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DAISUKE AND HIKARU: AN UNTOLD STORY - ANALYSIS BY GERDHA
This analysis was originally made by Gerdha; it is published on this Blog under her authorization.
Copyright © Gerdha 2003, All Rights Reserved
Images added by Joe7
All the references to the original content of Ufo Robot Grendizer’s Roman Album are related to its translation in italian language by Stella Di Fleed, which was originally published on www.nagaifans.it (as of today 12/31/2021 no longer active). The analysis/interpretation of the content of Roman Album are the exclusive work by the authors of this article.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright laws don't allow posting the complete translation of an intellectual work without author's formal authorization, except for excerpts, and solely for the purpose of analysis and commentary. So, I have selected only a few steps in the dossier of the original Japanese version, which then will be posted here without any profit making and exclusively for analytical purposes. The images on the site are property of claimants and have been collected here purely for informative purposes. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.
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GERDHA: AN EXPLANATION
In the summer of 2002, I found a French forum where very serious discussions about UFO Robot Grendizer were carried out and I decided to participate. I was the first user who was not French and was participating in the forum: so I was the only person, at that time, who had seen an anime version different from the French version (VF). There were therefore a lot of discussion about the interpretation of the characters and episodes, because the VF adaptation, while it was maintaining unaltered anime's spirit and sense, in many parts it was not completely faithful to the original version (VO).
In particular, about Hikaru, VF showed great differences with VI DS (italian historical dubbing of 1978): this aspect, inevitably, provoked very different points of view not only about her, but also about Naida and Rubina's role in the anime. However, at that time, on the forum, some people of great culture and open-mindedness wrote: it was possible for me to engage in constructive discussions with them.
The most active members on these in-depth analyses on episodes and characters were at that time (early spring 2003) Agnes, Jerome and Suzi (Suzi, besides, knew Grendizer's Arabic version). With self-irony, we called ourselves "The Crazy Team" (TCT). The posts of the TCT were very long and complex , and they were then jokingly nicknamed as "Monstrogoth Messages" (MM: "Monstrogoth" was the name given by the French dubbing to Vega Monsters).
In particular, Suzi knew part of the VO. Then, she had the opportunity to ensure that Grendizer's Arabic version (VA) was very loyal to the Japanese original version (VO). Confronting her, I discovered that the Italian historic dubbing of 1978 (VI DS) was very similar to the Arabic version (VA). Then, I began suspecting that Grendizer's Italian version VI DS was fairly faithful to the VO.
Stimulated by a series of posts made by Agnès, who analyzed Grendizer anime about its possible literary references (posts which were by herself nicknamed as "soap bubbles"), at winter of 2002-03 arose intense discussions on the question of the possibility that Daisuke loved Hikaru. French adaptation (VF) was made in a such way that, for most French fans, this hypothesis was almost impossible to conceive; I and Suzi, and a few other French-speaking users, instead, were of the opposite opinion.
The large majority of the French fans, based on VF, was convinced that Daisuke was in love only with Rubina (Vegalia in VF): a point on which I and Suzi disagreed. At some point, to decide which version was the more correct on this, we invented a kind of role-playing game: "The Trial Of The Century" (TTOTC). I had the role of Prosecutions (towards the fact that Daisuke did not love Rubina), Agnès was the Defender (about the love between Daisuke and Rubina); the role of Judge was assumed by Jerome; the Jury was assumed by Suzi. All the other French forum members could comment it on their posts.
It was the late spring of 2003. The "trial" was takeing place only on the basis of visual evidence of the episodes and logical-deductive reasoning result, without references to the dialogues of the different versions. The "trial" was suspended for the summer of 2003. At that time, I decided to give justice to Hikaru, writing this analysis based on the Italian version of the old dubbing (VI DS), which was published at the beginning of September 2003 on French forum.
At that time, I had already had access to Grendizer Roman Album, but I did not have the full VO (only for some episodes). In early 2004 , I had access to the full VO: thanks to a relative of mine Japanese-Italian bilingual, was opened for me another perspective of analysis of UFO Robot Grendizer. But that is another story...
