Galactic Whirlwind Sasuraiger (also translated: Sasuraiger, Galactic Gale Sasuraiger, and Wonder Six.) was an anime series aired from 1983 to 1984 in Japan with a total of 43 episodes. The series served as a sequel to the Baxinger anime series. The original concept is derived from Around the World in Eighty Days.
Set in the year 2911, fifty planets have been discovered throughout the solar system and inhabited by humans. A gambler named I.C. Blues makes a bet with the boss of a criminal syndicate known as Bloody God that it is possible to navigate to all 50 planets within the space of one year. I.C. Blues and the JJ-9 team, made up of Rocky, Beat and Birdy, purchase a super robot capable of transforming into a train, the Sasuraiger, to accomplish the task ahead. The series follows the adventures of the group as they struggle to reach the gold and overcome the obstructive acts of the Bloody God syndicate that seeks to stop them from completing the goal.
The series had a line of toys under the name Bertrain in Japan and Fast Track in the Convertors toy line in the U.S. The series also was included in Super Robot Wars GC, along with fellow J9 robots Braiger and Baxinger.
This work includes the following tropes:
- Action Girl: Birdy can be just as badass as the boys.
- Adjective Noun Fred: Galactic Whirlwind Sasuraiger.
- Artistic License – Space: Needless to say, there aren’t 50 planets in the Solar System. Justified in-universe, though, because the plot of Braiger (set 800 years before) culminated with Jupiter being destroyed and its mass used to create dozens of new Earth-like planets.
- A-Team Firing: Any time anyone fires on the JJ-9 team, they'll usually miss.
- Big Bad: Bloody God.
- By the Power of Grayskull!: "Let's Sasuride!" uttered by Blues before transforming.
- Cool Airship
- Cool Train: Sasuraiger itself.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Try as they might, none of Bloody's goons can ever seem to do any damage to Sasuraiger.
- Dark Is Evil: Bloody God, who is bathed in shadow even out in the open until the very last episode.
- Days of Future Past: 2911 looks a lot like the wild west or the 80s, depending on the planet.
- Death from Above
- Distant Sequel: 200 years after Baxinger, 800 years after Braiger.
- Enforced Plug
- Even Evil Has Standards: Bloody God might be an amoral, omnipotent scumbag for the most part, but even he won't tolerate his mooks ruining his name by being bad losers.
- Everybody Lives: None of the main cast are dead by the end of the series, in contrast to Baxinger.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Bloody God once again.
- Fiery Redhead: Rock.
- Genki Girl: Petit Lotti, intrepid reporter and ball of joyful energy.
- Good Is Not Soft: The JJ-9 Team are the good guys, but they're not afraid to gun down any bad guys who bring harm to others. Rock is the best example of this.
- Graceful Loser: Bloody God stops an attempted shooting at Jimmy and Suzie's wedding and gracefully signs off on the prize to Blues and the crew.
- Grand Finale: To the J9 Trilogy. The final episode even has a montage of J9-I from Braiger, J9-2 from Baxinger and finally J9-III, Sasuraiger.
- Happy Ending: Unlike Braiger and Baxinger Sasuraiger ends on a Unambiguously Happy Note.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: A group of scammers on one planet try to enforce this by stealing from people under the guise of JJ-9. It only briefly works before the real deal shows up and reveals the scam.
- Humongous Mecha: What Sasuraiger transforms into.
- Invincible Hero: The only thing which brings IC Blues down is a cold. Failing that, the man never gets seriously hurt.
- The Lancer: Rock Anlock is Blues' right hand man.
- Legacy Character: We have another descendent of Khamen Khamen and more Nubians hanging around what's left of Jupiter. Or in this case, Son of Jupiter.
- Limited Wardrobe: The characters have a very limited wardrobe. Justified in that they're in space for a year.
- Meaningful Name: Blues and the crew come up with the name "Sasuraiger" because they're going exploring and "Sasurai" is Japanese for "wandering."
- Mecha-Mooks: Every nameless mook who works for Bloody God is this.
- Mr. Fanservice: IC Blues is a very handsome man. Many female characters note this.
- Mythology Gag: The tradition of "YAY!" being a staple of J9 vernacular starting back in Braiger is still present here.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: "Bloody God." Definitely a peaceful guy with that name, right?
- Noble Demon: Fluzer Gellnar. Hitman for hire who never kills any innocents and who ends up allowing Rock to take his revenge on him, even going so far as to kill some of Bloody's goons while they have Rock and Beat cornered in the final episode.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The space DJ who allies with JJ-9 is blatantly modelled after Boy George.
- Non-Action Guy: DD Richman continues the trend of allies voiced by Joji Yanami who don't do any fighting.
- Now, Buy the Merchandise: Sasuraiger had a transforming toy which kids could buy after watching the series.
- Obviously Evil: Bloody God with his booming voice and being bathed in shadows is a dead giveaway.
- Official Couple: Jimmy and Suzie have run away to elope. They get married at the end of the series. Beat and Lotti are an item as well.
- Recycled Soundtrack: The iconic "Khamen Khamen" theme from Braiger is once again reused for Khamen the 25th whenever they show up.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Rock is out for revenge on some of Bloody's mooks who killed several of his friends and put his father in a wheelchair.
- Sixth Ranger: Jimmy and Suzie don't do much, but they're part of Sasuraiger's morphing sequence and help operate the robot.
- Stock Footage: Every episode when the team converts their train into its mecha form.
- Super Robot: The titular Sasuraiger itself.
- Theme Naming: Our main crew, IC Blues, Rock Anlock, Birdy Shaw and Beat Mckenzie all have music-themed names.
- Wagon Train to the Stars: It's a big train which flies through space.
