Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Gibson Rickenbacker To otakus, Gaogaigar and the following Gaogaigar Final are like the holy grail of anime, some fanboys can't praise them enough: "such bad ass action", "awesome mecha designs", "such drama" etc. The list goes on and on. But when you come to this show minus the adoration and the hype, you'll realize the series and the subsequent original video animation as one of the sacred cows of anime.On first viewing, GGG is a fairly decent, if mediocre and underwhelming show (translation: boring). It starts off as a monster of the week type of show like Voltron with each episode, a human is "zonderized" by a bunch of aliens and metamorphoses into a giant monstrosity. Naturally, like Godzilla and King Kong, this monster rampages and causes untold destruction in the districts of Tokyo. A long-haired "cyborg" named Gai pilots a mechanical lion called Galeon which transforms into a robot called GaiGar; during "Final Fusion" with so-called "gao machines", Gaigar transforms into "Gaogaigar" To be fair, the stock footage used in the Gaigar and Gaogaigar transformations are okay by super robot genre standards and show great attention to detail; they are in fact comparable to other great transformation and combining sequences in other mecha anime. In addition, clichés in the super robot genre are many; Gai needs to shout the name of every weapon and hi-tech tool available at his disposal: "Broken Magnum!!" "Dividing Driver!!" on and on, etc (this is not bad actually, as a kid, I thoroughly enjoyed "Voltes V" and "Daimos" and thriled to every announcement of "Ultraelectromagneticpop!" or "Daimos Death Blow!"). There is also a lot of red tape that accompanies these verbal acrobatics, apparently, approval from bureaucrats is required before final fusion or the use of the dividing driver is permitted.As the series progresses, a bunch of new characters are introduced; twin robots Horyu and Choryu are brought on-board to give Gai some new allies; the tedium of the show stops a little as their imaginative combination sequence called "symmetrical docking" is truly inspired; later, Volfogg, Goldymarg and Mike Saunders the 13th are added. In a way, this gradual introduction of the robot characters is more fascinating and interesting than the initial "monster of the week" gimmick the show is saddled with as the viewer expects the cool factor with each new character introduced as they anticipate a new transformation or combination sequence (yeah, I'm a sucker for those, especially if done well).While the robot characters are interesting only because they have some cool transformations or some related ability, they are comparable in personality to those in Transformers Victory, they're too normal and boring, like people who wore robot costumes to the office; this seems like a tradition in anime as the Japanese cannot imagine transforming mecha as nothing more than cheerful yes men with the exception of Goldymarg and the annoying Mike Saunders the 13th. The human characters aren't that interesting also; Gai is boring with little to no personality, Hikaru in Macross is a lot more interesting and sympathetic, Gai though is a one dimensional cardboard character; the other major character though, Mamoru (which means "to protect" in Japanese language) wins hands down as the most boring and wack character in the whole show. His adoptive parents are also irritating for some reason. Each time, Gaogaigar beats a zonder monster, Mamoru transforms into a male tinkerbell and waves a magic wand while uttering some gibberish: "horatio..koktura" to purify the "zonder core".In the middle to latter episodes, the series change gears and suddenly adopts a more epic way of storytelling. The character "Pizza" becomes "J", (no he's not some hip hop emcee) a hero and rides his own mech and so on. In the end, while things get interesting, it is not enough to salvage the show from its inherent blandness. The last episode tries to salvage the damage done by the previous runs and is surprisingly good but unfortunately the writers turn it into another clichéd ending.While some may enjoy it, Gaogaigar is eventually overwhelmed by its derivative script, boring characters and lack of subtlety.

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.

Hyper Cross! ..."Hot-Blooded". It's a kid's show, but before that, it's a giant robot anime that hearkens back to the good IL' days of the genre.To put it simply, things blow up, and they blow up good. There is a level of action here that you have to watch to really understand. And... there are what I like to call "the sequences". The Final Fusion sequence (the best Giant Robot combination ever!), the Hell and Heaven sequence (final attack), the other combination sequences, and so on.And the music... A lot of it is performed by a full orchestra, and it is as hot-blooded as the series. The Title song (Yuusha-oh tanjou! - The King of Braves is Born!) sets the tone for the show. And the tune that is simply titled "Final Fusion"... Listening to it, you get the feeling that it really is the "final" fusion, that one massive walking machine (why isn't Xabungle listed here, anyway?) will subsequently be beating another into a pile of explosive scrap.The plot... Is amazing. I shouldn't say anything about it - there's not much to spoil, but it's best to see it for yourselves. Suffice it to say that we finally learn how the dinosaurs went extinct......I can't say anymore without burning those behind me with my "fanboy flames", except that you should find Yuusha-oh GaoGaiGar, and watch it.