The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird


The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird is a 1991 Japanese anime television series, created by Takara and Sunrise under the direction of Katsuyoshi Yatabe. It is the second series in the long running "Yuusha", or Brave metaseries. The official Japanese title does not include the word "Fighter" in the title, despite the fact it appears on the Japanese DVD box art.

Story

In 2010, an evil energy being called Draias comes flying to the Earth. It co-operates with Jango, a wicked scientist, in secret to bring ruin to the world. A unit from Space Police Force follows him to Earth and their members put their spirits into either the special android vehicles built by the Japanese scientist Hiroshi Amano, or into different service vehicles like an ambulance, a police car or a firefighter truck. Their commander, Fighbird, merges with a human-shaped android created by Dr. Amano to handle his creations, and from then on lives as the human Yutaro Katori. He transforms into the super robot Fighbird when the enemy attacks, and in the meantime he tries to adapt himself to living with Dr. Amano and his grandchildren Kenta and Haruka so he can interact with humans, learn more about Earth itself, and put a stop to Draias' and Jango's plans for Earth and the Universe itself.

Characters

Yutaro Katori is the form that Space Police Force's commander Fighbird takes, after merging his soul with an android that Dr. Hiroshi Amano created to handle his world peace machines. He also takes his human appearance from a drawing made by Dr. Amano's granddaughter Haruka. His skin is made of super silicone foam that disappears when combining with a Fire aircraft, and artificial blood flows through his body. Under his Katori disguise, he publicly poses as Amano's assistant: he tends to make irrelevant, comical remarks because he does not know the Earth well, and sometimes gets himself in trouble due to his extreme naivete about human interactions. His kind nature often gains him friends, however, and he's also ferociously protective of his loved ones and of Earth itself. He controls Fighbird, Granbird, and Great Fighbird, and has the ability of instinctively learning how to handle any kind of technology with next to no training, from simple vehicles to whole computer systems. He is voiced by Yasunori Matsumoto.
As the 65-year-old head of the Amano Peace Science Laboratory, he develops machines to achieve world peace. They always fail, but he learns from this failure and often saves the day, especially after the vehicles he designed and built 'host' the souls of some of Fighbird's Space Police teammates. He has financial problems with the land he lives on and is also considered an eccentric by neighboring inhabitants and fellow scientists, leading him to be a bit of a glory hound. He is voiced by Ichirō Nagai.
Doctor Amano's cheerful, hotblooded grandson, and the first friend that Katori makes after his arrival to Earth. He acts with Katori as an earth special member of the Space Police Force, helping him in battle and keeping links between him and the Rescue base; he thinks of Katori as an elder brother, calling him "Katori-niichan". Katori gives him a small robot called Wrister that transforms into a wrist watch/communicator. He is voiced by Kazue Ikura.
Kenta's cousin and Doctor Amano's sweet and mature granddaughter, who lives with Dr. Amano because her parents work abroads. Since her grandpa is inventing all the time, she has trouble doing chores. She also has to keep Kenta in line at times. She created the picture that inspired Katori's human appearance, and has a precocious crush on him. She is voiced by Rie Iwatsubo.
Haruka's small pet monkey, apparently a gift from her parents. Voiced by Kazue Ikura.
A beautiful and kind doctor who works at a local hospital. She doubts Katori's identity ever since he tried to donate his artificial blood and she noticed strange things in its sample, but couldn't fully analyze it due to Katori and Kenta taking it away. As time passes, she both learns about the Space Police's mission against Draias and develops romantic feelings for Katori. Unbeknownst to Yoshiko, her ambulance hosts the soul of a Guard team, more specifically Guard Rescue. She is voiced by Masako Katsuki.
A detective of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, who uses tactics that have much to be desired, and firmly thinks Dr. Amano is linked to a huge robbery that took place three years ago. Nevertheless, he displays noticeable courage and will to help people when the situation calls for it. Satsuda is unaware that his own police car is also inhabited by the soul of a Space Police Force member, this time Guard Star; as such, he often can't find his car when he needs it. He was voiced by Shigezō Sasaoka.
A plucky and hotheaded TV reporter who constantly goes for the big scoop. She tries to get as close to Fighbird's battles as possible, only to often be put in danger as a result. Momoko develops a crush on Fighbird after he saves her for the first time, calling him "her prince", and will often hound Kenta for answers as to his identity. She cannot recognize him as Katori, however, despite thinking that she knows him from somewhere. She is voiced by Chie Kojiro.
A wicked mad scientist, Dr. Amano's biggest rival and Draias' ally. He built his base at the bottom of the sea and often finds himself in trouble since Zol and Shura, whose wicked spouls inhabit two androids that he built, refuse to follow his leads. He secretly plans to gather enough power to overthrow Draias. He was voiced by Junpei Takiguchi.
Draias' muscular and lanky, respectively, minions that carry out his orders directly and tend to ignore Jango's plans. They command Draias' machine gun-wielding henchmen known as the Teshita and his monsters, the Mecha Beasts. They're voiced by Kiyoyuki Yanada and Yu Shimaka, respectively.

