The Courage lives Eternally-GaoGaiGar discussion (SPOILERS)

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Im A Proud American Women

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Screw your Giga Drill Breakers and your Shining Finger's.

I really honestly cannot believe this franchise is dead. The way Sunrise is today, I would have thought that at least a compilation movie or recap re-release of some sort would have come out by now. Hell, if they can make a new Mazinger Z series, they could at least do something to make sure this 10 year old series is even more remerabered then it is!

I think that it was because of this site that I started watching this. I believe that it was because someone (it was probably Beat ) mentioned it in something about Gurren Lagann or something. Now I was aware that this series existed but I never really took the effort to actually look for it....that is until Media Blasters became awesome for this and released the entire TV series in two really cheap boxsets giving me an actual reason to want to buy/watch this. And may I say, that it was not disappointing at all.

Normally, this is where I'd say "If (such and such) had a baby, (this show) would be that baby" but it's weird because I've seen most of this stuff that's in GaoGaiGar before but not nearly as it's been done in GGG. I mean, somehow Train+Jet+Drill+Lion=person! (says the Super Sentai/tokusatsu fan) I guess I could say that this is what if Transformers, Digimon and Super Robot [strike]corabined[/strike] COMMENCED SYMETORICAL DOKKINGU and then added some plain old awesome to create this show.

I'm gonna say more, but I'm to be detained for a minute. Continue on.

I just gonna say that Mic Sounders kicks so much butt and Dan Green is perfect as Taiga.
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Dan Green as Taiga...oh, what could have been.

In another time, this show would be prime Toonami material. Just an awesome super robot show, and nothing but.
 
Ah yes, GaoGaiGar. I watched this up because mecha fans were always going on about how great it was, so I decided to see what was up. This was one of my first exposures to a traditional Super Robot anime (pretty sure the very first was Big O).

Anyway, the series. Awesome as everyone says it is? No, not really. It is quality entertainment, no doubt. I like how a few eps had them thinking up strategies to defeat the Zonder of the week, rather than just beat it up. However, I'd still consider it to be above average at best. There were a few times when I found myself nodding off (though this likely had something to do with the video quality and the fact it was subbed). But it has its awesome moments, and the cast, human and robot alike, were really likable (except J. I really didn't like that guy. King J-Der was awesome, though).
 
I'm guessing you haven't watched GGG FINAL, which is more intense than the entire show by itself. I wouldn't say that lightly.

And GGG's lived on as a near-regular in Super Robot games, which is owned by the same company. That's how they do things.



Yeah...that's not a traditional super robot show. Not even a regular one.
 
Didn't they make something new where Mamoru and Kaidou/Arma were piloting a GGG-esque robot? I know I saw the concept art for this in NTUSA a few years back. Is there anything canon that happens after GGG Final? Or am I just remerabering a what-if project that never got off the ground?
 
That may/may not have been Project Z. The series that was supposed to come after GGG but it never happened....I don't really like talking about it....
What are you crazy? Of course I saw that epic masterpiece! (I meant like the Brave franchise in general)

Now then continuing....

It has it's awesome and charm points namely in the cast. I really like varied and diversified casts especially if they're in some sort of crew like the Straw Hat Pirates or the Gekkostate or heck, even the Gurren Brigade. It's interesting because lately I find that children lead characters, in order for them to be more interesting no doubt, act a bit older than they are supposed to. Mamoru (and I guess Kaidou too) are examples of this. I really thought I would hate Mamoru because his character looked like someone who would annoy me so I'm glad that turned out not to be the case. As for Guy himself, well I'd just like to see anybody just try to take Hiyama in a screaming fight. Yeah, that's Sean Schemmel! I'm calling you out! I really liked Guy. Unlike Kamina (yes, I'm going to make comparisons to TTGL and G Gundam. Sorry) Guy is not 100% epic manliness all the time...just like 80% of the time (of course it's more like 120% in GGG Final) and he's just a really interesting character to get to know.

The supporting cast is pretty fun too. It's always nice to see a confirmed relationship in any anime so the GuyXMikoto was just icing to me (and no one can hit a button as awesome as she can...like in Final). Taiga is where the remaining 20% of Guy's manliness goes to. He's the real epic man behind the team. The others have their moments too but it's too much to get into now. And how about them Braves? Sentient transforming vehicles? And one's a ninja...an awesome ninja? And one plays the guitar? And four of them can do "SYMETURICAL DOKKINGU!?"

