Maken Liner 0011 Henshin Seyo
Entry updated 15 April 2024. Tagged: Film.
Japanese animated film (1972; vt Go Get Team 0011; vt Demon Dog Liner 0011 Transform!). Toei Animation. Created by Sasagawa Hiroshi. Directed by Takeshi Tamiya. Written by Yûgo Serikawa and Masaki Tsuji. Voice cast includes Haruko Kitahama, Minori Matsushima, Masako Nozawa, Kyoko Satomi, Machiko Soga and Masato Yamauchi. 50 minutes. Colour.
Some time in the future, Professor Hayashi (Yamauchi) has announced that Earth is threatened by an Alien Invasion, though his fellow Scientists are sceptical ... but that night a glowing potted cactus is Teleported into his house. Earlier that day his young son Tsutomu (Satomi) had brought home a stray Dog and her three puppies: growling, the dog grabs the cactus, leaps out the window and runs off, accompanied by her offspring; there is an explosion. The professor manages to recover the animals' brains, and on his son's birthday gifts him four weaponized Cyborg Dogs. The mother, Queen (Kitahama) is a power source for her young, and also has a drill in her nose; the pup Ace (Nozawa) has multi-purpose eyes with night and X-ray vision, a "calorific tracking camera" and a plasma gun (see Weapons); Jack (Matsushima) can emit a destructive jet of gas from his mouth; and Joker (Soga) is a Shapeshifter. They can individually fly, but also combine to form a Spaceship piloted by Tsutomu, who has a helmet that enables him to talk with his pets; given their intelligence, a degree of Uplift might also be inferred. After destroying a base built below Mount Fuji, Tsutomu returns home to find his father fatally wounded from an alien attack. Before dying he gives his child a Ray Gun and urges him to carry on the fight.
We learn more about the aliens: emotionless, insect-like and using craft shaped like giant bugs (and a snail), they seek planets to colonize (see Colonization of Other Worlds) and then wipe out the inhabitants. Their home planetoid – hollowed out and turned into a World Ship – is currently hiding behind the Moon, which has been made into a giant bomb to wipe out all life on Earth. Tsutomu and the dogs manage to enter the world ship, damaging it before it can get out of the explosion's range. When the alien leader Golgoth flees in a spaceship, Tsutomu crashes his craft into it, killing Golgoth and destroying the bomb timer, so saving Earth. Tsutomo and the jet are unharmed.
Simply animated, with occasionally interesting backgrounds, Maken Liner 0011 Henshin Seyo is a minor children's Anime, though with the virtue of a busy plot. It looks like a pilot for a tv series, but if so, none was forthcoming. It was originally shown at the July 1972 Toei Manga Festival. [SP]
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