UFO Robo Grendizer 1.25

A Flower of Love Bloomed in the Sky

or The Flower of Love Shines in Space

or Les amoureux d'Euphor (Euphor's Lovers)

A meteor crashes near the Makiba Ranch. Kouji investigates in the TFO. Daisuke takes off on his cycle in search of the meteor. Kouji finds a green haired woman being pursued by Vegans as he approaches the crash site. He attacks the Vegans with a machine gun. Daisuke arrives about then and helps to defeat the Vegans. He recognizes the green haired girl. It is Naida, a friend from his childhood on the planet Fleed.

Daisuke takes Naida back to Professor Umon's Center for Space Research. She tells him about how she escaped. He asks about Shireous, her annoying little brother, but it turns out he is dead. Naida sleeps restlessly that night. She was brainwashed by the Vegans. She remembers that she has been sent on a mission to kill Duke Fleed. The next day Daisuke and Naida go for a walk near a lake. She has a dagger but she can't bring herself to stab him. She is conflicted but she drops the dagger in the water, when he is not looking.

That night, Naida sneaks past the night watchman and into the large room where Grendizer is stored. She has a hand-sized atomic bomb and is ready to use it. Daisuke confronts her as she approaches Grendizer. She accuses him of being a traitor and leaving people like her to die on Planet Fleed when he escaped to Earth. She tells him that her brother's brain was piloting one of the saucer beasts he destroyed.

Daisuke goes into shock upon learning what he did to her brother. She takes that opportunity to attack him and strike him down. She is prevented from going any farther by Professor Umon who shows up with Kouji and shoots her with a stun gun. They take her to the medical center where Kouji discovers that there is something implanted in Naida's brain. He operates on her and removes it. She is physically better but Daisuke is still in shock.

Naida leaves. She knows what she has to do. Daisuke recovers after he is treated with shock therapy. Naida flies straight out towards a fleet of Vegan ships including a saucer beast. She sacrifices herself by flying straight into it and detonating a bunch of hand-held atomic bombs. Duke Fleed tries to reach her before it is too late but he is unsuccessful. Naida is killed and the Vegan fleet of ships is destroyed. 

Thoughts 

Euphor is the name of the planet in the French translation of the show.

I was a little surprised to see a night watchman in the Center for Space Research. That's a first. I was even more surprised to see that he had access to the area where Grendizer is kept.

This was a different episode. There was no battle between Grendizer and a Saucer Beast, although there were a couple saucer beasts. 

Daisuke really does go around the bend when he learns what he did to Naida's brother.

There was a bit of unnecessary violence towards the end. Kouji tries slapping some sense into Daisuke while he is still in shock. 

I had a bad feeling from the tone of the show that Naida was not going to survive. 

The ending actually got me a little bit choked up.