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EPISODE 72: BEGINNING
Well, I know that ep72 should be a matter of TTOTC 1...but...well, how could I leave this incredible episode outside an Hikaru Makiba analysis? I rely on the Court to decide if what I am going to express in this chapter could be used in our funny trial too  Anyway, for what the Prosecution is concerned, even if I love TTOTC game to all extent , I consider giving justice to Hikaru as a more important goal for me than “winning” the trial. Sometime life requires to make hard choices...
First point in any ep72 analysis, whatever aspect one would like to discuss, is taking into consideration its design team. As for ep25 and ep63, the main roles are assigned to the trio Katsumata-Araki-Mashima (the three episodes differ only in the scenarists, which are different in each of them). I would like in particular to underline the coincidence of the same design team for ep25 and ep72, whose correlation is to me one of the keys to understand the deep meaning of the latter;
 
connecting ep25 to the Fleedian Trilogy is in fact what could help us in giving a proper sense to all the incredible happenings we must face in ep72.
I have already told that I consider this episode as the real end of Ufo Robot Grendizer, as it closes what I believe to be the real main plot and deep meaning of the anime: the personal journey of Duke Fleed to overcome his guiltiness feelings. But I believe this is not enough. His personal journey has up to now involved also Hikaru Makiba, and ep72 is, in some way, the final celebration of their lovestory. I told in TTOTC that, in this episode, Rubina is only the beautiful dress of the most complicated matrioska of all in Grendizer, and the more I watch ep72, the more I'm convinced of my opinion. Connecting the visual evidences to some deductions referred to the narrative arc of the anime, it should become enough easy to discover what is hidden in ep72, also about Hikaru and her relationship with Daisuke. Apparently, Hikaru is the great absent from ep72. Just as in ep25 (Naida's episode, see the coincidence…), she appears in few scenes, and her voice resonates only two times in 23 minutes (two little sentences: one at the lake scene and one while she is on the jeep).
 
So, apparently, her typical low-profile implemented by the Authors after Maria Grace’s arrival is here even more remarked than the usual, and, adding this impression to Rubina’s massive presence, it could seem that this episode cuts definitely any connection between Hikaru and Daisuke. Instead, I believe that ep72 represents the maximum expression of the “Grendizer masquerade” and that Hikaru Makiba has somehow – just as in ep25 – an important role in the story. There are some “strange” scenes in ep72 involving Hikaru, which have caused big discussions between fans during the years; well, I think that finding the right “key lecture” of ep72 can enable fans in finding a proper explanation also to those “little mysteries”.
Funnily, I have elaborated my theory on ep72 only last year(note: summer 2002), when I watched it for a casualty with the TV volume switched off. To my big surprise, I discovered that what it mostly counts in ep72 is not what it is said in it, but instead what it’s NOT told there. I mean, this episode lacks at least a proper explicit introduction (the original ending credits of ep71 could be interesting for TTOTC, but they don’t give added value here). What’s happened between ep71 and ep72? In fact, watching ep72, it’s clear that the timeline of the story has undertaken a big change and it does not follow anymore the parallel flow with the airing time, which has been, up to that moment, one of the features of the anime. Ep71 (Morus episode) was broadcasted in Japan on 6th February 1977, and, in fact, for what we can see in the episode, its scenario is consistent with a late winter ambient.
Instead, one week later (13th February 1977), the scenarist applies a late spring (if not even early summer) ambient for ep72.
It’s impossible that this aspect is an accident or a mistake, so, we should think that really ep72 is located in the Grendizer timeline at a certain distance from ep71 (2-3 months if not more). Or, we can suppose that ep72 starts really a short time after ep71, and Rubina takes some months to cover the distance between Planet Fleed and the Moon Base (I personally find it very likely, as she is driving a simple spacer and not a spacecraft).
At first, this delayed timeline could seem to have anyway no importance, after all: Rubina is a character linked to flowers, so this could be the reason behind the choice of the scenarist.
 
Instead, I believe that this moving of the scheduling of the Grendizer story has a deep meaning and is crucial to understand ep72 happenings.
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1 TTOTC: "The Trial of The Century". It was a sort of role-playing game, in which a trial was performed on the characters. Gerdha had the role of Prosecution, Agnès was the Defense Counsel, the Judge was Jerome, the Jury were Suzi and all the other members of the forum who wanted to comment on the various posts.
Edited by joe 7 - 24/11/2019, 16:37
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