Series Review: Choudenji Robo Combatller V – The First Super Electromagnetic Robot

V! V! V! Victory!

Speaking of the letter V, many Super Robot fans will definitely think of Toei’s Robot Romance Trilogy in the 1970s which consisted of three of the legendary works of the early Saburo Yatsude (noted that Saburo Yatsude is not a person but only a pseudonym that referred to various Toei staffs) including Voltes V, Daimos and the first of them all – Combattler V. Directed by Tadao Nagahama, the man that was behind some of the famous series prior to this such as Star of the Giants – Japan’s national hit at the time and an episode director for the manga Obake no Q-taro in the 1960s.      

Although well known and favored by many people today, Combattler V did not break out pretty well when it was aired at the time in 1976. With only 54 episodes – which was considered mid at the time (the famous ones would be around 70-ish episodes) it was also one of the early Super Robot series that specifically featured human dramas aside from UFO Robot Grendizer that was also airing at the time, deepening the story and characters while retaining the monster-of-the-week format. It can be considered a cult classic as it became famous again in the late 90s and into the 21st century, featuring itself in video games like the Super Robot Wars series, manga adaptations and even aired outside Japan such as in the Philippines. Although not very successful at its time of creation, the concept of five people combining their hearts into one to form a gigantic robot would eventually be put to use by later Super Sentai Series at the same era which became extremely popular afterwards. The story follows five teenagers with an attitude (not the Power Rangers!) chosen to protect Earth with the cutting-edge robot against the invading alien force. 

//PLOT//
The writing of Combattler V was actually another interesting experiment by combining fast-paced monster-of-the-week tradition at the time with more dramas and more dynamic stories in each episode.

 It begins thousands of years ago, when a superior extraterrestrial civilization known as the Campbellians from planet Campbell decided to leave their planet and seek new worlds to inhabit, one of their groups – led by the scientist named Oreana had landed on Earth and went into hibernation underground. Later on in the fictional 21st century, Oreana’s group reawakened and began their mission to conquer Earth with the attack led by Great General Garuda and his minions, sending various monsters known as Slave Beasts – a bunch of alien lifeforms that were converted into war-fighting androids to invade Earth’s surface. At the same time of the monster’s attack, a group of four chosen teenagers – Hyoma, Juzo, Daisaku and Kosuke were on their way to the Nanbara Connection – an organization that worked with the United Nations in creating a Super Electromagnetic Force known as Combattler V led by Doctor Nanbara. With four of them arriving and the fifth member – Chizuru that was already there, Doctor Nanbara immediately showed them the Super Robot that can change the war and gave them short instructions on how to pilot it. The five then jumped into their individual Battle Machines – the Battle Jet, Battle Crusher, Battle Tank, Battle Marine and the Battle Craft, taking off from the Nanbara Connection base to confront the monster. The five vehicles fought the monster but began to struggle. And so in the nick of time, the five machines combined into The powerful Combattler V and achieved victory. The story then would follow this setting while mixing with human dramas.  

The story was fast-paced and each plot tried to be individually exclusive to each episode especially later on but did help develop the characters as well and some episode arcs are connected pretty well such as where Hyoma was captured and invited to a duel between him and Garuda under Oreana’s supervision but somehow Oreana saved Hyoma’s life, angering Garuda and earned his distrust or when Garuda discovered that he was created as an android instead of an actual Campbellian, conflicting himself and the faction he fought for. The standard monster-of-the-week format would continue like these until the end of the first arc where Great General Garuda betrayed Oreana and both were defeated by Combattler V. For the second arc it introduced the new boss – the more dangerous Empress Janera and her subordinates – general Dungele and Warchimedes, these enemies eventually spiced things up for Combattler V pretty seriously from destroying the Nanbara Connection base, often taking hostages to actually plotted assassination of the Battle Team members while using the more advanced Magma Beasts as their monsters to invade Earth.      

As for the moving parts, I think Combattler V pulled a very fast formula on each episode but overall not in a bad or rushed way. There’s a piece of development for every main character, Hyoma is a hot-blooded motorcyclist speedfreak that often had a fight with Juzo – the smart Olympic marksman over dumb things but both would get along later all the time and although seemed childish – Hyoma grew up to be a better leader, able to sacrifice himself for others. Through practice and self-admiration, Daisaku is always on sketching pictures believing that one day he can become a manga artist and Kosuke is always into inventing weird innovations both useful and sometimes troubling. For the fifth member – Chizuru, she already has a bunch of backstory at the start of the series since she is the grandchild of the late Doctor Nanbara himself, she also secretly hides her valvular heart disease from everyone until it disabled her in the battle. Chizuru would eventually fall in love with Hyoma after they shared their feelings.          

