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獣を超え、(Rise beyond beasts,)
人を超え、(Rise beyond men,)
そして、今神になる・・・(And now, become a god...)
それが究極のマシン、(That is the ultimate machine,)
超獣機神ダンクーガ！！ (Super Beast Machine God Dancougar!!)

This is the iconic, and undoubtedly over-the-top, quote from the anime this post is about, 超獣機神ダンクーガ, that is Super Beast Machine God Dancougar.

To be honest, Dancouga would be probably a better spelling, since it's a play on the kanji 断空我 (which are read as dan-kuu-ga), and according to the series, they mean "我を空にして煩悩を断つ" (Empty the self and break off from the worldly desires), supposedly inspired by Zen (but it's actually just made up, as far as I can tell).

I've been interested in the series for the past 30 (!) years, but I've never had the occasion to watch it properly (save for a handful episodes around that time, but I didn't know a single word of Japanese back then). The occasion presented itself recently, so, like my previous post on Galaxy Angel I'm making a retrospective post about it.

What is this series about?

Dancougar is a giant mecha anime which aired on TV (TBS) from April 5th to December 27th 1985, totalling a total of 38 episodes, animated by Ashi Production (葦プロダクション). Due to bad ratings, the series was cut short of the last episode. Thanks to a campaign from the fans, the actual ending was added as part of a "summary" OAV which recapped the whole series, 失われた者たちへの鎮魂歌（レクイエム）(Requiem for the fallen), with the English title of Requiem for Victims, out in april 1986.

A second OAV (originally planned to be a theatrical release), GOD BLESS DANCOUGA, was released roughly a year later. Lastly, a series of 4 OAVs were released between 1989 and 1990, with the title 白熱の終章 (the blazing last chapter or blazing ending).

The TV series

{{< youtube id="tJHHeelNooc" start=11 end=89 title="First opening of the series">}} The first opening of the series, courtesy of the BANDAI SPIRITS YouTube channel.

Plot and characters

The basic premise of the plot in Dancougar is not different from any "regular" mecha show from earlier times: the extraterrestial Muge Zorbados Empire, led by Emperor Muge, has set its sights on Earth as a new target for its interstellar campaign of conquest. Muge's soldiers, thanks to their superior technology, quickly obliterate the regular troops from Earth, but resistance movements throughout the world push back against total submission.

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That's when the four main characters and members of the military (Shinobu Fujiwara, Sara Yuki, Masato Shikibu and Ryo Shiba) step in. Over time (Shinobu being the first and Ryo the last) they're recruited in the 獣戦機隊 (juu-senki-tai, often translated as Cyber Beast Force), a special unit located in Japan (what a surprise!), led by General Ross Igor and Prof.Kotaro Hazuki. They're then given specialized battle machines designed by Hazuki himself (Eagle Fighter, a fighter jet; Black Cougar, a medium armored tank; Land Liger, a tank similar to Black Cougar but with different armament; Big Moth, a heavy tank) and asked to assist the resistance force around the world.

Being a mecha show, these machines aren't exactly what they seem. "Strong" feelings from their pilots (rage, basically) can trigger a special circuit and transform them into the animal they take the name from. So the Eagle Fighter gets an aura and can cut through enemies like a blade, the Black Cougar and the Land Liger turn into (who could've guessed) a cougar and a liger, and the Big Moth, contrary to public expectations, does not turn into a giant moth, but instead a mammoth.

Aside the usual army of nameless mecha, drones and flying ships from Muge Zorbados, the unit has to battle against the strength of the three generals appointed from the Emperor himself: Death Gaia, a "level to the ground then ask questions" guy; Gil Dorom, a master of mind tricks and manipulation; and Helmut, a strong and incredibly cruel warrior. To make matters worse, a cunning officer with unlimited ambition (and Sara's fianceé), Shapiro Keats, defects and quickly gains a command position in the invasion force.

Slow paced progression

"Well, what about the mecha?" you might ask. Well... that's one of the features that makes this series unique, in my view. Despite being shown in the opening since episode 1, the robot that gives the name to the series does not appear until the sixteenth episode. And what would the reason be?