Now, it does have flaws. It is very much a kid's show. It's fun and awesome but it's a kiRAB show and the stock footage transformations and the (at the start) one-dimensional "bwa-ha-ha" card carrying evil villains will bother many. And if you don't like Super Robot shows in general, you should just stay away from this in any case.

Now as for the dub, Wow, so many 4KiRAB VA's in this. Veronica Taylor (aka, freaking Ash Ketchum) as Mamoru seems fitting enough but for some reason does not work that well for me. It's probably because...well actually, I don't know. It's probably because it's freaking Ash. It's like in that Nostalgia Critic review for "We're Back" when the girl was voiced by Lisa Simpson. Mike Sinterniklaas was a surprisingly competent Guy. I mean, he's no Hiyama but he sure can yell well! Dan Green, I already said, is just amazing. And apparently 4KiRAB' Zolo, Marc Diraison was Leo....I never would have guessed seriously. And I remeraber hearing Duke Devlin come out of Volfogg, I was like "WHAAAAA...?" The dub is not great but it is not horrible either. I would just prefer the Japanese voices in this case.

Last thing, I wonder if Sunrise realized how perverted the concept of TenRyuJin would become? (you know the one....)
 
This is without a doubt, my favorite anime of all time. It is a show I came to know when I was a rather depressed angsty little teen and it left one heck of an impact on me. The premise alone is what drew me in. How can you not like a show where the pitch is "Voltron and the Autobots team up to fight aliens!"?

The show started out somewhat stereotypical, but half the joy was seeing the show break out of that mold while never becoming an angstfest. Hope, courage, and plain old guts were the tools of the trade here, and they actually worked. In a US marketplace dominated by wangst, it was a big kick to the face.

The fact that this show never got the Toonami/Sci-Fi run it deserved is why I hate Media Blasters as a company.
 
By the time GG was ready to air Cartoon Network had changed as a channel, NOBODY has had any luck getting anime on Cartoon Network since Sorcher and Snyder took over. The fact that Naruto got dumped speaks volumes.
 
Well, had it been dubbed, it could have at least been an Ani-Monday contender. Of course, we did get GL instead, but still.
 
GaoGaiGar and Gurren Lagann running back would be more manliness than a big screen HD could take. It would have been glorious.

But back to the show itself, which is in every sense, a love letter to super robot shows from the 70's and 80's. I mean come on. Ninja Robots.
 
GaoGaiGar does have quite a load of filler episodes.

I think the moments of greatness really stick out in most people's minRAB, so the tedious filler is forgiven.

The OAV is all kick-butt though.
 
I guess I don't mind much because when it comes to shows like GGG and the like (read: tokusatsu) you know that they're going to pad the show with filler. It does have to last the year after all.

Though, yes, there could have been a little less filler

And Final is really the one everyone remerabers.
 
I think I remeraber FINAL most because of the irritating level of fanservice that suddenly glomped the series. You could really see Takahiro Kimura getting back to his Viper roots with this one. "This hammer goes to 11" didn't really make up for the rest of it.

I had some fun with the series, but I think Media Blasters made the right call in the end.
 
Take your pick. I'm definitely less pleased with the job-half-finished aspect, but when you're a small publisher and people who you were sure would buy aren't buying, that kind of thing happens.
 
Yeah, I sadly agree. GGG would have benefited greatly from a set release instead of a single release, but at the end of the day the whole thing would have been dubbed if fans had turned out and bought the show. Mind you, I'm not throwing stones, for one reason or another I didn't want to spend the money to buy that first volume or two myself. I'm just saying that GGG is one of the most glaring lessons out there of the truth that you have to spend money on the hobby if you want it to keep bringing you nice things.

I would like to watch it straight through one of these days. I have enjoyed the selected episodes that I've seen, and Final was quite the event. I'll still hold out hope for a sub-only release sometime. It's only seven episodes and hey, they're releasing Dairugger!

I do have to confess, my favorite robot in this show is the J-Ark/King J-Der, rather than any version of GaoGaiGar (which is pretty cool, don't get me wrong). J himself is also quite the stalwart fighter, I really like that guy. He's the kind of strong secondary hero that adRAB something to a show.
 
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