Goodbye - Battle Forever

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Machine Robo: Battle Hackers
Episode 31
BattleHackersE31-132.jpg
"Goodbye - Battle Forever"
"サラバ戦い永遠に"
("SARABA tatakai eien ni")
Production company Ashi Productions
Airdate December 30, 1987
Written by Hideki Sonoda
Directed by Naoyoshi Kusaka

Will this war never end?!? No, no it won't.

"Lost in Translation"
訳すと失われる意味がある!

This article is about something with
no official English translation.

If you have any suggestions please go to the talk page.



Synopsis[edit | edit source]

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The Gurendos torture the captured Mach Blaster at Blood Country but he refuses to talk. The Battle Hackers have tracked down the base and are preparing an assault but Dylan detects them and warns Gakurandar and Yasand. They are ambushed by crack Sitappas led by Gakurandar before they can attack and soon pinned down. Drill Crusher fires a smokescreen, obscuring the battlefield. Unmoved, Gakurandar orders the area hit with missiles even through it will destroy his own troops as well. However, the Battle Hackers had already slipped away. R. JeTan then attacks Gakurandar personally with his cloak and sword. The Battle Hackers' leader is able to get free. After a level battle R. JeTan is able to shatter Gakurandar's sword, and one half of it lands in the Gurendos' chest, killing him. Meanwhile the rest of the team have sneaked in under the base in a waterway. Mia is knocked out of her Power Riser and nearly washed away by the current but is saved by Luke. The pair are about to kiss when Akira and the rest of the unit begin hollering and laughing at them. Above ground Yasand discovers the remains of Gakurandar and swears vengeance. Below Rotary Kid is able to pick up Mach Blaster's signals - though they are very far away.

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Back at the Grand Whale, RIM tells Patricia and Zen of the Battle Hackers' progress, and R. JeTan calls in. He is still outside the base engaging the defences alone while the rest of the team attempts to find Mach Blaster. RIM decides it is time for decisive action and the Grand Whale takes off from Crystal City, with the Algo Army rushing to battle stations. Patricia and Zen celebrate. Meanwhile the Battle Hackers are rapidly moving up through the base, where Rikimines has taken over torturing Mach Blaster, not even bothering with questions. A Sitappa informs him of the approaching Machine Robo and he prepares to execute the prisoner - only for Drill Crusher to appear through the floor and blow his hand off. He frees Mach Blaster, who then insists on dealing with Rikimines, knocking him out with a single flying kick. The three humans meanwhile find a spaceship in the base, and realise it may be a way home. Investigating, they find it fully functional. Meanwhile the Grand Whale appears over the base, escorted by Blue Jet and the White Thunder. Yasand orders an attack on the ship, where RIM unexpectedly beams Patricia and Zen to their fellow humans. Onboard the spaceship they have found only a skeleton of another human. Akira, Luke and Mia have deduced that Electronic Planet B-1 is a computer-controlled testing ground for human weapons where the Machine Robo have taken on minds of their own, and the catastrophe that blew up most of the planet was an attempt to destroy it that was only partly successful. Dylan and RIM are programmed to keep both sides fighting perpetually. Akira shuts down Dylan while Yasand is obliterated by the Grand Whale, bemoaning the pointlessness of their war as he dies. The base collapses and the ship launches automatically in response. As their ship leaves on a pre-set course to Earth, Akira swears he will return to free the Battle Hackers.

Featured characters[edit | edit source]

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes[edit | edit source]

  • Obviously Akira didn't return as the series was cancelled. However, some loose attempt at a happier conclusion was given in Leina Stol in Wolf Sword Legend II, where Rom Stol and his friends visit Electronic Planet B-1. Near the start the Battle Hackers cameo, thanking Rom for his help before going off to parts unknown. After which B-1 is largely deserted apart from Shuli, Rall, Velt Zaruk and Myra. So it's possible Rom somehow freed the Machine Robo at that point. This does have the problem of how Blue Jet, Rod Drill and Triple Jim are both simultaneously off having adventures as humans with Rom and robots on B-1, though.
  • There clearly wasn't much of a warning of the cancellation and so a lot is telescoped into this and a fair part of the backstory, motivation and detail is lost - for example, Luke and Akira working out a massive complicated backstory after a few seconds poking around a corpse. It makes it annoying that we wasted an episode on Iron Eagle for sure. It is possible that this was intended to be the rough shape of the conclusion but had the series ran for 52 episodes such a conclusion would likely have been given more of a build-up.
  • Other signs of severe truncation are the anti-climactic death of Gakurandar and that R. JeTan all but disappears from the second half of the episode.
  • You do have to wonder who exactly the Battle Hackers will be fighting now that Akira's shut down Dylan and all of the major Gurendos have been wiped out. Devil Satan 6?
  • The end of Battle Hackers effectively ended the Ashi Productions TV series and its' loose continuity; the franchise's next series, Machine Robo Rescue, would go for a simpler format than alien robot wars. However, as noted above the Ashi continuity would rumble on through the Leina Stol OVAs, albeit with a constantly diminishing relationship to Machine Robo itself.

Animation and technical errors[edit | edit source]

  • When the Battle Hackers are in the water Mia's Power Riser gets yellow arms.

Home video releases[edit | edit source]

DVD

2003Machine Robo: Battle Hackers DVD-Box (Pioneer)