Blue Comet SPT Layzner ( 蒼き流星SPTレイズナー , Aoki Ryūsei Esu Pī Tī Reizunā ) , sometimes translated as Blue Meteor SPT Layzner , is a science fiction anime series produced by Sunrise between 1985 and 1986. It was originally written by Tsunehisa Itō with Ryōsuke Takahashi as series' director.
31-690: The series focuses on an alien invasion and subsequent totalitarian world occupation and resistance in a timeline where the Cold War continues. The story takes place in the year 1996, where humanity is advanced enough to develop long-range space travel, as well as bases on both the Moon and Mars . However, Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union have not ended; rather, they have escalated as both sides continue to militarize space , and
62-692: A battlefield. As the battle ends, the lone SPT standing lands next to the terrified group and opens up revealing a pilot, who simply announces to them, "The Earth has been targeted". The robots who destroyed the UN base were the creation of the Grados , an alien race, from the Udoria system, who came to the Sol system for conquest, seeing an easy victory as the two superpowers raged against each other to exhaustion—however, this could also be described as an act of pre-emptive self-defense ;
93-463: A beneficial alien invasion are Gene Roddenberry 's movie The Questor Tapes (1974) and his Star Trek episode " Assignment: Earth " (1968); Arthur C. Clarke 's Childhood's End , the novel (later anime) series Crest of the Stars , the film Arrival (2016), and David Brin 's Uplift Universe series of books. A similar trope depicts humans in the role of the "alien" invaders, where humans are
124-496: A covert invasion by aliens who take on the appearance of human beings and attempt to develop a virulent disease to assist in their plans for global conquest. It was not widely read, and consequently H. G. Wells' vastly more successful novel is generally credited as the seminal alien invasion story. In 1898, Wells published The War of the Worlds , depicting the invasion of Victorian England by Martians equipped with advanced weaponry. It
155-719: A primary storyline role of all the Super Robot Wars it has appeared in. The anime also showed up in Super Robot Wars Operation Extend and Super Robot Wars DD. The series also appears in the Another Century's Episode games, with the Layzner & Zakarl being playable in the first game and also the Greimkaiser & Bloodykaiser make appearances as CPU-only units. The sequel, Another Century's Episode 2 , follows
186-588: A revised and unauthorised reprint of War of the Worlds , they both were first printed in The Boston Post in 1898. The War of the Worlds was reprinted in the United States in 1927, a year after the Golden Age of Science Fiction was created by Hugo Gernsback in Amazing Stories . John W. Campbell , another key editor of the era, and periodic short story writer, published several alien invasion stories in
217-514: Is a paternalistic/maternalistic theme. In this fiction, the aliens intervene in human affairs to prevent them from destroying themselves, such as Klaatu and Gort in The Day the Earth Stood Still warning the leaders of Earth to abandon their warlike ways and join other space-faring civilizations else that they will destroy themselves or be destroyed by their interstellar union. Other examples of
248-434: Is now seen as the seminal alien invasion story and Wells is credited with establishing several extraterrestrial themes which were later greatly expanded by science fiction writers in the 20th century, including first contact and war between planets and their differing species. However, there were stories of aliens and alien invasion prior to publication of The War of the Worlds . Wells had already proposed another outcome for
279-580: The SD Blu-ray format, using it to release anime that do not have HD masters available. The company has utilized unusual methods to find English dubs for which the masters have been lost. Such as using a Betamax copy of Nutcracker Fantasy in order to remaster the international cut of the film, and reaching out to the fan community to locate the English dub of the third season of Medabots . Discotek commissioned their first original English-language dub for
310-487: The 1930s. Many well-known science fiction writers were to follow, including Isaac Asimov , Arthur C. Clarke , Clifford D. Simak , plus Robert A. Heinlein who wrote The Puppet Masters in 1951. This is a familiar variation on the alien invasion theme. In the infiltration scenario, the invaders will typically take human form and can move freely throughout human society, even to the point of taking control of command positions. The purpose of this may either be to take over