Personally I think I like how Combattler V isn’t overall following the tradition at the time, seeing robots fighting monsters with almost no drama today felt a bit bland so inserting them while keeping the tradition on the rail seems like a heavy idea especially in the past, when some people were kind of against it. My favorite part is where Chizuru was saved by Hyoma when she was suffering from her heart disease – it’s a classic romance trope, I know, but Chizuru’s character is a potential waifu from the start anyway. Sadly with lower ratings the story was cut short and to retain the quality and not make anything look too rushed, Combattler V decided to end the series in one of the most unusual way I’ve ever seen in classic Super Robot series. The episode ended when Empress Janera that were on the verge of defeat while some of her subordinates began to betray her, she planted an Earth Bomb inside the planet’s core as Combattler V tried to stop it, the Battle Team defeated her but too exhausted to stop the bomb so when they were making their farewells before everything blow up, the Campbell’s true leader – Deus came out of nowhere and somehow stopped the bomb and repaired Earth’s damages. Deus is portrayed as a godlike Roman-Catholic Christian Jesus riding on a chariot which is weird in my opinion considering Japan isn’t a major Christian country (but somehow likes to put Christianity in these anime) and did not show how the team members were afterwards. Now I understand that they did not want to drop the show’s art quality and instead shortened the story but I think this one has it strange indeed.       

//CHARACTERS//
Combattler V has quite a number of colorful main and minor characters. Mostly involving people from the Nanbara Connection and the Battle Team members. The villains are also interesting as they had their own dramatic development as well. Also let’s ignore their cheesy 70s fashion sense shall we?  

[ Hyoma Aoi ]
The leader of the Battle Team and the main pilot of Battle Jet – the head part of Combattler V. He is a hot-blooded motorcyclist and a speedfreak that ignored traffic rules. Although seemingly short-minded and childish, he is later developed as a good leader overtime, it is also revealed that he was raised in an orphanage as well.  

[ Juzo Naniwa ]  
The Olympic marksman champion, he pilots the Battle Crusher – the arms part of the mech. He is quite a cool and level-headed person but would always get into a fight with Hyoma over various things. He is the only member whose birthdate is revealed which is April’s Fools Day – 1st April.  

[ Daisaku Nishikawa ]
A judo master from the countryside, Daisaku is always interested in sketching pictures, dreaming to be a manga artist one day. He pilots the Battle Tank – the torso part of the mech. He often sketches something he sees in a funny cartoony way such as his friends.   

[ Chizuru Nanbara ]
The only female member of the Nanbara Connection and the Battle Team. Chizuru is the granddaughter of Doctor Nanbara who passed away during the first few battles, she is kind and caring, charmed by everyone in the team and the base, she also falls in love with Hyoma. She pilots Battle Marine – the leg part and as she helps others fight, she has a valvular heart disease and decided to keep it secret until it disabled her in a fight but thanks to advanced surgery, she came back to normal. 

[ Kosuke Kita ]
The young yet very nerdy boy, Kosuke is the brain of the team since he is a child genius that graduated from America at a very young age. He often invented new machines for convenience both successfully and troublingly. He pilots the Battle Craft – the feet part of the Combattler V.

[ Supporting Cast ]
There are a lot of supporting casts in Combattler V. Mainly they are the residents of the Nanbara Connection starting with its founder – Doctor Nanbara who worked with the UN to create the Super Electromagnetic Combattler V including its cheesy but cutting edge pilot uniforms. He also created Ropet – the small red robot that mainly monitors the Battle Team’s emotional state to make sure they can combine into a giant mech. However after the passing of Doctor Nanbara, his friend – Professor Yotsuya continued his role instead, Yotsuya for me is a pretty interesting character as he hated humanity at first, blaming them for the world’s problems but as he is convinced by the dying Nanbara – he agreed to take the leading role and helped shape the team to become stronger, he also helps the Battle Team invent weapons and tactics to win certain fight such as the Super Electromagnetic Yo-yo weapon. 

Then there’s three kids (it often had to be three back then) – Kinta, Chie and Ichinoki, they are the cook’s children. They helped tone down some dramas and violence in the second half of the story with funny and relaxing comic relief. They also had a frog pet – Keroppe and they also had their own mech – Kerott which rarely enters battle.         

Aside from these, there are also a lot more supporting casts that appeared only in some episodes as well such as Hyoma’s foster mother or Daikasu’s master or Dr. Lawrence Picadelly that came and died all in one episode. The weirdest supporting cast would be the Campbellian’s leader himself – Deus who came to save Earth at the end.    


[ The Villians ]
The big bad Campbellians from planet Campbell are the main stars of the show. Mother Oreana – the Campbellian scientist that uploaded her consciousness into a statue is the one that commands Great General Garuda for her desire – with Garuda – the warfighting general that can transform into a humanoid bird-like creature, willing to do anything to accomplish the mission to conquer Earth for her. Since Garuda has a warrior’s heart, he does not lie and often was honest to the enemy such as when he did the prisoner exchange with Hyoma. As the plot goes on – Garuda discovered that he is also an android created by Oreana and during his duel with Hyoma, she saved him on the verge of his defeat, making Garuda distrust her, slowly turning himself against his own master which led to both of their destruction. Garuda also has a female android assistant – Mila, she is if not the hottest, most honest and gorgeous woman that secretly fell in love with Garuda, willing to sacrifice her life for him. 

