Metal Armor Dragonar (機甲戦記ドラグナー, Kikō Senki Doragunā) is a 48-episode mecha anime series, created by Nippon Sunrise (later renamed Sunrise during production) and aired from 1987 to 1988. Devised shortly after the release of Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, Dragonar was intended to be both a "starter" series to get new fans into mecha anime, and a potential successor to the Gundam franchise. In fact, its concept is to be the renewal of the first Gundam; and the mecha are designed by Kunio Okawara, the mechanical designer for most of the Gundam series.Though the series enjoyed good ratings and earned a loyal fan following, it failed to surpass Gundam and ended up as a single series, probably due to its light, ZZ Gundam–like take on the real robot mecha genre. Game developer Banpresto had Dragonar appear in two of its popular franchises, Super Robot Wars and Another Century's Episode; fans responded positively, and Sunrise acknowledged them in 2005 by releasing a memorial DVD collection of the series, a remastered version of the previous two-part laserdisc box set releases years before.