Kenran Butōsai Za Māzu Deibureiku, or
Mars Daybreak, is a
Humongous Mecha anime aired in 2004 by
TV Tokyo and licensed by Bandai Entertainment in the US.
The story takes place on a colonized Mars, where nearly the entire planet (save for the peak of Olympus Mons) is covered by a massive ocean (the initial colonization apparently having
Gone Horribly Wrong). The people live on floating city-ships, with the planet's abundant water being their primary export. Somehow, the end of the "Pan-Galactic War" has left the planet in the midst of a severe economic depression. Of course, Economic troubles mean crime. And with a planet that's nearly all ocean, that can mean only one thing:
Pirates! With the surface under heavy satellite surveillance, the pirates have been forced underground. Or rather, under
water. Instead of sailing over the waves, they lurk
under them in submarines. And the baddest pirates around are the crew of the sub
Ship of Aurora.
Which brings us to our hero, Gram River: A young man living on the city-ship Adena. While trying to help a friend get out of a bad situation, he ends up in the middle of a raid by the
Ship of Aurora, and thrown overboard when the port is rammed and breached. Fortunately, a
Humongous Mecha comes out of nowhere and rescues him. Unfortunately, this mech is assumed to be part of the pirates' forces, and is promptly attacked by the local
Earth Forces mechs. He is eventually hired on by the crew to pilot the mech.
Naturally, nothing goes that easy, or there wouldn't be much of a series. The first major complication is the fact that Vess, one of Gram's dearest childhood friends, has just been stationed to Mars as part of the Earth Forces, and she isn't happy at
all to discover that he's become a Pirate. The other is the initially-unrelated kidnapping of the Granddaughter of the Earth's President, that they get blamed for when they just happen to go after the real kidnappers for their own reasons, and wind up catching them just as they're trying to ransom her, and further complicated when they end up inadvertently recruiting her.
Tropes:
- A Mech By Any Other Name: Round Bucklers, usually shortened to RB's.
- All That Glitters: The Treasure of the Aboriginal Martians.
- Badass: Grahms, Vess and Yagami.
- Bash Brothers: Grahms and Yagami.
- Big Bad: Niell Poe.
- Big Damn Heroes: Several of them but Poipoider somehow makes quite an astonishing amount.
- He saved Grahms and Enora from falling down.
- And to the crew when they were under fire in a cave.
- Vess saved Grahms from the Earth Forces.
- That's when things became grim Grahms came in with a hammy speech and then came Yagami.
- Biker Babe: Vess
- Butt Monkey: Anna Grace.
- The Captain: Elizabeth
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Enora Taft.
- Combat Tentacles: The main weapon of Kubernes' Mermaid.
- Conspicuous CGI
- Cool Boat - The Ship of Aurora.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Yagami.
- Determinator: Grahms.
- Die Hard On A Pirate Submarine
- Falling into the Cockpit: Well, floating, anyway...
- Face Heel Turn: Yagami, Poipoider, Aki and Junior Subverted. It was just a prank for the birthday of Ester.
- Five-Man Band: The Ship of Aurora.
- Freak Out: When Rich found out that Vess is still alive.
- Genki Girl: Enora Taft.
- Heel Face Turn: Anna Grace and Kubernes.
- Hey, It's That Guy!: Itsuki lives with his siblings Kunikida and Kyon's sister on a giant ship!
- Hot Blooded: Grahms and Vess.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Grahms.
- Keet: Junior.
- Lady of War: Ester.
- Macross Missile Massacre
- Manipulative Bastard: Kubernes.
- Mecha-Mooks: Earth Force R Bs are remote controlled.
- McGuffin: Grahms' pendant and the Box of Guidance.
- Nice Hat: Milch
- Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Subverted with two of the strongest R Bs in the series, named Mermaid and Squirt.
- Not as much of a surprise given that the other two are named "Vector of Hope" and "Wing of Samurai".
- Of course Yagami holds this title pretty well, given that his nickname is "Yagami the Shinigami". He backs it up VERY well too given his track record of being able to dismantle multiple enemy round bucklers in a single swoop. He pretty much is pretty much the more experienced version of Graham who is already noted to being capable of taking on multiple round bucklers in his own right.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Captain Doolittle to a T.
- One-Man Army: Grahms.
- Only in It for the Money: Pirates! What else?
- Our Mermaids Are Different: Kubernos' RB and it is so freakin' ugly.
- Papa Wolf: Milch towards Megumi.
- Real Robot
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Vess' Red to Grahms' Blue and Grahms Red to Yagami's Blue.
- Really 140 years old: Ester
- Red Baron: Yagami is known as "The Grim Reaper"
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Clara.
- Rule Of Cool: Among the Pirates are a talking Cat and a small whale wearing Powered Armor. No explanation is given for their existence.
- Sapient Cetaceans: Poipoider, a dolphin who spends much of his time in a suit of power armor wielding heavy weapons.
- Say My Name: KUBERNES!!!!
- Scooby Stack: Ep 13. NUFF' SAID!
- Shrinking Violet: Megumi.
- Smug Snake: Anna Grace and Niell Poe.
- Submarine Pirates
- Talking Animal: Clara and Poipoider.
- Talking to Himself: Poipoider and Neill Poe. Both of them were voiced by Michael Mc Connohie.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Vess towards Gram.
- Too Dumb to Live: Those kidnappers that kidnapped Enora Taft.
- Took a Level in Badass: Junior, just Junior.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Kuberness is a partial example. Though he has the loot to back up his pirate-ness, throughout the show he acts more like a mercenary than anything.
- Tsundere: Vess and Enora.
- Uplifted Animals: Cats and Porpoises, apparently
- Victorious Childhood Friend: Vess.
- Used Future: Very much! We see several ships being dented or what have you buildings. Heck, even a university is abandoned.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Ester, who has dark purple hair and Megimi, wno has a real deal blue hair.
- Zeerust: Okay, this was supposedly set somewhere in the future where there are Humongous Mechas are all over the waters yet there are still cars that look like 90's and early of the 2000's and even some like what we have now. Even more that they have the Martian Aborigines that had stuffs that are present in the present.
Voice Talents:
English
Japanese
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