NOTE: Gerdha's analysis on Hikaru was posted on that French forum at the beginning of September 2003. Gerdha follows VI DS (italian historical dubbing of 1978).
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BACKGROUND
Gerdha was sitting nervously in Myth's studio, while He was silently reading the massive documents package she had carefully prepared. She thought: “exams do never end in life”: even if her rational part was trying to calm her down, she could not stop her heart beating so hard and fast. She was afraid that the Myth would have heard it. After all, this was the first time she was meeting Him, so asking for his opinion was not an usual thing for her at all.
The Myth finished to read the last paper, he put it on his desk and he looked at the not-so-young-after-all Prosecutor with a deep sight.
“So this would be your demonstration, Attorney Gerdha?”
She tried to simulate a calm breathing.
“Well, yes, Sir. Mr. Drake Sr. and Jr. have been so helpful to bring me all the production notes proves, and I would say they are exactly what I still missed to feel confident about my interpretation of the character and her meaning in the story”
The Myth looked at Gerdha with a subtle smile.
“If I remember correctly, the TTOTC 1 Judge asked you some interesting questions a long time ago” “Which ones?”
“It was written on his reply to the Act of Prosecution...“
The Myth choose a paper from the package and read some lines:
“... Could her view be altered by the interest she feels for the possible love affair between this Duke Fleed/Daisuke and Hikaru? .... Daisuke was probably in love with Hikaru? But was he really? Did he ever try to propose her or rather didn't he consider her until the middle of the story as a young girl with a crazy infatuation for him, an older guy? Would Daisuke be true to himself and his true nature if he indulge himself by allowing himself to carry on a relationship with someone he truly loves and forgetting about his origins, Fleed, and his duties. He is a prince, after all, she is only a young girl from the countryside...“ The Myth left suspended the sentence for a second. “If I remember correctly, even Defence and Jury had something to say on the matter...”
Gerdha felt suddenly worried.
“Dear Master, do you believe my proves are not enough as a proper answer to their questions?”
“Well, I did not mean it exactly. But your proves are not compliance with TTOTC rules. You are going to present your theories through an episode by episode storyline and production notes analysis, but through the lens of Italian dialogues. This analysis is about “your” Hikaru somehow. Using this approach, you could never use your proves in TTOTC. Are you aware of this?”
Gerdha sighs.
“Oh yes, I am, Sir. But I have decided to take the risk to be defeated in TTOTC instead to keep my ideas for myself. I MUST give justice to Hikaru Makiba, Sir. I have to. This topic is too much important for me, I cannot stay quiet anymore.”
The Myth fixed his eyes in Prosecutor’s one.
“Even if this could mean the risk for you to be defeated in TTOTC. in the end?”
Gerdha had no hesitations. “Yes, dear Master, absolutely”
The man kept his eyes in Gerdha’s one. “May you please explain me why do you feel yourself so dedicated to this topic, Mademoiselle? Why defending Miss Hikaru is so important for you?”
Gerdha smiled. “Oh, I suppose I should explain. But it’s something really too much personal, sorry. I hope you understand, Sir.”
The Myth smiled too and stood up offering his hand to the not-so-young-attorney-after-all Prosecutor to be shaken. “I think this analysis is thrilling, Attorney Gerdha. I wish you good luck. What are you going to do with it now?”
She shook his hand in silence and surprisingly she was not more trembling like a leaf. Gerdha took her paper package from the desk and finally answered. “Well, hoping that Mr. DJinspace’s 2 server has enough free space available, I am going home to post my considerations on his Forum”.
She walked some steps to exit the studio room; once she reached the door, though, she turned back a last time to smile to the Myth, the Master, the first hero of her childhood dreams.
Mr. Perry Mason was smiling at her too, and Gerdha closed finally the door behind her.
