Six God Combination God Mars (六神合体ゴッドマーズ, Roku Shin Gattai Goddo Māzu), 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".

Six God Combination God Mars
Intertitle from the second opening credits
六神合体ゴッドマーズ
(Roku Shin Gattai Goddo Māzu)
GenreMecha, Drama
Manga
Mars
Written byMitsuteru Yokoyama
Published byAkita Shoten
MagazineWeekly Shōnen Champion
DemographicShōnen
Original run19761977
Volumes1
Anime television series
Directed byTetsuo Imazawa
Produced byTōru Horikoshi
Shigeru Akagawa
Atsushi Shimizu
Yasuji Takahashi
Written byKeisuke Fujikawa
Music byKei Wakakusa
StudioTokyo Movie Shinsha
Licensed by
Original networkNNS (Nippon TV)
Original run October 2, 1981 December 24, 1982
Episodes64
Anime film
God Mars: The Movie
Directed byTetsuo Imazawa
Produced byShigeru Akagawa
Written byKeisuke Fujikawa
Music byKei Wakakusa
StudioTokyo Movie Shinsha
Licensed by
ReleasedDecember 18, 1982
Runtime97 minutes
Original video animation
God Mars: The Untold Legend
Directed byMasakatsu Iijima
Produced byTadahito Matsumoto
Written byKeisuke Fujikawa
Music byReijirō Koroku
StudioTokyo Movie Shinsha
Licensed by
ReleasedJune 5, 1988
Runtime55 minutes
Original video animation
Mars
Directed byJunji Nishimura
Produced byTakao Asaga
Written byMasashi Sogo
Music byKaoru Wada
StudioBee Media
ReleasedJune 10, 1994 — August 8, 1994
Runtime30 minutes (each)
Episodes2

This television mecha-genre anime is loosely based on the 1976 Mars (マーズ, Māzu) manga from Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine by Mitsuteru Yokoyama. God Mars is named as such to represent the mythological Roman god of war.

Plot

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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...

  • Sphinx
  • Uranus
  • Titan
  • Shin
  • Ra

...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.

Cast

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Name Kanji/katakana Romanization Actor(s)
Mars/Takeru Myojin マーズ/明神タケル Māzu/Myōjin Takeru Yū Mizushima
Kenji Asuka 飛鳥ケンジ Asuka Kenji Hiroya Ishimaru
Naoto Ijuin 伊集院ナオト Ijūin Naoto Hirotaka Suzuoki (anime)
Gô Shinomiya (Super Robot Wars)
Mika Hyuga 日向ミカ Hyuga Mika Youko Kawanami
Akira Kiso 木曽アキラ Kiso Akira Yoku Shioya
Namida Akashi 明石ナミダ Akashi Namida Eiko Yamada
Shigeru Otsuka 大塚長官 Ōtsuka Shigeru Kōsei Tomita
Dr. Myojin (Note: This character's first name is unknown, which means he is known only with his family name) 明神博士 Myōjin Hakase Takeshi Aono
Shizuka Myojin 明神静子 Myōjin Shizuka Toshiko Maeda
Marg マーグ Māgu Yūji Mitsuya
Rose ロゼ Rozu Rumiko Ukai
Flore フローレ Forōre Yoshiko Sakakibara
Gasshu ガッシュ Gasshu Akio Nojima
Special replacement for episodes 43 to 44: Kazuyuki Sogabe
Emperor Zuul ズール皇帝 Zūru Kōtei Gorō Naya
Leader Gyron ギロン総統 Giron Sōtō Osamu Kobayashi
Rui ルイ Rui Kumiko Takizawa

Staff

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  • Original author and creator: Mitsuteru Yokoyama
  • Series director: Tetsuo Imazawa
  • Producer: Atsushi Shimizu, Shigeru Akagawa, Toru Horikoshi, Yasuji Takahashi
  • Character design: Hideyuki Motohashi
  • Animation director: Hideyuki Motohashi
  • Music: Kei Wakakusa
  • Mecha design: Hajime Kamegaki
  • Background art: Tsutomu Ishigaki
  • Narration: Eiji Kanie

Media

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Film

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A compilation theatrical feature was released in 1982 called God Mars: The Movie.

Original video animation

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Later in 1988 (6 years after the television series' final airing in 1982), an OVA was released under the title God Mars: The Untold Legend 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.

Video games

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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.

Home media

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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.[1]

Reception

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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.

References

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  1. ^ "God Mars complete series and movie on SDBD Blu Ray!". Facebook. October 23, 2018. Retrieved October 23, 2018.
  • Ishizuki, Saburo. Alt, Matt. Duban, Robert. Brisko Tim [2005] (2005). Super #1 Robot: Japanese Robot Toys 1972-1982. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books LLC. ISBN 0-8118-4607-5
  • Clements, Jonatha. McCarthy Helen. [2006] (2006). The Anime Encyclopedia: Revised & Expanded Edition. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press. ISBN 978-1-933330-10-5
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