The reason is that the series does quite a slow build up of the story and the characters, which then are ready to be given their toy of mass destruction. This is markedly different from other classic robot shows: although some don't feature the main mecha in the first episodes (like Golion, Daltanious, and Zambot 3 to name a few), once it comes into play it basically monopolizes the episodes, save for notable exceptions.

This is not the case of Dancougar. First the characters are given their vehicle and the possibility to turn them into the animals they are named after (the so-called Aggressive Beast Change). A number of episodes later, they gain the ability of turning into proper robots (Humanoid Mode). It's interesting to note that the mechas in Humanoid Mode do not have melee weapons common in many mecha shows, and instead rely on more conventional weaponry such as guns. The only exception is Ryo's Big Moth, which can occasionally engage enemies in hand-to-hand combat. This is nothing new, but a little more surprising as Dancougar is closer to the "classic" genre than to the "realistic" one (think Gundam).

And then the main mecha is introduced in a two-part episode, with a very nice BGM (灼熱の怒り, or burning rage). As you can see from the clip below, there's another (small) element of novelty: the head is not the part that connects last during the assembly.

{{< youtube id="tJHHeelNooc" start=1121 end=1189 title="Dancougar's assembly sequence">}} Dancougar's assembly sequence (BANDAI SPIRITS YouTube channel).

Lastly, the Dancougar basically has no weapons, a difference from many mecha shows: it basically relies on brute strength to destroy its enemies, occasionally with a large cannon. The only other upgrade that it gets is a flight unit, which is basically shown only in the last episodes.

It must be noted that this progression is not limited to the mecha but also to the characters themselves, including new ones, which are slowly introduced during the series. This makes the journey quite enjoyable, although it must be said that there are, especially in the early epsiodes, many episodes that are almost literally copy-pasted from each other. Nevertheless, it is nice to see some adjustments in the characters, with some themes progressing through several episodes.

Climax and ending

After the Dancougar is introduced, the events in the series "somewhat" accelerate (there are still some fillers here and there), with a further two-part episode which introduces the mobile base Gundor and the final objective to put an end to the war agaisnt the Muge Zorbados Empire. The last episodes are a series of hard confrontations between the characters and their enemies, first on Earth then in space, until it's time to actually go against Emperor Muge himself.

And that's where the series ends. Seriously: it ends (pretty frustratingly) one episode before its natural conclusion, due to the bad ratings (as I mentioned earlier). It would be a bummer, but luckily the OAV that came out a few months later provides a satisfying ending (more on that later).

Animation, voices and sound

To be frank, Dancougar is plagued by production problems. These were also present years later with its remake Dancougar Nova, so I think it's probably a systemic problem of Ashi Production. Keeping in mind we're talking about the mid-1980s here (so we can't expect anything spectacular animation-wise, at least in a TV series), the animation quality fluctuates from acceptable to downright terrible as shown in a few images below:

ADD

It's clear that at some point cuts were made because certain scenes couldn't be animated: in one episode, where the Dancougar fights a Muge mech in the water, one can't literally understand what was going on because the scenes are too disjointed. The assembly sequence of the Dancougar is not even complete in the episode it appears, and the one for the flight unit only properly appears in the last episode (earlier replaced with tacky close-ups of Shinobu's face).

Nevertheless, during the action scenes it is mostly OK and does its job. While nothing particularly innovative, the character design by XXX does what it is intended to do. A note goes to the voice actors: almost all of them perform admirably (except perhaps Helmut, who is a little over the top even for being a psycopath), except one, who is voiced by Rie Fujiwara, who sings the two opening songs (愛よファラウェイ, Love is far away and ほんとのキスをお返しに, ADD). She does quite a poor impression of the character she's voicing (a bit like the early episodes of Shoji Kawamori's AKB0048, if you remember that series), and her tone is all over the place. Luckily, said character's screen time is limited (despite a major presence in the opening animation).