Robby, Hatchi and Ikku are headed to the next stage station planet, Mulberry 7. However, due to Ikku’s scheme, instead they land on Mulberry 8, a planet of robots.
“If you aren’t a mecha, you aren’t a man”, is the planet’s slogan – as such, flesh-and-blood lifeforms are treated as slaves. Humans collect clams on the beach, which are then later sold to tourists.
Ikku is a robot, so he is treated very well, but Robby and Hatchi, as humans, at first receive terrible treatment...
The episode opens with a scene showing Robby showering, when suddenly, a sudden warp out causes him to fall down.
A view on Mulberry 8's surface.
Angry, Robby runs to the cockpit to punch Ikku for the jumpy warp out. When the robot protests, Hatchi – somehow also fresh out of shower – points out this couldn’t have hurt as robots don’t feel such things.
They both are excited to soon arrive at the 42nd stage station, Mulberry 7 known for its clams, but Ikku, frustrated with the way he is treated, instead takes Nagaya Voyager to its binary planet Mulberry 8, a land ruled by robots.
Robby telling Prince Chamechamecha to watch his step.
The duo very soon runs into a Prince robot who instantly starts to push them around – it turns out on Mulberry 8 humans are slaves to robots, and unless one is a mecha-person, they are not considered a man. For this reason, Robby and Hatchi decide to get into Hizakuriger to be able to blend in.
Shortly afterwards, Yang also lands on the planet, as Allo is sure Nagaya Voyager can be found there. A bull-like robot approaches the group and informs the group on Mulberry 8 mechas are the rulers.
Yang, Allo and Gras after arriving on Mulberry 8.
Yang doesn’t agree with such treatment – he sprints back to his ship and quickly assemblies a small mecha that looks like him and goes back to fight the bull robot. After throwing the other robot into the ceiling, Yang is approached by one of the local rulers: the Mecha-Count of Gear Nation, who hires him as his bodyguard and promises to issue an official search warrant for Robby. Until any progress in this case is made, the group is allowed to stay in the Count’s castle.
In search for clams, Robby and Hatchi direct Hizakuriger to the beach where they see groups of rather miserable-looking people manually collecting clams. As mechas don’t need to eat, all of these are exported, however, there is still a single grilled clam shop. Inside, the group meets Hoshiro, who tells them a bit more about the world of Mulberry 8: here, robots don’t work, but fight on the Se-Mecha-Hara battlefield for their respective feudal lords as a form of entertainment. Since they cannot really die unless their core data is destroyed, no one is ever gone as long as the Tao of Mecha rules, which forbid the usage of missiles and beams, are respected. Repairing the destroyed bodies is paid for using the money from exporting clams.
In thanks for the meal, Hizakuriger helps collect clams by grabbing a handful of them from the sea and dropping them on the beach. However, just then another of Mulberry 8’s rulers, King Chamechamecha arrives by boat. His minions accuse Hizakuriger of stealing clams.
Robby, speaking as Hizakuriger, tries to talk the King’s minions out of attacking him, but to no avail – until the King himself intervenes and asks Hizakuriger to join him in the upcoming battle against the Mecha-Count in return for reward money of 1,000,000 mon just for assisting, double that for winning. Hatchi doesn’t want to fight for the King, but is persuaded – they go with the King to his castle.
In the castle, they are presented with various weapons they can choose from, but they decide to stick to their javelin. Modern weapons are there, too, but these are only for defending their planet, and not for the usual battles. Practicing in the background is the Prince robot from before, now revealed to be the King’s son.
King Chamechamecha asks, for the first time, for his new helper’s name and leaves Hizakuriger in a private room, which is actually a hangar with no living facilities for humans. Robby, Hatchi and Ikku run back to the human village in search for bathroom and food – there, they meet Hoshiro again.
Yang’s group was a bit more lucky – since Allo and Gras were not in the mecha suit, Mecha-Count provided them with food, but it’s of very poor quality and in scarce amounts. Yang loudly complains about this.
Village close to the King Chamechamecha’s Castle[edit]
In the village, Robby and Hatchi are offered soup and continue talking about this world. Robby says personally he would throw a revolution in such a situation, and Hatchi backs him up by recalling the words he once heard himself – that unless he goes off the rails, nothing new will ever happen. However, Hoshiro doesn’t really understand the concept at first – he’s been living as a slave his whole life.
Yang, dissatisfied with the Mecha-Count not being able to find Robby, wants to leave and continue the search on his own, but is not allowed to – the battle is about to start soon. Both sides head to the Se-Mecha-Hara.
Robby’s plan is to pretend a bit at the beginning and run if the situation gets too heated. However, upon arriving, King Chamechamecha’s forces find out the Mecha-Count dispersed Minovsky particles which jam their sensory vision. Both sides are effectively blind.
