In one night, the three-thousand-year history of House Volder was destroyed. No, as long as the prince lives, it is not over. One day, our greatest dream will come true. After that abominable day, a journey of hardships began... all to escape the gaze of Marder's hunters. It was obvious that Marder, subjugator of Arst, would issue orders to capture the prince. It became necessary to raise the prince as my own grandson. But this did not mean we were fleeing with neither purpose nor destination. We believed that, somewhere in this world, an iron colossus existed, and it was this unknown land that we sought. The legends of old state that "when evil rules the world, Galient the Iron Giant will manifest, and cleanse this world of darkness."
Panzer World Galient (機甲界ガリアン Kikōkai Garian)(1984-1985) is a Humongous Mecha anime produced by Sunrise, directed by Ryosuke Takahashi of Armored Trooper VOTOMS fame and featured the mechanical designs of Yutaka Izubuchi (who also designed mechas in some Gundam series and Patlabor, as well as created and directed Rahxephon).
Set in the far flung medieval-looking world of Arst, the millenia-old kingdom of Volder is celebrating the birth of Prince Jordy Volder when the troops of the conqueror Marder invade the capital city, using an army of advanced robots called panzers. The city falls easily, and during the battle the king is killed and the queen kidnapped, but not before they trust their newborn son to Asbeth, one of their most loyal and most badass soldiers. Asbeth flees the city and becomes a wandering warrior in order to hide Jordy from Marder, raising him as his own grandson while searching the land for the legendary giant robot "panzer" Galient, which is one of many panzers to have been preserved underground for thousands of years. Twelve years later, Jordy finds Galient and prepares to fight Marder, who is conquering all of Arst in preparation of his plan for dominance of the Crescent Galaxy.
Galient is noteworthy for being one of the first anime to combine a Medieval European Fantasy setting with Humongous Mecha. Less well-known but equally important, the Galient Sword is also the original Whip Sword.
Compare and contrast with Aura Battler Dunbine and Vision of Escaflowne.
Tropes from the show:
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A-C
- Ace Custom: Hy Shaltat's Wingal Zee, which has a silver coat of paint and wields two tomahawks (instead of one, unlike the others).
- Action Girl: Hilmuka. Martial artist, sniper... you better believe she can look after herself in a fight.
- Adorably Precocious Child: Jordy Volder is a surprisingly focused and capable fighter, considering the fact that he's merely 12 years-old.
- After the End: Several millennia before the beginning of the show, the world of Arst was devastated by a terrible war. Most of the survivors left the planet as the rest started to rebuild it. Tens of centuries later Arst is inhabitable again, but their inhabitants' technology has regressed to medieval levels.
- Alien Non-Interference Clause: After Hilmuka is revealed to be a Human Alien from a sort of galaxy-spanning policing entity with a very Star Trek-esque non-interference directive, the story shows a bit of her struggle to help the people of Arst overthrow its Evil Overlord while fending off her Obstructive Bureaucrat colleagues. Conversely, Marder, said Evil Overlord, is also an alien from a similar civilization, but he could not care less about fucking up other planets in order to achieve his goals.
- Alien Sky: Planet Arst is orbited by two moons.
- Ambiguously Brown: Redd Windu, who is dark-skinned but it is hard to tell what race he is supposed to be.
- A Mech by Any Other Name: Collectively, they're called Armored Soldiers (Kikouhei). Each mech line is also classified with the prefix word Panzer. For example, Galient is Panzer Blade, centaur mechs like Promaxis are Panzer Trampler, while flyable Wingals are Panzer Gust.
- And I Must Scream: After getting captured, Queen Felia -Jordy's mother- was frozen, framed and turned into a strange blend of living painting and statue to adorne Marder's private chambers. She is aware, but she cannot move, talk or even blink.
- Animal Mecha: Galient's Falcon Flight Form.
