It will take a while till I get to doing a writeup on the Danguard Ace series and since I recently watched these movies I figured might as well throw them out now instead of later. Back when Danguard Ace was airing Toei Animation produced two Danguard Ace movies that aired at the Toie Animation Festival in 1977 and 1978. Both of these were produced and shown while the TV series was still airing so the story isn't continued or anything. While these are movies it's worth noting they are only the length of a regular episode.
This is the first of the two movies and it takes part in the early part of the series specifically before and after episode 13. There really isn’t a whole lot going for this movie as there is no sign of Doppler and in his place introduces a new villain specifically the alien Insect Robo Army. Their objective is blood, not just from humans but all living things that they use as an energy source; they capture Lisa and reveal this after capturing Takuma who promptly escapes. The aliens for some reason think they’ve already won and that Earth is already in their hands when their UFO reinforcements from the Moon arrive. Instead Jasdam launches and the UFO forces combine into a giant robot before being crushed in a combined attack with the Jasdam and Danguard Ace.
With throw away villains with not really much else to show for it this is easily skipped without a great loss. Why these aliens thought they had already won and Earth was already in their hands is beyond me. Danguard Ace gets damaged in the first few minutes in the initial assault and stays sidelined till the end as well. And in the end Captain Dan gets new screen time as well!
Planetary Robo Danguard Ace Great Space Naval Battle
This is the second of the two movies and it originally aired at the Toei Animation Festival a week prior to the end of the series, this episode goes back a bit and takes place between episode 44 and 45 using the same staff who produced episode 44. This time around Jasdam is traveling near Saturn with Doppler’s forces slightly ahead of them. Doppler launches a plot to destroy Jasdam with remote controlled meteors, Lisa ended up going out in the Space Arrow to destroy one of them while Danguard Ace is busy fighting the Harken Special Team and ends up going missing. Doppler sets up a plot to destroy Jasdam at the end of a nebula, but Jasdam takes a course through the nebula looking for Lisa and rams the Planestar causing severe damage. Danguard Ace fights an AI controlled Mecha Satan which involves Takuma spitting out lines how since it’s an AI controlled mecha they as humans control the mecha, regardless to say Danguard Ace wins and Lisa is saved.
This movie is clearly the superior of the two and I think that can be attributed to the regular villains in the TV series. This one felt more like an episode of the series then anything and not just a throwaway episode to inflate the episode count. While these movies are no means bad, especially the second I was hoping that instead we'd see some sort of continuation of the series to wrap up the ending better.
