GoShogun

GoShogun (戦国魔神ゴーショーグン, Sengoku Majin GōShōgun) is a super robot anime series produced and aired in 1981 in Japan, with a movie special released in 1982 and a film sequel, GoShogun: The Time Étranger or Time Stranger, in 1985. Its title has been variously translated into English as “Demon God of the War-Torn Land GoShogun”, “Warring Demon God GoShogun”, and “Civil War Devil-God GoShogun,” but in the US and parts of Europe it is primarily known as Macron 1, the title of its North American adaptation. The GoShogun series and its film sequel, The Time Étranger, were both written by Takeshi Shudo and directed by Kunihiko Yuyama. The series is noted for its witty dialogue and lighthearted parody of its own genre conventions. The Time Étranger shifts away from the original genre, leaving the robot aside entirely to focus on the strong and complex heroine. It has been praised for its serious tone, psychological intensity, and handling of mature themes.

The story is set in the early 21st century, in which a covert evil organization, Dokuga, led by lord NeoNeros, holds near total political, economic, and military control of the world. Dokuga agents try to forcibly recruit a brilliant physicist, Professor Sanada, who sets off a suicide bomb rather than let Dokuga acquire his secret research. His son Kenta becomes Dokuga's next target, but is saved by his father’s colleague and taken on board a teleporting fortress, Good Thunder. Teleportation is enabled by a mysterious form of energy, called Beamler, which was discovered by Sanada. The same energy also powers a giant battle robot, GoShogun, which is operated by three pilots. The crew of Good Thunder travels the world, repeatedly fighting off NeoNeros's forces with GoShogun and often hampering Dokuga's influence on the local level, whether by destroying their bases and businesses, assisting popular rebellions, or by averting environmental disasters. On at least one occasion GoShogun pilots must team up with Dokuga's three chief officers against a common enemy to prevent the destruction of them all. This sets the stage for an eleventh-hour reversal, in which the three Dokuga generals side definitively against NeoNeros with the GoShogun team.

Over the course of the series it is revealed that Beamler energy originates from a meteorite fragment found on the site of the Tunguska impact. It was sent to Earth by a supernatural power and was activated when humans attained the technological capacity for space exploration, in order to test whether humans are worthy of engaging with civilizations from other planets. Beamler's development is closely connected to Kenta, who in the end becomes the incarnate form of the energy and the representative of the earth's collective soul, including not only living things, but also newly sentient robots and machines. NeoNeros turns out to be a negative, evil form of the same energy. After defeating him, Kenta takes GoShogun into space.