Sengoku Majin GoShogun

[Mark Moore]

Anyone ever seen this series? I only recently learned of it. It's a short-lived giant mecha anime series that ran for 26 episodes in 1981. I hadn't seen it before, but I had learned about a 1985 adaptation by Saban Entertainment called Macron 1. They combined the series with another, unrelated series and rewrote the storyline to involve some convoluted alternate universe crap. Another Macron 1 dub (by the same cast) was done for Europe, using only the GoShogun footage. I had gotten a Macron 1 VHS tape at Dollar Tree in the mid-1990s, so I was somewhat familiar with the property through that.

The series is fairly standard and unremarkable. The story is set in the early 21st century (2001, to be exact), in which a covert evil organization, Dokuga, led by lord NeoNeros, holds near total political, economic, and military control of the world. Dokuga agents try to forcibly recruit a brilliant physicist, Professor Sanada, who sets off a suicide bomb rather than let Dokuga acquire his secret research. His son Kenta becomes Dokuga's next target, but is saved by his father’s colleague and taken on board a teleporting fortress, Good Thunder. Teleportation is enabled by a mysterious form of energy, called Beamler, which was discovered by Sanada. The same energy also powers a giant battle robot, GoShogun, which is operated by three pilots. The crew of Good Thunder travels the world, repeatedly fighting off NeoNeros's forces with GoShogun and often hampering Dokuga's influence on the local level, whether by destroying their bases and businesses, assisting popular rebellions, or by averting environmental disasters. On at least one occasion GoShogun pilots must team up with Dokuga's three chief officers against a common enemy to prevent the destruction of them all. This sets the stage for an eleventh-hour reversal, in which the three Dokuga generals side definitively against NeoNeros with the GoShogun team.

After the series ended, there was a compilation movie consisting of two episodes released on April 24, 1982.

Three years later, a movie, The Time Etranger, was released on April 27, 1985. It serves as a coda to the series and focuses almost exclusively on former pilot Remy Shimada, retroactively making her the most important character in the series, even though the TV series didn't give her any more attention than any of the other characters. This movie is the only part of the franchise to receive an English dub. It was dubbed twice, in fact: in 1996 and again in 2003. The entire series and The Time Etranger are available (separately) on Blu-ray in North America.

I streamed The Time Etranger earlier this month, having not seen the original series, but it stands well enough on its own, and you become emotionally invested in the characters, even if you haven't seen the series. I was actually moved to tears by it. It's a very surrealistic film that deals with Remy (and the others) confronted with the possibility of her death. Forty years after the TV series, she gets in a car accident while on her way to a reunion with her fellow former pilots. While on life support, she dreams of two prior moments in her life when she was confronted with her own mortality: once as a child and another time as an adult, seemingly sometime after the events of the series. Since this is all in her mind, we don't know if any of the flashbacks depicted in the film actually ever happened or if she made them up. Even the ending is ambiguous. We don't know if she lives or dies (most fans seem to believe she dies). It's a brutally dramatic film with almost no humor. There is some gore, and there's a brief moment where Remy is topless, but it's not sexy at all; the scene is actually quite disturbing.

So, after watching the movie, I discovered the entire series is on YouTube, so I've started watching it to get some backstory. I've seen the first 9 episodes so far, so I'm a little over a third of the way through the series. While it does have some serious moments, it leans a lot toward humor. It actually pokes fun at some of the giant mecha tropes. Kenta, the kid, is given a large amount of screen time, which I really could have done without. Having already seen The Time Etranger, I'm viewing the series through that lense and paying attention mostly to Remy. She hasn't had much development so far. She seems a bit contradictory, saying the 21st century belongs to women but also wanting to hurry up and get this over with, so she can get married (spoiler: she never does). Neither Kenta nor their boss, Captain Sabarath, appear in The Time Etranger. Only the 3 GoShogun pilots and the 3 Dokuga chief officers do, rendering all of the other characters kinda pointless in the end, despite being huge parts of the series. Honestly, there's a huge disconnect between the TV series and The Time Etranger. They almost seem like two completely separate entities. So far, it seems all of Remy's character development occurred in the movie.

I highly recommend watching The Time Etranger. The series, eh, take it or leave it; it's thoroughly average.

Some videos:

GoShogun opening:

Full opening theme:

GoShogun ending:

Macron 1 U.S. opening:

Macron 1 European opening:

Macron 1 opening theme (no SFX):

Macron 1 had a habit of inserting covers of pop songs into scenes:

 

[Jrzag42]

I hadn't seen it before, but I had learned about a 1985 adaptation by Saban Entertainment called Macron 1. They combined the series with another, unrelated series and rewrote the storyline to involve some convoluted alternate universe crap.

