Was Darius inspired by an anime?

[Edmond Dantes]

I remember once seeing an anime--I think it was Gaiking but not sure (it was one of the Force Five shows, I know that)--where the bad guys all had fish-themed mechs, and the bad guys were called Darius.

This anime was five or so years before Taito's famous shooter series began.

Is this just a coincidence, or was Taito actually influenced by the anime? Does anyone know?

I'm just curious, is all.

[KAI]

Too many coincidences.

[Captain]

This is Darius

[blackoak]

According to an interview on the gsl, the title Darius "came from the name of a character in a story." But maybe they lifted the fish idea from Gaiking, or they share a common source. Hard to know more without knowing what the actual story is.

[EmperorIng]

Well, from wikipedia (lol), the anime Gaiking had a villain named "Prince Darius" whose mecha robots were all fish-shaped, and that was around in the late 70s. It's not hard to see a teenage taito designer watching that, getting a job, and being like "you know what was really cool? Those fish robots in Gaiking!"

Here's an english snippet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 8VM#t=150s

Ha ha, I love this localization/dub

-complete apathy in the voices of the minor characters -scratch that, every character
-main character is a baseball star facing off against the White Sox (HA!) -after receiving an ominous phone call- "Must be a Sox fan tryin' to psyche me out."
-"They are the Dark Horror Corps. They seem to be an alien race led by a mad space scientist." If that's not the coolest fucking thing you've heard all day.
-obviously adapted names: Professor "Hy-tek", Aries Astronopolous, Nebula, and YAMATAGAKI FROM JAPAN.

[shmuppyLove]

[LastDancer]

Never heard of that anime, got to check it out.

[copy-paster]

The same case for this is the story of G-Darius, which it seems influenced on late 80'-90's sci-fi/mecha anime, also it has some Evangelion vibe.

Hard to know more without knowing what the actual story is.

In the shmuplations voting section it has couple of Darius interview, why didn't you try it at least one interview?

Unless if it's should need a vote, I will next time.

[apatheticTurd]

For what it's worth, a Taito guy in this interview states the bosses were designed by Tatsunoko.

[Bananamatic]

speaking of gaiking, you should watch the 2005 remake/reboot/whatever

the whole fish battleship concept seems to be gone from that one though

[RHE]

For what it's worth, a Taito guy in this interview states the bosses were designed by Tatsunoko.

dat DariusEX shirt

[Gamer707b]

This is Darius

Curious, is that Persian or Assyrian art there?

[Captain]

Persian. found in Naqsh, the tomb of Darius I among others.