Grendizer (Goldorak) returns to the big and small screens
(Visual by Toei) Here’s something that will interest the anime fans amongst our readers. After the extremely well received one shot comic “Goldorak” (UFO Robot Grendizer) in France – the comic book by author Xavier Dorison and a trio of 3 illustrators (Denis Bajram, Brice Cossu and Yoann Guillo) sold 228,700 copies last year – it’s now also the return to the small and big screens of this Japanese Super Robot.
The new anime iteration of the most famous of the Mechas will be called ‘Project G’ and the announcement came from Go Nagai, aged 76, himself. The Japanese creator of Grendizer has posted a video in which he reveals the development of a brand new anime dedicated to this pioneer of the Mecha series. A release date is scheduled for 2023 and the return of Grendizer comes almost 45 years after the end of the original anime which was originally broadcast in Japan from 1975 to 1977.
It’s still unclear if we can expect a film or actually a full series. Below is the teaser trailer.
A true French love affair
Whereas the series didn’t really connect with the US audience, the French audience went mad on it. The French dub titled Goldorak was the first anime series to be telecast in France and legend goes that the series was so popular among French viewers that several episodes scored a 100% TV rating. Like the Italian dub, it changed all of the characters’ names and inserted additional songs, although it did translate the series’ original opening and ending themes into French.
Some versions of the dub have a completely different theme simply titled “Goldorak”, which was sung by Franco-Israeli singer Noam Kaniel. Kaniel’s performance earned him unprecedented celebrity status in France; by the time Goldorak had ended its original run on French TV, its theme song achieved platinum status in France. The Francophone dub was also one of the first anime programs to be a major success in Canada where it was broadcast on Quebec’s TVA network. When the first of 3 films was released, “UFO Robot Grendizer Raid”, it became a hit at the French box office, selling 922,964 tickets upon release in 1979.
In 2005, a major crisis led Toei to take legal actions against all French megastores, and two major French anime publishers in France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland and Luxembourg. The crisis started with the official release of unlicensed Goldorak DVDs by Manga Distribution and Déclic Images. By November 28, 2005, Manga Distribution and Déclic Images were ordered to pay €7,200,000 (later lowered to €4,800,000) to Toei and Dynamic Planning for selling unlicensed DVD boxes. Déclic Images has since gone through a number of restructurings and recovery proceedings, but finally threw the towel in 2012.
As of 2013, following an agreement with Toei, an official “fully remastered and uncensored” DVD release of the complete series is available on the French market. The series has also aired on the French Mangas anime TV channel.
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