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HIKARU: OVERVIEW
Is Ufo Robot Grendizer a kid's anime? Well, at first sight the answer is yes: an “educative” story about the war between Earth and Vega's alien reign: after a lot of battles, it ends with earthlings' victory and the return to their planet of the two aliens who helped Earth's inhabitants in winning the war using a giant robot. Who could object to this description? It certainly exactly explains the anime storyline and it correctly describes the happenings displayed on TV screen for 74 episodes.
Anyway, is this summary satisfying? Is it really anime's deep meaning? The true nature of Ufo Robot Grendizer is really the fact of being a kids' anime? Well, my answer is a giant loud “NO”. Please listen: when I talk about "adults" anime, I'm not referring to possible X-rated contents. As a matter of fact, Grendizer is probably one of the most modest animes in history. A modest anime with, strangely, some of the most sensual characters ever appeared in cartoons. Furthermore, they were created by an Author who surely never had any problem with “hard” stories; not only, he is also credited as the first one who introduced – years before Grendizer – sexual contents in manga and animes. It is interesting, isn't it? In fact, my friends, I am pleased to confirm that Go Nagai had really an effective active role in making characters and stories; he was personally involved in Grendizer anime's realisation process during its whole production phase, together with producer Toshio Katsuta. The interview to both Nagai and Katsuta included in the Roman Album cannot leave any single doubt about this.
Since I, years ago, discovered the identity and, mostly, the curriculum of the Author of this story, I have wondered why Go Nagai created Daisuke Umon and developed Grendizer in that way, giving at first sight to viewers some particular hints, like, for example, the major impression that he is a sort of ascetic. Adding to this reflection the consideration that, on the other side, we have a female character like Hikaru Makiba, who seems to cry out loud her love for him without apparently having back an answer, we could easily imply to be in front of a very classical “literature schemed” story: a girl's impossile love from the countryside for a prince (romantic tale celebrated even in ballets like Giselle), the good prince dedicated to fight the evil forces, etc. If somebody would like to stop here this analysis, it would be logical to deduct that Daisuke Umon does not feel any sentiment different from a good friendship for Hikaru Makiba. In fact, this is the statement generally shared by the majority of fans around the world. As a matter of fact, watching Ufo Robot Grendizer using the conventional lens it would be difficult to counterpart it.
But - as I have already expressed in many posts before (in that old French forum)- my opinion is that the whole Grendizer anime is a giant masquerade, in which a certain story was told without displaying it clearly. Only looking deeply into it, in particular keeping attention not only to dialogues, but also to visual aspects, to episode interconnections, to production notes, it is possible trying to understand what it is hidden in its story: the incredible personal evolution of two of the most revolutionary characters ever appeared in an anime: Daisuke Umon and Hikaru Makiba. in fact, Hikaru Makiba is not “one of the characters” of the story. She is THE co-main character of Ufo Robot Grendizer.
I am not joking, my friends. The whole anime is built with a spiral-like storytelling approach, with different narrative level,s going on parallely but which also sometime intersect themselves in order to launch new plots, then go on again for a while for joining together in some moments to restart the scheme. There are lots of plot levels in Grendizer, but a couple of them are the most important of all, and involve exactly Daisuke Umon on one side and Hikaru Makiba on the other one. I have already talked in TTOTC about Daisuke’s personal journey (in French forum) as the main plot line of Grendizer: I won’t repeat here my reflections. What I have never analysed up to now is instead what I consider the second main storyline of the anime: Hikaru’s personal journey. And honestly, her story is as great as Daisuke's. With many more implications than those that at first sight one could expect...
I hope you would like to follow me throughout the whole Grendizer arc in order to discover who Hikaru Makiba really is (provided that the Italian adaptation of the anime is accurate, but… well, I have more than a single proof that the Italian edition (VI DS 3) is very close to the original one at a general level). Let's find finally also Mr. Go Nagai’s touch in Ufo Robot Grendizer. It will be a long journey, I know, but I hope it will worth and...we'll have fun together in this new little “investigation” game. 
