GaoGaiGar

GaoGaiGar

The full title of this is GaoGaiGar, The King of Braves. Remember what I said about these things having long titles?

I remember stumbling upon an image of GaoGaiGar on a Transformers website years ago now. I wasn't sure what the heck the robot was supposed to be, or what series it was from, but what I do remember is the fact that GaoGaiGar certainly looked like a Transformer to me. I guess it should come as no surprise then, that GaoGaiGar has relations to Transformers! See, this anime was funded by Takara, the toy company that's behind the original toys that came to be known as the Transformers, and this anime, GaoGaiGar was a vehicle to sell the toys that they were producing.

Step 1: Make robot toy.
Step 2: Make cartoon.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: PROFIT!

GaoGaiGar, the mech which the series is named after is a pretty interesting robot. The form you see in the picture is a robot that is comprised of a white, humanoid robot that transforms into a lion and back, a stealth jet and a bullet train. I dunno about you, but this is probably the most random bunch of things to make up a robot that I've ever heard of. It'd be like if I took a humanoid robot, an apple and a billboard to make up some kind of giant robot. Still, critical thoughts on the random things that comprise GaoGaiGar aside, it is still a real bitching robot.

Drill robot!

The anime itself is also pretty bitching too, with a real funky plot. See, in 2003, something described as an “extraterrestrial intelligence” crash landed on Earth. It didn't just crash land to make a spectacular wreck, though. No. This thing crash landed, and decided it was kind of hungry, I guess, because it swallowed up a bunch of machinery that was in the initial area that it crashed into. With a belly full of machinery, the “extraterrestrial intelligence” disappeared, not to be seen for a good while.

If that wasn't strange enough, at some point, another alien being comes down to Earth for a visit. However, this alien didn't come down to eat a bunch of machines, but instead came down to Earth to make a delivery. In the mountains, this giant ROBOTIC LION lands in front of a startled and very scared couple. I can't say I blame them for being scared by the way, after all, you don't know whether this giant lion is going to be like a real lion and eat you, or if it's going to be like most giants and just step on you. Either way, their fears are quickly dashed as the lion lies down before them and opens its mouth, revealing a baby sitting naked in its mouth. I dunno if the couple know if the baby is an alien at that point, but I'd assume they would (I dunno why). They take the baby out of the lion's mouth, before the robotic lion leaps into the air and disappears- for now.

Our attention now shifts to the main protagonist of the story- Guy Shishoh, a former astronaut for the Space Development Corporation. Why is he a former astronaut? I'll tell you. See, back when that “extraterrestrial intelligence” first crash landed on Earth, it's no coincidence that a shuttle being piloted by Guy collided with some kind of extraterrestrial object. Critically wounded, all hope seemed lost for Guy, until, that is, an alien, robotic lion appeared. Do you see where this is going yet? Either way, I'll carry with the story. So, with this pilot helpless in space, this kind hearted lion decides to Guy a favour as he rescues him and takes him back to Earth, to the SDC base. At this point, you'd think that the scientists who run the Space Development Corporation would crap themselves, but instead, they take Guy's dying body, study the giant lion (who would quickly become known as Galeon) and turn Guy from a simple astronaut into a half man, half machine- all cop... Actually, sorry, no, I'm thinking of something completely different. They DO turn Guy into a cyborg, though. It's at this point on that Guy is known as Cyborg Guy, which is a pretty cool name if you think about it.

Remember the “extraterrestrial intelligence” that I told you about earlier? Well, using a quirky element known as Zonder Metal, a parasitic alien species known as Zonderians finally appear, and fuse themselves with machines, or other different kinds of metally things. If that's not bad enough, these parasitic aliens can assimilate with humans and turn them into the most fucked up amalgamation of man and machine that you've ever seen (hey, that rhymes!) To combat this threat, though, a super secret organization was formed. Named the Gutsy Geoid Guard (or “GGG” for short), this organization is so secret that they operate from an undersea headquarters. By this point, the GGG have acquired the robotic lion, Galeon, which they use as their primary weapon against this alien menace. Fighting alongside Galeon is our hero, Cyborg Guy. The two can fuse together, which allows Galeon to transform into his robot form, and resemble a Transformer even more, once you see the design of his head and face. To me, he looks kind of like an angelic Megatron.

