Sänger Zonvolt

Sänger Zonvolt (ゼンガー・ゾンボルト Zengā Zonboruto) is a character from the Super Robot Wars series, making his debut on Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden as a playable character.

Profile
A member of the crew of the all-purpose battleship "Kurogane," and the exclusive pilot of the humanoid mobile weapon "Dygenguard." He was formerly a member of the Aggressors, a unit that created combat motion data for Personal Troopers. He is a true warrior with a bold personality who stands by his beliefs. Sänger is always respectful and attempts to resolve things in a fair and just manner, but can sometimes be inflexible. Also a master of the Jigen Style, he is just as skilled with a blade in person as he is when piloting Dygenguard.

Alpha Timeline
In the Alpha timeline, Sänger first appears in Alpha Gaiden. Here, he has a deep sense of devotion to the main designer of the Earth Cradle facility, Sophia Nate, to the point where he is seemingly in love with her. This devotion plays a role in the dystopian alternate future in the story of Alpha Gaiden, where Sänger shows fanatical loyalty to Magus, the central supercomputer of the Earth Cradle that has fused with Sophia. Through the persuasion of Londo Bell's pilots, Sänger realizes that Magus is not the same Sophia Nate he swore to protect and chooses to fight against the Ancestors and free Sophia from Magus's control.

Continuing in Alpha 2, he would be defending the Earth Cradle once again (since the events of Alpha Gaiden would never have existed, as the Aegis Plan was successfully completed and implemented) from the attacks of Kukuru and her Magarga. The Dygenguar would be handed down to him and he would assist the Alpha Numbers in defeating the Earth Guardian Irui Ganeden and the invading Balmarians in Alpha 3.

Unlike in the Original Generation timeline, Sänger personally requested that the Dygenguar's original armament be shut down permanently, choosing to fight only using his Zankantou.

Original Generation Timeline
Sänger Zonvolt began as a member of the Aggressors unit, an elite group of pilots formed by the Earth Federation Army with other notable members such as Elzam V. Branstein, Gilliam Yeager, and Kai Kitamura. When the unit was disbanded, Sänger was relocated to the North American Langley Base and started to form the ATX Team. When the Divine Crusaders declared war on the Earth Federation, led by such convictions, Sänger chose to leave the ATX Team and join forces with the Divine Crusaders, fighting once more alongside his old friend, Elzam.

As a member of the faction, Sänger upholds the more honorable intentions of Bian Zoldark and seems to understand the point of Bian's rebellion: it is supposed to strengthen the forces of Earth and prepare them for an impending invasion by alien forces. This dedication to valor often causes Sänger to butt heads with another high-ranking soldier, Siebel Mistrel, who feels that the ends justify some truly devious means, such as trying to kill his enemies with poison gas or making the threat of gassing a space colony.

Both Sänger and Elzam join the Earth's forces in time for Operation SRW, the final offensive against the Aerogater invaders before going their separate ways. He and Elzam retreat into hiding, waiting for the opportunity to reveal themselves again when a new alien threat would arrive to terrorize the people of Earth. As expected, in Original Generation 2, both the mighty Inspectors and mysterious Einst appear. Sänger and Elzam, under the disguise of Rätsel Feinschmecker, immediately rush to join their old allies in the battle against the extraterrestrials as well as the Neo Divine Crusaders and Shadow-Mirror. Upon arriving at the Tesla Leicht Institute to free it from Inspector occupation, his Grungust Type-3 (Sanshiki) is torn apart by the Inspector Vigagi and his Galgau, but shortly after, he acquires Bian's last gift to him: the incredible Dynamic General Guardian, which he shortens to Dygenguar.

After learning the presence of Dr. Sophia Nate, Sänger participates in the assault on the Earth Cradle, which is defended by Shadow-Mirror officer Wodan Ymir, his combat rival. Sänger comes out of the duel as the victor, successfully completing his mission and destroying the core of Magus, freeing Sophia from its possession. After the war against the Shadow-Mirror, Einst and Inspectors is over, Sänger chooses to hide in the shadows once again along with Rätsel, Yuuki Jegnan, and Ricarla Borgnine aboard the Kurogane. In Original Generations, he is joined by the Super Robot Wars Reversal characters Raul Gureden, Raji Montoya, and Mizuho Saiki.

