is a Japanese robot anime television series produced by TV Tokyo, Yomiko Advertising and Sunrise. It was directed by Mitsuo Fukuda, with Chiaki Morosawa handling series scripts, Hirokazu Hisayuki designing the characters and monsters, Satoshi Shigeta serving as mechanical animation director and Toshihiko Sahashi composing the music. The series ran for 38 episodes, from October 4, 2000 to June 27, 2001, on the TV Tokyo network and its affiliates.
The series features many of the production staff and main cast members that worked on the Future GPX Cyber Formula series that concluded in 2000, including Fukuda, Hisayuki, Morosawa, and Shigeta, and many of them went on to participate in the later Mobile Suit Gundam SEED series as well. The production period of the anime was a transitional period in which the production environment for animated works was shifting from the traditional cel coloring and film compositing to coloring and editing on computers, and the percentage of computer production increased in the latter half of the series. Although 3D computer graphics with cel shading were used, they were limited to a small portion of stock shots due to the limited processing power of computers at the time, lack of technical expertise, and budgetary constraints.
Summary One day, a shiny object crashed from outer space and burst into flames, from where six colored lights flew away. On the opposite shore, a girl with blue hair staggered along the beach. She had run out of strength and collapsed, but there were two mobile terminals beside her, and a figure came to her aid.
17 years later, the giant fortress "Spiral Castle" of Galfa, a mechanical life form that plans to exterminate the human race, flies to the moon one day. From the fortress, the "mecha-beasts," robots under its command, begin their march toward the earth. Hokuto Kusanagi, a boy who has moved to Hoshimi Town, meets Ginga Izumo, a boy practicing kenpō in the schoolyard of his elementary school. Soon after that, a number of mecha-beasts, which have taken up interceptor satellites, fly in and begin attacking the town. Worried about their families, they hurry home, but on the way they find a lost little girl crying and try to save her. Just as a mecha-beast sets its sights on them and attacks, a giant blue robot breaks through the floor and appears, welcoming the startled pair into its chest cockpit. It is the "Gear Fighter Dendoh," the hope of mankind.
Characters
A fifth grader at Hoshimi Elementary School, he is an active boy who prefers to act rather than think. When the Galfa attacked the earth, he and Hokuto were chosen as Dendoh pilots and he was entrusted with the blue Gear Commander. At first, he was proud of being chosen as a Dendoh pilot and underestimated the battle against Galfa. However, as he experienced defeats and setbacks, he matured and awakened to his mission to protect the earth. Although he and Hokuto often clashed, they gradually came to recognize each other.
A fifth grader at Hoshimi Elementary School, he is an intelligent boy who is both thoughtful and decisive. On the day he moved to Hoshimi Town with his family, he encountered an attack by Galfa. He and Ginga are chosen as Dendoh pilots and he is entrusted with the black Gear Commander. Although he is perplexed at having to bear the fate of the earth on his shoulders, he becomes more and more aware of his role as a Dendoh pilot as he witnesses the crisis on the earth. Although he and Ginga, who have opposite personalities, sometimes disagree with each other, they gradually build a relationship of trust.
The second-in-command of GEAR, an earth defense organization, she was initially scheduled to be Dendoh's pilot. She was an advisor to combat command and supported Dendoh's battles by standing on the front lines herself. She is also an expert in combat, with a number of special weapons, and is skilled enough to go toe-to-toe with the black knight Arthea. One of the people deeply involved in the creation of GEAR, she has a wealth of knowledge about Dendoh, data weapons, and Galfa. Her costume is made of the latest technological materials.
A Knight Ogre pilot with a white gear commander sent from the main planet of Galfa to capture data weapons. He is the elite guard of Emperor Galfa, who holds the title of Black Knight, and his rank is equal to that of Spiral Castle. He has an outstanding fighting sense, and has tormented Dendoh many times.
A prodigy girl who graduated from M.I.T. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) at the age of 10. With a PhD in electronics, she was recruited by GEAR as the youngest person ever. She was initially working on data weapon research at GEAR's U.S. branch, but was selected as the chief data weapon analyst and transferred to the Japan headquarters. After arriving in Japan, she transferred to Hoshimi Elementary School as a chaperone of Ginga and his friends.
A mechanical life form that reigns at the top of the mechanical empire of Galfa. He seeks to eliminate mankind from all the stars and become the king of the universe itself, and sends Spiral Castle to Earth as his sentinel. He treats his subordinates as disposable pawns, and is ruthless and merciless in his treatment of those who fail him.
The son of Emperor Galfa, in the position of Prince of the Galfa Empire. Like Arthea, he is qualified to control the Ogre. After the failed invasion of Earth by the Spiral Castle, he was assigned to search for the 7th Data Weapon and visited Earth with Zero. He loves Galfa as his brother and hates Hokuto, the Ogre pilot who took him away from him. However, as he exchanged feelings with the brainwashed Hokuto, he began to realize that feelings of joy and loneliness had been born within him, and he began to be puzzled.
