Gaogaigar (1-9)
By JC

The Story

Immortal living machines, called the Zondar, have come from the deepest darkest reaches of space to sew the seeds of evil in the hearts of Earths downtrodden. They come promising to those who are desparate enough to listen, the ultimate power in the universe. The price and reward, is to take your hearts darkest desire and have it manifest itself through you and become a giant city smashing monster!

One man stands against these mysterious dark aliens, and he does it in serious super style. His name is Gai, the Cyborg. Armed with an impressive and fun array of gimmick gear ranging from his Will Knife to his Gao Bracer, Gai battles the forces of evil in an attempt to win back the souls of the people corrupted. And he does this through using the most powerful robot on the planet, Gaogaigar.

Helping Gai in his quest to save the world is a six year old boy, named Mamoru Amami who powers can restore a mosters core back to its original human form and an impressive and growing guard of what appear to be Transformers! HyoRyu and EnRyu, who bare a striking resemblance to FireConvoy, joing the fight against the Zondar with their fire and ice elemental tech weapons and their power to combine into the super robot, ChoRyuJin!

Episode after robo rockin' episode GaoGaiGar and the brave men and women at GGG Headquaters fight for the sake of the world. What is the aliens intent? Where did Galeon and the GaoBracer's technology truely come from? Those questions and more are still up for anyone's guess.....

My Opinion

GaoGaiGar is super fun. From what I've heard I haven't gotten to the true meat of the plot, but I have gotten a good glimps at the quality action and animation this series has to offer. The action is the best you hope to get from heavey metal robo action. It's not fast, it's heavy. Fists pound to shake the heavens and final attacks bring explosions that look like portals to hell. The animation and character design is all notch top and wonderfully detailed.. at least for the giant robots and monsters. The characters themselves are more on the simple, but loveable side.

What this series so far is lacking in is levity, but there is the suspicion that it is there... somewhere. Not alot has been revealed about true origins and the why's of the show yet. Like, what's the true origin of the Galeon? Why did it bring Mamoru to Earth to be raised by and adoptive family? Why are the aliens on Earth and what's the point of granting power to the poor and pissed off?

Mostly these first couple episodes are for the viewer to get to know the ins and outs of what's on the surface of GaoGaiGar. Like the cool gimmick of how Gai calles Galeon, which is best described as the Galeon Signal. Batman style, Gai points his Bracer into the sky and fires a lion face against the clouds and Galeon comes a runnin'! You get to meet the fire engine brothers HyoRyu and EnRyu..... see how GGG Headquaters works and who's in charge of what. Equipent run downs and how they keep the city safe.

GaoGaiGar is a zero angst zone. The characters are happy and cheerful at the jobs they have. They fight for truth justice and in their over simplfied dialogue express often that all anyone need is to be a true hero and bravery to overcome any obsticle. And sometimes.... that's all ya want. Heroes that don't complain, but rush to the call of those in need of saving.

Final Word

GaoGaiGar is super robo, interesting Monster of the Week fun. If I were to go by a rating system of these first 9 episodes I'd have to give it a 4 out of 5 stars. The last star more than likely earned in later episodes when all the "why's" are explained and even more characters enter the fight to give clarity as to why all this awesome dawesom big bot action is going on. If you're at all a fan of Mazinger, Genkiganger or other super robos, this should be near the top of your list of things to check out without fear of poorly animated disappointments. Don't go in expecting Neon Genesis, GaoGaiGar comes closer to being a Mazinkaiser meets Sailor Moon meets Transformers actioner.

If this is your cup o' tea, your bag o' chips, your stuff n' junk.... then click on over to Soyokaze Fansubs and snag yourself a well deserved copy or two.

JC