NAIDA AND RUBINA: WHAT'S BEHIND THE MASK - 39
By Gerdha & Joe7
(first article: here; previous article: here)

CONCLUSION - EP 25 AND EP72: THE MATRIOSKAS

In my analysis about Hikaru, written in 2003, I mentioned how the personal evolution of Duke Fleed is in reality the main theme of the whole anime, its true reason of existance, the true story that Nagai wanted to tell. I am still convinced of this; actually, the knowledge of the OV (Original Japanese Version) dialogues has reinforced my opinion.

Since we see Duke Fleed talking and acting during the anime in a certain way, some specific idea may be assumed spontaneously about his personality; but, if you look at the story with conventional lenses, superficially, you don't understand who he really is. The so-called "inconsistencies" or "anomalous" behaviors of the characters are normally explained as script errors or, even worse, as superficiality by the authors (it is an anime for children, the authors did not take care of the details...I read every type of comments about it on the web along the years). At Ufo Robot Grendizer anime worked Nagai himself (he himself admits it in Grendizer Roman Album) and the best professionals available at that time on the market: Araki, Komatsubara, Katsumata, Mashima, Uehara, Tamura, Fujikawa, Ishikawa...

Yet, even by the so-called "die-hard-fans" of the anime, it is assumed their contempt for the viewers or their absolute stupidity. I find this attitude from the fandom absolutely unjustified and disrespectful. Before reaching the conclusion that the authors did not care about the coherence of the story, or that they let Toei and Dynamic Planning spend money writing random scenes, I think it is necessary to ask the question: "maybe there is a reasonable explanation? Maybe we neglected some details?".

I find the most eloquent example of this approach in the usual interpretations of ep25 and ep72. The poor conditioned Naida, the sweet peaceful princess Rubina...and Duke Fleed acting illogically and "outside the box" in both episodes, without an adequate explanation, apart the usual "the authors did not take care of the coherence".
The latter being also the explanation to justify the existence of two contemporary girlfriends - because there’s nothing to say the contrary: in ep25 Duke Fleed and Naida never hint at breaking their relationship for reasons of state. Even, someone supposes that ep25 was "a mistake" that the Authors tried to fix with ep72! I am amazed. Why on Earth the fact that Duke Fleed entertained a relationship at the same time with both Naida and Rubina should be a mistake?

This point is absolutely crucial: but it is normally rejected by the fandom as "impossible": Duke Fleed apparently represents the prototype of the spotless and fearless hero, so it is unthinkable and unacceptable that he could have a "dark side": for example, that on Fleed he was a spoiled and irresponsible prince so he could “keep his feets in two shoes”.

Me too have been a victim of this mental scheme for many years. Then, I discovered the list of the episodes production team and I realized that I had to accept another explanation.

Ep25 and ep72 share the same writer, the same director and the same sakkan; the production team differs only for the curator of the background (Tsuji versus Uchikawa), the presence of Michi Himeno as support to the sakkan (she arrived in the Araki team in ep50) and the change of character designer (from Komatsubara to Araki). But the differences in the production team do not concern the strategic roles. It is the only case, together with ep63, throughout the full anime. Mashima, Katsumata and Araki worked together for the first time in ep25, then they returned to the team only for ep63 and ep72. It cannot be a coincidence.
But, if it is not a coincidence, it is absolutely impossible that the same identical development team could have made such a serious and strategic mistake in delineating the character of Duke Fleed and his interpersonal relationships with Naida and Rubina. There must be a logical explanation, which is respectful of the intelligence and professionalism of such a list of authors. And the only reasonable explanation is: there was no mistake.

This is confirmed by the fact that, from the point of view of both history and visual aspects, Telonna of Uchu Enban Daisenso (the pilot movie) is clearly and unequivocally divided in Naida and Rubina.

Telonna is a childhood friend in love with Duke Fleed; she is blonde; she has an electronic panther called Queen Panther; she is the daughter of King Yabarn; she dies on her spacecraft hit by a beam directed towards Gattaiger. The first three features are displayed in Naida, the second three in Rubina.

The two Uchu Enban Daisenso flashbacks that remind Telonna along with Duke Fleed on Planet Fleed are both present in Ufo Robot Grendizer, the first in ep25 and the second in ep72.