Gear Machines
Spec Height 24.5 meters Weight 399.8 tons
Spec Height 28.5 meters weight 401.0 tons
Unicorn Drill Spec Height 23.0 meters
Viper Whip Spec Height 58.0 meters
Leo Circle Spec Height 15.0 meters
Bull Horn Spec Height 16.0 meters
Dragon Flare Spec Height 27.0 meters
Gatling Boar Spec Height 12.0 meters
Chojuuoh Kiba Spec Height 17.4 meters
Phoenix Alae Spec Height 20.4 meters
Galfa Empire Seventeen years before the events of the series, Emperor Galfa was a biological manager program from planet Alktos that sought to destroy human life due to how they can and have easily destroyed nature. In an effort to save the environment from human intervention, he created a vast empire of machines to exterminate human life and named the empire after himself. In the final episode Galfa reveals his true form as a six headed mechanical dragon, possibly a reference to The Beast From The Sea or Orochi. After conquering the planet he created a large moon-sized satellite resembling the Death Star that emits an energy barrier that shields the entire planet and not only houses all of his forces, but also is armed with a gravitational cannon that can destroy planets.
Main Forces Spiral City: flight, green lasers, underside drill, storage, an energy barrier, and an AI terminal program of the same name capable of emitting electricity. Galfa Sotai: First appear in episode 1. Powers include flight, assimilating beak and hand claws, purple energy bolts from the forehead, beak lasers, and a purple laser pistol. They are often translated as Galfa Soldiers and Robot Beasts. Witter: First appears in episode 1. Powers include a probe called a chip in his own image that is composed of liquid metal and is armed with a laser pistol, flight, an EMP field that can shut down electronics save for larger mechanical enemies and can slowly drain their energy, a segmented body that can be used as projectiles, pink finger lasers, and can reform as long as his head is intact. He fights Dendoh in episode 21. Absolute: First appears in episode 1. Powers include a probe called a chip in his own image that is composed of liquid metal and is armed with a laser pistol, a liquid metal body, and speed. He fights Dendoh in episode 26. Gourmet: First appears in episode 1. Powers include a probe called a chip in his own image that is composed of liquid metal and is armed with a laser pistol, flight, a pink mouth beam that can damage objects as large as the Aldebaran, a super electromagnetic net strong enough to disrupt the use of data weapons, back missiles, and extendable arms. He fights Dendoh in episode 25. Capture Machine Beast: First appear in episode 2. Powers include flight, a capture tentacle in each of its four underside spikes with them able to create a pink force field, and yellow lasers from the underside. Aldebaran: Appears in episode 11 and episodes 21 to 25. Powers include light speed flight, an underside tractor beam, and Galfa Guard storage. It serves as Emperor Galfa's space cruiser later commanded by Altiar. Lagou: Appears in episodes 15 to 19. Powers include flight, super speed, fangs, talons, consuming metal to regenerate, flames from his right head mouth, blue energy balls from his left head mouth, a whip tail, and virus spikes on the fin on his chest. It is not a machine rather it is the cyborg pet of Emperor Galfa. According to Meteo in episode 16 he is 22.2 meters tall, has a 57.5 meter wingspan, and weighs 955.5 tons. Galfa Guard: Appear in episodes 24 and 25. Powers include flight and green palm and scalp beams. Zero: First appears in episode 27. Powers include flight, an extendable metal staff, thirty eight green lasers around his body, holograms of his human form, and indefinite reformation. In human form he also possesses flight and his staff while also having a high resistance to projectiles, can hack into computers with little effort, can quickly move underwater, is armed with ball-like grenades as well as bombs capable of rivaling atomic blasts, and an extremely high resistance to explosions. He can combine with Vector to become Vector Zero. Vector: First appears in episode 27 although it does not return until episode 35. Powers include flight, a pair of blue lasers on the underside, and indefinite reformation. It is actually an automated suit of armor that Zero can combine into to become Vector Zero. Vector Zero: Appears in the final episode. Powers include flight, blue shoulder beams, a double sided spear version of Zero's staff, green finger lasers, and indefinite reformation. Emperor Galfa: Although he appears early in the series his true form is not seen until the final episode. Powers include an energy shield-like seal, six gigantic heads each being over 200 meters in length, circular energy fields that protect the jaws, and mouth flames that rival napalm.
Machine Beasts Orbiton: Appears in episode 1. Powers include flight, green laser cannons from the right shoulder, and pelvis missiles. Unlike other machine beasts this is mass-produced as eighteen separate creatures instead of just one. Bloodon: Appears in episode 2. Powers include purple lasers from its four eyes and palms, saw fingers, and extendable arms. Palaboon: Appears in episode 3. Its only known power is yellow heat beams from the satellite dish on its back. Scoodas: Appears in episode 5. Its only known power is speed. It can execute a Triple Stream Attack, a homage to the Jet Stream Attack of the Black Tri-Stars from Mobile Suit Gundam. Mobiluz: Appears in episode 5. Powers include speed and bombs. It can execute a Triple Stream Attack, a homage to the Jet Stream Attack of the Black Tri-Stars from Mobile Suit Gundam. Camioon: Appears in episode 5. Powers include speed and bombs. It can execute a Triple Stream Attack, a homage to the Jet Stream Attack of the Black Tri-Stars from Mobile Suit Gundam. Fightersu: Appears in episode 6. Powers include flight, dual torso machine guns, and extendable jawed arms armed with missiles in the mouths. Siglight: Appears in episode 7. Although it showed no powers in the series it had extendable arms in the game.