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PRODUCTION INFORMATION
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Director/Character Design: Toshihiro Hirano
Screenplay: Noboru Aikawa & Koichi Ohata
Mecha Design: Shoji Kawamori, Yasushi Ishizu, Masami Obari, Kouichi Ohata
Monster Design: Junichi Watanabe
Art Director: Kazuhiro Arai
Producers: AIC, Bandai/Emotion, Artmic
Music: Michiyaki Watanabe, Yasunori Honda, TILT
English Translators: Deborah Grant, Trish Ledoux, Toshifumi Yoshida
The main man behind DANGAIOH is Toshihiro Hirano. At the time he was making this, he was also busy with ICZER-1, which was also a sci-fi anime. Later he would continue on with ICZER-3. ICZER-1 was pretty popular at the time, but all of his work has a quality that marks it as unique. When DANGAIOH wrapped up in 1989, it was originally meant to be continued, but Hirano had run out of ideas! The DANGAIOH project was put on a back shelf and never revived. This is why the final episode is most definitely not the true ending! Fortunately, in 2001, Toshihiro Hirano came out of his semi-retirement and with the talents of AIC, created G DANGAIOH, which is a continuation of the original series. Check it out at my G DANGAIOH HOMPAGE.
Shoji Kawamori went on to other things. His greatest recent success is probably MACROSS PLUS, where he designed the YF-19 Excalibur and YF-22 Sturmvogel mecha. He's considered an anime big-gun and everyone recognises him as such.
Masami Obari went on to play major roles in the design of such anime as VIRUS BUSTER , FATAL FURY and GOWCAIZER. His greatest crime is the design of such "matured" women characters (I'm talking and you especially, Mai Shiranui! But don't think you can get away with anything either, Shaia Hishizaki!), but he's also known for his action direction. As of 2002, Masami Obari was busy with a hentai manga and anime project known as ANGEL HEART.
Actually, when you think about it, DANGAIOH featured an solid pool of creative talent. Toshihiro Hirano wanted DANGAIOH be a tribute to the giant robot team shows of the 1970s. I guess by this, he meant things like MAZINGER Z and COMBATTLER V but maybe even more recent releases like GODMARS, too. Obari and Kawamori were making names for themselves at this time and with Hirano, thus assembled the "all star team". The opening song for the first two OAVs is entitled "Cross Fight". I suppose it's pretty tacky when I look back, but it seems to fit this anime perfectly and it's hard to forget, in the style of the older super robot theme anthems. You also have to admit that it is sung with much more heart and emotion than most other anime themes today that are just recycled pop songs. OAV 3 had the talent of Hidemi Nakai and TILT for the musical scores. The opening song is entitled "Cheap Thrills" while the closing credits are accompanied by "Who's Gonna Win?". I guess this music is pretty exceptional (for 1989 anime standards, that is).
ORIGINAL VOICE TALENT
Mia Alice: Mayumi Sho
Roll Kuran: Akira Kamiya
Pai Thunder: Naoko Matsui
Lamda Nom: Maya Okamoto
Dr Tarsan: Takeshi Aono
Gil Burg: Shigeru Chiba
Garimos: Kenichi Ogata
Shazara: Masako Katsuki
DANGAIOH PRODUCTS
This section is new. It describes all the products that were/are available that concerns the Dangaioh series. Don't ask me where you can get this stuff, though! Almost all of it is out of print and no longer being made. When I was living in Japan, it was EXTREMELY hard to find any of this stuff even by scouring all the anime collector's stores!
JAPANESE VHS CASSETTES
The titles used by the original Japanese release would also be used in the original US release (sort of).
HAJATAISEI DANGAIO (Dangaio, Giant Star Warrior) released in 1987.
HAJATAISEI DANGAIO 2 NAMIDA NO SPIRAL KNUCKLE (Dangaio, The Tear's Spiral Knuckle) released in 1988.
