Diatron-5 (마이크로 특공대 다이야트론 5) is a Korean animated movie, made in 1985. It is unremarkable save for its bizarre premise, reducing giant robots to microscopic size in order to destroy an infection inside a young woman's body and its mecha being ripoffs from Takara's Diaclone toyline.

Plot

At an unspecified date in Earth's future, a hostile space force, possibly alien, sends an assassin to kill a young woman named Ivy. Ivy somehow controls all of Earth's defenses. The implication is that the computers which control Earth's defenses are implanted in Ivy's brain, however this is not explicitly stated. The assassin nearly succeeds, leaving Ivy in a deep coma. With Earth defenseless, the hostile forces begin attacking in earnest, destroying one of Earth's space stations.

Ivy's doctors determine that the assassin introduced an alien infection into Ivy's body that human medicine cannot combat. They decide to shrink an advanced robot, Diatron-3, and its diminutive robot pilot, Baipam, and send them into Ivy's body to kill the infection directly.

For reasons the film doesn't even try to explain, inside Ivy's body is a small solar system! In this strange and inexplicable place, Diatron-3 and Baipam confront the "infection", which is actually a shrunken army led by a woman calling herself, "General Mary". Mary and her robots defeat the unprepared Diatron-3 and Baipam easily.

An Earth scientist hastily constructs a more powerful robot, Diatron-5. No mention is ever made of any Diatron-4. Diatron-5 and its pilot, a young man named Chi, and Chi's girlfriend, Karen, are shrunk and injected into Ivy's body. Unfortunately, the main component of Diatron-5's body becomes separated and lost.

The rest of the movie concerns Chi and Karen's efforts to locate Diatron-5's missing control capsule and destroy General Mary and her army so that Ivy can awaken and activate Earth's defenses.

Alternate English Versions

Diatron-5 received at least two dubbings into English, one released in the United States as The Micro-Commando Diatron-5 in 1986 and another released as Space Transformer in Great Britain and possibly Australia. The Space Transformer dub has become widely available in the United States on low-priced DVD sold at discount store chains such as Wal-Mart (featuring a rather infamous box with heavily modified screenshots of Kaneda from Akira and a Modified Gundam unit, neither of which are present in the film).

The two English versions use different voice actors, names for characters, and musical scores. Space Transformer apparently retains the Korean theme song and score, whereas The Micro-Commando Diatron-5 has a completely new score.

Diaclone Connection

Diatron-5, when at last it is seen, turns out to be a knock-off of Battle Buffalo from the Diaclone toy line. Similarly, Diatron 3 is Big Powered, and the enemy mecha is Warudaros.
A Choro-Q version of an Armored Trooper Votoms Scopedog also appears.

External links

• Digi-View Entertainment - brief synopsis