If you thought that was the last of the amazing list of tricks, though, you're wrong. See, when Galeon is in its robot form, it can summon a bullet train, a stealth jet and a drill tank to combine and turn into GaoGaiGar! Holy shit, am I right?! Its like the robot in this show can do more and more with every second you decide to sit there and hear about it. In his ultimate form, GaoGaiGar fights against the Zonder infected humans, and here's where there's an interesting twist to the plot. These parasitic aliens don't just choose any old person to turn into a Zonder monster; there's a method to their madness because they only look for humans who are filled with negative emotions. For example, there was one time that the Zonderians chose a truck driver who was stuck in Tokyo traffic and got so pissed off that the negative vibes he was emanating were so strong that they couldn't resist but turn him into a Zonder monster. These monsters, filled with negative emotion, have to be defeated by GaoGaiGar, usually in a really awesome giant robot on giant monster fight- and the fight only ends when GaoGaiGar rips out the very heart of the beast, which turns out to be this pulsating pink crystal thing. Its here that the alien baby from the beginning of our story appears. Now like 7 years old, or something, the boy, Mamoru will sprout butterfly like wings and chant some kind of magic incantation, and after he does, he'll touch the heart of the Zonder monster, which transforms back into the angry or sad human, who is now so overcome with joy and love that they always sit in GaoGaiGar's hands, with their own hands clasp together as they happily cry.

Throughout the series, GaoGaiGar is assisted by more robots (which he'd have to be, because there are more toy robots to sell, you know.) To list a few there's Volfogg, a ninja warrior robot who transforms into a Lamborghini police car...

...the brothers EnRyu and HyoRyu, who transform into a fire truck and crane respectively...

There's also the ever interesting Mic Sounders the 13th. This interesting specimen of a robot transforms from a chibi looking robot, into a super cool, rock n' roll kind of robot with a cd drive in his chest. His special ability lies in the way he can place giant cds in his chest, then grab his electric guitar and pump out some rockin' sounds that have different properties, depending on what the cd is. The sounds can heal his allies, destroy his enemies or distort reality to name just a few things. 

That sounds pretty normal for sci-fi, but the odd thing about Mic Sounders comes in the way that everybody has to hammer home the fact that he's from the USA, or something to that effect. What is it? Because he's the robot that blasts loud music and plays guitar means he's the American robot? That actually really amuses me, to tell you the truth. You've got to love the Japanese, because they have some of the quirkiest ideas in the world.

"Oh! You wanna combine baby?" sounds like a song title. There's no robot cooler than Mic Sounders the 13th.

In the way I love Mazinkaiser for how over the top it is, I love GaoGaiGar for its quirkiness. The story of the anime sounds like something I concocted while taking acid, or something. The backbone of the story is great, though. This alien parasite preys upon humans who are angry/depressed/upset and turns them into the very monster that their souls represent, and only the innocence and kindness of this alien child can turn the rampaging monster back into the human- a human who is finally at peace with their inner turmoil. 

For all the over the top transforming robots who play air guitar, or combine with three random vehicles to make a bigger, stronger robot, the pillar of the plot gives it a different kind of twist that Dai-Guard and Mazinkaiser have. Not only that, but the Transformer-ish appearance of all the robots in this show force me to love it, because the robots look like Transformers. Also, one of the bad guys is named Pizza, and he wears a baseball cap. How can you dislike a show that names one of the top bad guys PIZZA?

"Pizza time!"

So we've talked about three different kind of mecha anime, and while each one is united in the fact that they have giant robots beating the snot out of giant monsters, or other giant robots, they are all unique in their stories. Some are kind of realistic, some are completely over the top, and others are just... something else entirely. That's the beauty of mecha anime, though- as long as you have a wild imagination, the mecha anime genre makes it so that no idea is too over the top to be created. Pacific Rim fits well into that category too, and after seeing the movie (since it's now July 15th) I can wholeheartedly recommend that movie, along with these three mecha anime to you. Now, stop reading this and go and see Pacific Rim- support the movie, and the visionary who created it, so that Hollywood can find out that Kaiju/giant robot movies sell, and that we need more of them.

Just make sure you go and watch it in 3-d, though. There is a sense of EPIC SCALE with this movie that watching it in regular ol' 2-d just won't do it justice. - See more at: http://www.rockethideout.com/articles/mechaanime.html#sthash.9yuANoRb.dpuf