The division of Telonna, the co-protagonist of Uchu Enban Daisenso into two distinct characters was necessarily a conscious and voluntary choice of the authors. Therefore, the necessary consequence is that ep72 was conceived since the beginning of the anime: when the authors wrote ep25, they already knew, at least roughly, in what terms they would have developed ep72. Maybe they did not know exactly when and with what details - MariaGrace, for example, had not been even conceived at the time of ep25, and there are various rumors that indicate that the duration of the anime should have been originally of 78 episodes (the sudden managerial decision to shorten it explains the sudden final rush of the story) - but surely the idea that the story of ep25 was incomplete so it had to be closed in another episode at the end of the epic, had already been fixed at the beginning of 1976. Not only this: in the Roman Album, Nagai and Katsuta explicitly admit to be personally the creators of ep25. If so, the paternity of ep72 must also be attributed to them. It's a bit difficult to assume that they did not know what they were doing...

But, if this is true, it means that the events of ep25 are not self-consistent: that the episode presupposes that a part of the story is not yet revealed and its complete explanation is postponed to ep72. But it's not Naida to be "postponed" to ep72, nor is Rubina to be "anticipated" in ep25: Duke Fleed is the only common factor to both episodes. Therefore, it is necessary to focus the attention on him in order to understand the real intentions of the authors: a hidden message which is so important to require such a complicated storytelling strategy. It must be something that could only be revealed at the end of the story, i. e. that it made sense to place there for narrative reasons.

But, in reality, the authors don't leave the audience completely pending in the 47 episodes lasting between ep25 and ep72. Halfway, when the authors are forced, in ep49, for the production events that I narrated in Hikaru's analysis, to introduce the character of Maria Grace Fleed, they place another crucial clue which, however - for the same reasons mentioned above - it is hardly caught by fandom for what it is. MariaGrace remembers the attack on Fleed: and what does she remember? She recalls only that she was abandoned in the midst of the flames by her brother Duke Fleed, who hears her voice, but prefers to run away to go to recover Grendizer.

That scene in ep49 is absolutely senseless, yet it has been inserted: so it MUST mean something. MariaGrace was a character originally not foreseen in the anime, and the authors had to invent a story to justify her existence. Well, of all the explanations that they could invent, they choose the one of a Duke Fleed who abandons his sister? But wouldn’t have had more sense to use another solution, for example that Duke Fleed entrusted her to the tutor in order him to bring her to safety? But no, they choose to show us an "anomalous" Duke Fleed. As "anomalous" is the attitude of Duke Fleed in ep25 and ep72.

Is there any link in the team of authors who tie ep49 to ep25 and ep72? Yes: Shingo Araki. Ep49 is the first episode in which Shingo Araki is a character designer: it is in this episode where Araki takes over Komatsubara's role (who has gone on to manage Gakeen for reasons that have never been completely revealed). Araki is the inventor himself of the character of MariaGrace Fleed: how to introduce her in the anime was also his responsibility, even if the script of ep49 is by Tamura.

It is difficult to speculate that such madness has been invented either for fun or lightness. That scene wants to tell us something specific. What? And why?

I first mentioned the "anomalous" behavior of Duke Fleed in ep25 and ep72. It is now necessary to carefully analyze this point and find for it an adequate explanation in order to finally understand UFO Robot Grendizer's biggest matrioska.

In ep25, Daisuke is overwhelmed by a sense of guilt which is absolutely exaggerated, related to what we know of his history up to that time. He took Grendizer and escaped from Fleed when the Vegatron mega-bomb exploded, so what? What else could he have been able to do?

But, in his stammering answer in the hangar in front of Naida, there is no reasonable reply; he is paralyzed by the terror for something he thinks he has done and that Naida's words remind him.

And in his delirium, after being hit by the bar by her, his inner nightmares include a Grendizer covered of Fleedians' blood. This is his sense of guilt: he believes to be responsible for his population's death.

But why? It is not exactly what Naida has accused him of: she told him he is a traitor because he abandoned them when there were still survivors on Fleed planet, but it is a lie and Daisuke knows it well. But Naida's words still generate a nightmare in him, and this Duke Fleed's nightmare refers to something different: he considers himself as responsible for the extermination of his people.

