History Anime / Daimos

'''Tōshō Daimos''' (''闘将ダイモス'', ''Tōshō Daimosu'', ''Fighting General Daimos'', ''Hero Fighter Daimos'', ''Great Leader Daimos'', or just ''Daimos'') is the third entry of [[Creator/TadaoNagahama Tadao Nagahama]]'s ''Anime/RobotRomanceTrilogy'' (or often shortened the Nagahama Romance), preceded by ''Anime/CombattlerV'' and ''Anime/VoltesV''.

* CompilationMovie: One titled ''[[AntagonistTitle Starbirds: The Movie]]'' was produced by 3-B Productions, the same people who did [[Anime/MazingerZ Tranzor Z]]. It features a whole new round of {{Dub Name Change}}s ("Kazuya" becomes "Kelly", "Kyoshiro" becomes "Duncan") and {{Dub Induced Plot Hole}}s (natural when cutting a 44 episode series down to a 72 minute movie), but is overall fairly coherent. It's actually speculated to be in the PublicDomain, as it has popped up as a dollar store DVD release more than once.

** Reiko has a crush on Kyoshiro, but her UpperClassTwit attitude is so grating to him that he's actually scared of her. He is releived when, after being forced to rescue her from the Baam-seijin, Reiko declares that she no longer loves him.

* CuteMachines: When he's not snarking and wisecracking, Cairo can be this.

* MyNaymeIs: the Italian dub, as opposed to most others, avoids DubNameChange, but a lot of names is pronounced differently, if not weirdly: for example, Richter becomes "Richiter", Geroiya is pronounced either "Gero" or "Guerroyer" and Balbas is "Valbas".

* ThePowerOfLove: Other than Daimos, THIS is Kazuya's forte. He even develops a combo attack with Erika based on love in the Victory Five manga!
* PrincessProtagonist: Downplayed. Erika is the princess of her people, but she's the {{Deuteragonist}}, the audience's go-to main character when it comes to the non-human race (Barmians).
* RobotBuddy: There's one in the Daimobic. Sometimes the crew finds it helpful and endearing. Other times they want to disassembly it.

* AirborneAircraftCarrier: Guranrol and Cobrard. Both could carry around combat troops and several Mecha Soldiers. The first was equipped with giant missiles and four giant blades that could be turned in giant spinning cutters. The second was equiped with four-headed cobras that fired green lasers and a turret shot tinier missiles.
* AlienInvasion: The Barmians had no intention of invading Earth and wanted negotiating a peaceful settlement. However, the death by poisoning of their Emperor and the belief of Terrans had assassinated him changed that.
* AliensAreBastards: Averted. Although someone who will be not mentioned -coughMiwacough- was convinced of it, Barmians are not different than humans and most of them are decent people; unfortunately the actual mastermind of the war/invasion, [[spoiler: Olban]], ''is'' a bastard. It overall shows that humans and aliens aren't so different, they have their own equal share of good people and bastards.

* AntiVillain: All of the Baam antagonists except for [[spoiler: Olban and his lackey, Georiya]]. They're just trying to ensure their people survive.
* AssassinOutclassin: During the series finale, turns out [[spoiler:all of Erika's love-betraying actions were to put her in a position close enough to Olban and then kill him on spot. Unfortunately, Olban was ProperlyParanoid in terms of Erika's sudden acceptance, so he managed to thwart the attempt just in time.]]

* BadassBookworm: In an episode where Dr. Izumi is at risk of dying, a flashback reveals it was ''him'' who trained Kazuya in martial arts. Kazuya even uses a move he was taught by Izumi to defeat the two enemy robots he's fighting.
* BeardOfEvil: In this series, if you have facial hair, then you would be considered an irredeemable bad guy. Olban's nice, thick beard and Miwa's pointy mustache are good example for this, whereas cleanly shaved faces signify either good guys or morally grey. There are exactly one inversion for each types in this though, Prof. Izumi also has a beard, but he's a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, whereas Georiya is cleanly shaved, but he's Olban's #1 lackey and equally evil.
* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: In episode 32, it's said that UsefulNotes/NewZealand was devastated from a war at some point in the past, but thanks to the support of the Baam Peace Corps, the country was able to get back on its feet. To repay their kindness, New Zealand welcomed Baam refugees and allowed them to have their own colony, Utopia, where both humans and Baamites live in peace.

