The King of Braves GaoGaiGar

 is a Japanese anime television series conceptualized by Sunrise's internal "Studio 7" division. It is the eighth and final installment in Takara's "Yūsha" franchise. Produced by Nagoya TV and Tokyu Agency, it is directed by Yoshitomo Yonetani, with Yoshitake Suzuki handling series scripts, Takahiro Kimura designing the characters, Kunio Okawara designing the mechanical elements, Tomoaki Okada serving as art director and Kohei Tanaka producing the music. The series aired in Japan from February 1, 1997 to January 31, 1998 on Nagoya TV and TV Asahi affiliate stations for a total of 49 episodes.
Plot.
On a winter day in 1997, a mysterious mechanical lion named Galeon came flying in front of Mr. and Mrs. Amami. It left the couple with a baby and flew away.
In 2003, the space shuttle Spirits, in which high school astronaut Gai Shishioh is a passenger, collides with the spacecraft of the Zonders, a life form in space. Despite being mortally wounded, he is rescued by Galeon and returns to Earth. In his hand, he holds the G-Stone, a green gem, and his father, Leo Shishioh, uses the G-Stone to revive him as a cyborg.
Two years later in 2005, the Zonders hiding underground begin their invasion of Earth. The Earth Defense Brigade GGG (Gutsy Geoid Guard), organized to fight the Zonders, goes on the offensive, and Gai is made a member of the GGG and becomes the giant robot GaoGaiGar to fight the Zonders. He destroys the enemy with his overwhelming power. When GaoGaiGar tries to destroy the enemy's core, a green-haired boy with wings appears in front of it and turns the core back into a human being. He was the grown-up form of the baby raised by Mr. and Mrs. Amami, Mamoru Amami. With the addition of Mamoru, who possesses the ability to purify, as a special member of the GGG, the GGG continues to fight for the defense of the Earth.
Just as they had defeated the Four Machine Kings and their superior Pasder, the main force of the Zonders, the 31 Machine Primevals, and the J-Ark unit, which was designed to fight the Primevals, appeared. Reorganized into the Space Defense Brigade, the GGG fights a three-way battle. In the midst of the battle, it is revealed that it all started with the runaway of the system of the purple star of the Tri-Solar System, and that Mamoru and Galeon were the survivors of the green star and the J-Ark unit of the red star.
GGG and the J-Ark unit fight together and defeat the Primevals, but the J-Ark unit vanishes. In addition, GGG member Mikoto Utsugi, whose spore was implanted by Pasder, turns into the New Machine Species Zonuda. The heroes fall before Zonuda, who is impervious to the power of the G-Stone, but Gai's desperate purification saves their lives, and he too evolves into a raw machine fusion. After the incident, Mamoru sets off into space with Galeon to save the people on other planets who are threatened by the New Machine Species.
Media.
"GaoGaiGar" is composed of 49 episodes, first aired on Nagoya TV from February 1, 1997 to January 31, 1998. It was followed by a number of works across multiple media (one serialized novel, two short stories, one PlayStation video game, at least two serialized manga and four audio dramas). Most of these works contained plot written by Studio 7 staff, and contributed to its canon long after its airing.
The show's popularity would soon warrant a new animated work. This resulted in the production of the eight–part sequel OVA "The King of Braves GaoGaiGar Final", released from January 21, 2000 to March 21, 2003. Its story takes place one year following the events of the television series, and incorporates characters and continuity from non-television works. Examples include Renais Kerdif-Shishioh (main character of the aforementioned novel) and Rose Approval (secretary general of the United Nations as seen in the aforementioned PlayStation game).
Video games.
"The King of Braves GaoGaiGar Blockaded Numbers" was released on April 8, 1999 for the PlayStation. GaoGaiGar also appeared in 2000's "Brave Saga 2" for the PlayStation, 2001's "Brave Saga New Astaria" for the Game Boy Color and 2005's "New Century Brave Wars" for the PlayStation 2.
GaoGaiGar has appeared in the long running "Super Robot Wars" franchise, beginning with the "2nd Super Robot Wars Alpha". GaoGaiGar also shows up in the "Sunrise Eiyuutan" series.
Licensing in the United States.
For many years it was believed, due to licensing disputes involving Sunrise, Takara and Bandai, that GaoGaiGar would not be licensed for an international release. On April 19, 2006, however, Media Blasters announced their licensing of the "GaoGaiGar" TV series for marketing in the United States. The first volume was released to stores on September 26, 2006. On April 23, 2007, it was reported that the US release of GaoGaiGar would go on hiatus due to the company's focus on a labor-intensive Voltron DVD release. They followed with a statement that the subsequent volumes will be subtitled only, due to poor sales. Overall only 25 out of the 49 episodes were dubbed. The rest of the "GaoGaiGar" DVD series was released in a box set on August 19, 2008. The show was available as part of a digital subscription package from Daisuki until the service was terminated in 2017.
