UFO Robo Grendizer 2.18

The Night of the Celebration with the Saucer Beast

or Festival Night! Here Comes The Disc-Robot

or Quand les chiens sont lâchés (When the dogs are released)

Daisuke meets a couple of orphans at a festival, Midori and her brother. Her brother is concinvced that there is ancient evidence of aliens in the cave near the village where the festival is taking place. He gets kicked out of the cave by the locals. Daisuke invites Midori to hang out with him and his friends, Hikaru and Goro. Midori enjoys the time she spends with Daisuke and his friends but at the end of the day she goes home.

Midori's brother returns to the cave that night. He finds the evidence he suspected was there. Girand, a Vegan who arrived with three dog like saucer beasts, kills Girand and disguises himself as the boy. He controls the saucer beasts with a high tech whip and uses it to order the saucer beasts to dig through the ground to the Space Science Center. There they go after the power source of the center. Daisuke wakes up because his scar is throbbing, telling him that there is something powered by Vegan energy nearby. Daisuke, Kouji, and Hikaru use laser pistols to blast the saucer beasts.

The beasts retreat. Double Spazer and Marine Spazer are lauched. They stay to defend the Space Science Center. Duke Fleed goes after the beasts. He finds Girand, disguised as Midori's brother. He shoots and kills Girand. Midori finds her brother's body just as Duke Fleed exits the cave. She accuses him of killing her brother. Duke Fleed runs off when he learns that the saucer beasts are attacking the Space Science Center.

The saucer beasts fight Marine Spazer and Double Spazer but then they retreat mysteriously. Midori has found the whip and used it. She is frightened of the saucer beasts until she realizes that she can control them. She orders them to get get revenge on Grendizer for the murder of her brother. Grendizer fights and destroys the saucer beasts. Midori passes out.

The next day Daisuke and the others help Midori to bury her brother.

Thoughts

There were a couple masks that Midori and Daisuke picked up at the festival. I don't know if there is any cultural relevance to the masks.

It was kind of funny how quickly Midori figured out how to use the whip to her advantage. It is also kind of funny how quickly everything got wrapped up without any mention of the fact that Midori tried to kill Duke Fleed although she did express some remorse at the end.

This is an interesting episode. It isn't great but I like the structure of it. It is fairly involved for a show of this length. Somethings seem to happen a little too conveniently but there is a logic to it all.