Lugal de Zahl

Any obstacle is our enemy. Destroy it with the Hyper-Radiation Missiles! FIRE!!!

—Lugal de Zahl, upon first encountering the Earth space battleship Yamato

Lugal de Zahl is the infamous elder son of the evil Dingirian supreme leader, Emperor Lugal. He serves as the secondary antagonist in the 1983 anime film “Final Yamato”. He is voiced by actor Masane Tsukayama.

Personality Traits

Lugal de Zahl is a ruthless, brilliant, young military commander who shows absolutely no mercy whatsoever to his enemies, and has no qualms about firing upon unarmed civilian transports, or even rescue ships tending to the wounded, meaning that he throughly enjoys killing innocent people for his own twisted amusement and sheer pleasure. However, when defeated by the Yamato (as well as a fleet of Earth warships that put up more of a fight) he is humiliated before his father, and becomes even more determined to destroy the Earth battleship, but when the rest of his fleet is destroyed, he turns tail and shows his more cowardly side when he decides to flee the battlefield, only to crash into the Neutrino Beam Shield of Uruk. (Final Yamato)

Biography

Encountering the Yamato

Not long after the planet Denguil was flooded by the wandering planet Aquarius, that is when the Infamous General Lugal de Zahl himself onboard the Denguil Mobile Fortress leading the military fleet of Denguil first encounter’s the human space battleship Yamato that was on it’s way home to Earth after rendering aide to the dying planet Denguil’s civilian population survivors, managing to sadly only save a young boy, who turns out to be Lugal de Zahl’s younger brother.

Lugal de Zahl (unaware that his own brother is onboard) immediately orders his weapons officers to destroy the enemy vessel via the deadly Hyper-Radiation Missiles. The massive Denguil Mobile Fortress mothership manages to seemingly down the Earth space battleship, however, the Yamato had managed to warp back to Earth. Thinking the Yamato destroyed, Lugal de Zahl decides to lead his fleet back to their primary base of operations, Uruku, a massive mobile mothership. There he is told of his father’s intentions to invade and colonize Earth by destroying the Humans will to fight before flooding them via warping the ancient watery planet Aquarius. Lugal de Zahl and his forces immediately set out towards Earth’s Solar System.

Attacking Earth

After arriving in Earth’s Solar System, Lugal de Zahl’s forces began their relentless push deep into Earth’s territory, wiping out any base or space colonies along the way. When his forces had warped out, they immediately attacked and mercilessly decimated an entire Human civilian convoy as well as a massive space station colony structure without pity, compassion, or remorse whatsoever. Not long, a large fleet from Earth was sent by high command to stop the Denguil Empire’s aggressive advance into their space. Anticipating this, General Lugal de Zahl immediately ordered his fleet to execute an emergency warp, managing to quickly get out of the way from the Earth fleet’s deadly Wave Motion Guns. The Earth fleet is quickly destroyed by Lugal de Zahl’s force’s and they continued on course towards Earth itself.

After the main Denguil battle fleet easily destroyed the EDF's evacuation and battle fleets, a giant Denguil Super Carrier under General Lugal de Zahl’s orders, immediately warped, Earth-side, and launched its massive complement of fighters and bombers onto the planet. In the lightning-quick assault that followed, the bulk of the EDF's fleet deployed on the planet were destroyed, save for the Yamato and nine other New EDF Destroyer’s that had survived the attack. The fighters and their carrier soon left to rejoin General Lugal de Zahl’s main fleet awaiting near Pluto.

Second Encounter with the Yamato and Battle of Pluto

During the Battle of Pluto, General Lugal de Zahl remained aboard his personal flagship, while the rest of his carrier forces had wiped out most of the Yamato’s escorts. While the Humans were tending to their own wounded, Lugal de Zahl gave the illegal order for his fighter’s to attack and mercilessly killed a lot of the survivors and medical personal, much to his own sadistic glee, before ordering them to return and refuel.

Battle of Aquarius and Death

Lugal de Zahl becomes even more determined to destroy the Earth battleship, but when the entire bulk of the Denguil battlefleet is destroyed in the ensuing battle, he turns tail and cowardly flees the battlefield, only for him and his flagship to crash into the Neutrino Beam Shield of Uruk. (Final Yamato)

Trivia

• De Zahl is derived from the German der Zahl, which means "the number." The intent may have been to indicate that he was the second highest male in his family, assuming that he was the eldest son, in which case the German translation would be der Zweite.
• In the film "Final Yamato" it is later revealed to fans that Lugal de Zahl has a unnamed, much nicer, kindhearted, friendly younger brother, who also later died at the hands of his own Father Emperor Lugal, while saving Susumu Kodai from being executed by his own evil father.

Japanese language information

ルガール・ド・ザール Rugāru Do Zāru