Space Warrior Baldios

Space Warrior Baldios

Screenshot of Baldios.
宇宙戦士 バルディオス
(Uchū Senshi Baldios)
Genre Adventure, Mecha
Anime television series
Directed by Kazuyuki Hirokawa
Studio Ashi Productions
Network TV Tokyo
Original run June 30, 1980 January 25, 1981
Episodes 34
Anime film
Studio Toei Animation
Released December 29, 1981
Runtime 117 minutes

Space Warrior Baldios (宇宙戦士 バルディオス Uchū Senshi Barudiosu) is a Japanese super robot mecha anime series from 1980.

Production

The original anime TV series was produced by Ashi Productions, with its full length feature film (which has a strong environmental theme) produced by Toei Animation in 1981. Many of the pivotal episodes were joined and released as a "movie" in the United States as "Space Warriors: Battle for Earth Station S/1." The name of the Baldios mecha was unchanged, although it played a surprisingly small part in the movie that was created. In Italy, the TV series and feature film were exhibited under the name Baldios, Il Guerriero dello Spazio. In Cuba, another feature film version of Baldios was released in theaters, including much of the bloodshed and disturbing scenes that had been excised from the American version, under the name of Yaltus. However this version had some sexual content excised as well. As of today, the most complete version of the film is the Japanese DVD release.

Story

In the distant future, another world, S-1, has been badly polluted. Just as scientists find a way to clean up the planet, the followers of military fanatic, Zeo Gattler, invade his laboratory and destroy his work. The scientist's son, Marin, escapes and is angered over what his people have done but before he can do anything, he gets caught in a time warp and ends up near Earth in the year 2100. When Gattler's Aldebaren Army appears after destroying a Martian colony, Marin finds himself joining the military organization, Blue Fixer, which uses his ship as part of their recently completed robot, Baldios. Together, Marin and the Blue Fixer team face off against Gattler and the S-1 forces which are poised to take over the Earth and make it their new home.

During the final conflict with the Aldebaren Army, Gattler manages to trigger a massive tsunami which effectively destroys the surface of the Earth, leaving the Blue Fixer team helpless and unable to stop it. Marin can only watch in horror as wave after wave destroy the surface until a shot of the wave freezes and we are left with a caption saying "End". The last two episodes in the series deal with the Fixer Team's family and loved ones being destroyed by the natural disasters with the climax involving them removing the highly radioactive core of one of Gattler's submarines that threatens to cause radioactive contamination across the planet. The ending involved the unstable core exploding after being transported near Gattler's fleet, killing him and his troops. However, the Baldios movie which came out afterwards gave a slightly more fulfilling conclusion with Marin and Gattler getting a proper final confrontation and the fate of the Earth turning out to be not as abrupt.

In both the TV series and the movie it is disclosed that S-1 and the Earth are actually the same planet, the massive dimensional travel of S-1 troops being, in fact, a time travel and that the environmental catastrophe that's actually destroying S1 is the lasting effect of Gattler's Artificial Sun.

Mecha

Baldios

S-1 Forces

Various war machines used by the Aldebaren Army throughout the series to invade Earth and fight Baldios. All of them are capable of teleporting through Subspace like Baldios.

Others

Video game appearances

Baldios is included in the PlayStation 2 game Super Robot Wars Z. During the game's 44th scenario, should the player lose, a special Game Over screen based on the anime's tragic end will be shown. The Special Disk's karaoke video for Baldios' closing theme ends with the Baldios itself being scrapped by the Artificial Sun.

External links