Line #14 Anime/DairuggerXV


1	%%New image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1306439068003160100
2	%%Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread.
3
4	[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vlcsnap-2011-05-26-15h29m58s235_2046.png]]
5
6	->''"Dairugger fighting formation '''on!'''"''
7	-->-- '''Aki''', OnceAnEpisode
8
9	CombiningMecha from Creator/{{Toei\|Company}} that aired on Creator/TVTokyo in 1982. Since shows like this were a dime a dozen in Japan, it unfortunately got overlooked. But elsewhere, including the US, where HumongousMecha shows were still practically unheard of, it got recognition as the vehicle robot of ''Anime/{{Voltron}}''.
10
11	Dairugger is a peacekeeping and exploration robot during the days of space exploration. The Terran League (consisting of planets Earth, Sala, and Mira -- but [[HumansAreSpecial mostly Earth]]) decides to survey the galaxy, so that they can make a galactic star map. But the first mission runs into the [[InconsistentSpelling Galbeston/Galveston]] Empire, who decide to attack Earth. Dairugger is sent to defend, but eventually learns that the Galbeston are actually desperate for a new home, as their planet is doomed.
12
13	Like ''Anime/GoLion'', ''Dairugger XV'' has been released in its original form on DVD in R1, as ''Armored Fleet Dairugger XV". It was released in 3 "collections" (consisting of 3 discs each), but as of mid-2018, only the first collection is easily available.
14
15	Towards the end of 2019, Bandai Spirits [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZxqqBY932ILo6JYeq6fress79g747160 has put up subbed episodes on their official Youtube channel.]]
16
17	See also ''Anime/GoLion'', ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'', ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato'', and ''Franchise/SuperSentai''.
18	----
19	!!Tropes:
20
21	* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Or Japanese, in this case. The Galveston Empire sends their first ultimatum to the Rugger Guard in perfectly understandable Japanese, despite having never encountered humans or the tri-planetary alliance before. Worse, when trying to determine if a newly-discovered planet might be inhabited by a heretofore unknown species, the Rugger teams don't even think twice about broadcasting "We come in peace" over loudspeakers in Japanese.
22	* AudibleGleam: Whenever you see-and-hear one of these, it means the first sighting of a Galveston attack fleet. Unless you see it in a Galveston commander's eye, in which case it means he's about to do something really devious.
23	* TheBattlestar: The Rugger Guard, the space carrier from which the vehicles launch before combining. It looks suspiciously like a 20th century aircraft carrier. It's also ridiculously tough; despite having a primary mission of exploration, it only sustains minor damage in firefights that utterly destroy its military escort fleets.
24	* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Virtually every single commander working under Teles (Hazar) immediately and laughingly disregards his orders to seek peace with the Earth Fleet; also a case of TooDumbToLive, as basically every last one of them dies on Dairugger's sword. They do this with some sanction, but the viewscreen has barely clicked off when they give the order to attack anyway, usually to some incredulous soldier who basically says "Dude?!"
25	* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The tri-planet alliance ships fire white or blue-white beams. The Galveston ships fire red beams.
26	* CombiningMecha: Two ways! 15 small vehicles could combine into three larger ones (Kurugger, Kairugger, and Rikurugger[[note]]called "air rugger," "sea rugger," and "land rugger" in the English dub[[/note]]), and then if that didn't get the job done, could re-combine into the titular [[SuperRobot super robot]]. It's unusual in that Dairugger can combine and act even if some pieces are missing (once it combined without its right leg, once without the head), but it doesn't seem to operate at peak efficiency in those cases.
27	* ConqueringAlienPrince: Caponero tries to be this. He's merely a commander of the Galveston, but wants to be Emperor someday and thinks if he conquers Earth, he'll be chosen as a successor.
28	* DownerEnding: The final episode. Teles is dead and Planet Galbeston explodes shortly after. Although the Galbeston people are rescued and have a chance to start over, the heroes can only feel empty from the death and destruction caused by the conflict.
29	* EverythingsBetterWithSamurai: Dairugger is modeled after, or at least inspired by, a samurai warrior; from the look of its head to its reliance on swordsmanship.
30	* FasterThanLightTravel: Barely hinted at twice, when the Galvestons mention ships going into or out of "warp." For the rest of the series, the ships ply the space between the stars by just cruising with their normal engines.
31	* FighterLaunchingSequence: From the team members sitting on their elevator chairs, to the chairs moving into glass bubbles, to the bubbles being lowered into the seats of the 15 fighters, to the fighters launching one at a time.
32	* ForgotICouldFly: Every time Dairugger gets driven back to the edge of a cliff.
33	* GenreBlindness: At least two of the Galveston captains tried to ram Dairugger instead of retreating. Guess how both played out...
