Today marks the 40th anniversary of Blue Comet SPT Layzner, which is still a uniquely influential anime across anime, video games, manga, and everything else.
Layzner was another teaming up of legendary director Ryosuke Takahashi and mecha designer Kunio Okawara that was solidly within the realms of the “real robot” subgenre of mecha.
Unlike Dougram and VOTOMS before it, which took a more grounded approach to how mecha might work, Layzner dealt with super technology from a hostile alien race determined to conquer Earth.
Set in a then futuristic 1996, Layzner started with a group of schoolchildren visiting the US base on Mars, which was countered by a similar Soviet base. In this reality, the Cold War was still in full effect.
It was this Cold War that the invading Gradosians used to their advantage in their initial attack, making each side think they were attacking the other.
Using powerful mecha called Super Powered Tracers, or SPTs, the Gradosians had a huge technological advantage over their Earth-based counterparts, until Eiji turned up in the titular Layzner.
Eiji, it turned out, was half human, and the Layzner was an experimental SPT he stole with a unique AI installed by his human father. Eiji hoped that he could use the Layzner to intervene and stop the invasion before it happened.
Over the course of two seasons, Eiji and the now stranded aforementioned school children make their way back to Earth, fighting the other Gradosians along the way, to eventually show the shared origin of both species.
It was and is a gripping anime series to watch, with the pacing of the first season being almost flawless throughout. Things went awry during the second season, when a sponsor pulled out after selling faulty kerosene heaters in Japan, but we still saw a decent conclusion to the story in a follow-up OVA.
Ten years ago, I wrote about Layzner and its influence for its 30th anniversary, but in the time since, the series is now fully available on Blu-ray in the US, so at least people can see the show for themselves.
My appraisal then is the same as now; Layzner has had a unique impact on anime, video games, manga, and all sorts of things over the years.
Part of this appeal was down to how the SPTs worked and moved. They were agile but followed strict rules with beautiful animation directed by Moriyasu Taniguchi at Anime R that still holds incredibly well today.
For instance, the Scouters from Dragon Ball very likely came from Layzner, as well as Dougram, with the Super Saiyans being a reference to the Zakarl from Layzner, as it initiated its golden-hued V-MAX sequence. The Akira Toriyama connection is something Japanese fans have pointed out for decades, and it has a solid grounding behind it, too.
Mainly because Toriyama’s editor, Kazuhiko Torishima, explained that he would watch television while drawing manga. The original Dragon Ball manga started in 1984, and the following year, Layzner aired on Japanese television. Layzner was also co-funded by Nagoya TV, which is also very near where Toriyama lived.
Toriyama also had a fascination with military hardware, often designing military mascots for his friends at FineMolds, a Japanese model kit company, and Takahashi’s mecha anime often had a very grounded and military approach to them.
We also have all the video games that wouldn’t exist without Layzner, from Virtual On to Bangai-O, Zone of the Enders, and even some of the recent Armored Core games, such as Armored Core 4, Armored Core For Answer, and especially Armored Core VI.
Even a game I worked on as lead designer, that of Strike Suit Zero, took its mechanical influences from Layzner, namely the dual mode transformation of the Layzner Mk2, a design that was sadly never animated due to the issues with funding for the anime’s second season.
You then have the impact Layzner had on Gundam, with even a character called “Layzner” featured in Gundam 0083, which Takahashi and his team also worked on. More recently, you had Gundam 00 using many elements from Layzner in terms of how the mecha were treated, not to mention the concept of Celestial Being having a similar remit as Eiji in trying to stop needless wars.
In all honesty, the list of influences is nearly endless when it comes to Layzner. The fact that it’s now readily available in its entirety on Blu-ray outside of Japan is also something I never thought would happen in my lifetime, although I am obviously grateful it has.
In any case, Layzner is now 40 years old, and its grip on Japanese pop culture feels as tight as it has ever been. Here’s hoping it finally receives a greater degree of international appreciation after all this time.
Blue Comet SPT Layzner is available on Blu-ray from the Crunchyroll online store for $55.96
The following is a Layzner-themed AMV I commissioned for a lecture I gave at Otakon 2018 regarding the series and its influence. The music is by Waveshaper and was used in collaboration.
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