Anime @ Work : Anime scriptwriter Yamanobe Kazuki's Anime and Historical Drama Update - No.6

"Dancouga Nova" (Juso Kiko Dancouga Nova) is a Super Robot anime television series that launched in April on the Japanese anime-only cable channel, Animax. With the revival of the Gigantic Super Robot animation genre underway today, the show was made as an official sequel to "Dancougar-Super Bestial Machine God," which originally aired in 1985.

Produced by the same production company of this work, Ashi Productions, Dancouga Nova is directed by Masami Obari, who is known for his works, such as "Super Heavy God Gravion," and is scripted by Takeshi Shudo, who had worked on the renowned "Pokemon: The Movie."

Summed up by the catchphrase, "a human transcends beast and becomes God," Dancougar consists of four armed cyber-beast vehicles that are piloted by the protagonists and combine together to form into a gigantic robot to protect the Earth from an alien invasion. The director back then was Seiji Okuda, who had directed works such as Pygmalion, and the script was handled by Keisuke Fujikawa, who is known for his work on the first Ultraman.

The premise of the weaponry in this series is worthy of mention and is similar to the premise of the weaponry in Lion Voltron (Hyakujūō Goraion, Hundred Beast King GoLion/FiveLion). Both of these stories feature four-legged cyber-beast machines that combine to transform into one gigantic humanoid robot, and for anime fans in the US and Europe, such a premise must seem novel. The main sponsor back then was a toy company, so Dancougar's main weapons were understandably more elaborate than the weapons seen in Voltron. For example, the weaponry that at first function as airplanes and tanks transform into a bird, a lion, a panther, and an elephant. What's more, each of them can turn into a humanoid form of their own, in addition to serving as parts that combine to form a gigantic robot. This transformation gimmick reflects the zeal the toy company must have had for this series, and is certainly something that was inherited by Dancouga Nova.

The broadcast timing for the show overlapped with Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam's timing, and viewer ratings were not favorable for those days, as a result. The show was called off after airing 35 episodes, and the decision was reached to release the story's conclusion as an original video animation offering.

Still, the Super Bestial Machine God Dancougar lives on today in the form of its resurrection, Dancouga Nova. While this sequel's earning prospects are good, with its high rate of recognition among animation fans, thanks to the previous work, it will nevertheless have to win over old fans. I'll be keeping tabs.


Profile of Yamanobe Kazuki
Scriptwriter
Member of the Writer's Guild of Japan
Representative Director of the scenario production company, Edgeworks

Official site of Edgeworks http://www.edge-works.co.jp