UFO Robo Grendizer 2.02

The Bell of the Devil in the Dark

or Les nouveaux maîtres des ténèbres (The New Masters of Darkness)

or The Devil's Bell Tolls at Midnight

Gandal recovers from the wounds sustained in the previous episode. He is promoted by the Vegan King. He is tasked to work with Zuril, Minister of Science. Zuril is from the planet Zoro, an ally of Vega.

Danbei goes on a trip and takes Hikaru, Goro, and Daisuke with him. Kouji stays behind and works on building a new UFO to replace the TFO which was destroyed last episode. Danbei takes the other to his ancestral home. He is no longer interested in being friends with the aliens. He is there to get a stash of weapons he wants to use in the fight with the aliens.

Zuril arrives at the Vegan base on the moon. He intimidates Gandal but not Lady Gandal who is impressed by the Minister of Science. Zuril announces his plan, to infiltrate Japan with tiny UFOs. He sends them to Earth. They pick the exact same town that Daisuke and the others are visiting.

The minisaucers attack the house where Daisuke and the others are holed up. The saucers cut off the power to the house. Danbei puts on a brave face but he is really scared. Daisuke goes for help. He makes it to the car but the saucers spot him trying to leave and chase him as he drives away. He takes the road back to the space center with the minisaucers still pursuing him. They don't give up until his vehicle crashes and falls into a lake.

The minisaucers head back to the house where Danbei, Hikaru, and Goro are staying. Daisuke makes it out of the water and runs the rest of the way back to the space center. He is exhausted but he still transforms into Duke Fleed, jumps in Grendizer, and heads back to rescue Hikaru, Danbei, and Goro. None of Grendizer's weapons seem to work on the swarm of minisaucers until he tries using space thunder. The swarm of minisaucers is destroyed and the day is saved.

Thoughts

According to Wikirak this is a key episode of the show, possibly because of the introduction of Zuril.

It is nice to see that the show is progressing. There are some significant changes in this episode. Lady Gandal looks different than she did in the first season. Gandal's face would open up in the previous season and she would come out of his head. She was very small. Gandal's face changes in this episode into Lady Gandal's new face. Gandal is either way a very interesting character. 

Gandal is promoted by the Vegan King, now that Blaki is dead. I thought this was a bit odd because I thought that Gandal outranked Blaki but the way it is shown here makes it look like that was not the case.

I expect that since Zuril wasn't killed he will be a regular on this show going forward. He was as successful as any of the Vegans have been to date when it comes to conquering the Earth or defeating Grandizer.

Kouji only shows up at the beginning of the episode. I think that eventually he will build a better spaceship than the TFO and rejoin the fight alongside Duke Fleed.

I like this episode for the way it seems to be resetting the table. It was fun to see the change in Danbei (from wanting to befriend aliens to wanting to fight them) although in some ways he hasn't changed. The fight at the end isn't impressive but few of them are. I kept wondering why Duke Fleed wasn't using Space Thunder. When he did the fight was over, just like that.