Six God Combination Godmars

Six God Combination Godmars (六神合体ゴッドマーズ) was a popular anime series aired in 1981 to 1982 in Japan, Hong Kong and Italy. 64 episodes were aired. Other loosely translated names are "Hexademon Symbiote Godmars", "Six God Union Godmars", "Six Gods United As One Being".

Original story
In the year 1999, humanity begins to advance beyond the known Solar System. The small planet Gishin, led by the Emperor Zool, who aims to conquer the galaxy, runs into conflict with Earth. He targets Earth for elimination and to do this, he sends a male baby called 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 given the name Takeru. Seventeen years later, Takeru grows up with a love for humanity and refuses to detonate the bomb as ordered by Zool. However, if Takeru was to die, the bomb within Gaia would explode destroying the earth.

Takeru possesses psychical powers ( ESP ). Takeru also can pilot the Godmars robot with his mind. Takeru decides to join the Earth defense forces and becomes a member of the Crasher Squad (an elite space defense force) where he and his friends take a last stand against the Gishin's attack.

The relationship of Takeru with his brother Marg, which fate would have it, pitted the two against each other in the war.

Unknown to the Gishin, five other robots were created in secrecy alongside Gaia by Takeru's father and sent with Gaia to protect Takeru. Whenever Earth is in danger, Takeru is able to summon the five other robots to combine with Gaia to form the giant robot Godmars. The five other robots are Sphinx, Uranus, Titan, Shin and Ra.

Concept
The anime show is loosely based on the 1976 Mars manga from Shōnen Champion magazine by Mitsuteru Yokoyama. Godmars is named as such to represent the mythological Roman God of war.

Staff
Original Manga author and Creator: Mitsuteru Yokoyama

Series director: Tetsuo Imazawa

Producer: Shigeru Akagawa, Yasuji Takahashi

Character Design: Hideyuki Motohashi

Animation director: Hideyuki Motohashi

Mecha design: Hajime Gamemaki

Background Art: Tsutomu Ishigaki

Characters
{|class="wikitable" ! Name ! Japanese Name ! Voices by
 * Mars/Takeru Myojin || マーズ／明神タケル || Yuu Mizushima
 * Kenji Asuka || 飛鳥ケンジ || Hiroya Ishimaru
 * Naoto Ijuin || 伊集院ナオト || Hirotaka Suzuoki
 * Mika Hyuga || 日向ミカ || Youko Kawanami
 * Akira Kiso || 木曽アキラ || Yoku Shioya
 * Namida Akashi || 明石ナミダ || Eiko Yamada
 * Shigeru Otsuka || 大塚長官 || Kousei Tomita
 * Dr. Myojin || 明神博士 || Takeshi Aono
 * Shizuka Myojin || 明神静子 || Toshiko Maeda
 * Marg	|| マーグ || Yuji Mitsuya
 * Rose || ロゼ || Rumiko Ukai
 * Flore || フローレ || Yoshiko Sakakibara
 * Gasshu || ガッシュ || Akio Nojima Kazuyuki Sogabe (eps 43-44)
 * Emperor Zuul || ズール皇帝 || Naya Goro
 * Gyron || || Osamu Kobayashi
 * Rui || ルイ || Kumiko Takizawa
 * Narrator || ナレーター || Eiji Kanie
 * Shizuka Myojin || 明神静子 || Toshiko Maeda
 * Marg	|| マーグ || Yuji Mitsuya
 * Rose || ロゼ || Rumiko Ukai
 * Flore || フローレ || Yoshiko Sakakibara
 * Gasshu || ガッシュ || Akio Nojima Kazuyuki Sogabe (eps 43-44)
 * Emperor Zuul || ズール皇帝 || Naya Goro
 * Gyron || || Osamu Kobayashi
 * Rui || ルイ || Kumiko Takizawa
 * Narrator || ナレーター || Eiji Kanie
 * Emperor Zuul || ズール皇帝 || Naya Goro
 * Gyron || || Osamu Kobayashi
 * Rui || ルイ || Kumiko Takizawa
 * Narrator || ナレーター || Eiji Kanie
 * Rui || ルイ || Kumiko Takizawa
 * Narrator || ナレーター || Eiji Kanie
 * Narrator || ナレーター || Eiji Kanie
 * Narrator || ナレーター || Eiji Kanie

Robots
{|class="wikitable" ! Name ! Robot Location ! Color ! Specialty ! Hidden in ! Size
 * Gaia || Body Core Internal || red || Gravitational beam || Japanese statue in the reefs || 15 meters of height, 250 tons of weight
 * Sphinx || Body Shell Middle || blue, red || God of Stones || Egypt between Pyramid and Sphinx || 25 meters of height, 300 tons of weight
 * Uranus || Right Arm || white || Freezer beam || Icebergs near Greenland || 15 meters of height, 100 tons of weight
 * Titan || Left Arm || green || Cyclone blast || Indian Ocean || 15 meters of height, 100 tons of weight
 * Shin || Right Foot || black, red || Flare || Among South East Asian Temple || 25 meters of height, 300 tons of weight
 * Ra ||Left Foot || blue, yellow || Pulsar beam ||Among Easter Island Statues || 25 meters of height, 150 tons of weight
 * Titan || Left Arm || green || Cyclone blast || Indian Ocean || 15 meters of height, 100 tons of weight
 * Shin || Right Foot || black, red || Flare || Among South East Asian Temple || 25 meters of height, 300 tons of weight
 * Ra ||Left Foot || blue, yellow || Pulsar beam ||Among Easter Island Statues || 25 meters of height, 150 tons of weight
 * Shin || Right Foot || black, red || Flare || Among South East Asian Temple || 25 meters of height, 300 tons of weight
 * Ra ||Left Foot || blue, yellow || Pulsar beam ||Among Easter Island Statues || 25 meters of height, 150 tons of weight
 * Ra ||Left Foot || blue, yellow || Pulsar beam ||Among Easter Island Statues || 25 meters of height, 150 tons of weight

DVD
The 64 episodes span 2 DVD collections.

Video games
Godmars would go on to make guest appearances in games like Super Robot Wars.

Reaction
Godmars came out very early in the super robot animation era of the 1980s, having been created by Mitsuteru Yokoyama. The show did appear in the U.S as an edited televised movie in 1982 called Godmars. Later in 1988 a Godmars OVA was released. A woefully unappreciated theatrical feature was to follow called Godmars: The Movie +.

Trivia

 * Godmars in combination is 50 meters tall, weighing 1050 tons.


 * Godmars is also known to be spelled as Godmarz or Godmarx.


 * Episodes 1 to 26 were aired weekdays at 6:00pm to 6: 30pm. Episodes 27 to 64 were aired at 5:30pm to 6:00pm.


 * The Godmars toy would serve as the prototype for an unreleased Mighty Orbots toy. In addition, the Godmars series served as the prototype for the Mighty Orbots series.


 * The Godmars toy was released in the US Market with different names for six robots; Commandbot (Gaia), Giantbot (Sphinx), Uranus, Titan, Shin, and Ra were all named based on their Base Color with a "bot" Suffix (Ra was Bluebot for example)