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HIKARU MAKIBA: THE GIRL FROM THE COUNTRYSIDE (eps 1-12)
EPISODE 3
Ep3 is the first episode where we know Hikaru Makiba. I know that we see her also in eps 1-2, but her real presentation is actually in ep3. As a matter of fact, I find interesting that the first aspect of her personality, showed in the anime, is her “deep sympathy” for Daisuke. Honestly, I find interesting too his first reaction is not a rejection, even if he is a bit surprised. As I remarked in a very old MM 4, Duke Fleed was for sure a beautiful, intelligent, rich and respected boy, likely used to get whatever he wanted without asking two times. How many stunning girls could have surrounded him, when he lived on Fleed? How many times he could have faced in his royal younghood girls sighing for him, ready to do whatever thing he would have asked? Well, in ep3 he faces, instead, something maybe unusual for him: his boss’ daughter is directly asking him to dance with her and soliciting him for a date. Hikaru finds Daisuke laying on the top of a ball of hay:
Hikaru: Oh, Daisuke, you were disappeared, what are you doing here?
Daisuke: Well, nothing special.
 
Hikaru: Uh, according to you, you never do anything. Why don't you go out with me sometimes? You see, why don’t we go to dance? Everybody’s dancing!
Daisuke: Well, I don’t know...
Hikaru: Oh, come on, or I give you a shaking! Hurry up!
(she shakes the hay, letting Daisuke falling down)
His surprise is clearly designed on his face at her words, but his answer is not a denial: also, it’s not him who blushes once Danbei finds him and Hikaru swept away by the hay.
 
It is a nice way, from a storytelling perspective, to introduce in a “kids' anime” a complex thematic like a possible lovestory between two characters. It is also a more interesting way for sure to depict a girl from the Japanese countryside of the ‘70s. I can tell you for sure (I have an insider in the Japanese society 5 ) that a Japanese girl – especially who is living out of big cities – in the ‘70s could have never been allowed to ask directly a boy for a date. Besides, the scriptwriter (Keisuke Fujikawa) knew for sure about this social aspect. If he decided to depict such an untraditional and “independent” behaviour from Hikaru, it means that this was not an accident or a mistake: Fujkwa purposely introduced this as a characteristic of her personality.
I would add something else: I think Fujikawa acted on the basis of instructions received from Shozo Uehara. The storyline about Hikaru’s strong and innovative personality and her deep link with Daisuke was in fact already presented in Uchu Enban Daisenso (the pilot movie, whose scriptwriter was Uehara himself). I mean, the basic idea about Hikaru’s revolutionary personality - respect to the usual Japanese female figures - was already introduced in the pilot movie (without entering in details, I am referring here mainly to her way to relate herself with her father and her relationship with Daisuke). Uehara is responsible for the scripts of eps 1 & 2 – where the main plot consists in characters and story overview presentation; ep3 is the first “real episode” of the anime. It was written by Fujikawa, but here Hikaru is the mainly focused character. Considering moreover the coherency with her presentation with "Uchu Enban Daisenso", I tend to believe Uehara was involved somehow in its content overview.
Also, I find very interesting that Hikaru’s “official” presentation happens before Koji’s presentation: the first “Koji-centred” episode is ep4. If I was an Author, if I liked to give a presentation of the characters, I think I would proceed in a logical way. Well, it seems that in Grendizer case somebody ;-) thought that Hikaru Makiba deserved the stage light before Koji Kabuto...
I agree with Suzi’s analysis 6 about Daisuke’s evolution in the first eps (see her MM about ep9 on French forum, now sadly suppressed): but I find those episodes containing also seeds of other characters’ presentation – confirming that Grendizer storytelling is complex and very different from all previous animes (honestly, I have difficulties in finding anything comparable. from this point of view, even in later products).
In the first phase of the anime, we can see that the story is trying to “stabilise” itself, to find its own way, through episodes of alternate quality and script level. A long time ago we discussed about ep12 as the “turning point” of the anime (in French forum): in other words, the moment where, probably, the producer and Nagai decided to close the “uncertainty”, definitely changing anime's mood to an “adult” story (in the meaning I have clarified previously). Before ep12 and the closing of the first phase of the anime development, we can see still a couple of interesting episodes referring to Hikaru..