In Super Robot Wars Original Generation: The Animation and later Super Robot Wars Original Generation Gaiden, Sänger appears in his Dygenguar as a reinforcement for the Hagane during their assault on the Hellgate facility. Sänger is also quite active in fighting the Shura army. At one point, the Shura General Magnaz Ald ambushes him and breaks the Dygenguar's Zankantou, forcing Sänger to fight with the Dygenguar's original weaponry (which luckily he had personally requested to be re-activated once more), showing that he is not dependent on his Zankantou alone. Sänger would have the Zankantou repaired after the fight, though.

In 2nd Super Robot Wars Original Generation, Sänger at first were amongst the people thrown into La Gias, along with Dygenguar. He was found by both Ryuune Zoldark and Hwang Yang Long, and some other pilots, and helped finish the Langran Civil War. Once he returned to the surface, Sänger took up the battle against the Gaia Sabers, Guest, Baral Garden and Ruina. Along this time, Sänger became acquaintated with a girl that was picked up by Ibis Douglas previously, Irui. He also formed rivalry with a servant of Baral Garden, Kukuru

In this time, the Dygenguar became a target of a sentient robot called JinRai, designed to destroy Dynamic General Guardian units. Sänger perservered and eventually went along with the plan concocted by Touma Kanou and Minaki Tomine to capture the main robot and eventually reprogram it, turning it into RaiOh/DaiRaiOh.

During the final assault at the Garden of Baral, Sänger saved Kukuru from certain death, after learning how she was duped into the Baral Garden's servitude by Son Ganlong. However, much to his shock, it only delayed the inevitable, after the defeat of Baral Ganeden and eventually Euzeth Gozzo, Sänger saw Kukuru dying as her life was linked with the Baral Ganeden, although she died with no regrets. Once all was settled, Sänger once again took residence in the Kurogane, until his services is needed again.

In the Shadow-Mirror universe, Sänger was killed in combat. Lemon Browning would have his body retrieved, and using data containing his personality, she created the 15th (and apparently the 5th) unit of the W-Series of androids, codenamed Wodan Ymir and Gymnos Basileus, respectively. Wodan would become Sänger's main combat rival in the events generated in Original Generation 2.

Theme Music

 * The Sword That Cleaves Evil ~ Super Robot Wars OG (Also used in Project X Zone, Project X Zone 3: War of Infinite Worlds, Project X Zone 3: Sacred Destinies and Project X Zone 3: A wakening of the Trailblazer)

Super Robot Wars Appearances
Super Robot Warriors

He is one of the playable characters of the game.

Chou Super Robot Wars

Sänger appears, piloting the Dygenguar, one of the playable mecha in the game.

Crossover Appearances
Project X Zone 3: War of Infinite Worlds

He appears as a Solo Unit on this sequel.

Project X Zone 3: Sacred Destinies

Sänger appears as a Pair Unit teaming up with Haken Browning.

Project X Zone 3: The New Legend

Sänger appears as a Pair Unit teaming up with Elzam von Branstein.

Project X Zone 3: A wakening of the Trailblazer

Sänger appears as a Solo Unit.

Project X Zone: Fight For The Future 20XX

He is one of the playable characters of the game.

Capcom VS. Bandai-Namco: The Battle of Legends

Sänger is one of the Bandai Namco characters in the game, his rival is Megaman Volnutt from Megaman Legends.

X Universe

He is one of the Mini-Bosses of the game.

Warriors Orochi 5

Sänger is one of the playable characters of the game.

DC vs. Sega: Chaotic Justice

He has a possibility of being one of the guest characters of the game.

Heroes Infinity

Sänger is one of the playable characters from Namco side.

Trivia

 * In 3rd Super Robot Wars Alpha, if Touma Kanou is not chosen as the main character, Sänger would become Baran Doban's combat rival for the duration of the game.
 * Sänger gets referenced in Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Endless Frontier in the form of two characters: Haken Browning's color scheme matches Sänger: Silver hair and black clothing; while Kaguya Nanbu wields a sword called Goushiki Zankantou and styles herself as Aku Wo Tatsu Tsurugi.
 * Sänger is a playable character/unit in the 3DS game Project X Zone, along with Haken Browning and Kaguya Nanbu. Rather than piloting any of his robots, he instead fights on foot and wields his katana, transformerd into a human-scale Type-3 (Sanshiki) Zankantou due to a blessing by Kaguya. Sänger names his upgraded blade the Type 0 Reishiki Zankantou.
 * Although "Type-0" would be the most logical translation of "Reishiki Zankantou" if we follow the type numbers from the original games, however the kanji used for "Rei" is slightly different. Therefore, the litteral translation would be "Type Spirit Reishiki Zankantou".