Like...Robotech?? Robotech is kind of garbage but I absolutely love it, and in general I really like the idea of combining unrelated series. I'm very curious to look into Macron 1 to see if it's at all worth watching.

From what you've described, the original series doesn't seem super interesting to me, but I'm definitely going to check out that movie at some point because it sounds really intriguing and up my alley.

 

[Mark Moore]

Like...Robotech?? Robotech is kind of garbage but I absolutely love it, and in general I really like the idea of combining unrelated series. I'm very curious to look into Macron 1 to see if it's at all worth watching.

I watched the first episode recently, and...it's somewhat comprehensible? In general, Robotech did a much better job of combining unrelated series. Even Voltron did it better than Macron 1. Both series knew enough to (mostly) not splice footage from unrelated series into the same episode. And why even do the alternate-universe angle? Why not just have two sets of villains and two teams to fight them?

But here's a playlist of the 20 episodes that are on YouTube. This is the American version with the alternate-universe angle. I'm not sure if these are the total episodes that were made, but it's 6 short of the GoShogun original.

Macron 1 uses the same voice cast as Robotech.

Here's an eerie coincidence. Kathy Jamison (Remy) was voiced by the late Lisa Michelson, the wife of Gregory Snegoff, the voice of Khyron and Scott Bernard on Robotech. She died on September 14, 1991, following a car crash in Los Angeles, mirroring the fate of the original Japanese version of her Macron 1 character.

From what you've described, the original series doesn't seem super interesting to me, but I'm definitely going to check out that movie at some point because it sounds really intriguing and up my alley.

It's available on Prime Video in an English dub. Not sure which one, since Amazon credits a mix of different voice actors, and the end credits are left in their original Japanese. I would guess the 2003 dub, which features Veronica "Ash Ketchum" Taylor in the lead role of Remy.

It's also available on YouTube for free, probably in Japanese (not sure).

 

[Jrzag42]

But here's a playlist of the 20 episodes that are on YouTube. This is the American version with the alternate-universe angle. I'm not sure if these are the total episodes that were made, but it's 6 short of the GoShogun original.

Looking it up, it seems like there's supposed to be around 65 episodes, with them combining the series to meet the quota for syndication (I believe the same reason as Robotech). However it seems that only 20 episodes were released on vhs, and thus that's probably why there's only 20 episodes available on YouTube. As bad as the show may be, it'd be a shame if the rest of the series is completely lost to time, I'll have to look into it more.
I'll definitely try watching an episode later, thank you for sharing this.

 

[Mark Moore]

She hasn't had much development so far. ... So far, it seems all of Remy's character development occurred in the movie.

Okay, I stand corrected. Episodes 11 and 12 are major Remy episodes (the former comedic, the latter dramatic), offering up a lot of backstory on her. It might be worth watching these two episodes of GoShogun as complements to The Time Etranger, but it's up to you whether you wanna watch them first or see if the movie can stand on its own (I think it can),

 

[Mark Moore]

Okay, I finished the series last night, and then I watched the compilation movie, and then I rewatched The Time Etranger, this time in Japanese. Here are my thoughts (spoilers, I guess):

The series has weird pacing. It's only 26 episodes long. At episode 22, on the second anniversary of their mission, the Beamler energy reaches its third stage. It had previously reached its second stage on the first anniversary, sometime earlier in the series. That means episodes are spaced more than a month apart in universe, and we're seeing only a small fraction of their adventures (or maybe they just have a lot of downtime).

Episode 23 picks up immediately after. Episode 24 does a time-lapse montage, covering the next six months, basically showing a lot of fighting. Episodes 25-26 are six months after that, concluding the series on the third anniversary of their mission.

Oh, and it basically all ends with a giant deus ex machina. The Beamler energy grants sentience to machines, and all Docooga machines destroy themselves upon achieving sentience, so Kenta (the kid), who has the power to sense their sentience or something and treats all machines as friends, basically just has the machines end the conflict by deciding not to fight. Then Kenta takes GoShogun into space to learn the secrets of the universe or something. Oh, and the girl that Shogo had fallen for in a previous episode is randomly standing with the group at the end. I guess she's one of the multitude of people that showed up in Australia to witness the final battle.

The narrator tells what happened to each major character afterward. Captain Sabarath disappeared with Good Thunder. Killy's memoir (which he had been shown working on a few times throughout the series and which he'd finished near the end) flopped, so he opened a hot dog stand in the Bronx. Shogo is unemployed. Remy became a security guard for animals at a zoo in Africa or something and has zero marriage prospects. I forget the fates of the Docooga generals at the moment.

The final shot of the series finale includes English text of Remy's catchphrase, "See you again".