- Apathetic Citizens: The Lanplatians. Even when a tower falls on their friends right in front of them, they just stand there drooling in confusion. Marder's grand plan is actually to make them forget this and care about *something* again.
- Attack Drone: The Eraser combines this with Kill Sat. It's a network of computer-controlled mechanical devices that uses a powerful gravity surge to destroy the surfaces of planets.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Galient's Flight Form makes quick travel to other places convenient, but since it has no weapons to speak of, it's completely vulnerable to aerial attacks. Luckily, this is eventually fixed via the Assault Galient upgrade.
- Badass and Child Duo: Asbeth and Jordy. The former is a loyal, veteran knight and badass swordsman, and the latter is his surrogate grandson and prince, as well as a badass in training and a mecha pilot.
- Bald of Evil: Marder is bald.
- Barehanded Blade Block: In episode 3, Galient used both forearms to block an axe blow. Galient blocked the weapon, but the blow was powerful enough to knock the super robot down.
- Beard of Evil: Marder has a pretty thick. He even has a goatee.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Between Jordy and Chururu. They fight constantly but they are fond of each other.
- Big Bad: Marder is the show's primary antagonist, who started a conquest of the entire planet of Arst.
- The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In: Swords always act like this in this series. In one episode, two characters are dueling when the vehicle where they are standing on blows up. The sword of one of them flew away and landed right on its tip.
- Blocking Stops All Damage: Subverted in chapter 3, when Galient stops an axe blow from an enemy robot with its forearms, but the force and momentum of the attack knocks it down.
- Bittersweet Ending: The anime sort of just...ends. The Arstians all escape Lanplate, and the Eraser comes and wipes out the planet and all of its inhabitants. Marder abruptly decides to end the Arst War and spend the last few minutes with his people.
- Chest Blaster: Marder's battle robots have a blaster located in their midsections.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Between Jordy and Chururu. They met when they were toddlers. Then got married eventually.
- Child Soldiers: Jordy Volder, not that the circumstances give him much of a choice in the matter: the Big Bad conquered his father's kingdom and was gradually taking over the whole planet, forcing him to learn how fighting. In addition, he's the only person capable to pilot the titular Humongous Mecha.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Chururu gets pretty temperamental when a beautiful woman like Hilmuka is around Jordy.
- Crazy Enough to Work: In chapter 6, the main characters are trying to come up with a way to prevent the Marder's army from attacking White Valley. Hilmuka suggests that they raid Marder's weapons factories to draw the enemy's attention to them. What is the catch? She wants to assault a vast, heavily guarded fortress with two adult soldiers, two teenagers and a Humongous Mecha. Windu protested that that plan was crazy, but Jordy decided to try Hilmuka's idea anyway.
- Crush Blush: Jordy and Chururu suffer from this constantly:
- In chapter 6, when another character talks Jordy, about love, he gets his entire face bright red.
- Later on, when the words "Jordy" and "marriage" are used in the same sentence, Chururu blushes deeply.
- Crystal Prison: After capturing her, Marder locked Queen Felia inside a multi-colored glass prison where she remained in suspended animation and placed her in his private chambers as if she was some sort of war trophy.
- Cut Short: The anime just... ends Jordy hasn't even got a final duel with Marder or Hy.
D-F
- Damsel in Distress:
- Queen Felia -The Hero's mother- gets captured and imprisoned by the Big Bad in first episode. Jordy spends a long while believing his mother was dead, but as soon as he finds out that she's alive, rescuing her becomes one of his priorities.
- Hilmuka kidnaps Chururu in the third episode. Although in this instance Hilmuka only wanted to draw Jordy's attention, and she let Chururu go when he found them.
- Diagonal Cut: This is how Galient finishes many of Jordy's friends.
- The Dragon: Hy Shaltat, Marder's Royal Guard Commander. He is his most loyal and most valued warrior.
- Dual Wielding: Hy Shaltat does it with two axes.
- Empathic Weapon: Galient often feels its pilot's distress and reacts, acting off its own accord to protect or save Jordy.
