Five teenagers discover they're the only defense against an alien invasion nobody knows is happening. The robot they pilot isn't a weapon they control, it's a living thing that demands they trust each other absolutely, or it won't transform. Nagahama built this show around a simple, brutal rule: the mecha responds to the strength of your bond with your teammates, which means every episode forces you to choose between ego and survival. The aliens are relentless. The romance between pilots matters more than any fight sequence. By 1976, this was radical, a giant robot show that cared more about whether these five people could actually become a team than whether they could win the next battle.

Thousands of years ago, the people of the planet Campbell left their homeworld in search of new places to live. One group, led by the scientist Oreana, reached Earth, but their mission was held up. In the early 21st century, Oreana's followers awaken and set in motion a plan to conquer the planet. The Campbellians attack with giant biomechanical slave beasts, and the only thing that can stand against them is the super-electromagnetic robot Combattler V and the pilots who operate it. A sci-fi adventure built around giant robot battles, it is the first entry in Tadao Nagahama's Romance Super Robot Trilogy, which continues with Voltes V and Daimos.