Memories of Daitarn 3


Watching a cartoon in a foreign language on a black and white TV didn’t diminish my enjoyment.

I grew up for some time in Naples in the early 80’s. Surprisingly enough, this was before any English TV was available to us. That didn’t stop me from watching TV, even if shows like Star Trek were dubbed in Italian. I would often spend time watching the cartoons, also in Italian, and a particular favorite of mine was Daitarn 3.

As far as I can tell, it was never released in the US, but it was popular in Italy. Heck, I even bought Italian comics featuring Daitarn 3. Sadly, I never learned enough Italian to understand the show’s plot, but I sure do remember the fights. They were always expressive and usually ended with Daitarn’s signature attack: a bolt of solar energy followed by kicking out a hole in the unlucky enemy. From the research I’ve done, it appears this was the first Super Robot that used a human face with expressions. I don’t remember much of the robots emotions, but I did find a clip on YouTube for Daitarn’s signature attack:

Another think I remember well was the journey our hero took through the robot’s transformation. It was a rather long sequence, one I remember well. Here is a video of that transformation:

Yeah, it is old, and probably a bit cheesy next to today’s special effects, but I do have fond memories of the show. Perhaps this blog will help keep me from forgetting for another 20 some odd years.



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