So on to the compilation movie. This was released on April 24, 1982. It's...barely cohesive. It begins with text in English, which is also spoken in Japanese (and translated by subtitles into slightly-differently-worded English) explaining the premise. We see footage from the first episode of Kenta being orphaned. We also see brief flashbacks, taken from the three pilots' spotlight episodes, of the pilots' pasts and recruitment by Captain Sabarath. Here, the three lead actors gives brief new narration explaining their histories. Notably, we see Killy's recruitment by Sabarath, which...I don't think we saw in his flashback in the series proper. Maybe it's new? Or maybe it had been animated but cut for time? Or maybe I'm just forgetting it?

Anyway, then we just straight into the action, no real set-up given. There's a scene of Bundle meditating, which I don't specifically remember from the series, but maybe I'm just forgetting it.

The bulk of the movie is episodes 20 and 17 - in that order. Yeah. Episode 17 was the first time that the GoShogun pilots and the Docooga generals met. Specifically, Remy and Bundle. Episode 20 was a major turning point, because the GoShogun crew rescued a reporter named Isabel Cronkite, whose father (also a reporter) and mother Docooga had killed. With their help, she's able to expose Docooga to the world. Docooga immediately counters by openly admitting it but telling everyone not to retaliate, if they want to continue to enjoy their lives. When this movie flips the episodes, it inserts some mentions of the events of episode 20 into the episode 17 footage. For example, one of Remy's lines at a party is altered to mention Isabel.

Between the two episodes are fake commercials for businesses started by the Docooga generals. After episode 17 is some "and so the battle continues" footage. The end credits show most of the characters as kids (excep[t Sabarath, who's shown as an adult). We'll be seeing little Remy again soon.

So I don't know why this movie was made (except maybe as a quick cash grab). There's little new here, and the narrative structure is pretty flimsy.

So then...The Time Etranger. I was curious how I would feel about it the second time around, after having watched the TV series that it was based on and now listening to the Japanese audio track, starring the same actors that I'd gotten used to from the show.

The familiarity with the characters does make me more initially invested than I was the first time. However, coming off the series, the drama and horror of this movie is much more starkly contrasted against the series. Here are my random thoughts:

There is almost no reference to the series at all. The GoShogun robot doesn't appear except as an ornament dangling from Remy's rearview mirror. Shogo and Killy wait at a museum for Remy to show up, and they check out an exhibit dedicated to the GoShogun pilots and the Docooga generals. We see the small-scale model of Good Thunder (which Sabarath had used to demonstrate the teleportation technology to the team in the first episode) in a display case. There are also some other items that I couldn't place. There are photos of the pilots and generals as they appeared on the show. The license plate on Remy's car is SEEYOUAGAIN.

This movie is said to occur 40 years after the series (which spanned roughly 2001-2004), and Remy is said to be in her 70s. She didn't look to be in her 30s on the show (more like in her 20s), and neither she nor the other characters look to be in their 70s in this movie.

Remy's face is never fully shown in the present day. From the glimpses that we catch of it, she looks slightly aged up from the series. For most of the movie, her present-day face is mostly covered with a large oxygen mask, leaving only her blonde hair visible. That actually looks pretty creepy.

Even the few references that we get to the series are wrong. It's said the pilot had traveled through space in GoShogun. Um, no. First, they travelled on Good Thunder, which houses GoShogun. Second, they travelled around the world, not into space (except Shogo and Kenta in one episode, I think). Also, Remy is said to have turned down the Galactic Award for Valor. Galactic Award? This was not an interplanetary series! There were no aliens!

Remy became a hermit after the series ended. No marriage. No children. No savings account. Defaulted on her health insurance premiums. No reason is given for this.

So one major question is whether the flashbacks that we see in this film actually happened or if they're a product of a dying woman's mind.

Well, the adult flashback occurs...sometime after the end of the series. Brief text explains "the six" came across a city in the desert. So why are the three former pilots and three former generals backpacking through a desert somewhere? Never explained.

The residents of the mysterious town seem to be some kind of quasi-Muslim fanatical group obsessed with death and fate. They all have gray skin (which is never commented on), giving them a creepy appearance.

Some of adult Remy's facial expressions in the flashbacks are kind of unsettling.

The vision that Remy has of herself being mauled to death by a wolf is horrific.

While most of the flashback scenes have Remy in them, there are a few brief exceptions. Is it common for a person to dream "cutaways" to other people? Anyway, in one of these scenes, Killy is still working on his memoir in his hotel room, typing the last page, despite the fact that we already saw him do that on the show.

Little Remy, when she'd fallen down a hole in the cemetery as a child and thought she would die before anyone found her, is visited by shadowy visions of the other five characters, who she might someday meet in real life, and encouraged to have hope.

No indication was given in the final episode of the series that the pilots and generals would become buddies and hang out together.