HAJATAISEI DANGAIO DAI-ICHIWA KANKETSUHEN FUKUSHUKI GIL BARG (whew!) (Dangaio 3, Final of Part 1, Gil Barg's Demonic Revenge) released in 1989.
All three VHS cassettes are registered under the code of (BES-2081).
JAPANESE LASER DISCS
Three Laser Discs were released in Japan for each of the three Dangaioh episodes. They were distributed by Bandai Co.,Ltd. They cost 9476 yen each (including tax). I don't know the product codes for the first two Laser Discs, but the code for the 3rd disc is: (BEAL-247). These Laser Discs were halted in production long ago and can now be found only on the 2nd hand market.
JAPANESE DVD
This DVD was released on January 25th, 2002 by Bandai visual Co., Ltd. It was meant to co-incide with the G Dangaioh DVD releases. The DVD is Region 2 only and it is 121 minutes long, containing all 3 episodes. Unfortunately, they didn't include any bonus material. Also, this DVD is Japanese only. You cannot switch on English voice or subtitles. Still, for the serious Dangaioh fan, this is by far the best format you can get for this anime. Unfortunately, it isn't so easy to find, not even in Japan itself. Still, a bit of searching on the net will most likely uncover it for mail-order.
The product code is: (BCBA-1061). Click on the thumbnail below to inspect the cover.
NORTH AMERICAN VHS CASSETTES
Original Western release by US Renditions in North America only (they no longer exist and these titles are discontinued). All 3 parts were VHS, subbed and 45 minutes each.
DANGAIO 1 (USR VD2) released on 1st of Feburary 1990.
DANGAIO 2 (USR VD7) released on 1st of July 1992.
DANGAIO 3 (USR VD8) released on 1st of July 1992.
PAL TERRITORIES VHS CASSETTES
Several years later later, Manga Video re-released the OAVs, but there were major changes. Firstly, the title was changed to DANGAIOH: HYPER COMBAT UNIT (notice they added "h" to the title). Secondly, the series was dubbed into English. Thirdly, all 3 OAVs were put together onto a single VHS video (like a full-length movie). OAV 1 was edited down to about 10 minutes and was basically used like a prologue and introduction. OAVs 2 & 3 were pretty much left intact. Fourthly, while the original Japanese dialogue was pretty tame (Japanese isn't really a good language to swear with), this dub contained some "colourful" language. The video is approximately 90 minutes long.
US DANGAIOH (MGV 636239) released on 19th of March 1996. (NTSC format)
UK DANGAIOH (MANV1034) released in 1995. (PAL Format)
AUSTRALIA DANGAIOH (MANV1078) released March 1997. (PAL format, discontinued as of 2000)
TAIWANESE VCD
After the Manga Video re-release, Dangaioh was released again. This time by a Taiwanese company called Xtime Video Ltd. The format they chose was a VCD pack. It included all 3 OAVs on 3 CDs in their entirety. It included the original Japanese dialogue and it is subtitled in Cantonese (no English whatsoever). However, on the front and sides of the packaging, it is called "Dangaion". On the back, it is correctly labeled as "Dangaioh". Is this release legal? I'm not sure. You can probably track this one down in your nearest Chinatown.
DANGAION (Cantoon-029) released in 1998.
MUSIC CDS, DRAMA CDS and AUDIO CASSETTES
Three music CDs were released concerning Dangaioh. They are:
CROSS FIGHT! (Heart of Honesty) EP CD of the opening theme song. (CH-134). Released by Nihon koromupia.
DANGAIOH ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK BACKGROUND MUSIC CD (32CC-1733). Released by Nihon koromupia. Also available in LP format.
DANGAIOH 2.3 ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK BACKGROUND MUSIC CD (P32G-802). Released by Nihon koromupia.
