News Reporting

Discotek Acquires Psybuster, Dancouger Anime


Two mecha classics are making their way back to North America!

Yesterday, Discotek announced that they acquired two titles. The company acquired the following:

  • Psybuster (Demon Machine God Armor Cybuster)
  • Dancouga (Dancougar – Super Beast Machine God)

Both shows will hit retailers on DVD on July 25. Psybuster will include an English dub in addition to the original Japanese, while Dancouga will be sub-only.

The titles will ship alongside Captain Harlock Endless Orbit SSX and Midnight Eye Goku.

Psybuster is loosely based on a group of characters in the Super Robot Wars video game series. The series, which aired in Spring 1999, was helmed by Hidehito Ueda (A.D. Police, Transformers: Armada) at Ashi Productions. Takeshi Itou (Cyborg 009 Vs. Devilman, Macross Dynamite 7) provided character designs, while Akiyoshi Sakai (F-Zero Falcon Densetsu) took charge of series supervision.

Geneon Entertainment originally released Psybuster in North America under the name Cybuster. Discotek describes the show as:

In 2040, the continuous pollution and the mysterious series of earthquakes left the city of Tokyo in ruins. A young man named Ken Ando is in training to become a member of DC, an army-like organization designed to investigate and protect the collapsing environment. Ken, with the support from his sister, Sayuri, gives his best to become a part of the elite group. But he receives the devastating news of being cut from the team because of his poor performances in the evaluation sessions.

When an ominous monster suddenly appears from the sky with a blinding flash and starts mowing down DC’s working robots with mysterious invisible forces. Ken, eager to show what he is truly made of, engages in a battle with the monster. Little does he realize his own fate and the fate of Earth itself may be linked to the mysterious Mech from another world.

Dancouga is an original project from Ashi Productions. The series, which debuted in 1985, was directed by Seiji Okuda (Psycho Armor Govarian, Urashiman). Character designs were provided by a seven-person team:

  • Hiromi Matsushita
  • Hiroshi Koujina
  • Kazuko Tadano
  • Nobuyoshi Habara
  • Noriyasu Yamauchi
  • Sanae Kobayashi
  • Takahiro Yoshimatsu

Keisuke Fujikawa (Armored Fleet Dairugger XV, Transformers: The Headmasters) took charge of series composition, while Hisashi Hirai and Masami Obari (Chō Soku Henkei Gyrozetter, Megazone 23 Part III) collaborated on mechanical designs.

Central Park Media previously held the license for Dancougar in North America. Discotek describes the show as:

Deep in outer space, the emperor Muge plots his next conquest – an out-of-the-way planet known as Earth. Mustering all the forces of his own personal Empire of Death, the Emperor is by far the most formidable foe humans have ever faced. And now he’s even more fearsome thanks to the defection of Shapiro Keats, a power-hungry Earthling reborn as an Empire informer.
Army after army crumbles in the face of an onslaught of the Empire’s seemingly indestructible robots. But now there’s a team that just might be able to stop them: an ace pilot named Shinobu, Sara (Shapiro’s one-time girlfriend) , and Ryo, a very unlikely young hero. Together, they’re in command of a new secret weapon developed in a laboratory hidden deep in a lake in Japan. Enter Dancougar, the Super Beast Machine God – and the battle’s just beginning!

Source: Facebook (Discotek Media) [1] [2]

About the author

Samantha Ferreira

Samantha Ferreira is Anime Herald’s founder and editor-in-chief. A Rhode Island native, Samantha has been an anime fan since 1992, and an active member of the anime press since 2002, when she began working as a reviewer for Anime Dream. She launched Anime Herald in 2010, and continues to oversee its operations to this day. Outside of journalism, Samantha actively studies the history of the North American anime fandom and industry, with a particular focus on the 2000s anime boom and bust. She’s a huge fan of all things Sakura Wars, and maintains series fansite Combat Revue Review when she has free time available. When not in the Anime Herald Discord, Samantha can typically be found on Bluesky.

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