Saikyo Robo Daiohja

さいきょうろぼ だいおーじゃ

Aired: 1981 - 1982

A television anime produced by Nippon Sunrise and broadcast on TV Asahi affiliates. As an original Sunrise property, Daiohja is best known for translating the structure of the long-running Japanese period drama 'Mito Komon' into a giant-robot SF format: three young princes of the Edon dynasty travel the galaxy in disguise, hiding their royal identities while exposing corrupt rulers and crushing tyrants planet by planet. Heir to the throne Prince Mito, his retainers Kirks and Flam, and the loyal robot Duke pilot the combining super robot Daiohja to deliver justice in each new star system. Beneath its lively hero-action surface, the series builds a richly varied SF anthology of planetary cultures and political problems, foreshadowing the more substantial sci-fi storytelling that would come to define Sunrise's later catalog.