- The Empire: The Marder's Empire. The story begins when Marder's troops invade the capital city of the peaceful kingdom of Arst, killing dozens of people, murdering the king, kidnapping the queen and conquering the country. During the next decade, Marder expanded his empire, encroaching upon most of planet Arst and killing brutally whoever opposed him. The twist is he doesn't care for Arst, he only wants to seize the planet resources in order to launch an interplanetary war.
- Enemy Civil War: Both Royal Guard Commander Hy Shaltat and General Zaba work for Marder, but they don't like each other at all. Hy thinks that Zaba is an idiot and he ignores him completely or hits him if he gets in his way. For his part, Zaba would love an excuse to get Hy executed.
- Evil Is Hammy: Both Marder and his dragon Hy are prone to big, dramatic speeches and declarations.
- Evil Overlord: Marder displays most of required traits, but he's a subversion: he wears black, he dwells in a huge fortress-city from which he deploys his troops, he's conquered huge chunks of planet Arst and is trying to tave over the whole world... however, he doesn't care about Arst at all. He only wants to seize the planet's resources and weaponry to achieve his true goals.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Galient's Falcon Flight Form. The name describes exactly what it is and how it looks.
- Expy: Hy Shaltat has Chirico Cuvie's exact face.
- Faceless Goons: Marder's soldiers always wear a mouthless white mask that covers their heads fully and a blue helmet.
- Falling into the Cockpit: Jordy enters into Galient and pilots it for first time despite of having no idea of how piloting machines, let alone robots -let alone that robot-. Justified, since he was being mind-controlled during the ordeal for someone that transfered in his mind the necessary knowledge.
- Fantasy Anime & Manga: blended with Humongous Mecha
- Forgotten First Meeting: When Jordy and Asbeth arrive at White Valley, Jordy meets and befriends White Valley's leader's girl, Chururu. Shortly after Asbeth and Chururu's father explain to both they had already met when they were two-years-old, during an ealier visit of Jordy's "grandfather". Naturally, since Jordy and Chururu were toddlers back then, they had completely forgotten that.
- Full-Name Basis: The majority of the characters meeting Hy Shaltat always address to him by his full name.
G-I
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Subverted in episode 4 when Chururu pitches a fit and Hilmuka slaps her to calm her down and keep her quiet. Chururu's reaction was crying out louder.
- Girlish Pigtails: Chururu wears this hairstyle.
- The Good Kingdom: The Kingdom of Arst. Marder invaded it and conquered in the first episode.
- The Great Serpent: In episode 2, the chamber where Galient is kept is guarded by a giant serpent, who constricts Prince Joldy in an attempt to swallow him alive until Asbeth arrives and hacks the serpent's head off.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: More than one Proxima unit and artillery mecha suffers this fate, thanks to Galient's BFS. In 99% of these instances, the halved mecha will explode seconds later.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Averted with Jordy, who uses a dagger, and played straight with his sword-wielder mecha.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: Marder. While it's made apparent early on that he wants to take over the entire Crescent Galaxy (to the point of treating Arst's conquest as an anciliary goal), the reason why isn't revealed for a good while. It turns out that he sees the peace on his home planet of Lanplate as "false", since the populace is practically emotionless. As such, he plans to use Arst's technology to cause a chain reaction that will plunge the entire galaxy into all-out war, with him as the victor that will promote true peace.
- Horse of a Different Color: In the world of Arst, people ride horned, bipedal critters that look like a wingless bird mixed with a dinosaur.
- Human Aliens: None of the characters in show are from Earth. All of them are completely humanoid. There are not discernible differences between people of Arst -like Jordy or Chururu- or people born in other planets -like Hilmuka or Marder-. Justified, since Hilmuka and other people from her homeworld migrated from Arst several millennia ago.
- Humongous Mecha: The titular giant robot and the panzers.