This is not a matter of interpretations of dialogues or of dubbers' intonations: it is a precise scene, which has required manpower, time and money to be realized, so it is there for a specific purpose. Also, it is not even the first time in the anime that we see such a scene. We have already seen it in ep1, when Daisuke plays the guitar on the lawn and then he is caught by a conflict of conscience. Some memories of the destruction of Fleed appear in his mind; and there is a scene very similar to that of ep25; the real difference is that in this case Grendizer is not covered in blood.

Something happened in Duke Fleed's mind between ep1 and ep25: the meeting with Naida awakened in him a feeling of guilt for his planet's destruction. Therefore, Naida must be linked in some way to the events of the attack on Fleed: otherwise, the Duke Fleed's inner nightmares in that episode would not have an adequate explanation.

But what could it be? In ep25, there is no indication about it. The viewer is left at the end of ep25 with the feeling that something is wrong: ep25 is an "exaggerated" episode, out of the average atmosphere (even if usually dramatic) of the anime up to that moment. Nagai and Katsuta say in the Roman Album that they wanted to do an experiment with ep25 and that, given the positive feedback, they continued on this path even afterwards. So, you must take the content of this episode seriously: it was not a mistake, there is no inconsistency. Only, evidently it cannot be explained by itself.

And 47 episodes later, with the same development team, the viewer is slapped with an incredible news: Duke Fleed, at the time of the attack on his planet, was officially engaged with King Vega's daughter. I still remember what I thought when I saw ep72 for the first time when I was 13 years old: what the hell is this story?

It should be noted that this is a big difference with Uchu Enban Daisenso: Telonna and Duke Fleed in this pilot movie are NOT engaged. They are only childhood friends, that's all.

So, when normally someone says that the history of ep72 is taken from Uchu Enban Daisenso, he/she makes a mistake: there are some references, but the underlying story is very different.

But, in ep72, Duke Fleed does not seem - until Rubina's death - in the same mental state of when he meets Naida in ep25. In the latter, throughout all ep25, he is disconnected from reality: Naida tells him a lot of lies which he believes, together with disconnected phrasing.

In ep72, instead, he is well present to himself and replies point by point to Rubina at the lawn.

This happens until she shows him Fleed's picture: then he is moved looking at the sky in the direction of his planet. We have seen only few times Duke Fleed crying in the anime: and we see him so twice in ep72.

The original title of ep72 is: "The Long Distance Homeland Star". Planet Fleed is the protagonist of ep72, but the matrioska game makes us believe at first impression that the title is related to the news that it is coming back to life. But it made no sense for the authors to name an episode relying only on this topic, which is very marginal in the story. In OV (Original Japanese Version), titles are very poetic and are related to the profound meaning, to the "moral" of the episode itself. So, to have the honor of being the title's topic of ep72, Planet Fleed must be the true protagonist of the story. I mean that it is the story of what really happened on Fleed Planet, which must be the real protagonist of ep72: Rubina is the matrioska in the matrioska. If Rubina had been introduced into ep72 just to interpret the second alter-ego of Telonna, none of the dialogues of OV had any reason to exist.

The interpretation key to "The Long Distance Homeland Star" is in the dialogue between Duke Fleed and Rubina at the meadow. When he remembers her the attack to Fleed, in OV Rubina asks for forgiveness for herself, not for her father. She does not call herself out of the responsibility of the attack, she does not say that she had nothing to do with it and that she was against it, that she tried everything possible to avoid the tragedy. No, she turns her eyes down and asks for forgiveness. And Duke Fleed is not surprised by her answer. He does not tell her "poor dear, I know you have nothing to do with it". No, he fully accepts Rubina's statement and goes on recriminating for the radioactive pollution of Planet Fleed.

These are not opinions, or fanfiction hypotheses. These are the OV dialogues. In an episode like this, the apex of the whole anime, developed by the same team of ep25, it is not possible to think to a mistake or superficiality in the writing of dialogues, because they are matched with coherent drawings. We must accept that Rubina declares herself as co-responsible for the attack to Planet Fleed.

But what reason would have had Rubina to let attack, or, at least, to consciously consent to the attack to Fleed Planet? In addition: did she really have the possibility of deciding, or anyway doing something to allow or, conversely, to prevent the attack on the planet, so that she considers herself co-responsible for the attack?

It is the OV of ep2 to help us here. In the Japanese version, Duke Fleed explains that:

Duke Fleed/Daisuke: "But one day, suddenly, King Vega The Great, who was aiming to the total conquer of Vega Constellation, attacked Planet Fleed, setting up the Allied Army".

