UFO Robo Grendizer 3.07

Young Deceived Commanders

or Ha! The Boy Commands

or Le commando (or The Commando)

The Vegans send five young warriors to kill Duke Fleed. They have been told that Duke Fleed has brainwashed the people of Earth. The young warriors (or commandos) are escorted by Dageel, an adult. He takes them to an air base and helps them to fool the guards at the gate into letting them in. Once they are in the base they incapacitate everyone else, including Professor Umon who is there to help inspect the base.

Maria is also with Professor Umon. She sets off the alarm when the five warriors aren't looking. They suspect her of being not human. Duke Fleed and Kouji show up in Grendizer and Double Spazer, before they get a chance to interrogate Maria. They are ready to kill Duke Fleed but he manages to convince them that he isn't evil and hasn't brainwashed the people of Earth.

The forces of Vega have a backup plan. They send a saucer beast to kill Duke Fleed. The saucer beast kills one of the five warriors and abducts the other four. The warriors are killed accidentally by the saucer beast which is piloted by Dageel. Grendizer and Double Spazer work together and destroy the saucer beast.

Thoughts

Hikaru was in this episode near the beginning but she was not involved in the fighting. I'm not sure why. Maybe someone needed to stay behind in case something happened at the Space Science Center?

Gandal is the only one of the regular Vegans to make an appearance in this episode.

I think that the five young warriors were designed to look like the characters from Science Ninja Team Gatchaman but I can't find anything to back up this hunch. The original run of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman was on TV in Japan from 1972 to 1974, a few years before UFO Robo Grendizer premiered.

This isn't a favorite of mine. It feels kind of gimmicky what with the homage to another show. Duke Fleed doesn't really do much to convince them to change sides. The young warriors don't do much once they are abducted towards the end of the episode. This could have been better.