Remy is shown to use a .44 Magnum in the adult flashbacks, and it's also in a display case in the museum exhibit, despite the fact that she never used it on the series; she always used a laser gun like everyone else.

Adult Remy and Little Remy have a conversation after present-day Remy flatlines in the hospital. Adult Remy does a finger gun, and her body does the same in the hospital (after her friends had already left the room after her death was announced). The nurse had already disconnected her IV bag and is shocked when the machine detects a heartbeat again. In her excitement, she runs off to...do...something, and she knocks the IV bag to the floor, spilling the fluid.

We then see the others exiting the hospital. Shogo and Killy lament about it being over. Then they hear Remy's voice, saying she wants to go with them. They turn and look and see...younger, adult Remy from the flashback. They smile and laugh. She sees them as they were back on the series. Bundle says she's as beautiful as ever. They all walk off together, and the scene freezes, the group surrounded by white. Text then comes on that reads something like "And somewhere, in space and time, their adventures continue..."

And that's it.

At the end of the end credits again appears Remy's catchphrase, "See you again".

I still don't know what to make of that ending.

I'm not quite sure what the thought process was behind making this movie. I know there was a series of eight GoShogun novels, and this movie was based on the fifth one. Why was that one chosen to be turned into a film? Is the novel in continuity with the other novels, and are they in continuity with the TV series? I need more information. I'm really curious why a movie was made that plucked characters out of a comedic super robot parody series and dropped them into a survival horror film. It almost seems like the author wrote a completely unrelated story but used the GoShogun characters, so the TV series could be referenced by the readers for easy backstory.

 

[Jrzag42]

Really interesting. The movie almost sounds like the kind of thing where if you're already a fan of the show then you probably wouldn't like the movie, meanwhile the movie on its own sounds way more interesting than the show.

I don't know if I'm the only one who's constantly thinking about how things can be edited no matter what I'm watching, but while reading that I couldn't help but wonder if you had any ideas/plans to edit the series. To tighten the weird pacing of the show you mentioned, to expand upon the compilation thing, or maybe to make the movie fit in more with the continuity of the show.

In any case, as I said before, I'm definitely going to check out the movie. I totally forgot that I was going to until I saw the above post and now that you've gone more in depth about everything I'm more interested.

 

[Mark Moore]

Really interesting. The movie almost sounds like the kind of thing where if you're already a fan of the show then you probably wouldn't like the movie, meanwhile the movie on its own sounds way more interesting than the show.

Yeah, that's pretty accurate. I saw the movie first while being vaguely aware of the show, and I loved it. I like the show well enough, but it gives way too much importance to the kid. The back-to-back Remy episodes are the most interesting.

I don't know if I'm the only one who's constantly thinking about how things can be edited no matter what I'm watching,

Oh, you're definitely not the only one. Ever since I discovered fan editing, I think about editing while watching lots of things (though not absolutely everything), even though I know I'll never attempt 99.9999999% of them.

but while reading that I couldn't help but wonder if you had any ideas/plans to edit the series. To tighten the weird pacing of the show you mentioned, to expand upon the compilation thing, or maybe to make the movie fit in more with the continuity of the show.

Yeah, I've definitely been thinking about it. But I plan to get the series and movie on Blu-ray, and my computer doesn't have a Blu-ray drive. I'd have to buy one. Or I could buy the DVDs as well and use those.

My idea is to turn The Time Etranger into a series of OVAs, probably 9 in total, each around an hour in length. I'd splice all of Remy's scenes from the series in as flashbacks (the number of episodes would likely drop, depending on the amount of useable footage). I might even alter the color of all of the flashbacks, giving the earliest ones less color and the more recent ones more color. It might be fun to pick some appropriate songs to play over the end credits; maybe a mix of French, Japanese, and English songs. Just an idea at the moment, though, and there'd be massive tonal whiplash.

In any case, as I said before, I'm definitely going to check out the movie. I totally forgot that I was going to until I saw the above post and now that you've gone more in depth about everything I'm more interested.

I look forward to reading your thoughts on it! See you again!

 

[Mark Moore]

I just came across this podcast that devoted an entire two-hour episode to discussing GoShogun (and especially The Time Etranger). They try to be non-spolery while also trying to convince listeners to watch it.

 

[Mark Moore]

I also found three blog posts that give more information about The Time Etranger, including the novel. Apparently, the novel was written simultaneously with or shortly after the screenplay (they were written by the same guy, who also worked on the TV series), so it's more of a novelization. I still don't know how the other novels (particularly the later ones) relate to it, though. There's also this column by the guy that was assigned to cut the trailer for the U.S. release when he worked at Central Park Media back in the day. Contains a review and technical details.