Blue Comet SPT Layzner

Series

Episodes

Merchandise

"My name is Eiji. I'm here to protect the Earth."

Blue Comet SPT Layzner is an anime series produced by Sunrise between 1985 and 1986 by Ryosuke Takahashi. It takes place in an alternate 1996 where humanity has advanced enough to travel to Mars and the Moon, and establish settlements there. However, the Cold War is still going on, with ever-increasing tensions between United States of America and the Soviet Union, and the threat of a nuclear war looms on the horizon.

But soon, an unknown menace befalls humanity: on Mars, the members of an exchange program funded by the United Nations to promote peace and dialogue between nations find themselves trapped in a crossfire between four mysterious humanoid robots - three of which begin firing on the exchange program's base, killing almost all of the students. Only a few people survive, but they find themselves isolated on an inhospitable planet that has become a battlefield. And, as if this wasn't enough, the pilot of the fourth robot, who had been trying not to involve the civilians in the battle, actually presents himself to the survivors, introducing himself as Albatro Null Eiji Asuka, and telling them that the Earth is being targeted for occupation by the far-away Grados Empire...

Story[]

The Story takes place in the year 1996, where humanity is advanced enough to develop long-range space travel, as well as bases on both the Moon and Mars. However, the Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union have not ended; rather, they've escalated as both sides build military facilities in space, and the shadow of nuclear conflict looms over humanity, both on and off Earth.

Meanwhile, on Mars, an exchange program created by the United Nations to promote peace and understanding is about to begin; the "Cosmic Culture Club", consisting of 16 boys and girls, as well as their instructor Elizabeth, arrives at the UN Mars base, and are being welcomed by the staff. Among the passengers is Anna a 14 year old girl who serves as the narrator for the story.

Suddenly, four unidentified humanoid robots classified as Super Powered Tracers are detected, engaged in fierce combat with each other. The UN base is caught in the crossfire and quickly destroyed, killing all but six members of the "Cosmic Culture Club"--Elizabeth, Arthur, Roan, David, Simone and Anna, and leaving them stranded on an inhospitable planet that has suddenly become a battlefield. As the battle ends, the lone SPT standing lands next to the terrified group and opens up revealing a pilot, who simply announces to them, "The Earth has been targeted".

The robots who destroyed the UN base were the creation of the Grados, an alien race, from the Udoria system, who came to the Sol system for the purpose of conquest, seeing an easy victory as the two superpowers raged against each other to exhaustion—however, this could also be described as an act of pre-emptive self-defense; the Gradosian supercomputers have determined that humanity will eventually cease its infighting and become powerful enough to spread through the galaxy, posing a destructive threat to even the far off Grados.

However, there were two Grados opposed to the plan: human astronaut Ken Asuka, assumed lost during a deep space mission but discovered by the Grados, and his son Null Albatro (his "human" name being Eiji). As the Grados prepared their invasion fleet, Eiji stows away on board one of the ships and steals their most powerful and advanced weapon, the SPT-LZ-00X Layzner before fleeing, seeking to warn humanity of its impending invasion. It was here where he was attacked. Aside from the Layzner, the surviving humans have now become very important to the Grados; as the only human eyewitnesses to the aliens and their power, the six are the only ones who can convince the warring powers to stand down from destroying each other, and focus on the greater threat.

Staff[]

Original work: Tsunehisa Itoh, Ryousuke Takahashi
Director: Ryousuke Takahashi
Screenplay: Hiroyuki Hoshiyama, Fuyushi Gobu, Yasushi Hirano, Tsunehisa Itoh, Mieko Endoh, Ryōsuke Takahashi

Animation directors: Moriyasu Taniguchi, Hiromi Muranaka, Fumiko Kishi, Makoto Itoh, Michiyo Sakurai, Hideyuki Motohashi, Chiharu Satoh, Satoru Nakamura, Masato Sawada
Mechanical animation directors: Tohru Yoshida, Hiroyuki Okiura
Producer: Masuo Ueda

Theme songs[]

Opening: Melos no Yōni Lonely Way (Like Melos, Lonely Way)
- Lyrics: Yasushi Akimoto
- Composer: Hideya Nakazaki
- Arranging: Megumi Wakakusa
- Performed By: Airmail from Nagasaki
Ending (Episodes 1-25): Go-fun Dake no Wagamama (Just 5 Minutes of Selfishness)
- Lyrics:Yasushi Akimoto]
- Composer: Hideya Nakazaki
- Arranging: Megumi Wakakusa
- Performed By: Seiko Tomizawa & Airmail from Nagasaki
Ending (Episode 26-38): La Rose Rouge (The Red Rose)
- Lyrics: [Misono Kawana
- Composer:Tetsuji Hayashi
- Arranging: Eiji Kawamura
- Performed By: Seiko Tomizawa

US Release[]

Bandai had plans to release the series in the US in Summer 2001 (along with Giant Gorg) but never did. The official story is that they got damaged, blue-tinted video masters from Sunrise and were unable to acquire replacements. In 2005 Bandai's license to SPT Layzner and Giant Gorg expired.

Blue Comet SPT Layzner in other media[]

This series was recently included in Super Robot Wars Judgement for the Game Boy Advance and Super Robot Wars GC for the Nintendo GameCube. It was also featured in Neo Super Robot Wars (its debut) and Super Robot Wars 64 with a primary storyline role of all the Super Robot Wars it has appeared in. In its recent appearances, the unused Layzner Mk-II design that briefly appears in the credits sequences of the "1999" arc has been an unlockable Unit. Characters such as Gale and Julia have also been able to join your side after convincing processes. Ru Kain and his Demon Death Platoon are frequent adversaries, as are most of the mass-produced SPTs.

The series also appears in the Another Century's Episode games, with the Layzner & Zakarl being playable in the first game and also the Greimkaiser & Bloodykaiser make appearances as CPU-only units. The sequel, Another Century's Episode 2, follows the basic plot of the series but adapts it to the setting produced by the combined plots of the anime involved. For example, Eiji's first appearance is just after the resolution of Martian Successor Nadesico, and the SDF-1 Macross's fold removes the heroes from Earth long enough for Grados to establish control over Manhattan. The heroes return in time to aid the resistance, and Eiji finally joins the team officially along with Domon Kasshu after they (and the player's current character) fight off the Demon Death Platoon and several Gundam Heads.

The series also appear in Harobots, because they are from the Sunrise series, this series' units can be act as 'wild' units, or player's units.

Trivia[]

The Scouters in the manga and anime series Dragon Ball Z were heavily inspired by the "targeting eyepieces" of the SPTs; however, Eiji does not use a targeting eyepiece in the series until some episodes later (originally, he wears a full-face helmet).

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Blue Comet SPT Layzner. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Super Robot Wars Wiki, the text of Wikipedia this page uses is covered by the Creative Commons License.