With its hatch open to see using their own eyes, Robby and Hatchi wreak havoc among the Mecha-Count’s ranks, piercing robots one after another with the Hizakuri Javelin. However, they fail to notice Yang’s robot approach them until it’s too late, and the smaller mecha knocks Hizakuriger over. Through the open hatch the robot grabs Robby and tries to pull him out, but then, a sudden explosion throws it off and Robby falls down into his seat.
The explosion is caused by humans who hijacked the abandoned modern weapons and started a revolution – Hoshiro is also there, among the attacking forces. Missiles make quick work of the robots. Hoshiro suggests that Robby and Hatchi evacuate, not to be caught in the fight, so they disassemble Hizakuriger and promptly leave the planet. Much to their surprise, Yang doesn’t immediately follow them – he stays down to help with the revolution because the mechas were annoying him.
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[01:30] Isekandar (opening section)
[01:40] Visit (Robby showering)
[02:14] Conversation (Robby and Hatchi talking to Ikku in the cockpit)
Robby: They called him a prince? I’ll show him a prince. How arrogant. Princes and “so-and-so-the-seconds” are never decent folk. Hatchi: Y-You don’t say.
King Chamechamecha: Stop!
Hizakuriger: Huh? King Chamechamecha: I see you are quite skilled. I can tell. After all, I am the king. Robby: Whew, sounds like we’re safe.
Hatchi: The king must really be blind.
Robby: If it were me, I’d start a revolution.
Hoshiro: Revolution? Robby: Yeah! A popular uprising! Overthrow the power! You aren’t familiar? Hoshiro: No, I’m not. Robby: Yeah, being born on this godforsaken world, you wouldn’t be. Hoshiro: Yeah, there’s nothing I can do. Hatchi: I, too, thought that no matter what I did, my life wouldn’t change. But then someone said to me, if you live your life on arrow-straight rails, it will never change. Hoshiro: Rails? Hatchi: Yes. If you don’t turn and bump into things on either side, nothing unpredictable will ever happen to you.
Robby: I don’t know who that guy was, but that’s some good stuff.
Robby: Imagine, them actually starting a revolution!
Mulberry 7 is named after Kuwana, also a station of the original Tōkaidō – kuwa means mulberry and 7 comes from nana (seven in Japanese). Nowadays Kuwana is known for clams (applicable to both Mulberry 7 and 8), but also traditionally for its metal casting industry (hence Mulberry 8 is a robot planet).
The First Law: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
The Second Law: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
The Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
On Mulberry 8, all three laws are directly contradicted: robots push humans around, they are the ones giving humans orders and they fight for entertainment instead of protecting their existence.
King Chamechamecha’s and his son’s names parody the energy attack Kamehameha from Dragon Ball.
Yang’s small mecha resembles Lagann from Gurren Lagann. It may also allude to a Japanese folk tale Issun-boshi, in which a small boy defeats a much taller ogre and obtains its hammer afterwards – Mecha Yang wields a hammer and defeats a bigger Hizakuriger.
This episode uses motives from two films: Yōjimbō, in which the titular character is hired as a bodyguard and roped into a turf war between two gangs (Yang being hired by the Mecha-Count) and Tsubaki Sanjūrō, its sequel, in which the main character introduces himself with a false name Tsubaki Sanjuro (Robby introducing Hizakuriger as Hizakuri Sanjuro). Curiously enough, in the first film the character introduces himself as Kuwabatake Sanjuro, another made up name – kuwabatake means mulberry field.
Robby: We could make like we're artificial lifeforms. Get our fatima on.
Robby is talking about fatimas from Five Star Stories. There, fatimas are genetically engineered female humanoids.
Tao of Mecha, originally Mekadō, parodies the Bushidō rules of samurai.
Hatchi: What does it mean to be human, anyway?
This scene references a song Croquette, which opens with this line.
Minovsky particles and beam sabres come directly from the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise, also directed by Shinji Takamatsu. Characters Zatsu and Chimu (named only in the credits) are parodying characters from this franchise, too – Zaku and GM (read jimu).
The Se-Mecha-Hara battlefield parodies Sekigahara, where a real historical battle took place. At the beginning of this battle, the field was covered by heavy fog – here reflected by the Minovsky particles.
The purple shell blown to announce the beginning of the battle is a horagai – item made of a conch shell, used as a trumpet in Japan for many centuries.
People’s revolution bears similarity to the Boshin War, which was won by the relatively smaller side which had more modern weapons.
In Hizakurige, Yaji and Kita arrived at Kuwana too, but stopped to enjoy some clams at Toda.
Staff notes for the episode:
Opening: Mankind has gotten lazy since they created robots, and over time, robots have taken their place… That would never happen! The outrageous anime RobiHachi!
Ending: The industrial planet Yokkamarché – the world where Hizakuriger was manufactured. At last, the secret of Hizakuriger is revealed! It all started 50 years ago!