In addition to these music CDs, a drama CD was also released called DANGAIOH TAI ICZER-1 (UCHUU DAIGEKITOTSU). In English, that would be "Dangaioh Vs Iczer-1: Cosmic Collision". The CD is 51 minutes long with 16 tracks and contains the original voice actors from Dangaioh and Iczer-1 in an audio-only adventure that pits Iczer-1 and Dangaioh against a new enemy. Product code is: (POCH-2007). It was released by Polydor Records. Click on the thumbnail below to check out the CD cover:
Finally, there was a "Sonodrama Special" audio cassette that was released that featured Mia Alice's older brother, called "Might". It was released by Asahi.
GARAGE KITS
10 garage kits were released. For those that don't know, a garage kit is a little bit like a regular plastic model except it's been made with plastic resin. They are called "garage kits" because they are often made by amateur sculpters, who carve out a silicon mould to pour the plastic resin into. The end result is a plastic statuette of about 5 or so pieces that you have to stick together and paint. Unfortunately, these silicon moulds erode when they are used too much so as a result, the production runs of these garage kits are often quite small (perhaps only several hundreds or thousands). I have 2 of these garage kits and I'll post up some pictures of them when I've completed them. The garage kit list is as follows:
1/4 Scale Mia Alice by B-CLUB
1/6 Scale Mia, Lamda and Pai by Kaiyoudou (Soft Vinyl kit) I OWN THIS!!
1/20 Scale Mia, Lamda and Pai set by Kaiyoudou
1/8 Scale Mia, Lamda and Pai by Kotobukiya
Super Deformed Mia, Lamda and Pai set by Kotobukiya
1/220 Scale Dangaioh by b&k model
1/220 Scale Dangaioh by Kotobukiya
Dangaioh Mini-scale New Cast Model by B-CLUB
Dangaioh Soft Vinyl kit by B-CLUB
Dangaioh Jumbo kit by B-CLUB (stands 70 cms tall!)
Gee........they all forgot about Roll!!!!!
BOOKS
5 books were released. They include:
Character Works special on Toshihiro Hirano. (Bandai)
Character Paradise Special on Toshihiro Hirano. (Bandai)
Animation International Chronicle (AIC) Mediaworks special (covers all AIC animes such as Tenchi, El Hazard, Bubblegum Crisis and Battle Athletes). (Mediaworks)
Dangaioh 2 Creations (a technical special on the mecha.....I wish I had this.) Made by Movic.
Dangaioh B-Club visual comic (Bandai)
VIDEO GAMES
Dangaioh and the Dangaioh Characters have starred in several video games on several different formats. They include:
A PC game simply called DANGAIOH which was made by TechnoPoliceSoft. Product code is: 8801 S R. I had a chance to get this but I thought it was for the PC Engine and thus I passed it by. Damn........
SUPER ROBOT WARS COMPACT 2 is a 3-part series released for the Wonderswan in Japan. The Wonderswan is a hand-held console like the Gameboy and Gameboy Advance. It's made by Bandai and is available for import over the internet because at the moment it is a Japan-only games machine (and recently halted production). The three Super Robot Wars Compact games are on cartridge and they are simulation/strategy/RPGs. Dangaioh teams up with other great Japanese robots such as the Gundams, Mazinger, Getta Robo and Raideen in all out battles against the forces of evil! These games are made by Banpresto and retail for about 4500 yen each. They are in black and white. Click on the thumbnail below to check out the cover of part 3. Can you spot Dangaioh?
In March 2002, Banpresto released SUPER ROBOT WARS IMPACT for the Sony Playstation 2. Along with other great Japanese robots from anime series like Combattler V, Nadesico, Gundam, Mazinger and Getta Robo, they also included Dangaioh as well as Garimos and Gilburg as enemies. Just like the Wonderswan versions, the gameplay is very similar but with improved graphics and animations and an all-new storyline. Currently, this game is Japan-only with little chance of getting a release overseas, so if you have a Playstation 2 that can play Japanese games, check this one out! It retails for about 6800 yen.
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