341-590: The 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, a lot of them "license rescued" from other companies such as Funimation , Viz Media , ADV Films , Bandai Entertainment , Geneon , Manga Entertainment , etc. Their licenses include most of the Lupin the Third franchise, the first two seasons and three films of Digimon , Fist of the North Star , Sonic X , Hajime no Ippo , Urusei Yatsura , Galaxy Express 999 , Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo , and
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#1733085917335372-403: The 1997 Berserk series, as well as OVAs such as Giant Robo and Gunbuster and films such as Memories and Project A-ko . The company has also acquired several more recent titles and has collaborated with streaming service Crunchyroll on several releases, including KonoSuba , Kemono Friends , and 5 Centimeters per Second . Discotek is notable for being a major adopter of
403-475: The Bandai Channel. The anime had an OP and two ED songs. The OP was Melos no Yōni Lonely Way (Like Melos, Lonely Way), composed by Hideya Nakazaki and performed by Airmail from Nagasaki. The first ED song, which was for episodes 1-25, was Go-fun Dake no Wagamama (Just 5 Minutes of Selfishness), also composed by Hideya Nakazaki and performed by Seiko Tomizawa & Airmail from Nagasaki. The second ED song, which
434-521: The Grados prepared their invasion fleet, Eiji stows away on board one of the ships and steals their most powerful and advanced weapon, the SPT-LZ-00X Layzner before fleeing, seeking to warn humanity of its impending invasion. It was here where he was attacked. Aside from the Layzner, the surviving humans have now become very important to the Grados; as the only human passersby to the aliens and their power,
465-469: The Gradosian supercomputers have determined that humanity will eventually cease its in-fighting and become powerful enough to spread through the galaxy, feigning a deadly threat to even the far off Grados. However, there were two Grados opposed to the plan: human astronaut Ken Asuka, assumed lost during a deep space mission but discovered by the Grados, and his son Null Albatro (his "human" name being Eiji). As
496-642: The alien invasion story in The War of the Worlds . When the Narrator meets the artilleryman the second time, the artilleryman imagines a future where humanity, hiding underground in sewers and tunnels, conducts a guerrilla war , fighting against the Martians for generations to come, and eventually, after learning how to duplicate Martian weapon technology, destroys the invaders and takes back the Earth. Six weeks after publication of
527-532: The aliens themselves. David Morrison , Director of Space at NASA-Ames Research Center argues that first contact would be in the form of radio communication rather than visitation. Discotek Media Discotek Media is an American entertainment company based in Altamonte Springs, Florida , focused on distribution and licensing Japanese anime , films, and television series. Formed in 2005, Discotek primarily focuses on licensing retro titles from
558-460: The basic plot of the series but adapts it to the setting produced by the combined plots of the anime involved. For example, Eiji's first appearance is just after the resolution of Martian Successor Nadesico , and the SDF-1 Macross 's fold removes the heroes from Earth long enough for Grados to establish control over Manhattan . The heroes return in time to aid the resistance, and Eiji finally joins
589-533: The entire world through infiltration ( Invasion of the Body Snatchers ), or as advanced scouts meant to "soften up" Earth in preparation for a full-scale invasion by the aliens' conventional military ( First Wave ). This type of invasion represented common fears of the American public during the Cold War , particularly the fear of infiltration by communist agents . This theme has also been explored in fiction on
620-561: The movies Battle for Terra (2007), Planet 51 (2009), and Avatar (2009). Seth Shostak , senior astronomer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) believes an alien invasion of Earth to be unlikely for several reasons. He believes that any resources available on Earth can be found on their home planet, or that it would be easier to locate or create it on their own. He also believes that, if alien life were to make contact with Earth, it would first be through robots rather than
651-410: The narrator for the story. Suddenly, four unidentified humanoid robots classified as Super-Powered Tracers are detected, engaged in fierce combat with each other. The UN base is captured in the crossfire and quickly destroyed, eliminating all but six members of the "Cosmic Culture Club"—Elizabeth, Arthur, Roan, David, Simone, and Anna, leaving them stranded on the barren planet that has suddenly become
