The is a toy and Japanese anime

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begun by toy company Tomy in Japan. Tomy struck a cooperative deal with the animation studio

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(known for its

mecha In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines controlled by people, typically depicted as humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the meaning in Japanese is ...

series, most notably

Gundam is a Japanese military fiction media franchise. Created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Sunrise (now Bandai Namco Filmworks), the franchise features giant robots, or mecha, with the name "Gundam". The franchise began on April 7, 1979, with ''Mobile ...

) to develop the new franchise to sell their toys.

Series overview

* (April 1991–March 1992) * (April 1992–February 1993) * (March 1993–February 1994) * (2002, cancelled) ''Kanzen Shouri Daiteioh'' was planned to be made into a TV series, but instead only a pilot episode

OVA , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...

and a manga based on the pilot was made. However, this series appears in

Super Robot Wars NEO is a 2009 tactical role-playing game developed by Sazanami and published by Namco Bandai Games for the Wii. Gameplay ''NEO'' is the first ''Super Robot Wars'' title to appear on the Wii. ''NEO'' carries on from ''Super Robot Wars GC'' and ''Sup ...

Series summaries and context

The robots are suddenly entrusted to primary school children by patron saint "Eldran". They control the robots by co-operating, and confront the invaders who attempt to take over the Earth. The idea was that a school (or various places in a large town) could house the large transforming robots and their base would be the school that the kids would go to.

Similarities with Yūsha

When the Eldran series was conceived by Tomy, Takara (who would later merge with Tomy) had begun making the

Brave series The is a Japanese toy and anime franchise originally produced by Sunrise (now the primary division of Bandai Namco Filmworks), Nagoya TV, Victor Entertainment and Tokyu Agency, originally created by Takara (now Takara Tomy). The franchise ran f ...

(Yūsha series in Japan). The robots in each series would combine in certain ways to become a powerful robot and later new robots would be introduced that could combine with the title robot. When Takara and Tomy merged into TakaraTomy, the similarities between the two franchises led to Raijin-Oh being featured in the PlayStation 2 video game ''Brave Wars'' alongside several Brave characters. Toy brands Transforming toy robots Sunrise (company) Bandai Namco franchises Takara Tomy franchises Super robot anime and manga {{Anime-stub