Project G: Upcoming Grendizer Project

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BBally81
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Project G: Upcoming Grendizer Project

Seems there's going to be a big Grendizer project, which is a collaboration between Go Nagai's Dynamic Planning and Saudi Arabia based company Manga Productions.

Dynamic Planning announced today that Project G, a new project inspired by Toei Animation's classic robot anime UFO Robot Grendizer in the mid-1970s, is now in the works for its launch in 2023.

As the third installment in the Mazinger series following Mazinger Z (1972-1974) and Great Mazinger (1974-1975), UFO Robot Grendizer was aired for 74 episodes in Japan from October 1975 to February 1977. It gained popularity not only in Japan but also in Europe, the Middle East, South America, and other parts of the world. In France, in particular, it was reported that its ratings reached "100%" at the time of broadcast.

Details are currently unknown, but Go Nagai, creator of the Mazinger Z manga, will serve as executive producer. In the teaser PV, he says, "A new project for Grendizer is about to launch. The best members in Japan will come together to create something amazing. Everyone, please look forward to it."

To commemorate the launch of the new project, "Saucer Beast Contest" (https://manga.com.sa/projectg-competition/) will be held to recruit designs for machines and saucer beasts. The winner will receive a prize of 10,000 USD and their saucer beasts will appear in the new work. Entries are being accepted on the special website.
https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/ ... s-for-2023
Mafty
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Re: Project G: Upcoming Grendizer Project

It's neat they are having a fan entry contest. People who are aspiring designers can make contributions to the show. I seem to remember that someone who submitted a Gundam design to a manga (it might have been Crossbone) ended up later actually doing mechanical designs for Sunrise.

So any word on if this project will stream internationally?
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Re: Project G: Upcoming Grendizer Project

About the time.

Kouji get modernized Z, Mazinkaiser, AND Mazinger Zero, while Tetsuya get Mazin Emperor G few years ago. All while Daisuke stuck with his Showa Grendizer.

IIRC, Takenobu Terada is pretty excited about it.
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Re: Project G: Upcoming Grendizer Project

That's very exciting, and I'm sure Terada is looking forward to it as well. Grendizer and Mazinkaiser haven't appeared side-by-side in a SRW game right?

I'm hoping we see a Mazin Emperor G get an OVA appearance at some point as well.
BBally81
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Re: Project G: Upcoming Grendizer Project

Underrated GM Custom wrote: Sat Aug 27, 2022 10:22 am That's very exciting, and I'm sure Terada is looking forward to it as well. Grendizer and Mazinkaiser haven't appeared side-by-side in a SRW game right?

I'm hoping we see a Mazin Emperor G get an OVA appearance at some point as well.
They actually appeared together in two SRW games, Omega and DD but those two are mobile games and not part of the mainline series.
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Re: Project G: Upcoming Grendizer Project

Ah right, I forgot SRW had some mobile games. I think the last time Grendizer was in a mainline series was around 2008 or 2009, which is the around the same time Shin Mazinger Impact Z aired. Here we are 13 years later and we still haven't gotten a sequel with Shin Great Mazinger =( but a new Grendizer will be rad.
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Re: Project G: Upcoming Grendizer Project

Underrated GM Custom wrote: Mon Aug 29, 2022 3:23 pm Ah right, I forgot SRW had some mobile games. I think the last time Grendizer was in a mainline series was around 2008 or 2009, which is the around the same time Shin Mazinger Impact Z aired. Here we are 13 years later and we still haven't gotten a sequel with Shin Great Mazinger =( but a new Grendizer will be rad.
It's so disappointing that Shin Mazinger did so poorly (from what l heard) that we didn't get a Shin Great especially when they teased a sequel. The closest thing I guess we'll ever get to a Shin Great Mazinger is, Shin Mazinger Zero vs Great General of Darkness and a couple of SRW games.

Anyone know if Grendizer Giga was any good? I never hear anyone talk about it.
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Mafty
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Re: Project G: Upcoming Grendizer Project

I didn't realize that Shin Mazinger did poorly. I've been watching it the last couple days on Crunchyroll, and it's very entertaining, plus it seems like it does bring in some stuff from the manga. Really it seems like what you'd expect from a Go Nagai adaptation(and I mean that positively) so I'm surprised it didn't do well, especially because a lot of Nagai's 70's Super Robot Works(Like Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, and to a lesser degree Grendizer) seem to be perennially popular , with the exception of Garla and Groizer X.

