The Italians Sure Do Love Themselves Some Grendizer
Grendizer is one of the several jillion giant robot anime series made in Japan in the ’70s. The titular robot only made it to America as part of the Shogun Warriors toyline, but for some reason, the anime became super-popular all over Europe, especially France, where is was called Goldorak, and Italy, where it was called Goldrake. None of this explains the above video, however, of two kids and a woman — a family? — in disturbingly tight spandex doing a song and dance routine in front of a crowd of people in super-cheap alien and robot costumes holding sparklers, while a mysterious announcer occasionally says “GOLDRAKE.” That occasional call-out is the only mention of Goldrake/Grendizer, meaning if it’s a promotion for the anime, it’s terrible, and yet if it’s not, I truly cannot comprehend what purpose this nightmare was made for. When this video haunts your dreams tonight, you can blame Mie S. for giving me the tip.
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.