- I Miss Mom:
- In-Series Nickname: Jojo for Jordy Volder. Justified, since Asbeth is hiding his royal lineage until the time is right to rally up the White Valley's rebels.
J-L
- Jet Pack:
- Marder's foot troops use jet-packs.
- In episode 4, two of the main characters -Hilmuka and Chururu- stole a pair of jet-packs and used them to fly across a low-gravity area.
- Kid Hero: Jordy Volder, prince of Arst, swordsman, Humongous Mecha pilot is a twelve-year-old kid and this story's hero (not that the circumstances give him much of a choice in the matter). He's even younger than your average Humongous Mecha show protagonist (barring the Zambot 3 pilots).
- In chapter 5, Hy tries to find out who is the pilot of Galient. When he saw Jojo, he was shocked.
- The Kid with the Remote Control: Twelve-year-old Jordy Volder is the only one capable of piloting Galient.
- Killed Off for Real: Asbeth and General Rhodan. Also, the end credits in the final episode heavily imply this for Hy Shaltat and Marder, as well.
- Kill Sat: The Eraser is a network of these that uses a powerful gravity surge to destroy the surfaces of planets.
- Large Ham:
- Redd Windu. Of course, given that his voice actor is Shigeru Chiba, it's to be expected.
- Hy tends to be... quite dramatic when he gets angry or thrilled:Hy: Cur, who are you? I will expose your true might!
- Latex Space Suit: Panzer pilots wore tight suits as well as body armor pieces.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Jordy is too Hot-Blooded, rash and loud for his own good, he's unable to be stealthy, and he feels more comfortable charging the enemy head-on than infiltrating an enemy base.
- Lost Technology: Ancient war machines and weapons were buried everywere in planet Arst. Marder dug up tons of ancient technology to arm his army, and La Résistance tried to find and unearth best weapons to fight him with. The titular Humongous Mecha was one of those weapons found by White Valley's rebel settlement.
- Luminescent Blush: As seen in chapter 6, talking to Jordy about love is the quickest way to get his face red (he even stutters in a very cute fashion).
M-O
- Macross Missile Massacre: Artillery Panzers used that tactic. In episode 7, a large squad surrounded a cave where Jordy and his allies were hiding and shot volley after volley of explosive projectiles.
- Mecha Expansion Pack: "Assault Galient", a combination of assault rifle and Shoulder Cannon.
- Mecha-Mook: Out of the Marder Army's entire supply of Panzers, the Promaxis -a centaur-like mecha armed with a spear, a shield and a Chest Blaster- is the most common one.
- Mecha Show
- Medieval European Fantasy: The whole setting, minus the giant robots and sci-fi weaponry.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Asbeth became Jordy's surrogate grandfather, mentor and trainer, taking care of him and training him since he was a newborn. He died trying to kill the Big Bad to fulfill a prophecy that would ensure Jordy's victory over Marder.
- Mid-Season Upgrade: Galient got "Assault Galient", a combination of assault rifle and Shoulder Cannon.
- Mind-Control Eyes: In episode 3, Jordy's pupiles fade and only his blue irises are visible as his mind is being controled by Galient.
- Mr. Fanservice: Marder often shows up floating in a reanimation chamber completely naked. To be an old guy he is pretty muscled and well-toned.
- Ms. Fanservice: Himuka.
- Necessarily Evil: Marder gladly wears the "evil overlord" hat, for the sake of going back to his home planet and use chaos and destruction to wake up his compatriots from their extremely dull, boring and lifeless utopia.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In episode 5, to keep Jordy and the crew from escaping, Hy turns off the gravity-scrambling device that was altering gravity in the whole valley. Jordy and his friends are about of dying from falling, from being hit by rocks... and then they find themselves about of getting crushed between two walls of rock, with no escape. However, Protz turned on the device to keep his own base of crumble apart, accidentally saving them right on time.
- Non-Action Big Bad: Marder is completely defenseless in an actual battle and got almost killed at least once when Hy Shaltat wasn't around.
