Acrobunch

Acrobunch
魔境伝説アクロバンチ (Makyo Densetsu Acrobanch)
Genre	Mecha
TV anime
Directed by	Masakazu Yasumura
Studio	Kokusai Eigasha TMS Entertainment
Network	Nippon Television
Original run	May 5, 1982 – December 24, 1982
Episodes	24
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Acrobunch (魔境伝説アクロバンチ, Makyō Densetsu Akurobanchi^?, lit. "Acrobunch: The Legend of the Demon Lands") was an anime series aired in 1982. There were 24 episodes. It is also referred to as "Demon Region Legendary Acrobunch", "'Demon Regions Legend Acrobunch", "'Ruins Legend Acrobunch", "'Acrobanch".

Story

Led by scientist Tatsuya Randou, the Randou family undertakes a journey around the globe in order to search out ancient ruins to uncover the legend of Quetzalcoatl, which unlocks the key to a fabulous treasure. However, tailing the Randou family is Gopurin, an evil organisation that covets the legendary treasure for itself. The Randou family has the secret weapon of super robot Acrobunch. It becomes a race around the world of who finds the treasure first.

Concept

Acrobanch was an anime pushed out to capitalise on the archeological adventure craze that was occurring in Hollywood at the time. The art for this series was impressive and the combination sequence of Acrobunch still remains exceptional to this day, setting the benchmark for the rest of the 1980s. Five separate vehicles combine to form the super robot Acrobunch. The parts contain 2 motorcycles which form the arm, 2 racecars form the legs, 1 plane form the body.

Staff

Creator: Kyoro Ikeoa

Screenwriter: Yu Yamamoto

Director: Masakazu Yasumura, Takashi Kuoka, Yoshinori Natsuki

Art: Toshikazu Yamagushi

Character Design: Mutsumi Inomata, Shigenori Kageyama

Music: Masahiro Maruyama

Singer: Yukio Yamagata, Isao Taira

Characters

Japanese Name	Voiced by
Tatsuya Randou	Hidekatsu Shibata
Reika Randou
Ryou Randou	Akio Nojima
Miki Randou	Hideyuki Tanaka
Hiro Randou	Norio Wakamoto
Jun Randou	Shigeru Nakahara
King Deros

Merchandise

The Acrobunch robot was released as "Acrobunch Kyoui Gatti 5 DX" / "Acrobunch Wonder Combo 5 DX" by Poplar and Royal Condor. It is built with diecast metals, and the package comes with a number of pieces including motorcycle stops, plane landing gears, airfoils, guns, swords, stickers, missiles, fists. The US and Taiwan release is especially rare since it was considered 20% smaller, and the label for the toy was "Pentabot" instead of "Acrobunch". It may have been sold outside Japan as such due to lack of licensing of the anime name title^[1].

References

1. ^ Robot Japan Web. "Acrobunch Toy info." Robot Japan. Retrieved on 2006-11-21.