UFO Robo Grendizer 2.24

Eliminate Kouji Kabuto

or L'aigle à quatre têtes (The four headed eagle)

or Murder!! Eliminate Koji Kabuto!

The episode opens with Kouji and Maria racing on motorcycles. She gets angry when he compliments her. She wants to race and doesn't want him to take it easy on her. She taunts him for not trying harder. He responds by trying harder and he just barely wins the race back to the Space Science Center.

Gandal and Zuril determine that Kouji is the key to Grandizer's success. Lady Gandal sends a team of assassins to bump him off.

Daisuke convinces Professor Umon that Maria should join the team. The professor is skeptical. He tests her ability in the simulator and she passes the test on the first attempt.

The Shirakaba ranch is getting ready for a horse race the following day when the Vegan assassins arrive. There are three of them. One has purple hair, one has green hair, and one has orange hair. They attempt to kill Kouji late that night but Maria, who has some psychic ability to see the future, warned Kouji and Daisuke so they were ready. The orange-haired assassin gets killed but the other two escape.

The assassins strike again during the horse race but Maria's future sensing ability warns her of the danger. She saves Kouji but he gets injured. Maria chases down the two assassins who call down a saucer beast before they kill themselves, rather than be taken alive.

Duke Fleed takes to the skies in Grendizer. He confronts the saucer beast but it is a little too much for him. Kouji is still recovering so Maria takes his place in Double Spazer. Grendizer and Double Spazer work together to defeat the saucer beast.

Later, at the Space Science Center, Maria gets angry at Kouji and her brother when they compliment her on her future-sensing ability. She runs off. She just wants to be a normal woman.

Thoughts

I think it has bee a while since the last time that Lady Gandal showed up.

This is a key episode according to Wikirak. I suppose that must be because it is the one where Maria joins the team.

There's a lot going on in this episode. I think that for the most part they do a pretty good job layering all the different elements of this episode together.  Some things do seem to come out of nowhere, like Maria's psychic ability. I wonder if this is the one and only time that will be mentioned.

The assassins made me think of the Power Puff Girls. They didn't look anything like them. It was just the fact that there were three of them, they were women, and they each had a different color hair.

This episode was better than average for this series.