War of the Space Saucers

 

 

This is a movie that has no direct link to Grendizer whatsoever.  A completely different company produced this movie and its idea.  Go Nagai, the author of the Mazinger/Getta Robo series, was asked to come and modify this idea with his creativity.  Go Nagai took his latest idea of Great Mazinger, combined it with this movie, and came up with Grendizer.  So this movie, War of the Space Saucers, can be referred to as the pilot movie of Grendizer; the before-series movie.

 

 

 

War of the Space Saucers is where the story of Duke Freed came from.  Duke Freed, in this movie, escaped from his planet which was attacked by the Yarban army.  Duke Freed escaped with the saucer robot Gattiger, otherwise King Yarban would've stolen Gattiger and used it to plunder the universe.  Duke Freed is found by Dr. Umon around Hell Valley on Earth and is adopted as Daisuke Umon.

 

 

 

Even though these characters have the same names as the ones in Grendizer, they have nothing to do with them whatsoever.  We also meet Hikaru, her brother, and her father, whose names are not mentioned in the pilot movie.  Her father is obsessed with UFO's.  We see the same idea in Grendizer with Danbi Makiba.  They all live on the Makino Farm, same idea as Shirakaba Farm in the Grendizer series.

 

 

 

In the pilot movie, Duke Freed grew up with his sweetheart princess Terrona who is the daughter of his enemy King Yarban, it seemed like they wanted to get married before the war took place.  The same exact idea as King Vega and his daughter Robina in the Grendizer series.  Robina in episode #72 of Grendizer will come looking for Duke Freed, and will want him to return to planet Freed with her.

 

 

In the pilot movie, one of the commanders of the Yarban people is Commander Blacki.  Again, there is a Commander Blacki in Grendizer as well.  Commander Blacki in the pilot movie will try to fire a super beam gun on Gattiger called the Yarban Infrared Missile Ray.  The same idea is in episode #11 of Grendizer when Commander Blacki's Mother Burn flagship attempts to fire a super beam gun on Grendizer.

 

 

 

 

As Commander Blacki in the pilot movie tries to fire the Yarban Infrared Missile Ray on Gattiger, Princess Terrona gets in the way of the beam to help Duke Freed.  After getting hit, Princess Terrona also fires a beam at the Yarban gun and destroys it before crashing.  The same thing takes place in episode #72 of Grendizer when Princess Robina gets in the way of General Zuril's ship when it fires a laser at Grendizer.  Princess Robina will again fire at General Zuril's ship as Grendizer tries to save her.

 

 

Duke Freed looks different in this movie, his outfit is blue but the suit design of Duke Freed in Grendizer looks similar.  The character himself is somewhat different in Grendizer, Duke is more calm and reserved in Grendizer.  The Duke Freed in the pilot movie is more talkative and more aggressive.

 

 

 

The unit that Duke Freed pilots in this movie is called Gattiger.  The idea of a super robot being combined to a ship was not Go Nagai's idea at all.  Go Nagai took this idea and incorporated his Mazinger style to it.  The super robot in the Gattiger machine is called Roboizer.  This ship that Roboizer is in is called Spazer; the same name is also of the ship of Grendizer.  The command for Roboizer to launch out of the Spazer saucer is called "Break-up Roboizer".  When Roboizer returns to Spazer, the command is called "Getta Gattiger".  Getta means combine.

 

 

Go Nagai's version of Roboizer is Grendizer.  Grendizer looks similar to Go Nagai's Great Mazinger.  Grendizer has weapons similar to Great Mazinger.  Grendizer fires its fists, has a ray that comes out of its chest, and has the Space Thunder weapon which fires from Grendizer's horns; Great Mazinger fires the Thunder Break from its horns and finger.  A weapon of Gattiger is called the Space Thunder as well, that's where the name of the lightening weapon of Grendizer came from.

 

 

 

Gattiger has the Needle Shower weapon, Grendizer has the Melt Shower.  Gattiger has the Spiker Spin weapon which is blades that spin at the edges of Gattiger.  Grendizer has the Spin Saucer weapon which is a similar idea.

 

 

Now, when Roboizer gets out of its Spazer or comes back in, Duke Freed remains in the same seat.  But in Grendizer, Go Nagai's concept remains, that being a module going into the super robot's head to turn it on.  We know that Mazinger Z needs the Hover Pilder to lock into its head for it to function.  We also know that Great Mazinger requires the Brain Condor ship to lock into its head for Great Mazinger to function.  Similarly, Grendizer requires Duke Freed to switch the Duke Pit from Spazer to the head of Grendizer for Grendizer to function and shoot out of Spazer.

 

 

At the end of the pilot movie, Duke Freed will leave Earth.  As Gattiger exits the Earth's atmosphere, the planet Earth gets further and further away from the background, the Duke Freed farewell music is also played.  In the last episode of Grendizer, we see the same thing.  Grendizer launches out of the Earth's atmosphere in the same manner and we see the Earth getting smaller and smaller in the background, and we also hear the Duke Freed farewell music playing.

 

 

 

The music used for War of the Space Saucers was also used in Grendizer.  Go Nagai gave the Grendizer series the added bonus when he brought in Koji Kabuto to make it even more interesting.  We also see in Grendizer General Gandal and Lady Gandal who share the same body, this is similar to the concept of Baron Ashler in Mazinger Z.