* BloodSplatteredWeddingDress: Not literally, but [[spoiler:Erika is about to be executed]] in her mother's wedding dress, and then [[spoiler:wears another when she's about to marry Olban, and we know how that turned out.]]
* {{Brainwashed}}: Very much implied at one episode when Erika was shown a machine that allows her to think of happy thoughts and reduce her stress with her Baam friend Cindy, and Erika's first suspicious response is if it's a machine that will drill up teachings that HumansAreBastards and should die (it's not) to her brain. This gives the implication that many Baam soldiers (especially those under Olban) were practically indoctrinated to hate humans, making them very fanatic or at best REALLY fearful against humans.
* CallingYourAttacks: Very, very much so.
* ChestBlaster: '''"DOUBLE/FIRE BLIZZAAAAAAARRRDDD!!!"'''

* CoolCar: Kazuya's ''Tryper 75S'', which boards a Cool Tranzer which in turn transforms into a [[SuperRobot Cool Mecha]].

* DiagonalCut: Daimos does this to a enemy mecha in episode 8. And he did not it with a bladed weapon but with its hand.

* GoingToGiveItMoreEnergy: In one ''Daimos'' episode a {{Robeast}} shows up that is capable of disintegrating matter - such as tanks, missiles and jet fighters - turning it into energy, and absorbing it. Kazuya was at a loss on how to defeat it, until he decided to test how much matter it could absorb by feeding it a forty-five-meters-tall HumongousMecha.

* ManlyTears: And Kazuya is not ashamed of shedding them!
* McNinja: Baam assassins heavily resemble ninjas, despite Planet Baam being Greco-Roman inspired.

* OtherworldlyTechnicolourHair: While most of the [[AngelicAliens Baam]]-[[SpaceRomans seijin]] have standard hair colours like the blonde-haired Richter and the chestnut-haired Olban, some Baam like Raiza and Gurney have green hair and others like Barandock and Himley have blue hair. Even Erika's hair (black in canon) is portrayed as green in some [[https://hero.fandom.com/wiki/File:Daimosartbook.jpg supplementary material]].
* PersonalSpaceInvader: In episode 9, a Battle Robot loaded with nukes latches in Daimos to blow it up. Kazuya could not get rid of it, and it took an [[spoiler:enemy committing HeroicSacrifice]] to save his life.

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: For several bad guys.
* {{Robeast}}: Mecha Soldiers.

* ''Anime/RobotRomanceTrilogy'': The final entry.
* {{Samurai}}: Kazuya's buddy Kyoshiro, the original ''Afro'' Samurai.

* SpannerInTheWorks: Olban's plan for world domination started to unravel when it was overheard by Himley, Balbas' little brother, who was about to report about the cruelty of Georiya towards Anti-Olban peace movements, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard which was ordered by Olban in the first place.]]

* TrickedOutShoes: Daimos had rockets on its feet AND retractable spikes to simultaneously kick and stab {{Robeast}}s with.
* UnderwaterBase: The Baam HomeBase on Earth was located on the bottom of the ocean.
* UnstoppableRage: Miwa managed to invoke Kazuya's rage and PAID for it.
* VariableLengthChain: The "Daimos Chain Shark" is composed of variable length chains with a hook that shoot from above Daimos's hands.

* AfroAsskicker: Kyoushirou is ''LITERALLY'' an Anime/AfroSamurai

* ArmedLegs: Daimos does Kazuya's karate, which involves a variety of kicks. On top of that, Daimos has retractable blades on its feet whenever it does its special move, "Hissatsu Reppuu Daimos Kick".

* BattleCouple: In a spinoff manga featuring the Nagahama Romance robots, Erika gets her own mecha, Phobos (a.k.a. Deimos and Phobos, the moons of Mars), which allows her to fight with Deimos and do a CombinationAttack.