As Oreana’s faction destroyed themselves, Empress Janera then came to the scene. She is more dangerous and played a lot dirtier compared to Garuda along with her subordinates – Warchimedes and General Dungele. They mainly use the Magma Beasts which are stronger, better and deadlier against Combattler V. Janera also focuses on taking hostages and plotting to kill the Battle Team members, although she failed every time, the team then learns not to be cocky against her. With her plans to conquer the Earth failed, she planted an Earth Bomb inside the Earth’s core. The bomb then was stopped by Deus – the true leader of Campbellian while Janera and her two generals killed each other.   
//VISUAL//
In terms of animation quality, I personally think Combattler V did pretty well for mid-late 70s animation. It does not look rushed most of the time (for the standard) and always try to make things simple in each scene so they don’t have to go into too much detail such as when they were talking, hospitalizing, human fighting or even dramatic scenes. Considering their episodes were shorter than most other Super Robot series at the time, they retained their quality pretty well but with that, it seemed that the series had to sacrifice everything else. The combination scene or certain special moves of the Combattler V are also reused multiple times and that’s pretty fair and understandable except when their combination is interrupted or their finishing move always had to put the new monster in it. Although, one of the unusual moment I found when watching it, the first time they invented the Super Electromagnetic Yo-yo by watching a TV, they showed real humans doing yo-yo tricks instead of animated which surprised me a little but still a welcomed addition, reminds me of a half-Tokusatsu half-anime series – the Izenborg. 

The fighting feels big and clunky which is pretty nice for its time because robots back then sometimes acted too human except for Combattler V. When it walks, attack or react to its surroundings and enemies feel very mechaical, which were handled by the pilots – mainly Hyoma for shouting its special moves in a cool way. I wouldn’t know that Combattler V was influenced by Getter Robo’s design if I didn’t do my homework.  We often see the Battle Machines fending off the monster’s attacks before combining. Combattler V’s heavy looking movement makes me feel like it’s an actual giant robot stomping on the ground and slowly flying in the air. All these thanks to the work of Soeisha animation skills – which we know today as Nippon Sunrise. With the story written by three people, Mr.Keisuke Fujikawa – the man that would later become famous for series such as X-Bomber, episodes for Himitsu Sentai Gorenger and the classic Dancouga. Mr.Masaki Tsuji – famous for his Astro Boy writing and Yoshitake Suzuki – which some mecha fans may recognize him writing for most of Xabungle.       


//AUDIO//
The sound design in Combattler V are straight-up classics like many other 1970s Super Robots would use at the time. The opening song – “Combattler V no uta” was sung by nobody else but a young-yet-legendary Aniki – Ichiro Mizuki in which the song mostly tells you how cool Combattler V is which followed the tradition at the time and the ending – “Go! Combattler V” is also sung by him as well. Actually, even the insert song – “Let’s Go! To the Battle for Justice” and “Hyoma’s feeling” are also sung by him!  

For the sound effects, from the metal-cracking combination sound that we can hear in the opening song to punching and kicking sounds that felt like you’re inside an excavation site. What highlights its identity were its Electromagnetic sounds such as the Super Electromagnetic Yo-yo, the storm and the finishing spin move or beams that shoot out of the mech but what characterized it the most is probably Hyoma’s voice, shouting and calling out special attacks every time he’s fighting against both the Slave Beasts and Magma Beasts.  

Then for the main voice acting starting with Hyoma, he is voiced by Yuji Mitsuya in which many may recognize him from his Kaio-shin role in the Japanese version of Dragon Ball Z as of today, for me his powerful shouting like “Choudenji Tatsumaki!” before finishing the monster off with the spinning move gave me the chills. For Juzo – not only his personality resembled Hayato from the classic Getter Robo series but the voice actor – Keaton Yamada also voiced both Hayato and Juzo. Then we have Daisaku which is voiced by Kazuya Tatekabe – surprisingly the same voice actor as Gian in Doraemon back then. Many may already know that Chizuru’s voice actress is performed by Miyuki Ueda – the same voice for the sole female pilot – Megumi Oka in Combattler V’s spiritual successor – Voltes V. For Kosuke he is voiced by Sachiko Chijimatsu – the voice actress who would later become famous for voicing 001 for Cyborg 009.

Strangely, because Combattler V was famous overseas such as in the Philippines, it had their own Filipino and Cebuano dub in 1999 with some character names changed for easier recognition in a similar manner to the more famous Voltes V there. Combattler V was also aired in Thailand all the way back in late 70s being dubbed as “Fighting Squadron V” but other than its Thai dubbed opening, most of its details are lost in time. For today. English subs and dubs are available online as well.       
//CONCLUSION//

Overall, Combattler V was another one of those Super Robot that tried to feature something new to the genre, from the five people combination to human dramas, it may not break too well but it’s extremely influential among later animation works both in its trilogy and others, even live-action Super Sentai series that featured giant robots in the same manner. Combattler V gives an interesting perspective on how people tried to add dramas into something so cheesy as a giant Earth-protecting robot. Although the story was cut short, the robot and stories itself made its debut multiple times in Super Robot Wars video game series and much more. Combattler V BluRay discs can still be easily found online through Amazon or other similar sites because of its popularity overseas with English subs available all across.   

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