Fighbird

The combination of Fighbird and Granbird.
The combination of Fighbird and Flame Breaster.
The combination of Katori and Fire Jet.
A jet that can combine with Katori.
A jet that acts as a breast plate for Fighbird.
The combination of Granbird and Breaster Jet.
The combination of Katori and Fire Shuttle.
A space shuttle that can combine with Katori.
A jet that can combine with Granbird.

The combination of Guardion and Guard Wing.
The combination of Guard Star, Fire, and Rescue.
Leader of the Guard Team. A robot in form of a police car, the one owned by Inspector Satsuda. Forms the head and chest of Guardion.
A robot in form of a fire truck. Forms the torso and arms of Guardion.
A robot in form of an ambulance, actually the one belonging to Dr. Kunieda's workplace. Forms the legs of Guardion.
A robot in form of a helicopter jet. Forms the foot additions, torso addition, wings and head of Super Guardion. He joins the cast halfway in the series and has a hot-headed, proud personality that causes him and his companions may problems.

All the barons except Ace are drones.
The combination of all five Barons.
Leader of the Baron Team. A robot in form of a tank, where a Space Police member's soul properly resides; he directs the smaller robots as if they were drones. Forms the torso and head of Thunder Baron.
A robot in form of a trailer. Forms the right arm of Thunder Baron.
A robot in form of a drill tank. Forms the left arm of Thunder Baron.
A robot in form of a submarine. Forms the right leg of Thunder Baron.
A robot in form of a small jet. Forms the left leg of Thunder Baron.

Draias Forces

Death Team

The main form of Draias and the main antagonist of the series.
An eagle robot that forms the head, chest, back, wings, shin guards and feet.
A tiger robot that forms the right half of the body.
A dragon robot that forms the left half of the body.
A super sonic jet Draias can transform into.
Draias after being bathed in all of the negative energy from deep space using the Devil Tower. While in this form his powers include armored skin that can regenerate while in the dark field, four energy draining tentacles from each arm, flight, eye fire balls, morphing his right hand into a long spear, green winds from the left palm that can spawn fire, a red mouth spear that can be converted into a powerful fire ball, purple energy saw discs, and red explosive energy blasts from around his body.

Mecha Beasts

Mecha Beasts serve as the monsters of the week of the series. These mechanical entities are designed by Dr. Jango in his underwater base in the Pacific Ocean while being powered by Draias' minus energy. These giant monsters are often piloted by Zol, Shura, or both, although Jango has piloted a few himself. Mecha Beasts usually disguise themselves as objects to prevent them from being noticed right away.
A vertical rail shooter based on the series was released on the Famicom in 1991 with a Game Boy version of the game released the next year. The game featured primarily enemy tanks, VTOLs, submarines, and sea monsters with a few mecha monsters from the show serving as bosses under different names. The game was mistranslated in English as Fire Bird. Draias in his normal form appears as the final boss under the title Dark Fire Bird. In the Game Boy version, Draias can divide himself into the Death Team.
Fighbird later returns in the Brave Saga games with Sodom, Gomorrah, and Draias serving as the only villainous entities in the series to appear and are used in several levels instead of just the final battle; the Death Team, Draias Jet, and Organic Draias do not appear. It is also noted that Fighbird is the only series other than Brave Command Dagwon not to have any storyline or villains in Brave Saga 2. Fighbird also stars in the Harobots games alongside many other anime robots including the Brave series.

In popular culture

"Is this a pigeon?" meme

In 2018, a scene from the third episode of the first season in which Yutaro sees a butterfly while speaking to Inspector Satsuda and asks "is this a pigeon?" became a popular internet meme, spawning many variations.