Lightspeed Electroid Albegas

Lightspeed Electroid Albegas (光速電神アルベガス, Kōsoku Denjin Arubegasu) is an anime series that aired from 1983 to 1984 in Japan, Latin America, Spain and Italy. There were 45 episodes aired at 25 minutes each. Other loosely translated names are "Arbegas", "Arebegas", "Lightspeed ElectroGod Arbegas" and "Arbegas: El Rayo Custodio".

Lightspeed Electroid Albegas
Screenshot from the television series depicting the super robot Albegas
光速電神アルベガス
(Kōsoku Denjin Arubegasu)
GenreMecha
Anime television series
Directed byKozo Morishita (Series Director)
Written byAkiyoshi Sakai, Shozo Uehara, Hiroshi Okawa, Toyohiro Ando
Music byMichiaki Watanabe
StudioToei Animation
Original networkTV Tokyo
Original run March 30, 1983 – February 8, 1984
Episodes45

Original story

Three talented students of a technical high school, Daisaku, Tetsuya, and Hotaru, create award-winning robots as part of a school competition. At this time, the evil Derinja race that plans control of all space extends its ambitions to Earth. To combat this threat, Hotaru's father, Professor Mizuki, takes the three robots and modifies them for battle. Albegas, a super robot, is born.

Concept

The three individual robots form by stacking on top of one another to form a super robot called Albegas. There are six stackable formations. Each one serves a special function. Individually, the name of the robots are derived from the first 3 letters of the Greek alphabet (Alpha, Beta, and Gamma). Albegas' weapon of choice is the Sanbai Plasma Sword, with which he defeats enemy Derinja robots (called "Mecha-Fighters") by splitting them in half. Each robot also uses an individual sword.

Staff

Characters

Albegas members
Name Voices by
Daisaku EnjojiToshio Furukawa
Tetsuya JinHideyuki Hori
Hotaru MizukiHiromi Tsuru

Aoba School allies
Name Voices by
Prof. MizukiEiji Kanie
Goro KumaiKōzō Shioya
Saeko AsabukiChiyoko Kawashima
Prof. Danko KibiNoriko Tsukase

Derinja (Derringer) Civilization

A race of purple-skinned beings led by Grand Deram, a sentient being made of energy which lives in the center of the Derinja's home planet Deram. "President" Azass is the leader of the invading force stationed at his orbital base and Generalissimo Duston his top army officer, until they are replaced in Episode 29 by Bios and his lieutenant Dari.

Their giant robots, called "Mecha-Fighters" and often prefixed with "Mecha-", act as monsters of the week. A few are piloted, and the pilot is usually killed when Albegas splits their Mecha-Fighter in half. Duston (in Episode 27), Azass (Episode 29) and Bios (Episode 45) suffer this fate as well, while Dari (Episode 44) is badly hurt but taken prisoner by the Albegas staff, dying later in their headquarters.

All remaining Derinja (as well as Bios' second orbital base/mothership) are dematerialized in Episode 45 when Albegas destroys Grand Deram and makes the Deram planet explode.

Name Voices by
President AzassEiji Kanie
President BiosHidekatsu Shibata
Generalissimo (Shogun) DustonMasaharu Satō
Generalissimo DariMasaharu Satō
Commander KatastraKōji Totani
Commander Mira ZeroSatomi Majima
Officer DimeReizō Nomoto
Grand DeramMasaharu Satō

Robots
Configuration Color Pilot
Alpha RoboBlackDaisaku Enjoji
Beta RoboBlueTetsuya Jin
Gamma RoboRedHotaru Mizuki

A friend of the three pilots, Goro, also piloted the comic relief Gori Robo (in the tradition of Boss Borot from Mazinger Z).

Stackable configurations
Albegas Mode Abilities Stack (top to bottom) Albegas Colors
Denjin Dimension (Electroid Dimension)Basic fighting mode, best for finishing off enemies.Alpha, Beta, GammaBlack, Blue, Red
Magma DimensionAble to fight underground and in hot environments.Beta, Gamma, AlphaBlue, Red, Black
Space DimensionFor outer space battles.Alpha, Gamma, BetaBlack, Red, Blue
Marine DimensionFor battles in water.Gamma, Alpha, BetaRed, Black, Blue
Guard DimensionDefensive.Gamma, Beta, AlphaRed, Blue, Black
Sky DimensionFor flying through the atmosphere.Beta, Alpha, GammaBlue, Black, Red

When combined, the first listed robot forms the upper torso, head, arms, and thighs of Albegas, the second robot listed forms the midriff, upper backpack, and the backs of the lower legs, and the third robot forms the waist, the lower backpack, and the prominent portion of the lower legs.

Super Abega and New Super Abega

In the beginning of the series, each pilot also used a smaller aircraft, which was flown in through small hatches into the backs of the robots in order to pilot the robots. The three aircraft could also combine into a single jet called the Super Abega.

They were very quickly replaced by a different set of small aircraft that could transform into different bipedal droid forms, and similarly combined into the New Super Abega.

Original Jet Transforming Jet/Robot Pilot
Jet AlphaNew Jet Alpha/Jetrobo AlphaDaisaku Enjoji
Jet BetaNew Jet Beta/Jetrobo BetaTetsuya Jin
Jet GammaNew Jet Gamma/Jetrobo GammaMizuki Hotaru

Voltron and Albegas

Albegas was intended to be incorporated into the Voltron universe as the third portion of the Voltron: Defender of the Universe series, but due to the extreme popularity of the GoLion-derived Voltron and lack of popularity of the Dairugger XV–adapted portion of the series, the plan was ultimately scrapped in favor of a season of newly-animated "Lion Voltron" episodes commissioned specifically for the American show.[1][2][3] However, die-cast Albegas toys were still released as "Voltron II" (a.k.a., "Gladiator Voltron") in the Matchbox Voltron toyline, and Albegas made a brief appearance as Gladiator Voltron in the Voltron comic book series.

Unreleased Arcade Game

Albegas was intended to become a laserdisc arcade game to be produced by Sega, with Toei Animation to produce the animation for it. It was going to be published by Bally Midway for the U.S. under the title of Cybernault and a prototype video was made to demonstrate what the game would be like. However the release of the game was cancelled. Prior to its cancellation, Japanese magazine Game Machine listed Albegas on their July 1, 1984 issue as being the most-successful upright arcade unit of the year.[4]

gollark: I don't know about "exclusive".
gollark: I care a bit. I miss being a cult leader...
gollark: I have to say that a poll in which it's possible and quite easy to vote twice is... not without problems... as a way to pick the best cult.
gollark: And there are ways to, say, hire people to solve the recaptcha fast.
gollark: Well, you can *manually* do it lots.

References
  1. Kamen, Matt (7 October 2016). "Voltron: Legendary Defender season two lands on Netflix in January". Retrieved 7 February 2019 – via www.wired.co.uk.
  2. Phillips, Nicholas. "Voltron prepares to recapture the universe from a small office in St. Louis". Riverfront Times. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  3. "The 15 Darkest Secrets About Voltron". CBR. 18 March 2018. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  4. "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - アップライト, コックピット型TVゲーム機 (Upright/Cockpit Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 239. Amusement Press, Inc. 1 July 1984. p. 25.
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