Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3 (無敵鋼人ダイターン3), also known as The Unchallengeable Daitarn 3, is a Japanese anime television series created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Hajime Yatate, and animated by Sunrise. It was first broadcast on Japanese TV in 1978. The series lasted for 40 episodes. The opening theme ''Come Here! Daitarn 3'' is sung by Makoto Fujiwara. Despite being moderately successful in Japan, the series became very popular abroad, especially in Italy during the early 1980s. Between 1989 and 1992, Tomino wrote several spin-off novels, which are collectively known as the Banjō Haran Series (破嵐万丈シリーズ).

Plot

Sōzō Haran was a brilliant scientist who was conducting research on Mars. He created a form of cyborg life with the ability to think for itself. These cyborgs, dubbed the Meganoids (メガノイド), soon ran out of control and killed Dr. Haran along with his whole family, save his youngest son, the 16-year-old Banjō Haran. Banjō escapes from Mars on a rocket with a solar-powered super robot called Daitarn 3, which was built with the special metals of Mars. Now 18 years old and living on Earth in a luxurious mansion, Banjō fights against the Meganoids and their leader, Don Zauser and his second in command Koros, with the aid of his faithful butler Garrison, his two gorgeous companions, Reika and Beauty, and an orphan boy named Topo. Together they must stop the evil Meganoids which aspire to turn all humans into cyborgs and thus "improve" the human race.

History

Some of the staff fresh from Zambot 3 worked with Tomino on the Daitarn 3 project. The suave nature of the hero, Banjō Haran, was a direct attempt at capturing some of the spirit of the James Bond films, which can be seen in the fact almost as much action takes place with Banjo, Reika Sanjō (ex-Interpol agent) and Beautiful Tachibana (also called "Beauty") playing superspies as Banjō fighting against Meganoid robots in Daitarn 3. Other important characters were Garrison Tokida, Banjo's trusted butler, and Toppo, a comic relief-character who gets rescued from a Meganoid-hijacked city block in episode 2, and then stays with Banjō and company for no apparent reason. An interesting point to note is a light comedic element running through the whole series – the Meganoid foot soldiers exert some of their own personality with witty banter, bringing a fresh change to the silent drones which permeated super robot series previously.

Characters

Main characters

Meganoids

Other characters

Daitarn 3

Weapons

Alternate forms and vehicles

Megaborg and Megaborg-like entities

Video games

Daitarn 3 has made appearance in many Super Robot Wars titles. Daitarn has also appeared in the Harobots series alongside its predecessor, Zambot 3, being able to perform a combination attack with it in some of the games. Banjo himself has been a significant character is many of the Super Robot Wars titles. One of the most notable appearances was in Super Robot Wars Z2 Saisei-hen where he manages to prevent the death of Shirley Fenette from Code Geass should the player gather enough "Zero points" throughout the game. In Super Robot Wars V, Banjo reveals that Hokushin, the main villain of Martian Successor Nadesico: Prince of Darkness, is the last living Meganoid.