During the most recent Mecha Smile Impact event a couple or so months ago, Good Smile Company announced a new mecha series that fans of the Super Robot genre, especially of the Brave Series, would really appreciate. I am definitely delayed with this coverage, so let me catch up with my unsolicited thoughts on Beast King War God Dandivine.
We can’t talk about Dandivine without bringing its parent project, which aims to be basically a modern take on the Brave Series from the 90s. This is where The God of Combining Series comes in.
Good Mecha Smile aims to bring the combining robot genre to the modern age through collaborations with veterans and up and coming talent from the industry. The original Brave Series spawned eight mainline titles, with a couple of video game and manga spinoffs. I hope Good Mecha Smile succeeds with this initiative and bring a new golden age to the combining robot genre.
So let’s turn our attention to the inaugural installment of this project, Beast King War God Dandivine.
Twenty years has passed after the robot Dandevine defeated the mysterious enemy “Aposdoll.” The world was at peace, but the toy manufacturer Kasuga, that took the world by storm with its Dandevine toys, was in decline. Kasuga’s president, Shijima Genjuro, longs for the Dandevine’s revival, even if it means disrupting the peace. And as if his wish had reached the heavens, Aposdoll reappears in Tokyo after 20 years.
Amidst the chaos, high school student Shijima Gekiha is invited by his uncle, Kuroiwa Yusaku, the former main pilot of Dandivine, to pilot the giant robot.
The premise isn’t the deepest, and a toy company has major relevance to the story. I’m quite interested with how this will turn out.
Yi Cao is going to take the helm as series director. This will be his first chief directorial role although he has been an episode director previously for notable series, including Attack on Titan: The Final Season, and Shaman King (2021). He was also the 3D CG director for numerous series so this should come in handy when putting Dandivine in action. Series composition goes to Toshiki Inoue who is a tokusatsu veteran, including multiple Kamen Rider series.
Let’s now check out the mechanical designs, courtesy of An from God Brave Studio.
Here is the titular Dandivine, and it looks as super robot as a super robot can be, sans the lion face on the chest. As we’ll see with its individual components, Dandivine is comprised of animal-based robots. But I really appreciate that we don’t see any of the obvious animal components like heads and other parts in the combined robot, except some at the backpack.
The official website also gave a couple of stats, with Dandivine standing at 24 meters, which is rather short for a super robot; and it weighs 108.85 tons.
Forming the core of Dandivine is Dande Ace, whose name is probably an homage to Zambo Ace, the core robot inside Zambot 3. It stands at 10 meters tall and weighs 16.25 tons. It’s quite small for a core robot, and you can just see how its chest emblem forms only the top of the chest place of Dandivine. Dande Ace then combines with the three Divine Beasts as seen below.
First of the Divine Beasts is Slash Unicorn, which forms parts of the torso and the backpack unit. Its tail also becomes the chest plate of Dandivine. Slash Unicorn is 16 meters tall to the top of the horn, and weighs 25.6 tons.
The largest of the Divine Beasts is Magna Titan and to be completely honest, I’m not sure which animal is this supposed to represent. But it’s meant to be the titan in terms of power and firepower. Magna Titan stands at 17 meters, a tad bit short than a typical Gundam, and weighs 43.5 tons. It also forms the majority of Dandivine, including the arms and its lower half.
The last Divine Beast is Blaze Garuda, utilizing its speed and flight capabilities in battle. It forms the top sections of Dandivine, including the head, the massive wings and the shoulder amor. Blaze Garuda is 26 meters long from head to tail, has a massive wingspan of 24 meters, and weighs 23.5 tons.
We’ve been getting super robot resurgences here and there, with the last being 2024’s Bang Brave Bang Bravern. But this one is really an attempt to bring back Brave Series-esque super robots to the mainstream and I’m all for it. It will be interesting how Beast King War God Dandivine fares when it premieres in October.
And of course, if we’re getting a new mecha series, then we are getting new merch…
