Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3

Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3

Logo from show opening
無敵鋼人ダイターン3
(Muteki Kōjin Daitarn 3)
Genre Mecha
Anime television series
Directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino
Written by Hiroyuki Hoshiyama
Kenichi Matsuzaki
Masaaki Sakurai
Minoru Notatani
Noburo Tateya
Shoichi Taguchi
Sōji Yoshikawa
Yoshihisa Araki
Yoshiyuki Tomino
Music by Takeo Watanabe
Yuji Matsuyama
Studio Nippon Sunrise
Network Nagoya TV
Original run 3 June 1978 31 March 1979
Episodes 40

The Unchallengeable Daitarn 3 (無敵鋼人ダイターン3 Muteki Kōjin Daitān 3, lit. Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3) is an anime series created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Hajime Yatate, and produced by Sunrise. It was first broadcast on Japanese TV in 1978. The series lasted for 40 episodes. The opening theme Come Here! Daitarn 3 is sung by Makoto Fujiwara. Despite being relatively unsuccessful in Japan, the series became very popular abroad, especially in Italy during the early 80's.

Plot

Sōzō Haran was a brilliant scientist that was conducting research on Mars. He created a form of cyborg life with the ability to think for itself. These cyborgs, dubbed the Meganoids (メガノイド Meganoido), soon ran out of control and killed Dr. Haran along with his whole family, save his youngest son, the 16-year-old Banjō Haran. Banjō escapes from Mars on a rocket with a solar-powered super robot called Daitarn 3, which was built with the special metals of Mars. Now 18 years old and living on Earth in a luxurious mansion, Banjō fights against the meganoids and their leader, Don Zauser and his second in command Koros, with the aid of his faithful butler Garrison, his two gorgeous companions, Reika and Beauty, and an orphan boy named Topo. Together they must stop the evil meganoids which aspire to turn all humans into cyborgs and thus "improve" the human race.

History

Some of the staff fresh from Zambot 3 worked with Tomino on the Daitarn 3 project. The suave nature of the hero, Banjō Haran, was a direct attempt at capturing some of the spirit of the James Bond movies, which can be seen in the fact almost as much action takes place with Banjo, Reika Sanjō (ex-Interpol agent) and Beautiful Tachibana (also called "Beauty") playing superspies as Banjō fighting against Meganoid robots in Daitarn 3. Other important characters were Garrison Tokida, Banjo's trusted butler, and Toppo, a comic-relief character who gets rescued from a Meganoid-hijacked city block in Episode 2, and then stays with Banjō and company for no apparent reason.

The presence of faithful and reliable butler Garrison also brings a touch of 'Batman' feel in the series, mimicking the Wayne/Alfred relationship often present in the American superhero series.

An interesting point to note is a light comedic element running through the whole series - the Meganoid foot soldiers exert some of their own personality with witty banter, bringing a fresh change to the silent drones which permeated super robot series previously.

Character

Main Characters

Meganoids

Other Characters

Daitarn 3

Daitarn Thumper
Daitarn Fan
Daitarn Javelin
Daitarn Hammer
Daitarn Missile
Daitarn Snapper
Daitarn Web
Big Web
Cross Dart
Sun Laser
Sun Attack
This attack is usually followed by the "Daitarn Crash" (Daitarn finishes the enemy with a flying downward kick).
Sun Attack Scattershot
A modified version of the Sun Attack, which attacks at a weaker but wider arc capable of destroying large numbers of lesser enemies.

Megaborg and Megaborg-like Entities

Video games

Daitarn 3 has made appeared in many Super Robot Wars titles. Daitarn has also appeared in the Harobots series alongside its predecessor, Zambot 3.

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