is a
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 ar ...
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, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed bet ...
aired from 1980 to 1981. It ran for 50 episodes. It is also referred to as "''God Sigma, Empire of Space''" and "''Space Combination God Sigma''".
Concept
Space Emperor God Sigma was created by Toei's Television Division, under the name "Saburo Yatsude" and produced by Academy Production (who subcontracted Greenbox). The series was produced by the main Toei company, and not by
Toei Animation
() is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including ''Sally the Witch,'' '' GeGeGe no Kitarō,'' ''Mazinger Z'', ''Galaxy Express 999'', ''Cutie Honey'', '' Dr. Slump'', ...
;
Yoshinobu Nishizaki's Academy Productions provided production assistance. Toei Agency handled the advertising for the show, and its main sponsor was
Popy
Popy (ポピー) was a Japanese toy manufacturer of the 1970s and early 1980s. The company was owned by Bandai. It was founded in 1971 and merged back into the parent company in 1983. The company is best known for its groundbreaking Chogokin robot ...
(now
Bandai
is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered in Irvine ...
's Boy's Toys Division).
This anime was the last that Takashi Ijima would work on; he had been part of Toei's TV division's projects since
Chōdenji Robo Combattler V
''Combattler V'', full name , is a Japanese mecha anime television series produced by Toei Dōga and animated by Soeisha (later renamed as Nippon Sunrise) that aired from 1976 to 1977. It is the first part of the '' Robot Romance Trilogy'' o ...
, which aired in 1976. Joined by Katsuhiko Taguchi, the chief director, the two created an anime that lasted for four full seasons, which was rare at the time of its broadcast.
Story
The story is set in the year 2050 AD, and mankind has been steadily advancing its space technology. However, the planet is suddenly set upon by a mysterious enemy: the forces of Eldar, who came from 250 years in the future. In their time, 2300 AD, their planet Eldar was invaded by Earth, and soundly defeated by Earth's Trinity Energy, a mysterious energy used in their weaponry that possesses power many times that of a
hydrogen bomb
A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lowe ...
. The Eldar people's objective is to steal this Trinity Energy before it can be used against them.
The Eldar forces begin by taking over
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...
's moon
Io, one of the places humanity has immigrated to by then. After that, they begin to attack Trinity City with their legions of Cosmosauruses in order to steal the Trinity Energy. Toshiya and his friends use God Sigma to protect the planet and the Trinity Energy, and the battle evolves into a long war to retake Io.
Characters
Trinity City
Toshiya Dan
,
Tomokazu Seki
is a Japanese voice actor and singer. He has previously worked with Haikyō. He is honorary president of and affiliated with Atomic Monkey and the chairman of theater company HeroHero Q. He is a special lecturer at Japan Newart College.
Caree ...
(in
Super Robot Wars Z)
The protagonist of the show. He is an 18-year-old second-generation pioneer living on Jupiter's moon, Io. The main pilot of God Sigma.
Julie Noguchi
Assistant to Dr. Kazami, the head scientist and researcher at Trinity City. One of the three pilots of God Sigma.
Kira Kensaku
One of Toshiya's good friends, and also a native of Io.
Eldar's Forces
Supreme Commander Teral
,
Hiromi Tsuru
was a Japanese actress, voice actress and narrator. During her life, she was attached to the Himawari Theatre Group as a child and then to Aoni Production at the time of her death. She was most known for voicing the character of Bulma (''Dragon ...
(in
Super Robot Wars Z)
The supreme commander of the Eldar forces sent to Earth to steal the Trinity Energy.
Commander Leats
The commander of the Cosmosauruses, under Teral's command.
Jeela
A commander under Teral's command.
Mecha
God Sigma
The completed giant robot formed when the Kuuraioh, Kaimeioh, and Rikushin'oh combine with the Big-Wing.
With the command "Sigma Formation", the three robots form a triangle, and when they shout "Trinity Charge", the Big-Wing flies to them and combines. Two separate combination scenes exist in the anime - one during the beginning, and one from the middle onwards.
Its total height was originally stated to be 265 meters tall, but since this would cause difficulties for the actual animation, it was changed to 66 meters. It weighs 1200 tons, and its power source is Trinity Energy. It possesses the ability to cruise from Earth to Jupiter and back. It can be controlled by the main pilot, Toshiya, but without the other two component robots' generators to supplement his own, it's not as powerful.
In the final episode, it and the giant mecha Gargos destroy each other. However, it is repaired after the war and revamped to be a single-pilot machine, and Toshiya sets off with it by himself.
Staff
* Original Work:
Saburo Yatsude
() (also styled TOEI) is a Japanese film, television production, and distribution and video game developer and publishing company. Based in Tokyo, Toei owns and operates thirty-four movie theaters across Japan (all but two of them operated by ...
