, commonly known in English as God Mars, is a 1980s mecha anime television series that was popular during its broadcast between 1981 and 1982 in Japan, Hong Kong and Italy. The series consists of 64 episodes and 2 special presentations. Other loosely translated names are "Hexademon Symbiote God Mars", "Six God Union God Mars", and "Six Gods United As One Being".
This television mecha-genre anime is loosely based on the 1976 manga from Weekly Shà Ânen Champion magazine by Mitsuteru Yokoyama. God Mars is named as such to represent the mythological Roman god of war.
In 1999, humanity begins to advance beyond the known Solar System. The small planet Gishin, led by Emperor Zul, who aims to conquer the galaxy, runs into conflict with Earth which he targets for elimination and to do this, he sends a male baby named Mars to live among humanity. Accompanying the baby is a giant robot named Gaia, which utilizes a new power source strong enough to destroy an entire planet.
As planned, Mars is expected to grow up, where he will activate the bomb within Gaia to fulfill the mission of destroying the Earth. However, when Mars arrives on Earth he is adopted into a Japanese family and renamed Takeru. 17 years later after arrival, Takeru matures with a love for humanity and refuses to detonate the bomb as ordered by his sender, Zul. However, if Takeru was to die, the bomb within Gaia would explode destroying Earth.
Takeru possesses psychic powers (ESP) and also pilots the series' title super robot with mentality. He decides to join the Earth defense forces and becomes a member of the Crasher Squad (an elite space-defense force) where he and the friends he makes in his life on Earth take a last stand against his true home world Gishin's attack. The relationship of Takeru with his brother Marg, which as fate would have it, pits them against each other in the war.
Unknown to the Gishin, five other mecha were created in secrecy alongside and then sent with Gaia by Takeru's father...
...to safeguard his boy. Whenever Earth is in danger, Takeru is able to summon the five other secretly created units to combine with Gaia to assemble the title Six-God Combination God Mars. The five other robots are Sphinx, Uranus, Titan, Shin and Ra.
Following the previous series The New Adventures of Gigantor, producers chose to continue adapting works by manga author Mitsuteru Yokoyama. They selected YokoyamaâÂÂs Mars as the basis for the new series. Because the original manga has a darker tone, the ending and many characters were altered for the anime with YokoyamaâÂÂs consent; the single major element retained was the premise that the Earth explodes upon the protagonistâÂÂs death.
Although the original manga features a battle between the protagonistâÂÂs robot Gayer (Gaia in some versions) and opponents, the anime significantly changed the premise. Key differences include GayerâÂÂs combination with five other God Robots to form a six-part combination, a mechanic not present in the source material. Commonalities with the manga are limited to some proper names, the robot names, MarsâÂÂs motivation, and the fatal consequence tied to MarsâÂÂs death.
The working title was âÂÂSix Gods Combined Mars,â referenced to the original work and used in anime magazine announcements. When merchandise began to appear, the name âÂÂMarsâ was already trademarked, prompting the change to the final title God Mars.
God Mars was produced by much of the same team behind The New Adventures of Gigantor, creating a direct creative lineage between the two mecha series. Director Tetsuo Imazawa and core Tokyo Movie Shinsha staff returned for the project. Keisuke FujikawaâÂÂknown for his work on Mazinger Z and Space Battleship YamatoâÂÂserved as series writer and was instrumental in shaping the story.
Originally planned as a six-month broadcast, strong toy sales and growing popularityâÂÂparticularly among female viewers as well as the traditional younger toy-buying demographicâÂÂled to an extended run of over a year. The narrative was structured into three main arcs: the Gishin Planet arc, the Marmelo Planet arc, and the Earth arc.
Prior anime had shown robot combination sequences (for example UFO Warrior Dai Apolon, Space Emperor God Sigma, Gordian Warrior, and Strongest Robot Daiohja), but those typically featured three-body combinations. God Mars is notable for being the first anime to depict a six-body combination.
An edited theatrical feature with some new animated scenes was released in 1982 called God Mars: The Movie.
Later in 1988 (6 years after the television series' final airing in 1982), an OVA was released under the title God Mars: The Legend of the Seventeen Year Old (å Âç¥ÂÃ¥ÂÂä½Âã´ãÂÂãÂÂãÂÂã¼ãº Ã¥ÂÂä¸Âæ³ã®ä¼Â説) which focused on the life of Marg, Mars' twin brother. Gaia, God Mars, and the Gishin's robot Zeron receive redesigns although the OVA mostly focuses on an alternate telling of Marg's life on Gishin up until the events of the series' 19th television episode.
God Mars would go on to make guest appearances in games like entries of the Super Robot Wars series. In Destiny and Z2: Hakai-hen, the player gets a "Game Over" whenever God Mars is destroyed, due to the God Mars storyline for the first 25 episodes with a special game-over screen only in Z2: Hakai-hen for when this happens.
Discotek Media announced its license to the series and its post-television presentations at Otakon 2018 on August 12 and the entire series was released on a SDBD 2-disc set on December 18 - throughout the included discs combined, it contained the series, the movie and the OVA.
God Mars came out very early in the super robot animation era of the 1980s, having been created by Mitsuteru Yokoyama and did very well in airing. In 1982 it won the Anime Grand Prix.