As for Grendizer Giga according to the (limited) sources I can find, the series was short lived and had a mixed reception due to, a mix of characters from Nagais works all coming together in one continuity (though many fans praised this as well), as well as pacing issues, and lack of character development.
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Re: Project G: Upcoming Grendizer Project

Mafty wrote: Wed Aug 31, 2022 12:12 am I didn't realize that Shin Mazinger did poorly. I've been watching it the last couple days on Crunchyroll, and it's very entertaining, plus it seems like it does bring in some stuff from the manga. Really it seems like what you'd expect from a Go Nagai adaptation(and I mean that positively) so I'm surprised it didn't do well, especially because a lot of Nagai's 70's Super Robot Works(Like Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, and to a lesser degree Grendizer) seem to be perennially popular , with the exception of Garla and Groizer X.
I heard people mentioning that when Robot Girls Z was out and it got a sequel (maybe it was fans being angry that it was being made), but l thought there could be truth to it if Robot Girls Z got Plus and Shin not getting Shin Great.
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Re: Project G: Upcoming Grendizer Project

That does happen with the tv market at times; fans get upset when one part of a franchise gets a sequel, while another doesn't. It's also worth nothing there was a period in the 2010's where Mecha shows went through a downturn, while Isekai, Idol and Moe (or a combination of the three) really took off(Look at Love Live at Sunrise for instance). That being said Mecha is perennially popular and they generally seem to return to the original format(Build Fighters didn't become the mainstay Gundam, we ended up with more Sunrise Real Robot shows), and there still are plenty of Super and Real Robots shows being made now, plus quite a lot of sequels and reboots to classic series, so I doubt Mech will become completely supplanted.

On another note it's also interesting to note that Isekai, Idol and Moe themes were actually part of Mech shows since the 80s: Macross had Idol music as part of a important plot point tying in to Protoculture, Dunbine and Panzer World Galient had Isekai themes(neither did terribly well critically or commercially, but still), and while Moe didn't exist there were still various cutesy characters in 80s sci-fi and mech anime and manga (Shammy from Macross, Mome in Orguss, Mint in Mospeada, Nene, Cynthia, and Sylvie in Bubblegum Crisis, The Gall Force cast, Lillis Faw in L-Gaim, Cham Huau, in Dunbine, Ple in ZZ, The Tachikoma's in Ghost in the Shell, C-Ko in Project A-ko, etc.).

As I mentioned in a previous post Go Nagai has quite a number of Super Robot Works; However there's a trio that seem to be the most popular, Mazinger Z, Getter Robo (which he worked on with Ken Ishikawa), and UFO Robot Grendizer. Of the three Grendizer seems the least popular, as it has had fewer spinoffs and hasn't had any animated works since the 70's(it is a spinoff of Mazinger, however it connection is a bit looser, plus it has a new mech).

Also it seems like a lot of Nagai's Super Robot works never made to North America (granted they made to numerous other countries), so hopefully this will follow the more recent trend and get a North American release.

On an unrelated note does anyone else notice that the antagonist force in Grendizer are the Vegans, aliens from the planet Vega. While in Gundam AGE the antagonist's are (SPOILER)the Vagan, who are thought at first to be aliens. Am I overthinking it or is this supposed to be a shout out?
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Re: Project G: Upcoming Grendizer Project

branman88 wrote: Tue Aug 30, 2022 8:29 pm
Underrated GM Custom wrote: Mon Aug 29, 2022 3:23 pm Ah right, I forgot SRW had some mobile games. I think the last time Grendizer was in a mainline series was around 2008 or 2009, which is the around the same time Shin Mazinger Impact Z aired. Here we are 13 years later and we still haven't gotten a sequel with Shin Great Mazinger =( but a new Grendizer will be rad.
It's so disappointing that Shin Mazinger did so poorly (from what l heard) that we didn't get a Shin Great especially when they teased a sequel. The closest thing I guess we'll ever get to a Shin Great Mazinger is, Shin Mazinger Zero vs Great General of Darkness and a couple of SRW games.