* Producer: Takashi Ijima, Heita Ezu (Tokyo Channel 12), Itaru Orita (Toei TV Division)
* Music: Hiroshi Tsutsui
* Music Performance: Tokyo Indoors Music Society
* Chief Director: Takeyuki Kanda (episodes 1-10), Katsuhiko Taguchi (episodes 11-50)
* Character Design:
Kazuhiko Utaka
* Character Concepts:
Kaoru Shintani
* Design Assistance:
Yutaka Izubuchi
is a Japanese anime designer, screenwriter and director. Izubuchi is credited for designing costumes, characters and creatures, but most of his designs are mechanical (both robots and other vehicles). He created and directed the '' RahXephon'' se ...
* Mechanical Design:
Katsushi Murakami, Submarine
* Artistic Director: Kazuo Okada,
Tadanoumi Shimokawa
* Music Director:
Jouhei Kawamura
* Animation Production: Greenbox, Anime City, Sunluck
* Production Assistance: Academy Production, Tokyo Dôga
* Production:
Toei Company, Ltd., Toei Agency (advertising)
Theme songs
Opening Theme: "Ganbare! Uchuu no Senshi" (Do your Best, Space Warrior!)
* Vocals:
Sasaki Isao, Koroogi '73, Columbia Yurikago-kai
* Lyrics: Saburo Yatsude
* Composition: Asei Kobayashi
* Arrangement: Masahisa Takeichi
Ending Theme: "Red Blue Yellow"
* Vocals:
Kumiko Kaori, Koroogi '73, Columbia Yurikago-kai
* Lyrics: Saburo Yatsude
* Composition: Asei Kobayashi
* Arrangement: Masahisa Takeichi
The ending theme, "Red Blue Yellow", consists of the planets in the
Solar System
The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...
in order. At the time of the show's broadcast,
Pluto
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest k ...
was actually inside the orbit of
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 time ...
. This was not reflected in the animation, the reason being that the show itself is set in the year 2050. Also, the rings of Jupiter had just been discovered the year before, so in the ending animation, Jupiter is depicted with rings. However, in contrast to the actual rings of Jupiter, which are too thin to see a shadow cast on the planet, the picture of Jupiter in the ending sequence does have the shadow of rings on it.
Media
The series was telecast in
Italy under the title ''God Sigma, l'imperatore dello spazio'' (the Italian translation of the full Japanese title).
God Sigma toys were released under the premier
Godaikin
Godaikin or GoDaiKin (a combination of ''gokin'' (合金, "alloy") and ''dai'' (大, "big"/"great")) was a line of Super Robot toys released by Bandai America from 1982 to 1985, composed of figures from Popy-created series such as ''Chogokin'' and ...
toy label 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 ...
and
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 ...
in the 1980s.
On March 16, 2011,
Pony Canyon
, also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affiliate ...
released a complete DVD box set, which only had a limited production run. This is the first and only digital version of the show.
Appearances in other works
Space Emperor God Sigma appears in various games by
Banpresto
(formerly Coreland Technology Inc.) was a Japanese video game developer and publisher headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. It had a branch in Hong Kong named Banpresto H.K., which was headquartered in the New Territories. Banpresto was a partly-ow ...
(currently
Bandai Namco Games
is a Japanese multinational video game publisher headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California an ...
). Its first appearance was in a 1992
Famicom
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...
game called
Shuffle Fight. Its second was in the 2008 PS2 game
Super Robot Wars Z. However, by this time, Toshiya's voice actor Tomiyama Kei had died, so the role was given to
Tomokazu Seki
is a Japanese voice actor and singer. He has previously worked with Haikyō. He is honorary president of and affiliated with Atomic Monkey and the chairman of theater company HeroHero Q. He is a special lecturer at Japan Newart College.
Caree ...
instead. In the same game, a robot from
Gravion
is a Japanese anime television series produced by Gonzo. It aired in Japan from October 7, 2002 to December 16, 2002 and ran for 13 episodes. In 2004, was released and aired from January 8 to March 25 in Japan, running for twelve additiona ...
called God Σ Gravion appears, triggering a conversation between the characters of each series. God Sigma also appears in the game's two-part sequel, 2nd Super Robot Wars Z: Hakai-hen and Saisei-hen.
References
External links
*
*
Encirobot.com (Italian)
{{Toei Animation, state=collapsed
1980 anime television series debuts
1980 Japanese television series debuts
1981 Japanese television series endings
Adventure anime and manga
Animated space adventure television series
Kaoru Shintani
Super robot anime and manga
TV Tokyo original programming
Toei Animation television