashi Hirai (Mobile Suit Gundam Seed) led the way in that regard. There were times where the general tone could be compared to Ninja Force Tobikage, and God Mars, but Dancouga carves a niche all its own.
However, the show is also similar to other 80s mech shows such as Space Runaway Ideon and SPT Layzner in that it ends before major plot threads are completed and a separate movie or OAV is required for resolution. In Dancouga’s case, the feature-length OAV Requiem For Victims depicts the team’s final assault on the Zorbados Empire’s homeworld where they have magnificently animated battles with General Death Gaia, Emperor Muge Zorbados and their awesomely clothed minions. Requiem runs through events of the TV show with the team remembering all the supporting characters who were killed. There are all-too-brief clips of them while heavy focus is given to the show’s action scenes, which were where they spent the most amount of time detailing art and doing key animation. The final battle scenes are very well-done to resolve show. The denouement shows the team’s final fates in the closing sequence followed by ending sequence of the TV show.
There was another feature-length OAV entitled God Bless Dancouga, which had the team face a brand new threat but Discotek Media was unable to secure the license so it wasn’t part of this set. We are then left with the final adventure for the team which is part of this set entitled Dancouga: Blazing Epilogue, a 4-part OAV series released in 1989. For this one, a race of human-shaped plant-based aliens who use infectious spores to wipe out soldiers and spacecraft is bringing their planet toward Earth, They are guided by the anger of traitorous Earth soldier Shapiro Keats. The Cyber Beast Force has split up to live their lives but are brought back for this new dangerous threat. There’s a lot of death throughout this series, much like the original. Director Tatsuji Yamazaki (Tetsujin 28-gō Gao!) takes the reins here and gives us typical OAV quality for late 80s. There are minimal movements and a slicker look, with the best quality artwork and animation saved for final episode. The artwork isn’t as clearly defined as the series though with many of the shadings and details not present on the mecha. The series concludes with an extremely brief denouement after the climactic battle.
In Summary:
Super Beast Machine God Dancouga was a very cool super robot series and a good bit of serious sci-fi for its time. I really am glad for a more complete collection with this Blu-ray set. One day though, I’d like to see God Bless Dancouga come to the U.S. (because that’s just such a cool name!) as well as the Dancouga Song Collection, featuring 30 minutes of music videos mixing songs and footage from the series. Meanwhile, hope springs eternal as I plunk down my money and grab this set, while suggesting fellow classic anime fans do the same.
Features:
38 TV episodes, 1 feature-length OAV, 4 OAV episodes, Japanese LPCM 2.0 Audio, English Subtitles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XTr-rHe3zw
Content Grade: A
Audio Grade: A
Video Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A-
Menu Grade: A
Extras Grade: B
Released By: Discotek Media / Eastern Star
Release Date: November 24, 2020
MSRP: $79.95
Running Time: 1000 minutes
Video Encoding: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 4:3 , 1:33:1
Review Equipment:
Samsung 4K UHD TV, Sony PlayStation 3