* EvilLaugh: Olban. In the English dub, he laughs at Daimos for being unable to penetrate his space station's shields. Later he does it again when Kazuya gets distracted by [[spoiler:Margarete's death]] and suddenly finds himself under endless barrage from defensive turret.

* ExpressiveMask: Of a fashion. The frontal part of Daimos' head is shaped like a human face. Although it seems emotionless by default (during transformation sequence, for example) it is somehow capable of making facial expressions -- like opening mouth when hit, as if screaming in pain -- despite being a piece of metal.
* FantasticRacism: Mostly thanks to sever cases of PoorCommunicationKills.
* FantasyCounterpartCulture: The Baam have Western names, Ancient Egyptian or Greco-Roman culture and their religion looks Christian.

* HateSink: Unlike Prince Richter -- who at least has a FreudianExcuse for his actions in that Earthlings supposedly murdered his father, does care (to an extent) about his own men and is a valiant warrior himself -- Miwa is driven just by his sheer, unmitigated hatred towards Baam people simply because [[FantasticRacism they're not humans]], displays total disregard towards the life of both his own man and civilians he's supposed to protect who might get killed in the crossfire and always takes a backseat during the battle while sending rank-and-file soldiers to certain death with zero remorse. When Kazuya is delivering a much-deserved NoHoldsBarredBeatdown to that bastard, not only you don't feel sorry for the latter at all, but can't help but encourage the hero to hit him harder.

* HeroicSacrifice:
** [[spoiler:Halleck in episode 9.]]
** And later [[spoiler:Balbas in episode 35, after his HeelFaceTurn.]]
* HomeBase: The Space Daimobic, which has multiple functions of TheBattlestar, SpaceBase and MissionControl.
* HotbloodedSideburns: Kazuya, lampshaded in the intro. When he is doing his karate, a close-up of the sun can be seen behind him.
%% needs more context %%* InconsistentSpelling: Brahmin... or Balm/Baam? Officially translated by Discotek Media as "Barm" and "Barmian."
* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Aizam, Richter's buddy. It didn't kill him, though.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Will always surely hunt down and smack Miwa in the ass. Early in the series, he gets turned into a ButtMonkey whenever he's being pissy and contrarian against the good guys. Later in the series, he [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope jumps off the slippery slope]] and then [[spoiler:Kazuya beat him to near death and he got arrested and stripped from his position.]] Reappear in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' to do more harm than good for self-serving reasons? [[spoiler:Literally killed!]]
* LauncherMove: Double Blizzard sends an enemy flying up, and on the way down it is jump kicked into oblivion, ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice by Daimos' fist or CleanCut down the middle by a karate chop. It gets upgraded later in the series into Fire Blizzard, which follows a [[FreezeRay Freezer Storm]], thanks to the enemy upgrading their robots' armor.
* MadeOfExplodium: Some {{Robeast}}s exploded even if Kazuya only had punched through them or sliced in two pieces with a karate chop or sweeping kick. It was justified in the episode 9, though, when he fought a mecha that had a nuke inside.

* MotionCaptureMecha: One of the first in animation history. There was at least one before; the South Korean cartoon ''[[Animation/RobotTaekwonV Robot Taekwon V]]'' (so named because its pilot was a Tae Kwon Do champ who used martial arts to fight the MonsterOfTheWeek) which, apart from this gimmick started out as a cheap knockoff of ''Anime/MazingerZ''.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone / DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Richter had the realization of the former in the last episode and drove him to the latter, but not before saving the lives of everybody in the Barmians' space station first.]]