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#1733085917335682-415: The novel, The Boston Post newspaper published another alien invasion story, an unauthorized sequel to The War of the Worlds , which turned the tables on the invaders. Edison's Conquest of Mars was written by Garrett P. Serviss , who described the famous inventor Thomas Edison leading a counterattack against the invaders on their home soil. Though this is actually a sequel to Fighters from Mars ,
713-522: The ones invading or attacking extraterrestrial lifeforms. Examples include the short story Sentry (1954) (in which the "aliens" described are, at the end, explained to be humans), the video game Phantasy Star II (1989), The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury , the Imperium of Man in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, Invaders from Earth by Robert Silverberg , Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card , and
744-587: The planet's resources, or destroy the planet altogether. It can be considered as a science-fiction subgenre of the invasion literature , expanded by H. G. Wells 's seminal alien invasion novel The War of the Worlds , and is a type of ' first contact ' science fiction. Experts consider the prospects of an actual invasion of Earth by extraterrestrials to be extremely unlikely, due to the enormous cost in time and resources. In 1892, Robert Potter, an Australian clergyman, published The Germ Growers in London. It describes
775-492: The rare occasion. With this type of story, the invaders, in a kind of little grey/green man's burden , colonize the planet in an effort to spread their culture and "civilize" the indigenous "barbaric" inhabitants or secretly watch and aid earthlings saving them from themselves. The former theme shares many traits with hostile occupation fiction, but the invaders tend to view the occupied peoples as students or equals rather than subjects and slaves. The latter theme of secret watcher
806-860: The series and the three accompanying OVAs on Blu-Ray, with fixed masters from the Japanese Blu-Ray release. A Japanese Blu-Ray release was done on September 18, 2013 with the Blu-Ray Box and the Recollections 1996-2000 Blu-Ray Box version. This series was included in Super Robot Wars J for the Game Boy Advance and Super Robot Wars GC for the GameCube . It was also featured in Shin Super Robot Wars (its debut) and Super Robot Wars 64 with
837-527: The shadow of nuclear conflict looms over humanity both on and off Earth . Meanwhile, on Mars, an exchange program created by the United Nations to promote peace and understanding is about to begin; the "Cosmic Culture Club"—consisting of 16 members, as well as their instructor Elizabeth—arrives at the UN Mars base, and are being welcomed by the staff. Among the passengers is Anna—a 14-year-old girl who serves as
868-512: The show after it was canceled with only 2/3rd of the plot concluded. The first 2 OVAs, subtitled Act I: Eiji 1996 ( ACT-1 エイジ1996 , Akuto Wan Eiji Sen Kyūhyaku Kyūjū Roku ) and Act II: Le Caine 1999 ( ACT-2 ル･カイン1999 , Akuto Tsū Ru Kain Sen Kyūhyaku Kyūjū Kyū ) , summarize episodes 1–24 (Act I) and 26–37 (Act II). BC was known to have aired in Japan via AT-X, BS12 and on
899-490: The six are the only ones who can convince each belligerent power to stand down from destroying one another, and focus on the greater threat. Blue Comet ran for 38 episodes from October 3, 1985 to June 26, 1986. Episode 25 is a recap clip-show and episode 38 is replaced by the 3rd OVA, subtitled The Last Act: Re-recording 2000 ( LAST ACT 刻印2000 , Rasuto Akuto Kokuin Nisen ) , that remakes and expands on its events to conclude
930-646: The team officially along with Domon Kasshu after they (and the player's current character) fight off the Demon Death Platoon and several Gundam Heads. The series also appears in Harobots, since they're from Sunrise . Their units can act as 'wild' units or player units. Alien invasion Alien invasion or space invasion is a common feature in science fiction stories and films , in which extraterrestrial lifeforms invade Earth to exterminate and supplant human life, enslave it, harvest people for food, steal
961-618: Was for episodes 26-38, was La Rose Rouge (The Red Rose), composed by Tetsuji Hayashi and performed by Seiko Tomizawa. Blue Comet's mech designs were done by Kunio Okawara. In the summer of 2001, Bandai Entertainment announced plans to release the series in North America. However, as with Giant Gorg , the plan was scrapped. The complete series concluded the damaged, blue-tinted video masters from Sunrise, and were unable to acquire replacements. Bandai's license to this and Giant Gorg expired in 2005. In 2023, Discotek Media planned to release