UFO Robo Grendizer 2.17

A Deserted Island's Meteor

or Meteor At The Lonely Isle!

or La victoire des Aigles (The Victory of the Eagles)

The Vegans send Commander Gasca to build a base on a recently formed volanic island southeast of Honshu. He is determined to succeed. He and the troops sent with him travel in what looks like a meteor to Earth.

Kouji goes to investigate the meteor by himself in Double Spazer. He gets too close to the meteor and is injured. He recovers once he is back at the space science center. Professor Umon admonishes Kouji and insists that he has to work as a team with Daisuke and Hikaru. Kouji accepts what Professor Umon tells him. Together the three friends go back to investigate.

Commander Gasca starts to set up a base but it isn't long before Grendizer shows up with Double Spazer and Marine Spazer. The Vegan troops lose their cool when they learn that Grendizer is nearby. Commander Gasca takes the a saucer beast to deal with Grendizer.

The saucer beast attacks from the sea. Grendizer and Marine Spazer merge and dive into the ocean to deal with the saucer beast. Daisuke and Hikaru get blinded by a light beam from the saucer beast and have trouble seeing properly.

Kouji finds the new base and destroys it. The surviving Vegans flee but when Commander Gasca sees them fleeing he orders them to return and fight. They refuse to respond or return so he kills them. He turns to fight Grendizer. Gasca has the upper hand because Daisuke's vision is still impaired but he miscalculates and accidentally dooms himself and the saucer beast.

Thoughts

There are a few islands mentioned by name (Ojasawara, Okinozima, Mayujine) but I'm not sure if they are real places or not. Part of the problem is that the subtitles aren't always spot on. Even putting aside place names there are some subtitles in this episode that didn't make any sense at all to me.

This is a weird episode. The theme of it seems to be teamwork. Gasca seems to wind up dying because he is too driven and has reckless disregard for the lives of the men serving under him. Kouji suffers early in the episode because he tries to handle the situation on his own.

I definitely would not rank this one among my favorites. I liked Gasca when he was first introduced but it became clear by the end of the episode that he was a one-note, mustache-twirling villain.