* TheNeidermeyer: Miwa Sakimori is this, and a GeneralRipper. He mostly hides behind his soldiers, or Daimos itself from danger. And when opportunity presents, he'll show his extreme racist tendencies by shooting actually harmless Barmians. And all that's in his mind is... well, you guessed it, promotions. And even amongst humans themselves, Miwa categorizes them to 'useful people' (those who can help his war effort), or 'useless people' (people that can count as acceptable sacrifices in war not worth moutning... ''like innocent people'')

* PetTheDog: In the earlier episode, even Miwa proved to be able to do this in his own dickish way. When Kyoshiro failed to save Erika from falling from a cliff (she survives because of being a Baam), he proceeded to take away all of the accusations he had about Kazuya being a possible Baam spy, personally got him out of the containment and genuinely expressed his condolences that Erika was KIA. While he did say insensitive things afterwards, he wasn't acting like a dick like usual. Take note that this was the only time Miwa acted decent. Afterwards, it's a series of JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope for [[GeneralRipper him.]]

* RammingAlwaysWorks: Ramming its fist -or itself- through the enemy is one of the actual attacks from Daimos, and often Kazuya uses it like a FinishingMove.

* {{Shoryuken}}:
** [[PunctuatedForEmphasis "Hissatsu! Reppu! Seikenzukiii!"]]
** Daimos pulled this off nearly a full decade before the first Franchise/StreetFighter game came out. It looks the most Shoryuken-like in the ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' franchise though.

* StarCrossedLovers: Kazuya and Erika. Kazuya is an earthling martial artist defending the Earth against the race of winged aliens invading it, among which Erika is a part of as their princess. [[ForbiddenLove They fall in love]].
* StrongFamilyResemblance:
** Averted with Erika, who doesn't look anything like her parents, Leon and Roji. Leon as a youth had brown hair that was somewhat unkempt and Roji had luscious, blonde, curly locks, but Erika's hair is thin, black and styled in a HimeCut.
** Played straight with Richter who looks the spitting image of Roji.
* SuperRobot: Daimos is of the last ones before the advent of the RealRobotGenre with the release of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' in 1979 (the same year as Daimos's final episode).
* TelescopingRobot: The ornament on Daimos's chest are in reality two daggers, and they covered a hatch opened up to reveal its ChestBlaster. Its feet are also armed with [[ArmedLegs retractable spikes]] for good measure.
* ToTheBatpole: Kazuya's boarding/transformation sequence clocks in at over two minutes long.
* TrainingFromHell: Kazuya, in terms of how he got back to shape from rehabilitation.
* TransformationNameAnnouncement: After shouting "JUST IN!" and having Kazuya's CoolCar enter the rear of Daimos in truck trailer "Tranzer" form, he then travels from driver seat to the main Tranzer cockpit, where he gets hooked up with cables on his arms and shoulders before announcing, "DAIMOS BATTLE TURN!", which starts the Daimos TransformationSequence.
* TransformingMecha:
** One of the first Anime examples. Daimos had two forms: a truck-like land vehicle and battle robot.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0zrzDkzXoc&feature=related The transformation also takes FOREVER]], with multiple cockpit switches.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Brahmin... or Balm/Baam?
** Officially translated by Discotek Media as "Barm" and "Barmian."

* ActionGirl: Nana is TheGunslinger. Erika gets upgraded to this in the [[DerivativeWorks manga]] ''Victory Five.''

* ColdBloodedTorture: Miwa subjects Kazuya to one, trying to force him to reveal how to gain access to Daimos.

* [[PleaseSpareHimMyLiege Please Spare Her My Liege!]]: Margarete did this to save Erika from Richter's wrath when he found out she was in love with Kazuya.

* {{Shorttank}}: Nana, nicnkamed "Manga/CandyCandy with a gun" by fans.

* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: Subverted. Sometimes Kyoshiro throws his katana like if it was a spear, but sometimes he misses.

* VillainousBreakdown: Richter did not take Erika being in love with Kazuya well.
* WorthyOpponent: Richter, full stop. No finer man ever wore a skirt than Richter. Halleck also considered Kazuya being his.

