Six God Combination Godmars

Six God Combination God Mars
六神合体ゴッドマーズ
(Rokushin Gattai Goddomāzu)
Genre Mecha, Drama
TV anime
Directed by Tetsuo Imazawa
Written by Keisuke Fujikawa
Studio Tokyo Movie Shinsha
Network Nippon TV
Original run October 2, 1981December 24, 1982
Episodes 64
Anime film
Godmars
Directed by Tetsuo Imazawa
Written by Mitsuteru Yokoyama
Studio Tokyo Movie Shinsha
Released December 18, 1982
Runtime 95 minutes
Anime film
Godmars: The Untold Legend
Directed by Masakatsu Iijima
Written by Mitsuteru Yokoyama
Studio Tokyo Movie Shinsha
Released June 5, 1988
Runtime 60 minutes
Anime and Manga Portal

Six God Combination God Mars (六神合体ゴッドマーズ Rokushin Gattai Goddomāzu?) is a popular anime series that aired from 1981 to 1982 in Japan, Hong Kong, and Italy with 64 episodes. 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".

Contents

Original story

In the year 1999, humanity begins to advance beyond the known Solar System. The small planet Gishin, led by the Emperor Zul, who aims to conquer the galaxy, runs into conflict with Earth. He targets Earth for elimination and to do this, he sends a male baby called 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 given the name Takeru. Seventeen years later, Takeru grows up with a love for humanity and refuses to detonate the bomb as ordered by Zul. However, if Takeru was to die, the bomb within Gaia would explode destroying the earth.

Takeru possesses psychic powers (ESP). Takeru also can pilot the God Mars robot with his mind. Takeru decides to join the Earth defense forces and becomes a member of the Crasher Squad (an elite space-defense force), where he and his friends take a last stand against the Gishin's attack. The relationship of Takeru with his brother Marg, which as fate would have it, pitted the two against each other in the war.

Unknown to the Gishin, five other robots were created in secrecy alongside Gaia by Takeru's father and sent with Gaia to protect Takeru. Whenever Earth is in danger, Takeru is able to summon the five other robots to combine with Gaia to form the giant robot God Mars. The five other robots are Sphinx, Uranus, Titan, Shin and Ra.

Concept

The anime show is loosely based on the 1976 Mars manga from Shōnen Champion magazine by Mitsuteru Yokoyama. God Mars is named as such to represent the mythological Roman God of war.

Staff

Characters

Name Japanese Name Voices by
Mars/Takeru Myojin マーズ/明神タケル Yū Mizushima
Kenji Asuka 飛鳥ケンジ Hiroya Ishimaru
Naoto Ijuin 伊集院ナオト Hirotaka Suzuoki (anime)
Gô Shinomiya (Super Robot Wars Series)
Mika Hyuga 日向ミカ Youko Kawanami
Akira Kiso 木曽アキラ Yoku Shioya
Namida Akashi 明石ナミダ Eiko Yamada
Shigeru Otsuka 大塚長官 Kousei Tomita
Dr. Myojin 明神博士 Takeshi Aono
Shizuka Myojin 明神静子 Toshiko Maeda
Marg マーグ Yūji Mitsuya
Rose ロゼ Rumiko Ukai
Flore フローレ Yoshiko Sakakibara
Gasshu ガッシュ Akio Nojima
Kazuyuki Sogabe (eps 43-44)
Emperor Zuul ズール皇帝 Naya Goro
Gyron ギロン総統 Osamu Kobayashi
Rui ルイ Kumiko Takizawa
Narrator ナレーター Eiji Kanie

Robots

Name Robot Location Color Specialty Hidden in
Gaia Body Core Internal red Gravitational Beam, Impact Wave Japanese statue in the reefs
Sphinx Body Shell Middle blue, red God of Stones Egypt between Pyramid and Sphinx
Uranus Right Arm white Freezer Beam Icebergs near Greenland
Titan Left Arm green Cyclone Blast Indian Ocean
Shin Right Foot black, red Flare Among South East Asian Temple
Ra Left Foot blue, yellow Pulsar Beam Among Easter Island Statues
God Mars N/A All colors mentioned God Fire, Mars Flash N/A

DVD

The 64 episodes span 2 DVD collections.

Video games

God Mars would go on to make guest appearances in games like Super Robot Wars. In Super Robot Wars Destiny and Super Robot Wars 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. In Hakai-hen, there is even a special game-over screen for when this happens.

Reaction

God Mars came out very early in the super-robot animation era of the 1980s, having been created by Mitsuteru Yokoyama. The show did appear in the U.S., as an edited televised movie in 1982 called "Godmars". Later in 1988, a God Mars OVA was released under the title God Mars: The Untold Legend, where Gaia, God Mars, and the gishin robot Zeron receive redesigns although the OVA mostly focuses on an alternate telling of Marg's life on Gishin up until the events of episode 19. A theatrical feature was to follow called God Mars: The Movie +.

References

External links