Machine Robo Rescue (cartoon)

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Machine Robo Rescue (出撃!マシンロボレスキュー Shutsugeki! Machine Robo Rescue), sometimes called Sortie! Machine Robo Rescue was a 2003-2004 anime produced by Sunrise on behalf of Bandai, the third—and most recent—to be based on the Machine Robo brand.

Overview

Production

Considering the 15-year hiatus Machine Robo Rescue ignored the previous Ashi Productions series in favour of a new premise. The show was instead created by Bandai's in-house Sunrise company, blending cel animation (for human characters) with CGI (for robots). Set in an undefined future, the series was set largely on Earth, covering the efforts of the Machine Robo Rescue organisation. The technology in this future had advanced to the stage that age was no longer considered a factor in selecting roles—hence the 12 Robo Masters who piloted the various Machine Robo were all children, with adults serving in supervisory roles in the MRR hierarchy. MRR were a response and rescue organisation created to respond to disasters, and split into three specialised units—aerial rescue and fire experts Red Wings, policing control experts Blue Sirens; and heavy-lifting experts Yellow Gears. Each unit was made up of four Robo Masters with two Leader Robo, each with four Support Robo, a transporter Robo and an adult instructor. Initially the crises they responded to were natural in nature, though as the series went along the evil Disasters emerged as antagonists.

As can be deduced the series was aimed at a considerably younger audience than the previous offerings. None of the previous characters from the 1980s series were carried over, though several shared names with their predecessors and the new versions of Jet Robo and Drill Robo were overt visual homages to Jet Robo/Blue Jet and Drill Robo/Rod Drill.

Behind the scenes Hideki Sonoda returned as head writer but otherwise the crew were fresh to the Machine Robo franchise. Mamoru Kanbe was installed as series director. The voice cast was also largely new, in part due to so many of the characters being children and requiring relatively young actors. However, Show Hayami—narrator of the Ashi series and actor for various characters—returned to voice a couple of recurring characters.

Broadcast

Machine Robo Rescue began broadcast on 8 January 2003—once again on the TV Tokyo network—with a new episode each Wednesday until concluding on January 10, 2004 after 53 episodes.

It is not known precisely how successful Machine Robo Rescue was—it appears to have ended after a natural length as Bandai switched the franchise to Machine Robo Mugenbine. However, as that series was not promoted by a anime, it is hard to tell what sort of impact the show made.

Episodes

1. "Commence the Rescue Combination!!"
2. "Blazing Fire Fighter!"
3. "Straight Ahead to the Police Spirit!"
4. "It's Party Time! Drill Robo"
5. "The Thunderous Stealth Robo"
6. "Aim to be a Robo Master!"
7. "Clash! Jet vs. Stealth"
8. "Look Out! Combination EX"
9. "Industrial Complex Panic!"
10. "Whirlwind! Gyro Robo"
11. "Laughter Can Save the World!"
12. "Finished! Triple Tornado"
13. "And Taiyoh is Fine!"
14. "The Invincible Hyper Stealth Robo!"
15. "Ken's Rescue Spirit!"
16. "Arise! Siren Galley Robo"
17. "Call Out! Gear Dump Robo"
18. "I am Submarine Robo"
19. "Do You Like Hangars?"
20. "Fear of the Fire Storm"
21. "Debut, 30000 Metres!"
22. "Good Luck Taiyoh"
23. "Taiyoh Ohzora, Into Space!"
24. "Save the Space Station!"
25. "Lunar Rescue, Begin!"
26. "MRR 24 Hours"
27. "Enter! BL Machine Robo"
28. "Colonel Hazard's Trap!"
29. "Combine! Machine Commander Robo"
30. "Summer Holiday! Fear Vacation"
31. "Airship SOS!"
32. "Stealth Robo's Fierce End"
33. "I am the Mother of Daichi"
34. "The Story of Makoto's First Love"
35. "Proud Fire Brigade!"
36. "Survival of the Fittest!"
37. "The Mysterious Superhero Captain Miracle"
38. "Be Reborn, Jay!"
39. "Jay, Join the MRR!"
40. "Birth! V Stealth Robo"
41. "Daichi's Resolution"
42. "The Strongest Combination! Machine Commander Robo V"
43. "Salute to the Gura Gorro"
44. "Machine Robo Out of Action!"
45. "The Greatest Errand of All Time"
46. "The Secret of the Disasters"
47. "Activate, Kaiser-G!"
48. "A Looming Catastrophe!"
49. "All Hands on Deck, Save the Planet!"
50. "Fly, MRR!"
51. "Sortie!"
52. "Machine Robo Rescue Special - New Year's Day!"