* AloofBigBrother: Richter. He cares for his sister ''a lot''... but you would have a hard time telling it, firstly because he put his duties above his blood ties (I'm sorry if she has disappeared, but my obligation to find a place to settle our people on takes precedence about everything else, and my sister knew damned well she ought not go down to Earth) and later because he was ''not'' happy about her being in love with an Earthian.
* AloofDarkHairedGirl: Erika is tall, dark-haired, calm and rational.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Kazuya is a rather nice guy when not fighting. But if he's pissed off... he'll go ''majorly'' batshit. You're warned, [[spoiler: Miwa]].
* BewareTheSillyOnes: Earlier in the series, Miwa is mostly treated as a buffoon and an annoyance. Over time, however, his GeneralRipper tendencies become more and more clear, like when [[spoiler:he imprisons Kazuya with the accusation of being a spy after his romance with Erika is outed, and personally beats him.]]

* BreakTheCutie: Erika goes thrrough the wringer in this series, including [[spoiler:having to pretend to betray his beloved and wed the BigBad in order to get close enough to him to assasinate him]].
* ButtMonkey: Believe it or not, [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness earlier in the series]], [[GeneralRipper Miwa]] is also this, serving as the CommanderContrarian only existing to be proven wrong and sometimes gets into hilarious, humiliating situations [[LaserGuidedKarma because of his jackassery]] (tossed to the pool, hurt his arm trying to hit the RobotBuddy out of frustration, etc). As the series goes on, however, Miwa gets much more extreme that his antics were played for dead seriousness than occasional humor.

* CanNotSpitItOut: Erika is in constant fear of telling Kazuya that she played a part in killing his father, [[spoiler:while in truth, a lackey of Olban did it, and he makes it look like Richter and Erika did it.]]

* CommanderContrarian: {{Deconstructed}} with Miwa. Early in the series, this was his role, being a contrarian to almost everything Daimovic Base does and always favoring extremism. For the most part in the early parts, he was treated as a joke and an example that TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong. Miwa never learns from his lesson, and naturally as the series progresses, he becomes much more ruthless, bigoted and corrupt in his contrarian attitude that he's no longer presented as a joke, but a genuine threat to peace.

* DubNameChange: Kazuya to Kelly in ''Starbirds'', and Richard in the Philippine dub.

* TheEvilPrince: Richter. He isn't necessarily ''inherently'' evil, though -- just misguided and manipulated since the very beginning by truly evil people, using him to their own ends and [[spoiler:trying to get rid of him once [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness he's no longer convenient]]. During the finale, when he realizes how wrong he was and the sheer extent of pointless cruelty he took direct part in, his response is to [[DrivenToSuicide kill himself]] in attempt to atone for his crimes]].

* GeneralRipper: General Miwa. Also TheNeidermeyer and ButtMonkey, sometimes.

* {{Gonk}}: Balbas, one of Richter's lackeys.
* GoodWingsEvilWings: The Baam-Seijin have functional, angel-like, white wings sprouting from their backs. Their wings don't represent their alignment at all, though, they were not portrayed like being inherently good or evil, but like similar to the humans (AlwaysChaoticEvil was completely averted).
* TheGunslinger: To some degree, Nana uses guns to fight as the [[EverythingsBetterWithSamurai swordsman Kyoshiro's]] counterpart.

* HotbloodedSideburns: Kazuya. Lampshaded in the intro. When he is doing his karate, a close-up of the sun can be seen behind him.

* InterspeciesRomance: Kazuya is a human and Erika is a Baam. They fall in love.

* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler: Erika is amnesiac until she hears the voice of the Baam Admiral General challenging the Earthlings. She realizes it is the voice of her brother, and is horrified when she realizes that he's warring with the planet who's inhabitants took her in and treated her with kindness]].
* MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter: Erika. Or better said, she's [[TheEvilPrince The Evil Prince's]] Beautiful Little Sister.

* TheMedic: Erika's job.

* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Halleck Gurney.

* RevengeBeforeReason: Richter. Or maybe we should say revenge INSTEAD OF reason. He was so full of fury and hatred all he could think of was taking revenge, refusing to heed the advice of whoever tried talking him into making peace with the Earthians.

* UnluckyChildhoodFriend: Nana.

* WingedHumanoid: The whole Baam race.

* TheEvilPrince: Richter.

* AllThereInTheManual: The Literature/RomanRoboAnimeClimaxSelection has many behind-the-scenes information and meta elements regarding the show.