The Martian colony is run by a dictatorial Commander Hazzard Pascha, who tests every settler on whether they should serve in the military or become a laborer.

When escaping from the Martian military police, Joe and Mike stumble upon a crashed spaceship, the Xenos 5, being attacked by huge robots.

In his attempt to escape chasing robots, Joe gets into the spaceship where he encounters three human-looking aliens: the beautiful Princess Rowena, her willowy attendant Jade, and a young General Icelander.

Joe tries hiding in a pile of glowing metal, which turns out to be a ninja robot named Black Lion.

The battle leads outside the ship where a mysterious ninja robot Cybertron suddenly appears when the Black Lion struggles.

Along the way, as they fend off the constant attacks by the Zaboom army and their allies, they make new friends and enemies, while Cybertron looms mysteriously in the background.

The ancient legend, pieced together during the series, speaks of mysterious ninjas who, 500 years ago, fought off an invading Zaboom army trying to conquer Ladorio.

Annex's parchment, with the latter half of the prophecy, states that the ninjas in Xenos 5 would emit a great light and would have the power to destroy stars and planets.

In the event of the pilots losing their physical strength, they merge with a special ninja robot called Cybertron (Tobikage) and transform into a more powerful combination.

The anime series was produced by Studio Pierrot, and aired on Nippon Television network from 6 October 1985 to 13 July 1986 with 43 episodes.

[16] The series used to be streamed in North America via Yomiura Group's now defunct Anime Sols video service in spring 2013.

[19] On June 7, 2021, the company issued calls for assistance in locating the English dub tracks for episodes 34, 37, 42 and 43.

[22] Neil Lumbard of Blu-Ray.com gave the North American Blu-ray release a positive review, noting the hand-drawn artwork as "a fascinating example of how excellent traditional art looks with anime series," and calling the show overall "an exciting action series with a lot to offer fans of classic (vintage) anime.