Mars Daybreak (Japanese: 絢爛舞踏祭 ザ･マーズ･デイブレイク, Hepburn: Kenran Butōsai Za Māzu Deibureiku) is a Japanese science-fiction anime television series that aired on TV Tokyo from April 1 to September 23, 2004. It is currently licensed by Bandai Entertainment. Kenran Butōsai (絢爛舞踏祭, Kenran Butōsai) is a simulation game based on the concept, developed and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2 video game console.

Life on Mars is hard for those who live here. As the economy worsens, work becomes scarce and food becomes expensive and highly prized. Gram and his friends try to do the best they can but, he finds himself on the run with the most notorious pirates on Mars. The only problem is he soon starts to enjoy the adventure.

Ship of Aurora

One of the most notorious pirate ships on Mars, where the mere mention of the name and/or just the sight of the Auroras' crewman puts fear in pirates and Earth Force service men alike. Other pirates would run away from encounters with the Ship of Aurora. In the series, this is first shown during episode seven when the Black Whirlpool proclaimed that service shuttle form the Ship of Aurora is in the Whirlpool's personal berth. The captain soon reverses his proclamation once he notice Milch, torpedo room officer in also being a formidable crewman of the Aurora, leaves the berth to the shuttle. Just like any pirate ship, the Ship of Aurora is crewed by many different species from a cat to a Naval Witch. The ships AI, MAKI, is also considered a crewman with its own personality. The submarine is armed with torpedoes, cannons, missiles, grappling hooks and several Round Bucklers. Its two most infamous attacks is the Daybreak, (which basically a ramming technique), and the Elizabeth Cannon, (which is just the Captain screaming at the top of her lungs), causing all those in the immediate vicinity to flee in absolute terror.

City-Ships

City-Ships are literally floating cities that drift in Mars huge ocean. The city ships have been around since Mars was colonized for a second time and some are over a hundred years old.

Round Bucklers

These are mecha designed solely for an underwater environment. RBs can come in two different build designs, but all RBs are unique since they are completely based on the equipment used in the construction process. The size of an RB varies form as roughly larger than basic pressure suit to a small iceberg. Throughout the series other mecha units are shown and used but are given no name and used in a variety of Jobs.

Cordless

A "Cordless" Round Buckler means that the pilot himself is contained within the unit itself, this most commonly used by pirates since the Earth Forces view Cordless designs as archaic. Throughout the series there are only five Cordless Round Bucklers. Some details of how an RB is built is shown when the captain of the Ship of Aurora orders a crew member's RB sim pod to be scrapped and then be used in the construction of another Round Buckler.

Corded

Round Bucklers controlled externally (known as "corded") come in pairs, usually commanded by most simply a pressure suit to a Seahorse, a control unit used by the Earth forces. Cables are attached to the RBs which are usually smaller, faster, capable of extreme maneuvers since there is no actual pilot within the RB itself compared to cordless; yet through the series whenever cordless and cord RBs are in combat a cordless RB is victorious, this may merely be because of the relative skill of most cordless pilots. Though technically attached to control unit most cables have a beacon at the end of the cable that allows the RBs to move beyond the cables maximum length, usually several nautical miles further before the pilot is unable to control the RB.

The series was produced by Bones, directed by Kunihiro Mori with Miya Asakawa writing the script. Kaoru Wada composed the series' music and character designs by Hiroshi Osaka. It aired from April 1, to September 23, 2004, on TV Tokyo. The opening theme is "Take Back" by G B Shelter while the ending theme is "Aoi Tabibito (Blue Travelers)" by Takatsugu Tsumabuki.