Character name clockwise: Andro Frohl, Andro Wolf, Andro Melos and Andro Mars.
Andro Melos is a Tokusatsu miniseries, part of the Ultra Series that aired from February to April 1983 on weekdays. After the end of Ultraman 80 in March 1981, the Ultra Series entered a period of hiatus for 15 years. The first of which to fill in that void was the Ultra Brothers Story Andro Melos magazine and Ultra Super Legend: Andro Super Warriors manga publications, featuring the Ultra Warriors and the Andro People's fight against the Guar Army. After its popularity, a miniseries was made to feature the Andro People's exploits against the Guar Army. The 1984 film Ultraman Story was made to further promote Juda, one of the siblings of the ruling Guar Army leaders.Ultra Brothers Story Andro Melos and Ultra Super Legend: Andro Super Warriors both feature the events in the aftermath of Ultraman 80, where Zoffy was thought to be killed by an empowered Ace Killer and gets thrown into a black hole. In his place, a green-armored warrior named Andro Melos appear to fight the Ace Killer and eventually helping out the Ultra Warriors and the Andro People in their fight against Guar Army. After the battle, it was revealed that Andro Melos is actually Zoffy, who survived the black hole when the green Cosmo Techtor armor was given to him by the Andro People Caesar, dying in the black hole in his place. Zoffy gave the armor to Caesar's son, Benoit, who also inherited the name "Andro Melos".
Fast forward to Andro Melos, it focuses on Benoit's exploits as Andro Melos, the leader of the Andro Defense Force. Under his leadership are Andro People dressed in different-colored Cosmo Techtors as they fight against the tyranny of Guar Army and their minions.
Andro Melos is in fact the first Tokusatsu in Japan to receive a home video treatment. The protagonist's name, Andro Melos, came from The Ultraman manga 1975 featuring an Ultra named Melos, who in fact uses the Cosmo Techtor armor. However, "Andro Melos" and "Melos" are entirely different characters altogether.
Unrelated to the arcade game.
Andro Melos provided the following tropes.
- 24-Hour Armor: The Andro Defense Force are constantly seen wearing their armor in most of their on-screen appearances. Therefore, no one has any idea of how the Andro People actually looked like.
- All There in the Manual: Events prior to the miniseries were chronicled in Ultra Brothers Story Andro Melos magazine and Ultra Super Legend: Andro Super Warriors manga.
- Archenemy: The Guar siblings traditionally view the Ultra Warriors and the Andro People with great animosity. Future Ultra Series media confirmed this with Ultraman X and Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy.
- Armor of Invincibility: The Grantechtor that Melos wears in the final battle against Guar was to keep up with the villain's absolute power.
- Badass Crew: The Andro Defense Force, full stop. They are not Ultras, simply an alien race with good connection to the Land of Light, but these two species share the same sense of justice and dedicated their lives to uphold peace in outer space.
- Battle Boomerang: Melos and Wolf uses a pair of them. Melos' strangely enough shaped like Ultraseven's Eye Slugger, while Wolf's is shaped "U" and can be stored on his shoulders.
- Botanical Abomination: The Fighting Bem Bazelia is a giant walking humanoid with a Rafflessia for its collar.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: The members of the Andro Defense Force has different colors of Cosmo Techtor to distinguish themselves: Melos is green, Wolf is red, Mars is orange and Frohl is white.
- Cool Ship: The Andro Boat, the Andro Defense Force's means of transportation.
- Cool Sword: Juda's Bat Caliber.
- Cyborg: Under the Guar Army, there were three Alien Magmas lead by their cyborg brother, and there is also Mecha Baltan as one of their active soldiers. The magazine revealed that acquiring cyborg monsters of past monsters were also one of their tactics in against the Andro Defense Force.
- Dark Is Evil: Juda and Mold, the two brothers that lead the Guar Army alongside Gina has at least black coloration to their armor.
- Double Weapon: The Double lancer is a lance with both of Melos' Double Saber boomerangs on each end.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: In the magazines, the Andro People's Cosmo Techtor has yellow eyes shining from their visors. This trait was lost in the live action miniseries.
- 11th-Hour Superpower: To combat Guar in the Final Battle, Melos had to retrieve the Grantechtor armor from Earth, the only device capable of fighting the space emperor.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite sharing their leadership in the Guar Army, Juda, Mold and Gina hardly ever had any Sibling Rivalry or trying to usurp one another. Being evil rulers doesn't stop them from caring for each others, especially since the three of them are needed to form Guar. Ultraman X went out of its way to show that Juda's death in Ultra Fight Victory provoked Mold and Gina into Avenging the Villain.
- Field Promotion: As revealed in Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy, Melos had since left his position and leadership in the Andro Defense Force to pursue a promotion in the Galaxy Rescue Force. He mentioned that the team had since accepting a few competent new members, one of which is Andro Ares, who Ultraman Taiga had met prior to his active service in the Tri-Squad.
- Fusion Dance: Juda, Mold and Gina combine into Guar, the eponymous ruler of the Guar Army.
- Humongous Mecha: The Guar siblings each get their own piloted mecha in against Melos. As they are naturally gigantic, they use an entirely bigger mecha that roughly on 900 meters to dwarf Melos. These mechas are; Bemzn for Juda, King Joegue for Mold and Gyeronia for Gina.
- Knight in Shining Armor: A literal example with the Andro Defense Force members, especially since they wear Cosmo Techtors in all of their appearances.
- Light Is Good: Frohl's Cosmo Techtor is colored white and is used to further indicate her as The Smurfette Principle of the team. Also apply to Alien Ape Elpa, an old friend of Andro Wolf.
- Light Is Not Good: Guar, the Final Boss of the series is predominantly white.
- Meaningful Name: The Andro People are named after their homeworld, Andromeda Galaxy.
- Monster of the Week: Or rather, monster of the day, since the show aired on a weekday basis every week (five episodes a week). Any chances that Andro Melos and his team members encounter a new villain each week, chances are those monster were under the Guar Army. It ranges from either aliens, Fighting Bems, cyborgs and even three Humongous Mecha to name a few.
- Passing the Torch: The original owner of Andro Melos' Cosmo Techtor was Caesar, his father, who gave it to Zoffy at the expense of his own life to save the Ultra from a black hole. Zoffy made the Andro Melos alias to further hide his identity and once he gave the armor to Caesar's son, Benoit, he also gave the name as well.
- Powered Armor:
- The Cosmo Techtors that the Andro Defense Force members use are not only for protection, but also to enact various beam techniques and surviving in black-hole environment.
- A Mid-Season Upgrade introduces the Grantector, known as the strongest space Cosmo Tector which increases Melos' strength by tenfold. It even upgrades Melos' abilities to a further level, including turning his default Double Saber into a double-sided halberd called the Strong Double Lancer.
- Red Is Heroic: Andro Wolf's red Cosmo Techtor armor. While he's not the leader, its a clear message that he is on the good side.
- The Smurfette Principle: Frohl is the only female in the Andro Defense Force. Same trope also goes to Gina from the three Gua siblings.
- Wings Do Nothing: Subverted. Frol has a pair of wings on her Cosmo Tectors. They don't serve any purpose as Andro People are generally capable of flying on their own, but she can also use it to send a telepathic link to Melos and co. when she was captured by Gina.