Cast

Machine Robo Rescue	Disasters	Others
Cadets Makoto Aikawa (Chihiro Kusaka) Shō Ashikawa (Kumiko Higa) Alice Beckham (Yukana) Lin Haruka (Kumiko Higa) Daichi Hayami (Risa Hayamizu) Arias Honoh (Naomi Shindoh) Kai Kitazawa (Chihiro Kusaka) Ken Minami (Megumi Matsumoto) Taiyoh Ohzora (Sayaka Aida) Sayuri Suizenji (Akiko Kimura) Susumu Utada (Masato Amada) Tsuyoshi Utada (Masato Amada) Staff Brad Bitou (Kazuhiro Nakata) Marie Bitou (Yukana) Musashi Miyajima (Hiroomi Sugino) Satoko Oigawa (Naomi Shindoh) Zenjiro Oigawa (Kazuhiro Nakata) Koshiro Sasaki (Ryotaro Okiayu) Tōru Suidōbashi (Kazuma Horie) Bone (Naoki Yanagi) Leader Robo Jet Robo/Shuttle Robo (Takuma Takewaka) Fire Robo (Ryotaro Okiayu) Police Robo (Masato Amada) Drill Robo (Hiroomi Sugino) Gyro Robo (Naoki Yanagi) Submarine Robo (Kenji Nojima) Machine Commander Robo (Show Hayami) V Stealth Robo (Osamu Hosoi) Supporter Robo Sky Robo ‡ Aider Robo (Akiko Kimura) Bike Robo (Hiroomi Sugino) Bulldozer Robo ‡ Helicopter Robo† Aqua Robo† Space Robo† Transports Wing Liner Robo† Siren Galley Robo† Gear Dump Robo†	Gura Gorros Jay (Hisafumi Oda, Maiko Itou) Stealth Robo (Osamu Hosoi) Tank Robo† Colonel Hazard (Kenji Nojima) Kaiser-G (Kazuhiro Nakata)	Doctor Kaiser (Show Hayami) Jun Mizushima (Akiko Kimura) Ryo Mizushima (Kanako Tateno) Junichi Mizushima (Katsuyuki Konishi) Junichiro Mizushima (Naoki Bando) Charmy Sato (Rica Matsumoto) Cutie Kumamoto (Megumi Matsumoto) Kijima (Tadahisa Saizen) Saeko Homura (Rio Natsuki) Honda Sohachi (Moriya Endo) Elementary school teacher (Miyuki Matsushita)

‡ = voice actor unknown † = character has no dialogue

Music

Background music for the show was composed by Naoki Satō.

Opening Theme

• "Go! Go! Rescue" by JAM Project

Ending Theme

• "March of Rescue Hero" by JAM Project

Overseas

Machine Robo Rescue was shown in several Asian markets, including being dubbed into English for broadcast in Singapore and the Philippines around 2005.

The toyline never did see export outside of Asia, but that didn't stop Hasbro—then hawking the successful Transformers: Armada—from trademarking "Machine Robot Rescue" for a couple of Transformers: Universe figures in order to head off any American import. Whether Bandai, Sunrise, or anyone else beyond Transformers fans even noticed this happened is unclear.

Home Media

DVD

Sunrise released the entire series on DVD.