Dangaioh

Dangaioh - Hyper Combat Unit (破邪大星ダンガイオー or 破邪大星弾劾凰) is an anime OVA series produced by AIC studios and released in Japan in 1987. Dangaioh featured character designs by creator Toshihiro Hirano, mechanical designs by Shoji Kawamori, and animation direction by Masami Ōbari.

Plot
Brought together by the mysterious Dr. Tarsan, four powerful psychic warriors Mia Alice, Lamba Nom, Pai Thunder, and Rol Kran can unite four powerful planes to form Dangaioh - the most powerful weapon in the universe. Using their combined psionic force, the Dangaioh team alone can stop the bloody tyranny of Captain Garimoth and Gil-Berg.

The team hopes their psychogenic wave will be strong enough to destroy Garimoth's evil henchman, the notorious Gil-Berg, who has sworn by the taking of his right eye to utterly destroy the Dangaioh team. Along with the threat of Gil-Berg, the Dangaioh team must also avoid falling foul of Garimoth's trickery which finds weakness in their forgotten pasts.

Cast
Mia Alice
 * Voiced by: Mayumi Sho (Japanese) Anne Marie Zola (English)
 * 18 year-old Mia Alice is a resident from the planet Earth and was originally a relatively normal girl from Tokyo. She has the unique ability to expend large amounts of kinetic energy over distance, which allows her to fly, create psychic shields, etc. Kidnapped by Dr. Tarsan due to her talents, the sweet and sensitive Mia is the most reluctant one to use her powers, since she can somewhat remember her origins and only wants to have her life back. Initially, Mia appears to have no control over her telekinesis, but it manifests itself in times of need. When this happens, Mia becomes the most powerful amongst her teammates, as well as an unofficial leader and conscience of the group.

Rol Kran
 * Voiced by: Akira Kamiya (Japanese) Edward Glen (English)
 * When not in battle, 20 year-old Rol displays a timid nature and seldom speaks. Only when he pilots the Dangaioh does he become aggressive and competent. Rol's power enables him to generate great amounts of psychic power as he runs, gaining super speed, stamina and near invulnerability allowing him to even crash mechas by himself as long as he has space to move freely. He was once the leader of a guerrilla movement in his home planet, but was betrayed and sold out to Tarsan.

Pai Thunder
 * Voiced by: Naoko Matsui (Japanese) Alice Barryt (English)
 * 22 year-old Pai is the daughter of the Banker pirate, Captain Garimoth, but even that didn't save her from being given over to Tarsan to be modified since her father wanted her to be even more powerful than she already was. Her powers lie in her great physical strength. She is also the most rebellious, and resents authority quite strongly. This makes her reject Garimoth's plans for her. After trying to win her father's approval back and being horribly rejected by him, Pai fully joined Mia, Rol, and Lamba.

Lamba Nom
 * Voiced by: Maya Okamoto (Japanese) Julia Brahms (English)
 * 14 year-old Lamba was a former princess on her home planet, spirited away after it was invaded by Garimoth's forces. She is the youngest member of the Dangaioh team, her specialty is the ability to control lethal bursts of concentrated energy beams from her index fingers. She's insecure and childish due to the sheltered life she once had as royalty.

Dr. Tarsan
 * Voiced by: Takeshi Aono (Japanese) David Collins (English)
 * The genius behind the Dangaioh project, Tarsan was at first intending to sell Mia and her friends as living weapons to Garimoth. After the incident with Pai and Rol, he decides to get even with Garimoth and joins the four youngsters, providing them with technical support. The Dangaioh kids regard him as a mentor, but aren't above bullying him when he mentions he might sell them to others if the potential buyers meet his standards.

Gil Berg
 * Voiced by: Shigeru Chiba (Japanese) Robert Glenister (English)
 * Gil begins as Tarsan's henchman, but is obsoleted by the introduction of the Dangaioh team. Feeling betrayed by Tarsan's broken promises, Gil rejects the last of his humanity and joins the Banker clan to exact revenge on Tarsan and Dangaioh.

Garimoth
 * Voiced by: Kenichi Ogata (Japanese) Sean Barret (English)
 * The most powerful and feared space pirate and owner of the Bunker, he commissioned Tarsan with the creation of living weapons like the Dangaioh team, even tricking his daughter Barius into joining the project by making her believe it'd please him.

Deela
 * Voiced by: Mitsuko Horie (Japanese) Toni Barry (English)

Shazara
 * Voiced by: Masako Katsuki (Japanese) Jocelyn Cunningham (English)
 * A woman who seeks revenge against Lamba.

Production notes
Creator/Director/Character Designs: Toshihiro Hirano

Screenplay: Noboru Aikawa & Koichi Ohata

Mecha Design: Shoji Kawamori, Yasushi Ishizu, Masami Obari, Kouichi Ohata

Monster Design: Junichi Watanabe

Art Director: Kazuhiro Arai

Producers: AIC, Bandai/Emotion, Artmic

Music: Michiaki Watanabe

Episode titles:

HAJATAISEI DANGAIO released in 1987.

HAJATAISEI DANGAIO 2 NAMIDA NO SPIRAL KNUCKLE (Dangaio, Spiral Knuckle of Tear's ) released in 1988.

HAJATAISEI DANGAIO DAI-ICHIWA KANKETSUHEN FUKUSHUKI GIL BERG (Dangaio 3, Final of Part 1, Gil Berg's Demonic Revenge) released in 1989.

1st Opening theme: Cross Fight by Horie Mitsuko and Ichiro Mizuki | 2nd Opening theme: Cheap Thrills by Nakai Hidemi

1st Closing theme: Kokoro no Honesty (Honesty of the Heart) | 2nd Closing theme: Who's Gonna Win

Release
Episode 1 of Dangaioh was first released in North America on subtitled VHS format by U.S. Renditions in 1990 as Dangaio. It was infamously known for a subtitling error towards the end of the episode. Dangaioh's final attacks "Psychic Wave" and "Psychic Sword" were misspelled as "Side-kick Wave" and "Side-kick Sword." Episodes 2 and 3 were released in 1992 with a different translation staff behind the subtitling production.

Following the demise of U.S. Renditions in the mid-1990s, Manga Entertainment re-released Dangaioh in 1996 as Dangaioh: Hyper Combat Unit, which was an English-dubbed compilation of episodes 2-3. For reasons unknown, episode 1 was omitted from this release. This version was released on DVD in 2003.

Sequel
A new 13-episode series, Haja Kyosei G Dangaioh (破邪巨星Gダンガイオー Haja Kyosei Gureito Dangaiō), ran from 5 April 2001 through 5 July 2001 on TV Asahi in Japan to extremely poor reviews. The series was created and directed by Hirano, and produced by AIC. Hirano's wife, Narumi Kakinouchi, was the animation director for episodes 1 and 3. Originally perceived as a completely different story, the series was revealed halfway as the sequel to the OVA series.

The series was licensed in North America by Viz Media as Great Dangaioh, featuring an English dub produced in the Philippines by Telesuccess Productions.

Video games
Dangaioh's characters, mecha, and storyline elements appeared in Banpresto's Super Robot Wars games. They initially appeared in Super Robot Wars Compact 2 (Parts 1, 2, and 3) for the WonderSwan game system, and later in its PlayStation 2 remake, Super Robot Wars Impact, as well as the Nintendo DS game, Super Robot Wars K. Impact notably features voice acting from the original seiyū.

The Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast video game Bangai-O contains various references to the series.