Shared continuity with "Betterman".
In the interval between the respective productions of "GaoGaiGar" and "GaoGaiGar FINAL", Studio 7 had also made the complex, horror-themed show "Betterman", which first aired from April 1 to September 30, 1999 on TV Tokyo. This show is composed of 26 episodes and takes place in the same overall universe as "GaoGaiGar". Director Yonetani has taken steps to link these two works on a number of occasions.
The first notable sign of a connection is Tsuguo Ushiyama, who appeared briefly in GaoGaiGar, though makes multiple appearances as a friend of "Betterman"'s main protagonist Keita Aono. A line of continuity was also established when the character Papillon Noir (appearing in the novel "Queen of Leo <"Leon Reine">" and "FINAL") was introduced in a "Betterman" audio drama following the show's run. Furthermore, in both the third and final episodes of "FINAL", Shigeru Akamatsu and his two assistants can be seen (with their backs to the camera), first watching the reports of GGG's "Coup d'état" in the main Akamatsu Industries' warehouse, and again after the end of the vicious storms in the last episode of "FINAL" (again facing away from the camera).
In the summer of 2005, a 12 episode re-edit of "GaoGaiGar FINAL"—"The King of Braves GaoGaiGar FINAL -Grand Glorious Gathering-"—aired on TV Tokyo. This show was dubbed a "reimagining" of "FINAL", adding flashbacks from the original television series and minor elements from "Betterman" to further connect the two series, featuring new voiceovers to accompany reused animation and stills.
The "deluxe" version of the "-Grand Glorious Gathering-" DVD box set contains a special disc called "Disc Z." One of the features on this disk contains information about a new "GaoGaiGar" work entitled "The King of Braves GaoGaiGar Project Z". This project brings "GaoGaiGar" in even closer relationship with "Betterman" by reintroducing the corporation Akamatsu Heavy Industries. They cooperate with GGG to build the "Neuromechanoid" Kakuseijin GaiGo, with "GaoGaiGar" characters Mamoru Amami and Ikumi Kaidou as its "Head Divers" (pilots). Betterman Lamia is also seen to make at least one appearance. No further information on Gaogaigar Project Z was revealed for about a decade, and only in 2016 did it resurface under the new title "Hakaiou ~GaoGaiGar VS Betterman~". The renamed work was penned by series writer Yuuichirou Takeda and published in novel format online at Yatate Bunko.
Characters.
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.
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.
These four Zonderians are headquartered beneath Tokyo Tower and take their orders from the enigmatic Pasder, who appears as just a giant purple head, formed of metal tubes and piping.
Following the Zonderian's defeat, their superiors, the 31 Machine Primevals, appear to finish the job their servants could not complete. In their first appearance, three Primevals easily defeat GaoGaiGar and even destroy GGG's underwater base. Each Primeval represents a particular body part, and has some special ability linked to that organ.
Other antagonists in succeeding "GaoGaiGar" works include the criminal terrorist organization BioNet, and the 11 Planetary Masters of Sol.
Historical context.
In its production, Studio 7 further ensured that there were no actual betrayals in the show; any "betrayal" automatically resolves itself as a secret that had to be kept to the main characters' benefit. This was perhaps partly due to the fact that "GaoGaiGar" was made as a children's show, and partly as a commentary on the heavy air of distrust and conspiracy occurring in mecha anime.
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. The first episode begins on a place called Garbage Island ("gomi no shima", an analogue to Japan's own "Dream Island" or "yume no shima" found in Tokyo Bay) and speaks about ecology and the environment. Outside of that one episode, this theme is only followed up on briefly, in one other moment of the entire series. Another discarded theme is that of self-betterment: in the first half of the series, the Zonderians mostly make Zonder Robos of stressed-out, discontent "average joe" types—a truck driver who hates traffic, for instance, or a morbidly obese man tired of being picked on. Once Mamoru purifies them, however, their attitudes toward life become less obsessed (and in the case of the obese man, the source of stress is removed), the stress having been exhausted from their system when in Zonder form.
It is also notable that "GaoGaiGar"'s narrator and its next episode sequences—and the episode titles themselves, in some cases—rely on extreme hyperbole, even lying to the viewer if deemed necessary. This in itself is a Super Robot trend, dating back to "Mazinger Z", the original Super Robot show (which itself used hyperbolic episode titles such as "Kouji Kabuto Dies in Lava").