is the title of a 1980s

mecha anime Mecha anime and manga, known in Japan as and , are anime and manga that feature robots (mecha) in battle. The genre is broken down into two subcategories; "super robot", featuring super-sized, implausible robots, and "real robot", where robots are ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...

that was popular during its broadcast between 1981 and 1982 in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. The series consists of 64 episodes and 2 special presentations. Other loosely translated names are "''Hexademon Symbiote God Mars''", "''Six God Union God Mars''", and "''Six Gods United As One Being''"; sometimes spelling the title mecha as "Godmars". This television mecha-genre anime is loosely based on the 1976 ''

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

'' manga from Shōnen Champion magazine by

Mitsuteru Yokoyama was a Japanese manga artist born in Suma Ward of Kobe City in Hyōgo Prefecture. His personal name was originally spelled , with the same pronunciation. His works include ''Tetsujin 28-go'', ''Giant Robo'', ''Akakage'', ''Babel II'', ''Sally t ...

. God Mars is named as such to represent the mythological

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

God of war A war god in mythology associated with war, combat, or bloodshed. They occur commonly in both monotheistic and polytheistic religions. Unlike most gods and goddesses in polytheistic religions, monotheistic deities have traditionally been po ...

Plot

1999 - humanity begins to advance beyond the known Solar System. The small planet Gishin, led by Emperor Zul, who aims to conquer the galaxy, runs into conflict with Earth which he targets for elimination and to do this, he sends a male baby named Mars to live among humanity. Accompanying the baby is a giant robot named Gaia, which utilizes a new power source strong enough to destroy an entire planet. As planned, Mars is expected to grow up, where he will activate the bomb within Gaia to fulfill the mission of destroying the Earth. However, when Mars arrives on Earth he is adopted into a Japanese family and renamed Takeru. 17 years later after arrival, Takeru matures with a love for humanity and refuses to detonate the bomb as ordered by his sender, Zul. However, if Takeru was to die, the bomb within Gaia would explode destroying Earth. Takeru possesses psychic powers (

ESP ESP most commonly refers to: * Extrasensory perception, a paranormal ability ESP may also refer to: Arts, entertainment Music * ESP Guitars, a manufacturer of electric guitars * E.S. Posthumus, an independent music group formed in 2000, ...

) and also pilots the series' title super robot with mentality. He decides to join the Earth defense forces and becomes a member of the Crasher Squad (an elite space-defense force) where he and the friends he makes in his life on Earth take a last stand against his true home world Gishin's attack. The relationship of Takeru with his brother Marg, which as fate would have it, pits them against each other in the war. Unknown to the Gishin, five other mecha were created in secrecy alongside and then sent with Gaia by Takeru's father... * Sphinx * Uranus * Titan * Shin * Ra ...to safeguard his boy. Whenever Earth is in danger, Takeru is able to summon the five other secretly created units to combine with Gaia to assemble the title Six-God Combination God Mars. The five other robots are Sphinx, Uranus, Titan, Shin and Ra.

Cast

Staff

* Original author and creator:

* Series director: Tetsuo Imazawa * Producer: Atsushi Shimizu, Shigeru Akagawa, Toru Horikoshi, Yasuji Takahashi * Character design: Hideyuki Motohashi * Animation director: Hideyuki Motohashi * Music: Kei Wakakusa * Mecha design: Hajime Kamegaki * Background art: Tsutomu Ishigaki * Narration:

Eiji Kanie was a Japanese actor and voice actor born in Tokyo. He is most remembered for being the first voice of Ramenman in ''Kinnikuman'' and for playing Vrlitwhai Kridanik in ''The Super Dimension Fortress Macross''. He died in 1985 of a subarachnoid h ...

Media

Film

A compilation theatrical feature was released in 1982 called ''God Mars: The Movie''.

Original video animation

Later in 1988 (6 years after the television series' final airing in 1982), an

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 ...

was released under the title ''God Mars: The Untold Legend'' which focused on the life of Marg, Mars' twin brother. Gaia, God Mars, and the Gishin's robot Zeron receive redesigns although the OVA mostly focuses on an alternate telling of Marg's life on Gishin up until the events of the series' 19th television episode.

Video games

God Mars would go on to make guest appearances in games like entries of the ''

Super Robot Wars ''Super Robot Wars'', known in Japan as is a series of tactical role-playing video games produced by Bandai Namco Entertainment, formerly Banpresto. Starting out as a spinoff of the ''Compati Hero'' series, the main feature of the franchise is ...

'' series. In ''

Destiny Destiny, sometimes referred to as fate (from Latin ''fatum'' "decree, prediction, destiny, fate"), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. Fate Although often ...

'' and '' Z2: Hakai-hen'', the player gets a "Game Over" whenever God Mars is destroyed, due to the God Mars storyline for the first 25 episodes with a special game-over screen only in Z2: Hakai-hen'' for when this happens.

Home media

Discotek Media Discotek Media is an American entertainment company based in Altamonte Springs, Florida, focused on distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series. Formed in 2005, Discotek primarily focuses on licensing retro titles fr ...

announced its license to the series and its post-television presentations at

Otakon Otakon ( ) is an annual three-day anime convention held during July/August. It stands for Otaku Convention. From 1999 to 2016, it took place at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland's Inner Harbor district; in 2017, it moved to ...

2018 on August 12 and the entire series was released on a SDBD 2-disc set on December 18 - throughout the included discs combined, it contained the series, the movie and the OVA.

Reception

God Mars came out very early in the super-robot animation era of the 1980s, having been created by

and did very well in airing. In 1982 it won the

Anime Grand Prix The is an annual Japanese anime awards giving to recognize the best in anime of the previous year, decided by the votes of readers of entertainment magazine ''Animage'', published by Tokuma Shoten since July 1978. The Anime Grand Prix started i ...

References

* Ishizuki, Saburo. Alt, Matt. Duban, Robert. Brisko Tim

005 ''005'' is a 1981 arcade game by Sega. They advertised it as the first of their RasterScan Convert-a-Game series, designed so that it could be changed into another game in minutes "at a substantial savings". It is one of the first examples of a ...

(2005). Super #1 Robot: Japanese Robot Toys 1972-1982. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books LLC. * Clements, Jonatha. McCarthy Helen. 006(2006). The Anime Encyclopedia: Revised & Expanded Edition. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press.

External links

TMS Godmars Library
* {{TMS Entertainment OVAs 1981 anime television series debuts 1982 anime films 1988 anime films 1981 Japanese television series debuts 1982 Japanese television series endings Alien invasions in television Discotek Media Shōnen manga Super robot anime and manga Television series set in 1999 TMS Entertainment