Realm of Darkness: King of the Braves Gaogaigar

Sunday, April 20, 2025

King of the Braves Gaogaigar

Just like many of my previous backlog projects, Finally I am able to proceed with this one! Gaogaigar was the first Yuusha series I got into and it is definitely one of the best Super Robot anime series. I did even make an article for the series back in 2010 during my college years. Given my lack of writing experience back then, it is definitely part of my plan to revisit Gaogaigar at some point when I started my Yuusha series pilgrimage dating back to 2016.

Given the Significance of Gaogaigar as a Mecha and Yuusha series, this series definitely deserves a full-fledged article dedicated to it just like the Rest of Yuusha peers that had been covered in Realm of Darkness. King of the Braves Gaogaigar as the 8^th and Final Yuusha anime series really stands out. Because Gaogaigar is the culmination of Sunrise studio animation team making good use of their experience from previous Yuusha titles to create a Mecha series that actually succesful at transcending its original boundary as glorified Toy commercials for Takara and one of the best specimens at that.

Actually, I could have written this Gaogaigar article back in 2020 as the assets gathering process was already finished at the time. But due to motivational issues that lead to procrastination and trying to figure out the best way to make best use of the gathered assets, things did happen and I only just got the opportunity to make amend just recently. Compared to the old Gaogaigar article, this one will focus more on overall appraisal and the hindsight view which aims for better appreciations of the Aspects that Gaogaigar did which average viewer might overlook.

Without further ado, I proudly present the final stop of Realm of Darkness Yuusha series blog posts, King of the Braves Gaogaigar!

King of the Braves Gaogaigar is the 8^th and Final Yuusha series animated by Sunrise studio as the 9^th Yuusha series Baan Gaan had its tv series plan scrapped for some reason. Featuring child and adult Co-Protagonists with equal importance for once in Yuusha series, Gaogaigar features a story of the Courage of Humanity and Sentient Machine working hand in hand to fight against any threats endangering the Earth in a Toy Commercial Kid Anime that will even make Adults weep manly tears.

Given Gaogaigar being the 8^th Iteration of Yuusha series worked by Sunrise studios, there are many elements and story formula from previous Yuusha series that were carried over by Gaogaigar. In fact Gaogaigar inherit the aspects from all previous 7 Yuusha titles and even elevate some of it to even greater height! This makes Gaogaigar properly honor the legacy of the Yuusha series which means a lot. These are the list of the carried over elements of Previous Yuusha titles that I noticed used in Gaogaigar.

Exkaiser: Overall Lion theme of the Protagonist Yuusha and police car Yuusha as personal bodyguard of the kid protagonist
Fighbird: Adult Main Protagonist who control the Main Yuusha unit, Mad Scientist support character
Da Garn: Kid Protagonist with Alien origin, Full Fledged Lion Mecha, Four Heavenly Kings type Midboss enemy character
Mightgaine: Super Secret Organization serving the backbone support for the Yuusha. Human protagonist have extensive close combat scene with enemies
J-Decker: Sentient Yuusha that comes with AI created by Human, Ninja themed Yuusha, Yuusha Character with Childish personality
Goldran: Former Rival Character turned to Powerful Ally
Dagwon: Tokusatsu-esque transformation power up for the human protagonist

In Gaogaigar series, the Earth faced a threat against Alien entities called Zonder that turn living creatures into organic metal Giant monsters called Zonder Beast by exploiting emotions, left to their own device these Zonder Beasts will convert its surroundings into the same matter with Zonder. The Protagonist Yuusha, Gaogaigar is a Super Robot controlled by a Cyborg named Guy who is the part of the secret special task force called GGG which are the only effective thing that stands between the Humanity and Zonder. However even if Gaogaigar comes with sufficient firepower to take down a Zonder Beast, the problem lies with the Zonder Core which will revert to Zonder Beast if leave untreated. Facing this problem, GGG got themselves unexpected help from a boy named Mamoru who can grow fairy wings and purify the Zonder Core reverting it back the original living creature. With the help of the boy with Mysterious Power, Gaogaigar sets forth on a journey protecting the earth from Zonder!

In terms of storyline, Gaogaigar starts off in episodic monster-of-the-week manner like many Toys commercial anime for Kids at the time. The story formula do actually get quite refined at its time given Sunrise production team did make good use of their accumulated experience from their previous Yuusha series. But Gaogaigar's first half part can do get repetitive and may get difficult at times for Modern audience to digest through.

However just like Macross 7 which starts off very slow paced in the beginning, Gaogaigar starts to show its true luster by the second half of the series and keep rising and peaked at Gaogaigar Final. By the time viewers able to survive until this far, Gaogaigar is jam packed with Intense hot-blooded actions that not many Mecha series can rival. This feat is actually quite something because Gaogaigar had the handicap of being Kids toys commercial anime. Nevertheless, Sunrise probably got some good writer for this project that help the series transcend the limitations from its original boundary.

There is a good reason why Gaogaigar had the particular moniker of “King of the Braves” among all Yuusha series. Because Gaogaigar as a mecha series definitely have no shortage in Hotblooded Heroism and Manly courage. Not only the main character, the supporting characters are no slack either in proving out their bravery in doing the Right thing. As for the main protagonist Guy Shishioh, he literally belongs to the pinnacle of Manly mecha protagonist literally having Victorious Lion King as his name and living up to the expectation attached to it, easily one of the best role that Nobuyuki Hiyama ever reprised.

Overall when it comes to variety, Gaogaigar series Mechanical designs are actually quite lacking apart from Gaogaigar itself. Once you have watched several Yuusha series, you will find that the supporting Yuusha units in Gaogaigar are actually lackluster in terms of Mecha and Toy design. The main issues from Gaogaigar mecha is the lack of Design variety for the midcard Yuushas. Because they are mostly based on Land based rescue and construction vehicles

However, there is a reason why even the supporting Yuusha units in Gaogaigar like Choryujin are memorable despite having mediocre mecha design. What Gaogaigar lacks in Aesthetics are made up with the Heart and Soul which sometimes just all what it takes. Gaogaigar Yuusha characters have the most vibrant amount of personality compared to previous series which probably only J-Decker or Dagwon could be comparable to.

Despite the Gaogaigar Supporting Yuusha units are very well aware of their Midcard status, it doesn’t prevent these Yuushas to give their all to do the right thing, even if it mean sacrificing themselves. If you think the Heroism of Gaogaigar Yuushas are peak enough, you won’t see the last of them until you finish Gaogaigar Final.

All Yuushas series deserve their Brave title, but Gaogaigar definitely live up to its reputation as the King of the Braves. Among many of its Robot Toys Commercial anime peers, Gaogaigar managed to transcend its limitations and still remain popular to this day.

It is a pleasure for me to complete this Backlog project that have been delayed for Five years at long last! Given the size of Assets that I acquire will not fit in the main Article, I will be following up with two-part Gaogaigar Mechatalk to put these assets into proper use. At some point I will probably revisit Gaogaigar Final as well. To wrap this article, I will include the brief Profiles of the Yuusha Casts just like what I did in previous Yuusha articles.

Gaogaigar