Getter Robo 40th Anniversary

40 years ago, the late Ken Ishigawa and Go Nagai (of Mazinger Z fame) created one of the most influential Super Robots series, Getter Robo.  It follows the adventures of Ryoma, Hayato and Musashi, the pilots of three plane-like vehicles that can combine into three different robots; as they fight evil dinosaurs, demons, shape-shifting aliens and sometimes themselves. It is one of the first (if not the first) transforming robot and appears in almost every Super Robot Wars game.

The world of Getter Robo is known for it's over the top action, violence, ridiculous plot twists, cheesy dialoge and extreme coolness. Don't expect logic or the laws of physics to stop the heroes from cutting a planet in half while screaming their lungs out in a fit of hot-blooded rage with the most rad soundtrack ever!!! For me,the best element is the main 3 characters and their interactions with one another. They're at each others throats but when the chips are down, they put their difference aside and risk everything to save the day. This is very different from contemporary animated series from other parts of the world.

To celebrate, let's watch the different intros from each series.

The original Getter Robo TV series

 

The sequel, Getter Robo G

 

Getter Robo Go TV series

Change! Shin Getter Robo: The Last Days of the Earth or Getter Robo Armaggedon OVA

Shin Getter Robo vs Neo Getter Robo OVA

The remake, New Getter Robo (I couldn't find the intro but here's a music video)

The manga was never translated, the original TV show and its sequels are not available on home video. But luckily we have the Internet to help us. Getter Robo and Getter Robo G TV episodes are streaming on various YouTube channels and fan-translations of most of the manga can be found. Two of the OVAs series (Getter Robo Armageddon and New Getter Robo) were released years ago. TheTV series is very toned down compare to the manga (like the Batman TV Show of the original TMNT cartoon) but it has aged very well and can be enjoyed by kids and adults. I can't give an opinion about the sequels Getter Robo G or Getter Robo Go since I haven't watch them yet. The OVA series and manga are very violent and gory. Here's to more years of Getter Robo!!!

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