- "Not So Different" Remark:
- Hilmuka thinks that she's not so different from Marder. She doesn't like planet Lanplate's lifeless, stagnant utopia, either.
- During his last battle, Hy tells Jordy that he's not really different from Marder and he should join them.
- Obviously Evil: With his black outfit, piercing eyes, black goatee and lack of hair, it'd be difficult to mistake Marder for anyone other than the Big Bad.
- Ojou Ringlets: Queen Felia has two very long and curly ringlets.
- Our Centaurs Are Different: The entire Panzer Trampler mech line are shaped like mechanical, giant, horned, one-eyed centaurs armed with lances, shields and Chest Blasters.
- Original Video Animation: Three of them: Crest of Earth and Crest of Heaven are Compilation Movies, while the third, Crest of Iron, is an Alternate Universe.
P-R
- Parental Substitute: When Marder invaded the capital of Arst, killed the King and kidnapped the Queen, Asbeth -their most loyal knight- rescued their son Jordy and ran away. From that day on, he became Jordy's guardian and caretaker, looking after him and teaching him how to fight.
- Power Crystal: Galient has a diamond-shaped, glowing, green crystal between its eyes.
- Prophecies Are Always Right: According old Arstian legends: "when evil rules the world, Galient the Iron Giant will manifest, and cleanse this world of darkness". And that's exactly what happens.
- Real Robot Genre
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Don Slarzen. While he was affiliated with Marder in the present, he's more than willing to help the resistance movement when the latter goes too out of line, since he used to be an acquaintance of the king of Arst.
- Red Is Heroic: Galient is almost completely red. Also, Jordy wears black and red armor and body suit.
- The Rival: After their first duel, Hy gets quickly obsessed with defeating Jordy and crushing Galient. He goes as far as to disobey orders.
- Rock Beats Laser: Played with. When the forces of Marder -which included infantry and cavalry equipped with beam weapons and giant war mechas- invaded the capital of the Kingdom of Arst, they easily won because the Arstians were armed with nothing but swords and spears. Later on, though, a rebel army equipped with bladed weapons and reinforced by Galient managed to beat Marder's war mechas.
- Role Called: Panzer World Galient.
S-U
- Schizo Tech: Arst is a medieval fantasy world, but the army of Marder is equipped with beam weapons, Jet Packs, Humongous Mecha... as his enemies fight using swords, spears... It's justified, though. The level of technology is medieval due to the inhabitants of Arst losing most of their advanced technology during a terrible war a very long time ago, and Marder searched and found their forgotten, advanced weapons.
- Science Fantasy: The setting is a typical medieval fantasy world... with giant robots thrown in the mix. Later events show the setting to be closer to a science fiction story set in a medieval society (with a plot inspired by heroic fantasy tropes) than it is a high fantasy story that features giant robots.
- Science Fiction Anime & Manga
- Shonen Hair: Jordy has messy, spiky, blonde hair.
- Shoulder Cannon: Assault Galient's beam gun and Monocot's flash arrow pod. Panzer artillery troops are fitted with long cannons on their shoulders to shoot dozens of explosive projectiles every round.
- Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Hilmuka has this combination of colour of hair and eyes.
- Slow Laser: In chapter 5, characters are floating in an inversed gravity enviroment, helped by slow-moving jetpacks, and still are capable to dodge laser beams.
- Spectacular Spinning: Zauel's sword spins like a drill.
- Snake People: In the third OVA shows up Jashin-Hei, an Humongous Mecha with half-snake part.
- Spell My Name With An S: Where to even start? At the very least, X Nebula's fansub transliterations of the names are pronounceable.
- Super Robot Wars: Galient shows up in Super Robot Wars BX.
- Spoiler Opening: A small example. The Zauel and Skartz are briefly shown in it, long before their respective pilots appear in the story proper.
- Swiss-Army Weapon: Wingal's tomahawk can be used as beam gun.
