Figure King No. 36 - Robot Anime Hellscape - Nail it this time!!
Another member of the Nippon Sunrise robot anime line-up was put together before the broadcast of “Mobile Suit Z Gundam”. A robot show as unique as Gorg and Galient, that was “Super Robot Galatt!” [TL note: the information for the first sentence appears to be completely wrong to the point in which I have had to rewrite it - the literal translation of the original text reads as “a 1989 Sunrise robot anime was prepared in the year following Zeta Gundam’s broadcast” - however, the shows mentioned are from 1984 - 1986 respectively, therefore, ‘1989’ appears to be a misprint as does the mention of Super Robot Galatt being produced after Zeta Gundam.]
Around spring in 1984 is when I went to work for Nippon Sunrise for the first time (now just Sunrise). I was participating as a design assistant on the later episodes of “Round Vernian Vifam” during its broadcast at this point, as it was my senior colleague Yutaka Izubuchi who arranged it for me (in the end, designs for the enemy flying machines and guerrilla army robots were used). I went to meet the (then) president at a teashop, and for Sunrise at that time it could certainly be appropriate to call them the empire of robot anime, as it was thriving and strong, with each studio’s production staff, directors, animators, and designers respectively proud of one another, and with an atmosphere of competition.
As if to give some me insight as an inexperienced rookie designer, President Yamaura pretty eagerly let loose while he was crunching on cubes of table sugar. “Children can see the power of robots, fight together, and learn to protect the weak while getting to satisfy their own barbarism. No matter what the mothers of the world say, I absolutely believe that robot anime is necessary in our world!!”, what a heartfelt statement! I was deeply impressed by the way in which middle-aged men, beyond the age for it, were talking about creating robot anime with earnestness and passion. (These days, it's a line I'd like to hear at least 100 times, except in the context of fictional female characters) “No matter how tough a project for robot anime might be, under this person I’ll do my best!”, I swore to myself, and a design piece was presented to me. It was a robot that was like a big sturdy metal gorilla with a tanuki-like face, drawn in the style of a 60s hero robot, but both elements had the same design gimmick of transforming from a gag robot to a hero robot!! “The truth is, this was originally a design for a gag anime series (a famous one starring three villains) by Mr. Ōkawara (Gundam’s designer), but it wasn’t used so he put it back into his stock of designs”, the head producer explained, but the gag robot was ugly… When I was mulling it over, I heard him say to me “by the way, can you make this gag robot more cute?”. Swearing by the first president’s word, I tried my best to model on the Ōkawara design at first, but I realised my personality didn’t have a sense of humour, so I struggled. The outcome of that is there for you to see (illustrations 1 to 5).
After a few days, realising I couldn’t do anymore, the producer suggested I come up with some ideas for the enemy mecha (illustrations 6 and 7), the final character sheets for the anime were distributed. Somehow, the original gag robot got a cute makeover into something that looks like a stuffed toy by the animators! Just now, the producer heard me say “um, is this toy seriously going to transform?”, “no way! But it’s anime, so anything is possible!”, he said to me, sure of himself (I was foolish to ask). Thus, the new show with the title “Super Robot Galatt” started, unfortunately though it was cancelled after half a year. Moreover, during the final episode, the first episode of the competitor show “Chōjūkishin Dancouga” aired and it was all fans could talk about (that’s terrible!). Needless to say, years later, whenever I saw the live-action show “B-Robo Kabutack”, I would look back and think why at that time I was unable to do it.
Illustration 1: “I drew this because I thought it would be cute with a big head. I also incorporated a dinosaur motif (if I didn’t tell you, you wouldn’t know).”
Illustration 2: “Around this time, ‘inbetween forms’ were what was popular (thanks to the Valkyrie from Macross). While this looks a bit more like a dinosaur now, it also looks slightly like Thunderbird 2 with legs.”
Illustration 3: “The major problem is that the head of the gag robot is still hanging off its back. If its back was shown on TV during a fight, people would burst out laughing. The tail being tucked between the legs is crazy too.”
Illustration 4: “The final design of the hero robot. I remember being told ‘your robots all have little heads’. Coming out from behind the head is a seat that the boy sits in.”
Illustration 5: “The name “Galatt” was in place from the beginning, so the initial “G” is included on the front. They were unable to make it as a toy so it was rejected.”
Illustration 6: “The original concept for a kung fu robot that appears in the story. There’s a real Sunrise look to it. I remember being told ‘the head is big, but there’re a lot of spikes, aren’t there?’.”
Illustration 7: “This design is 100% infused with the Sunrise spirit and it looks like it could compete with Gundam (Sunrise’s planning department must have about over a hundred million of these).”
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