GoShogun

UCHUU SPACE NUMBER ONE, SENGOKU MAJIN NUMBER ONE!

GoShogun (戦国魔神ゴーショーグン, Sengoku Majin Goshōgun) was a super robot anime series produced by Ashi Productions and aired on TV Tokyo in 1981 . It is variously referred to in English as "Demon God of the War-Torn Land GoShogun", "Warring Demon God GoShogun" and "Civil War Devil-God GoShogun". In North America, it's also known as one of the two series that comprised Macron 1 (see Cut and Paste Translation below).

A meteor strikes the Earth and is found to emanate a powerful new energy called Beamler, which is used to power a battle robot, GoShogun, and a teleporting fortress, Good Thunder. The Docouga Crime Syndicate, lead by crime lord Neo Neros, try to steal the secret of the energy from the inventor of GoShogun, but he kills himself rather than let them acquire it. His son Kenta is targeted by Neo Neros next, but he is taken in by the crew aboard Good Thunder, who travel the world fighting Neo Neros's forces with GoShogun. Eventually Kenta learns that he is actually an alien. In the end, Neo Neros's three officers side against him with the GoShogun crew. After he is defeated, Kenta takes GoShogun into space, back to his home planet.

Go Shogun has a sequel: a movie Go Shogun: The Time Étranger (戦国魔神ゴーショーグン 時の異邦人, Sengoku Majin Goshōgun: Toki no Étranger), released in 1985. The movie takes place 40 years after the series. Remy Shimada, a former member of the Go Shogun team, now an old woman, lies in a coma after a car accident as her former team mates and Docouga generals watch it helplessly. But in the depths of her subconscious Remy goes back to the time of her childhood and youth and fights death along with her five comrades. The movie is strikingly different from the series in its dark and surrealistic tone, resembling the works of Satoshi Kon.

Noteworthy also for being an early teamup between director Kunihiko Yuyama and writer Takeshi Shudo, who would go on to make Minky Momo and Pokemon.

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Tropes in the series

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• Adjective Noun Fred
• Adult Child/Captain Ersatz: The character of Remy is intended to be a grown up version of Minky Momo, they both have the same voice actor Mami Koyama, they do have the same mindset, speech-patterns and emotions.
• An Axe to Grind/Blade on a Stick: Go Stick
• Applied Phlebotinum: Beamlar
• Artificial Human: Yatta-la Kernagul
• BFG: Space Bazooka
• But Not Too Foreign: Remy Shimada (part-French, part-Japanese)
• Calling Your Attacks
• Chest Blaster
• Cool Sword: GoSaber
• Cut and Paste Translation: In 1985, staff in the USA combined footage from GoShogun and Akū Daisakusen Srungle, a similar show produced by Kokusai Eiga-sha, to form "Macron-1", which portrays the Srungle characters as being part of another branch of the organization fighting evil in a parallel universe. This combined series was produced and released in the United States by Saban.
  • The US version involves test pilot David Chance travelling into a parallel universe under the tyrannical control of an organization called GRIP, led by Dark Star. Chance's entrance into the other universe allows GRIP to send their forces to Earth, leaving Dark Star's cyborg henchman Orn to remain in control in the alternate universe. GRIP is opposed by the two teams of Macron-1, the first led by Dr. Shegall and his team on Earth (from the GoShogun footage), while in the alternate universe Chance organizes a band of rebel warriors, Beta Command, to combat and overthrow Orn (from the Srungle footage). The Beta Command members were given much less screen time than the Earth team.
    • The dubbed US version was voiced by the same cast as Carl Macek's Harmony Gold adaptation of Macross, Genesis Climber Mospeada, and others into Robotech.
    • It's also known for its replacement soundtrack containing popular rock and pop music of the era, such as Duran Duran's "The Reflex," Tears for Fears' "Shout," and Michael Jackson's "Beat It," intended to make it an animated answer to Miami Vice. These were omitted from reruns and home video releases for copyright reasons.
• The Dandy: Leonardo Medici Bundle
• Eyepatch of Power: Suegni Cutnall
• Finishing Move: Go Flasher Special
• Heel Face Turn: Neo Neros's three officers
• Hot Wings
• Meaningful Name: Leonardo Medici Bundle's first & second names are based on Leonardo da Vinci & Lorenzo de Medici.
• Musicalis Interruptus: In Super Robot Wars, Leonardo Medici Bundle's ship has "The Blue Danube" as its default background music. This song is being played by enormous speakers, and is the only situation in which Elzam V. Branstein (a.k.a. Ratsel Feinschmecker)'s theme "Trombe!" has been overridden.
• Names to Know In Anime: Hirotaka Suzuoki as Shingo, Kaneto Shiozawa as Leonardo, Mami Koyama as Remy, Hideyuki Tanaka as Kerry/Killy. Dan Green as Leonardo for the English dub of Go Shogun: The Time Étranger
• Parody: GoShogun is one of the first robot anime to parody other robot series and poke fun at the genre concepts. Two of the more obvious examples are Kernagul, whose greatest ambition is to own a chain of fast food restaurants, and an enemy robot modeled after the RX-78-2 Gundam, which, when granted sentience by GoShogun, declares that it doesn't want to fight any more and destroys itself.
  • Bland-Name Product: Yatta-la Kernagul wants to open a chain of fried chicken restaurants called "Kernagul's Fried Chicken" and a hamburger chain called "KerDonald's".
• Pirate: Suegni Cutnall
• Power Glows
• Power Trio: Shingo Hojo, Killy Gagly, and Remy Shimada
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: Docooga Crime Syndicate
• Super Robot: GoShogun is a Combining Mecha that runs on Beamlar and one of the pilots calls out its attacks. It definitely counts.
• Super Robot Wars (EX, F, F Final, 64, Alpha 2, Alpha 3, and NEO)
• Wine Is Classy: Leonardo Medici Bundle is usually holding a rose or a glass of red wine in his hands.