34	* GreenAesop:
35	** An early planet the Rugger Guard encounters is dying because Galveston or its inhabitants "didn't respect nature."
36	** The continents on Planet K (the planet with the red moon) are in the process of falling into the ocean. In episode 37, it's revealed that this is happening because its inhabitants conducted underground nuclear tests.
37	** Galveston itself is doomed from UV rays, because they destroyed their own Van Allen belts.[[note]]And not, as would be expected, their ozone layers.[[/note]]
38	* HeroicSacrifice: On both sides. On many occasions, a lone ship captain has chosen to ram the enemy, with himself still on board the ramming ship, in order to stop the enemy or clear a path through an AsteroidThicket.
39	* HumongousMecha / SuperRobot: Dairugger itself, but also the Galveston battle machines/battle attackers it's called upon to fight.
40	* IfItSwimsItFlies: The Sea Team, whose ships could fly through the air and even through space as easily as they operated as submarines. However, all fifteen ships could fly, even the Land Team; and in episode 36, all fifteen ships maneuvered underwater.
41	* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: When Aki is attacked by queen Xuneau's guards on planet Eldora, he evades scores of shots by doing a couple of backflips. Similarly, in episode 44, three of Aki's team are ambushed on foot, in the crossfire of over a dozen Galveston soldiers with automatic weapons, and none of them get hit.
42	* InconsistentSpelling: Is it '''Galveston''' or '''Galbeston'''? It's most likely the former, since it's a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galveston_Island real name of an island]].
43	* InformedFlaw: In one episode, Aki says that Dairugger is not made for combat. This despite that (A) they only ever form Dairugger when there's an enemy to fight, and (B) it's the most effective fighting machine in the entire galaxy.
44	* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: Dairugger is the only one of its kind in the galaxy. Earth's Galaxy Garrison tried to build another SuperRobot to help out Dairugger, but it ended up being slower, weaker, and more fragile -- to the point that it was destroyed during testing.
45	* NuclearWeaponsTaboo: In episode 3, the Galveston fleet devastates the surface of a planet with "photon missiles," whose blast radii were eerily similar to thermonuclear weapons. (Oddly, when the Galveston fleet reached Earth, they attacked the Metropolis with much lower-yield conventional weapons.)
46	* OldSchoolDogFight: The Air Team vehicles got to do a bit of this before the need to form Dairugger arose.
47	* PlotArmor: Since all fifteen Rugger Team vehicles are necessary to form Dairugger, none of them ever gets destroyed or even badly damaged -- even in firefights that wipe out half their escort fleet.
48	* RubberForeheadAliens: The aliens of Galveston are basically humans with blue skin and red eyes. Keats and Kirigas, the two Rugger team members from planet Mira, are a different shade of blue and have pointy ears. Kreuz, the only team member from planet Sala, is yet another shade of blue with a tiny circle on his forehead.
49	* TheShortGuyWithGlasses: Yasuo is a glasses-wearing young man.
50	* ShoutOut: Click [[ShoutOut/DairuggerXV here]].
51	* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: Distances are reckoned in units of "space kilometers," and there's no consistency in how they're used. One episode, an Earthlike planet right outside Aki's window and filling half the sky will be "ten thousand space kilometers" away; the next, an invading Galveston fleet at Mars will be "2.5 space kilometers" away from Earth.
52	* SpaceIsAnOcean: The opening to every episode shows a storm-tossed wooden sailing ship against the following narration:
53	-->"Once, people staked their youth on the sea. On the Seven Seas, the flames of romanticism, ambition, adventure, and aspiration burned and clashed. Now, young people of the year AD 2200 challenge the sea of stars. What awaits them there is a world beyond our imagination."
54	* StockFootage: For both the launching of the ships, and Dairugger's combination (though the latter was sometimes subverted).
55	* TransformationIsAFreeAction: Often averted or subverted, most notably in episode 25 when one of the ships that formed Dairugger's right leg was hit mid-assembly. Rather than stop the whole process, however, Dairugger was able to finish combining without the leg, though that made the robot clumsy in combat until the pilot recovered and was able to rejoin Dairugger.
56	* WagonTrainToTheStars: The Rugger Guard's mission is to explore the galaxy and map all of it out. (This is different from the Voltron version, where they were specifically searching for worlds to colonize.)
57	* WhatDidYouExpectWhenYouNamedIt:
58	** The aliens' home planet, which is undergoing a deadly environmental disaster, is called "Galveston."
59	** The two peace-loving Galveston leaders, Teles and his father Tes, come from the "Socrat" family.
60	** The scheming power-hungry Galveston leader is named "[[UsefulNotes/AlCapone Al Caponero]]."

Context Anime / DairuggerXV