ScooterTheOutlaw
It's as if some people in Japan finally got sick of these so-called 'real robot' shows trying to be all serious, deep, and angsty and decided to give the anime industry a collective flying heel drop on the form of Gaogaigar. This is not intelligent or thought-provoking, and doesn't have deep themes or character development. Instead, it decides to do away with anything too weighty in favor of doing something many animus have forgotten to do in the quest to become the next Evangelion--entertain the viewer.Gaogaigar has everything a fan of the true super robot anime could have; screaming attack names, bizarre villains, a cast of funny support characters, and a catchy title song. Gadgets! Transformations! A convoluted plot! Robots beating each other into horrendous piles of worthless scrap! It's ALL in this ONE SHOW.The best part? You actually get into the show because it appeals on such a base level. You really want the good guys to win. You don't want them to get hurt. You want the bad guys to pay because in Gaogaigar, justice is absolute, heroism is all! It's truly great entertainment.If you want angst, boring teenage pilots, and an anti-war message, feel free to pick up just about anything else with a robot on the cover.If you want an injection of pure awesome, pick up Gaogaigar.
gerd4eva
...then you'll truly enjoy "Yuusha Ou - GaoGaiGar". Especially if you grew up with the big titles from the 70s, such as "Voltron", and the 80s, such as "Transformers". Considering that this originally came out in 1997, following the release of "Gundam Wing", it just adds fuel to fire. Much of the music certainly gets the blood pumping, playing well when the action gets going; the opening song is definitely no exception as one example. The transformation sequences? Bring out the geek and nerd within you, fans.If you're a sci-fi nut, like big robots, or just love a little "old school" action, recommended pick up.
bbally81
When I mean Super Robot Style, I mean in the sense, fashion and tradition of the good old 1970's Giant Robot anime classics like Go Nagai's classics "Mazinger Z", "Great Mazinger", "Getter Robo" and "UFO Robot Grendizer". These shows were campy and cheesy but in a COOL way! The character's calling out his attacks, tend to use a "menace of the week" format in that the villains introduce a single antagonist at the beginning of the episode that the heroes usually defeat by its end and the most notable characteristic in the Super Robot genre was the relationship between machines and humans; when the anime established from the start the premise that machines and humans could act as one, and interact between each other, this idea resulted in shows like Transformers saga with robots having human characteristics and this resulted in "Yuusha" a famous anime franchise that Gaogaigar is part of. In contrast to "Real Robot" animes like the Gundam franchise and Macross (Robotech), the major themes of Super Robot shows are simply positioned, "Courage" and "Bravery" are shown to overcome any obstacle and conquer all odds.The King of Braves GaoGaiGar, represented an almost extremist return to the light-hearted, Super Robot form of mecha anime that was the purview of the 1960s and 1970s, introducing a vast number of "nods" to those old trends and concepts.In the first half of the television series, other, minor themes are introduced, nearly all of them ultimately discarded in favor of the main themes of courage and bravery.There are two main characters in GaoGaiGar. The first is the adopted alien child Mamoru Amami, who was left by Galeon to foster parents as an infant; he possesses the mysterious power of Purification, able to cleanse an individual of Zonder Metal. The second is the cyborg Guy Shishioh, an astronaut whose life was saved by Galeon and his technology when EI-01 first attacked Earth; he is able to combine with Galeon and the GGG-built GaoMachines to become GaoGaiGar. Other characters include Mikoto Utsugi, Guy's love interest and GGG support operator; Kohtaroh Taiga, the charismatic chief of GGG and president of the Space Development Corporation that runs G-Island City; Leo Shishioh, Guy's father, and GGG's chief scientist and inventor; Swan White, an American GGG operator and Leo's assistant; Geki Hyuuma, the hot-headed, musclebound tactical adviser; Kosuke Entouji, GGG's disheveled, dandruff-ridden computer expert with an IQ of 300; Hana Hatsuno, Mamoru's childhood friend; and Ikumi Kaidou, Mamoru's enigmatic classmate. Most of the protagonists live or work directly in Tokyo or G-Island City itself. As with most of the Brave series, there are also intelligent transforming robots who complement the human characters. In this show, they are constructed by GGG and their affiliated organizations with personalities based on highly advanced "Super-AI" Artificial Intelligence technology obtained from Galeon's databanks. They include HyoRyu and EnRyu, a pair of 'twin brother' robots with vastly different personalities; their military-trained Chinese counterparts FuuRyu and RaiRyu; the intrepid ninja police car Volfogg; the stubborn Goldymarg, whose AI is based on Geki Hyuuma's personality; and the American-made Mic Sounders the 13th, a rock music-playing robot who can use several types of special waves to restore the energy of allies or destroy the enemy.The television series is based largely around GGG's fight against the Zonderians, alien beings tasked with the goal of infecting all of Earth with their Zonder Metal. The Machine World Four Heavenly Kings are notably more intelligent than the Zonder created by the humans fused with Zonder Metal.However not everything in Gaogaigar was simple, the anime mentioned a number of complex technology but not as complex as Neon Genesis Evangelion and a lot of them was used to decrease the risks of casualties for example, the "Dividing Driver" specialty tool designed for GaoGaiGar, the Dividing Driver resembles a giant standard screwdriver mounted onto a tubular gauntlet. When attached to GaoGaiGar, the Dividing Driver creates a spacial shockwave that bends space in a one kilometer radius circle around its impact point. This area of bent space, or 'kuukan', allows GaogaiGar to fight his opponents without risking the destruction of the surrounding population, or the Eraser Head a tool used exclusively by one of the robots "ChoRyuJin" to shunt nearly any form of explosive energy out of the Earth's atmosphere and into space. Consists of two components: a hand-held portion and a forward tank section or "warhead." This "warhead" may remain attached to the weapon in use, or launched at the target as needs warrant; it disintegrates when its energy is exhausted.The anime was so successful that it spawned several mangas, novels, a video game and a follow up 8 episode OAV "GaoGaiGar FINAL", the OAV's tone was a lot darker and more serious than the TV series. The GaoGaiGar cast also made appearances in the Super Robot War game franchise along with other famous "mecha" anime titles.The show's main character Guy Shishio, a brave man with tremendous courage and enthusiasm, and the strength to never give up for the sake of life—even at the possible cost of his own is the perfect personification of the traditional Super Robot hero like Mazinger Z's Kouji Kabuto.Another thing that Super Robot fans would love is the anime's opening theme "Yuusha-Oh Tanjou!", performed by Masaaki Endo and composed by GaoGaiGar series music director Kouhei Tanaka. Some lines paying homage to theme song lyrics from the original Kamen Rider and Mazinger Z—and provides insight into the Super Robot musical traditions that this theme was written to carry.This is a classic anime you don't want to miss especially for you "Super Robot" fans.
