Realm of Darkness: Densetsu no Yuusha Da Garn

Monday, November 16, 2020

Densetsu no Yuusha Da Garn

Gaogaigar was my next destination after completing my Journey of Yuusha series with Mightgaine as I intend to savor the Culmination of the Yuusha series after accumulating experiences with its predecessors. But before I settled my business with King of Braves, i took short detour to Da Garn once again. Being an actual pivotal entry for Yuusha series, I decided to gather materials for to make a much deserved proper article for Da Garn matching my previous Yuusha series post.

Densetsu no Yuusha Da Garn was the third entry of Yuusha series made after Fighbird and before Mightgaine and it happened to be my 3rd Yuusha series that i watched shortly after J-Decker. Da Garn's story revolves around a 6th Grader Boy named Takasugi Seiji who find himself becoming a leader of sentient Yuusha Mechas and tasked protecting Earth from Alien Invaders.

Da Garn is the turning point of the Yuusha series, as Sunrise studio production team decided to step up its storytelling. While the mechas are still mostly devoid of personalities at this series, Sunrise definitely put more effort in designing the characters personality in particular the Antagonists who had more Individuality. Da Garn is the first entry that introduced the formula of 4 antagonists serving as Midboss which brings more variety in its Monster of the week style which will later reused in Mightgaine and Gaogaigar.

As for Da Garn's main protagonist; Seiji, he falls into the older group of the Kid Protagonist and quite competent one as well. While he doesn't participate in direct combat like Maito or the Dagwon team, he served as Leader figure for the Yuusha team directing commands to them. Compared to Yuuta from J-Decker, he commands the Yuusha team better and does not merely provide moral support. If Yuusha series did not focus too much on Kids, Da Garn's romance plot could have been expanded since Seiji's character fits more as Middle school kid rather than primary school and multiple love interests for love triangle.

Surprisingly Da Garn's ending was rather bittersweet since most of Yuusha titles tend to have happy one. While Gaogaigar is still undisputed King of Braves, i quite like Da Garn and probably still on my top list even when i managed to watch all of the Yuusha series.

In terms of Mecha design Da Garn is one of the of the better in Yuusha series with rather surprising solid designs for supporting Yuusha mechas. Da Garn would have earned the Top position in Yuusha Mecha design if the Supporting Yuushas were not sidelined shortly after their debut. The main Robot of Da Garn itself evens out into the Balanced type as Da Garn X is melee oriented while its upgrade Great Da Garn GX focus on Heavy ranged firepower.

When it comes to Supporting Yuusha Mechas, J-Decker and Goldran had some of the Top Tier design with their Super Build Tiger and Captain Shark respectively. However Da Garn still hold the crown for the most unique design in the category as it has rad Centaur mecha made from planes and the first rival archetype Yuusha who had 7 different transformation forms. No Doubt the effort put for Da Garn's Robot Toys are quite enormous when it comes to gimmick. While i think Draias still wins as the best Antagonist mecha, Da Garn's Red Geist is not too bad either and i think Gundam Virsago and Epyon design can be traced from this guy.

As i have treaded on my 3rd Yuusha series, i begin to grasp on the recurring themes for these Yuusha series which hopefully should hold water when i watch the 4th one. While i thought the trends were restricted to Tokusatsu only, from Da Garn i notice something particular about the era trends. I notice that the main characters in these kind of anime series tend to have special Electronic device that tend to do perform special stuff. While i can comprehend series like Digimon, Pokemon or Rockman Exe have them to sell the electronic toys, i didn't expect these kind of practices extend to Mecha as well. But i guess the series that are backed by Takara are likely to have these electronic toys shoved to the anime at least until around mid 2000s.

Overall Da Garn is one of the more well-balanced Yuusha series as it tries to be something more than a mere Toy Commercial but still managed to be a Kid friendly show and still palatable for Adult Audience. After going through all of Yuusha series, Da Garn is still easily one of the Top 3 Yuusha series as Human casts make up for the lacking personality of the Yuushas which wasn't fixed until J-Decker. With this detour of mine taken care of, there are no more distractions towards Gaogaigar as my last stop in my pilgrimage of Yuusha series.

Da Garn