- Sword Fight: As you may expect in a show where both human characters and mechas use bladed weapons, there were several throughout the series (like the scuffle between Hilmuka and Hy in episode 5).
- Tap on the Head: In chapter 5, Hy uses the "karate chop to the neck" variant with Lord Protz. The blow was strong enough to slam Protz in a nearby railing, though.
- Tears of Joy: In chapter 5, Chururu cries in happiness when she meets Jordy again.
- Tell Me About My Father: Jordy constantly asks Asbeth about his mother. One of his first lines in the series consists of him asking: "What my mother was like?". Inverting the trope, he is not seen asking about his father, but his surrogate grandfather decides motu propio to tell him that he is son of the late King of Arst.
- Thanks for the Mammary: In episode 5, Redd grabs Hilmuka's breast as hugging her. He got slapped for it.
- The Three Faces of Eve:
- Queen Felia is the wife, calm, mature and wise.
- Hilmuka is the temptress, beautiful, sultry, and more than willing to use her charms to get what she wants.
- Hot-tempered, rash, immature, emotional twelve-year-old Chururu is the child.
- Transforming Mecha: Galient is capable of transforming into a jet fighter (which greatly resembles a valkyrie's hybrid mode.
- Trapped in Another World: At the climax of the story, the main character and all his friends and allies were transported to another planet. As they were trapped in that world, they had to fight the Big Bad and find a way back to their homeworld because that planet was about to blow up.
- Trickster Mentor: Hilmuka loves teasing, testing and tricking Jordy so he learns to fight and discovers their enemy's true nature and capabilities.
- Upbringing Makes the Hero: Asbeth looked after and raised Jordy after his parents' death, teaching him to be kind, honorable, selfless and generous. When Jordy grew up he became The Hero that freed planet Arst from tyrant Volder and ruled the planet fairly.
V-Z
- Villainous Friendship: Hy Shaltat and Marder. Both men have mutual respect for each other. Hy is absolutely loyal, and Marder greatly values Hy's spirit, zeal and skill. Even though the former really isn't in a position to assist the latter much.
- Wham Line:Hilmuka: "[Jordy's mother] is alive."
- Whip Sword: The Galient Blade is a whip that transforms into a sword. What's really notable is that this is the first time a Whip Sword as we know it is portrayed.
- Worthy Opponent: Jimzal Lambert. He is so honorable that when General Rhodan interrupted his and Jordy's duel with an attack force, he refused to budge his Zauel during the ensuing invasion of White Valley.
- Word Salad Title
- You Killed My Father: Jordy wants to avenge the death of his father, killed by Marder.
Tropes from Third OVA: Crest Of Iron
- Ace Custom: Both Jordy and Marder have their own version of Jinbahei.
- Alternate Universe: Jordy, Hy Shaltat and Chururu are siblings-in-law, Hilmuka is not an Alien. And Galient is named Tetsukyojin
- Attack Drone: Tetsukyojin electrifies it's own sword, and attacks Jashin Hei and it breaks the sword into several pieces, but the broken parts from the shattered sword fly and attack Jashin-Hei in all directions and utterly damaging it, and the pieces of the broken sword reform the sword and restore it back to normal.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: and How! Tetsukyojin destroys the entire army without taking serious damage! Though it does struggle a bit against Jashin Hei.
- Foreshadowing : In the beginning of the OVA, one thunderbolt hit the hut resulting in a flame that shows an image of Hy Shaltat killing King Marder.
- Humongous Mecha: Jashin Hei piloted by Hy Shaltat.
- Snake People: Jashin Hei looks like an humanoid snake.
- Villain Protagonist: Hy Shaltat. Though he wasn't like that at first.
What is the point of eternal peace? Life and death clash against each other. Lusts and ideals intertwine, and joys and sorrows color this world. Therefore, paradise... can only be unbearable grief. It can only be unbound joy. The paradise of all living things is, indeed, in chaos.