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Tropes in the movie

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• Action Girl: Remy
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Shingo and Killy, Cuttnal and Kernagul
• Badass Crew
• Bar Brawl
• Bittersweet Ending: it is not entirely clear whether Remy lived or not.
• Chekhov's Gun: Played with. Remy wears a golden pendant on her neck. While preparing for the Final Battle, she takes it off and hangs her last revolver bullet on the chain instead.
• Combat Medic: Suegni Cuttnal is a version of this.
• Cool Airship: Bundle has a supersonic jet in his Japanese-style country house
• Cool Bike: the one Bundle borrows from the cops.
• Creepy Child: the Messenger of Fate
• Crucified Hero Shot: in her Last Stand, exhausted Remy leans against a stone cross for support.
• Cultured Badass: Leonardo Medici Bundle
• Determinator: Remy

Bundle: Remy defies the odds. Her will to live itself has always been a thing of beauty.

• Eldritch Abomination: the Beast of Fate, especially when it grows
• Eldritch Location: the town where our six friends are stuck
• The Faceless: Remy as an old woman. We never see her aged face.
• Five-Man Band:
  • The Hero, The Chick and The Heart: Remy
  • The Lancer: Shingo and Killy
  • The Smart Guy: Cuttnal and Bundle
  • The Big Guy: Kernagul
• Flashback Nightmare: subverted, as it is not clear whether Remy's childhood flashbacks are actual memories or fantasies.
• Genre Shift: the series parodies kids' robot shows while the sequel is a deadpan serious psychological thriller.
• Heroic Spirit: certainly Remy.
• Katanas Are Just Better: While Bundle's no slouch with a machine gun, his weapon of choice is a katana.
• Knife Nut: Killy Gagly
• Last Stand: an awesome one for Remy
• Like Brother and Sister: Remy and her team mates .
• Little Miss Badass: it was not a good idea to mess up with Remy even when she was a kid.
• One Bullet Left
• Parental Neglect: Remy's mom hardly notices her.
• The Philosopher: Bundle
• The Piano Player: Played with. Bundle plays piano when a Bar Brawl starts, and unfazedly continues to do so until Remy throws an unfortunate mook right on the keyboard, causing a loud tone cluster.

Remy: Pardon me! Hope I didn't disturb you. Bundle: Not at all. A forte was appropriate at that point. (Punches another mook.)

• The Pollyanna: Remy is optimistic and always maintains her humour even in the face of obvious trouble.
• Retired Badass: In the beginning of the movie, Remy is over 70 years old and long in retirement. It doesn't stop her from racing her way through the traffic-jammed city, disabling several bank robbers' cars in the process. Made even more awesome once you think this woman is dying of leukaemia.
• Revolvers Are Just Better: Remy's preferred weapon is a Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum.
• Rule of Symbolism: All around.
• Samurai: Bundle, a self-made one.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: Shingo Hojo's weapon of choice, together with grenades.
• Symbolic Blood: When Remy tries to take a shower, water suddenly turns into blood. Later we learn it was just an illusion.
• True Companions: Remy and her team
• You Can't Fight Fate: Inversion: the movie's central idea is that you can.