is a 1980

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese

super robot Mecha, also known as giant robot or simply robot, is a genre of anime and manga that feature mecha in battle. The genre is broken down into two subcategories; " super robot", featuring super-sized, implausible robots, and "real robot", where r ...

mecha anime Mecha, also known as giant robot or simply robot, is a genre of anime and manga that feature mecha in battle. The genre is broken down into two subcategories; " super robot", featuring super-sized, implausible robots, and " real robot", where ...

. A film with the same title was released on December 19, 1981. In North America, the series and movie are licensed by

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. History Formed in 2005, Discotek primarily focuses on licensing retr ...

and the series is currently streaming on

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation. The service primarily distributes fi ...

. The anime television series was produced by

Ashi Productions is a Japanese anime studio, located in Suginami, Tokyo, Japan, known for its four magical-girl anime, especially '' Magical Princess Minky Momo''. It was established by Toshihiko Sato and other artists on December 20, 1975, as ''Ashi Productio ...

and Kokusai Eiga-sha however, the show was cancelled. In 1981, a feature film distributed by

Toei Company , simply known as Toei Company or Toei, is a Japanese entertainment company. Headquartered in Ginza, Chūō, Tokyo, it is involved in film and television production, distribution, video game development, publishing, and ownership of 34 movi ...

was produced featuring footage from the TV series as well as newly animated footage to properly conclude the series. The TV series was released in Italy as ''Baldios - Il Guerriero Dello Spazio'' and in Spain as ''Los guerreros del espacio'' (Space Warriors).

Story

The TV series begins on S-1, a futuristic world whose wartime pollution has forced its occupants to live underground. Its emperor is assassinated by military fanatic Zeo Gattler and his followers, who frame the team of scientists who recently found a solution to their planet's environmental decay. Gattler's followers invade the head scientist's laboratory, killing the environmentalists and destroying their work. Gattler loads the civilian population aboard a fortress, the ''Algol'', and flies off to conquer a new planet. Angered by Gattler's devious actions, the lead scientist's son (protagonist Marin Reigan) tries to escape. Before he can, he is caught in the ''Algol'' warp drive and finds himself near Earth in the year 2100. When he sees a Martian colony destroyed by Gattler's Aldebaren Army, Marin joins the military organization Blue Fixer. His ship becomes part of Blue Fixer's mecha, the space warrior Baldios. Marin and the Blue Fixer team (Jamie Hoshino, combat pilots Jack Oliver and Raita Hokuto, researcher Ella Quinstein and commander Takeshi Tsukikage) defend Earth against Gattler and the S-1 force. The conflict ends when Gattler triggers a massive tsunami by melting Earth's polar ice caps with artificial suns, flooding the planet and killing millions. Blue Fixer is helpless to stop it, and Marin watches the waves in horror. They remove the radioactive core of the World Union submarine base, which threatened to contaminate Earth, transporting it to the Aldebaren fleet where it kills Gattler, his troops and Commander Tsukikage. The Baldios film contains a final confrontation between Marin and Gattler. In the series and the film, S-1 and Earth are the same planet. Gattler and his troops' time travel caused the same pollution which forced them to leave S-1, closing the

time loop The time loop or temporal loop is a plot device in fiction whereby Character (arts), characters re-experience a span of time which is repeated, sometimes more than once, with some hope of breaking out of the cycle of repetition. Time loops are co ...

Video games

''Baldios'' would make its video game debut in the ''

Super Robot Wars ''Super Robot Wars'', known in Japan as is a series of Japanese 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 fr ...

'' franchise, specifically 2008's ''Super Robot Wars Z'' for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

. ''Baldios'' would appear in the game's two part sequel, ''2nd Super Robot Wars Z'' (Hakai Hen and Saisei Hen) as well as the 2015 mobile game, ''Super Robot Wars X-Ω''. For this appearance Marin was voiced by Takumi Yamazaki as his original voice actor

Kaneto Shiozawa Toshikazu Shiozawa (, January 28, 1954 – May 10, 2000), better known by the stage name Kaneto Shiozawa (), was a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator from Tokyo. At the time of his death, he was attached to Aoni Production. He had a distinc ...

had died in 2000.

References

External links

* *
Profile on Ashi Productions's Official Site (Japanese)
*(TV) *{{IMDb title, tt0295667(Film) 1980 anime television series debuts 1981 anime films 1981 films 1981 Japanese television series endings 1980s time travel television series Animated television series set in the 21st century Adventure anime and manga Animated films based on animated series Animated space adventure television series Apocalyptic films Drama anime and manga Japanese animated films 1980s Japanese-language films Ashi Productions Super robot anime and manga TV Tokyo original programming