It’s taken a very long while, but the classic 80s mecha anime Panzer World Galient is finally getting a Western Blu-ray release this October.
Following the success of Fang of the Sun Dougram and Armored Trooper VOTOMS, the original Panzer World Galient TV series was released back in 1984 and was another of Ryosuke Takahashi’s big mecha hits from that period.
Set on the world of Arst within what appears to be a medieval society. Mysterious and very powerful mecha have been dug up by the forces of Marder. Wth Marder seemingly set on conquest, Prince Jordy has his father murdered and mother kidnapped. Raised away from all the death and destruction, his quest begins in the search of the legendary “iron giant” known as the Galient.
After the isekai success of Aura Battler Dunbine, you would think that Galient would have taken a similar route, but the story resolves in a very interesting and unexpected way. However, the whole “prince in exile” setting was clearly an influence on later anime such as The Vision of Escaflowne.
In addition to Takahashi’s involvement on the TV series, the mecha were designed by Kunio Okawara and Yutaka Izubuchi. The former handled the Galient’s design, whereas Izubuchi penned the rest of the mecha.
The following OVAs, which this new Blu-ray release also includes, had two that re-packaged the TV series’ story into a shorter runtime, with the third being an entirely and almost magical retelling of the original story.
Called Crest of Iron and released in 1986, it exclusively featured mecha designed by Izubuchi and also likely helped inspire Escaflowne’s movie as well.
So this Blu-ray release has been a longtime coming and is based off the remastered Japanese release from 2017 (shown below), so I am expecting very good things here.
Galient was also featured in Super Robot Wars BX on the 3DS a while back, so it’s very much part of the classic mecha pantheon by this point.
Panzer World Galient will be released on Blu-ray from Sentai Filmworks on October 15. You can pre-order the set from Sentai’s online store for $51.99.
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