But, in ep72, King Vega and Zuril declare that the King of Fleed conceived the engagement between his son and Rubina to keep the peace.

Thus, the King of Fleed was perfectly aware of King Vega's expansion plans. So, why does Duke Fleed tell about a Vega's "sudden" attack? What was more natural than a Vega attack under normal conditions? Evidently, the Fleedians thought, for some reason, that they were safe. And what could have made them feel safe, if not the fact that Rubina was not only engaged with Duke Fleed (ultimately a formal protection only), but she was also physically present on the planet, thus effectively preventing any attack?

Planet Fleed could feel protected only if King Vega could not dare to attack because of his daughter's physical presence on the planet. Thus, the dialogues of ep2 are connected in a sensed way with those of ep72 only by deducing that Rubina had been on Fleed for a long time and she left suddenly, and also in secret. Duke Fleed, in fact, is far from the royal palace and Grendizer and the attack takes him by surprise in another city, where he is with Morus (see the flashbacks of ep71).

Someone might think that Rubina was taken away by Fleed with deception or force by emissaries of King Vega, but, then, her apologies at the lawn in ep72 would make no sense.

Her admission of co-responsibility may be explained only if her departure was her voluntary choice and she was well aware that this would have allowed the Veghian Allied Forces - specifically created - to attack Fleed. And Duke Fleed knows all this well, because he is not surprised by her excuses, nor he rejects them.

But, if this interpretation is correct, then the next logical question is: why does Rubina decide to leave and then let attack Fleed?

Once again, the OV dialogues support us. In the flashback of ep72 at the lake on Fleed, when Rubina mentions the already organized wedding, a bewildered Duke Fleed answers instinctively in OV "but this is impossible!". Rubina is surprised by the answer and supposes this is a problem of attraction towards her, to which Duke Fleed awkwardly tries to remedy.

In fact, Rubina has reasons to be amazed. Why could her marriage with Duke Fleed be "impossible"? On the contrary, it was something very logical, given the general situation. Yet, it is also evident to her that the King of Fleed had not informed his son of the concluded negotiations (in OV, Rubina's words presuppose an already signed agreement), and that for Duke Fleed there is some problem regarding this marriage about which she is in the dark.

The comment about the impossible marriage must be associated with another dialogue in OV, this time in ep25: Gandal reports to Blacky that Naida was taken as an hostage on Fleed and she was held prisoner on Planet Vega.

Hostage? Why? For what purpose? A hostage is only useful as a weapon of blackmail. And who could ever be blackmailed through her? There is only one possible answer: Duke Fleed. Gandal, therefore, had to be aware of a VERY special relationship that linked Duke Fleed to Naida. It is unlikely that such news came to him officially during the negotiations for Rubina's wedding. Considering the silence of the King of Fleed with his son about the marriage, I don't think that he would have conversed with the Veghian officers about the relationship that existed between his son and the Baron Family's daughter. Gandal must therefore have come to know this information in another way.

The sentence about the impossible marriage would not have left Rubina indifferent. She should have developed a very strong infatuation for Duke Fleed, so much so that 8 years later her father fears it is still so strong to endanger the Empire and to let him decide to dethrone her (VO ep72).

So, what clues do we have about what really happened on the Long Distance Homeland Star? We know that Duke Fleed and Naida are in love with each other with an overwhelming passion (if what we see in ep25 even vaguely reminds their bond after 6 years...). We know that the King of Fleed secretly agrees with King Vega for his son's engagement with his enemy's daughter. We know that Rubina is sent to Fleed and she unexpectedly takes (OV dialogue between King Vega and Zuril in ep72) an infatuation for Duke Fleed. We know that, when he learns from Rubina about the engagement, Duke Fleed declares her that the imminent marriage is impossible. We know that this dialogue takes place in late spring (Mizubasyo flowers drawn to the lake) but the attack to Fleed begins in winter (ep68 and ep71), i. e. about 9 months later.

We know that, in the meantime, the Allied Forces of Vega are formed, and that Rubina suddenly leaves Fleed by her own initiative, so that the planet is attacked.

(to be continued here)

HERE ALL THE ENGLISH LINKS ABOUT GRENDIZER

Edited by joe 7 - 19/5/2020, 14:12