Anyone know if Grendizer Giga was any good? I never hear anyone talk about it.
Oh I hadn't heard Shin Mazinger had done poorly; it was very popular in the blogging community when it came out but of course that is emblematic of international markets and not the domestic Japanese market.

I personally enjoyed it quite a bit, it did a good job of including most of the manga source material while also inserting some fresh air with Nishikiori Tsubasa and Baron Ashura's characterization. It's one of my favorite series Yasuhiro Imagawa has done, not sure what he's been up to these days.

Haven't looked into Grendizer Giga, but the people I know who love Grendizer didn't care for Giga. YMMV
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branman88
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Re: Project G: Upcoming Grendizer Project

With Grendizer coming back and getting a large spotlight I hope some other properties get a resurface, I would love to see God Mazinger, Liger, get another adaptation or an animated version of Shin Mazinger Zero, Getter Robo Evolution.
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Re: Project G: Upcoming Grendizer Project

Agreed, it would be nice to see some older series resurface. Didn't they do a God Mazinger anime back in the day? I vaguely remember the Manga but it's been a while.
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Re: Project G: Upcoming Grendizer Project

Liger is the least likely however, with his proressu counterpart gone. But there're also Govarian and Gloizer X )although the latter is technically being around as kikaiju).
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Re: Project G: Upcoming Grendizer Project

Underrated GM Custom wrote: Thu Sep 01, 2022 3:50 pm Agreed, it would be nice to see some older series resurface. Didn't they do a God Mazinger anime back in the day? I vaguely remember the Manga but it's been a while.
Yes they did a God Mazinger anime of it back in 1984, I would like to see Dynamic do adaptation similar to Shin.
Kuruni wrote: Fri Sep 02, 2022 6:21 am Liger is the least likely however, with his proressu counterpart gone. But there're also Govarian and Gloizer X )although the latter is technically being around as kikaiju).
I would love to see a modern Dynamic anime of Govarian and/or Gloizer X, Govarian had an unused upgrade and a redesign by Obari (Obari doing the mech combat for an adaptation would rock!).
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Re: Project G: Upcoming Grendizer Project

Same here, I'd love to see another Super Robot show done by Obari. Heck, I think his last super robot show he worked on was SRT: OG The Inspector which was over 10 years ago. I guess he's been busy with the Gundam Build franchise in recent years.
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Re: Project G: Upcoming Grendizer Project

So that's what Obari's been up to lately. Makes sense really as he seems to specialize in over the top real robot shows. In particular he seems to mix super robot with streamlined real robot design (see Dangaioh). It would be nice to see him come back and do a reboot series, particularly something Nagai worked on, that would be amazing.

So how likely is it that Dynamic would actually do a remake of some of Nagai's other series (God Mazinger, Grovian, etc.)?
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Re: Project G: Upcoming Grendizer Project

I don't think it's a good idea to focus so much on the distinction between Super Robot and Real Robot, especially for design aesthetics since you can design either a Super or a Real to look however you want. Most of Obari's seminal works have been over the top super robot shows, and I'm not sure Dangaioh reminds me of any real robot series visually.
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Re: Project G: Upcoming Grendizer Project

If this ends up being the Shin Mazinger of Grendizer I wonder would they include anything from the Ota manga where it had a completely different ending from the show.

Also I had been thinking that if Dynamic were to make an animated work based on a property l would like to see adaptation of Mazinsaga and give it an ending, considering how well Devilman Crybaby did l could see Mazinsaga doing the same. I just hope that they would do a better job than Arc got where we didn't get to see the battle between Getter Arc, Bug, and Shin Dragon.
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Re: Project G: Upcoming Grendizer Project

I haven't read any of the Ota stuff, how does the ending differ?

Mazinsaga is the one where Mazinger Z is more of a transformation like Devilman right? I remember seeing some artwork for that and it looked really rad, that would be a really cool adaptation. And yeah, the Arc anime finishing at the same pre-climax as the manga is a let down, but Arc itself as a whole suffered from massive budget shortfalls so I'm not surprised they'd stop there and try to drum up anticipation for a potential sequel. I just hope its a different studio with a better budget.
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