EPISODE 9
Ep9 has been already brilliantly examined by Suzi (on French forum): I honestly have nothing to add to her analysis. I would like only to underline that, at the farm party, Daisuke and Hikaru are clearly shown looking at each other with a love sight. That vision (plus other considerations perfectly described by Suzi) is th fact which convinces Mineo to leave the room and, then, the farm.
  
  
There is no dialogue here: but we can see only a simple sight exchange between Hikaru and Daisuke. Six episodes after ep3 – nothing is explicitly shown to us – something is happened between them for sure, as the party scene is showed in a way that cannot leave any doubts about a growing feeling between them. Even if Hikaru is not surely a main character in ep9 (she is involved in very few scenes), she has anyway a central role in the turning point of that story. We'll see a very similar storytelling approach in future episodes too...
EPISODE 11
Before the end of this first phase of the anime, we can see another episode enlightening Hikaru's remarkable personality: ep11. This episode is usually commented because of “technical” purposes (the famous “energy” issue). This proves once more the multilayered level of storytelling applied in Grendizer. As a matter of fact, those few minutes at the hill in front of the farm give us other hints about a young girl fighting for her independence and trying to understand a guy with such a strange personality. They are alone on the hill, during an undoubtedly romantic night. She explicitly remarks:
Hikaru: How is beautiful the moon, it’s like a mirror. I would like that we could see our heart reflected in the moon.
 
She notices Daisuke's worried expression - he is thinking to a possible Vega attack during the eclipse - then, she asks for an explanation.
 
His answer would be meant to reassure Hikaru: but she is disappointed, telling him:
Hikaru: Uh, that’s what you were thinking...you disappointed me.
 
(Daisuke goes on with “technical details” on the eclipse: she is clearly angry)
Hikaru: You really disappointed me, Daisuke. I thought you felt something for me.
(Daisuke starts to explain himself better)
Daisuke: But, Hikaru, I...
They are interrupted by Danbei, who arrives in an angry mood, finding his daughter alone with a guy: he wants to beat Daisuke. Here is, once again, the novelty of Hikaru: contrarily to the classical Japanese female figures, she debates with her father and clearly refuses to accept his behaviour.
  
Well, nothing comparable had been shown at that time on Japanese animes (a girl showing directly to a guy her interest + rebelling to her father). Hikaru Makiba is a character very far away from classical shy “girls from the countryside”...
At the end of the first phase of Grendizer development, I would say that Authors (Katsuta, Nagai, Uehara, Fujikawa) were trying to create an anime strictly related to the original idea of the characters presented in "Uchu Enban Daisenso", balancing it with the requirement of the “story for kids”. The very different moods of the episodes 1-12 prove that the “direction” of the story was still to be completely developed. Or, maybe better, that someone still lacked the courage to do the final jump over the borderline.
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1 TTOTC: it means "The Trial of The Century". It was a role play on the french forum, in which was making a trial about the characters. It was based on discussions based solely on visual evidence, relating to the fact that Duke Fled was really in love only with Rubina. They were not admitted evidence based on the dialogues of any edition then available. Gerdha had the role of Prosecutions , Agnès was the lawyer defender , the role of Judge was hired by Jerome, the Jury by Suzi and all other forum members who wish to comment on the various posts.
2 DJinspace: it is the surname of French forum's founder and, at the same time, he is even the webmaster of the French forum which I (Gerdha) took part and in which was originally posted this analysis.
3 VI DS: It means "Versione Italiana Doppiaggio Storico": Italian Version Historical Dubbing.
4 MM: it means a "Monstrogoth Message", a long post of analysis. "Monstrogoth" is the French name for Vega's monsters.
5 "I have an insider in the Japanese society": I have a Japanese relative acquired (Gerdha's note).
6 "I agree with Suzi’s analysis" Suzi was a French forum's utent
Edited by joe 7 - 9/1/2022, 23:01
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