Review by Corey

September 6, 2004

Eight years ago, a couple is driving on a snowy, deserted road, and the wife notices a falling star. Just when she wishes for a child, a giant mechanical lion flies in front of them, knocking the van over with a snow drift. As the couple looks at the lion in fear, it opens its mouth to reveal an infant boy. The wife takes the child into her arms, and the Lion stands up and flies off like a shooting star. The baby looks at his new parents happily as a green 'G' appears on his forehead. In the present, an overpopulated and overdeveloped world has caused pollution to be on the rise. Deep beneath Tokyo Tower, a purple, alien face emerges, announcing that people will soon know his power. In Tokyo Bay, elementary school student Mamoru Amami is on a field trip with his class to a trash island to learn about conserving resources. As he and his classmates look at the things people have thrown away, his hair turns green for a moment, and he gets a bad feeling from a cave in the trash. He wanders in, only to discover a wall of TVs with various images flashing across them. Wires begin to slither toward him, and he runs outside to tell his teacher. Before he has a chance, however, a massive mechanized horse, composed of trash, bursts from the garbage. Elsewhere, Galeon, the mecha lion, destroys its chains and attempts to break out of the room containing it. In the Gutsy Geoid Guard (3G for short) Main Order Room, Mikoto Utsugi sees that Galeon is active, and Kazuo Ushiyama tells her to arrange an emergency meeting. Taiga Kohtarou, President of Japan's Space Development Center, leaves his watch to take his office/elevator to the Main Order Room, while scientist Leo Shishio arrives via jet-propelled roller skates. Once everyone is accounted for, Taiga wonders why Galeon has started to move, after two years. They are answered by Hyuuma Geki, the Military Operation planner of 3G who is surveying the horse mecha from the Gunglue Helicopter. Back on the island, Mamoru and his class rushes to their boat only to watch the mechanized beast assimilate it as well. Taiga sends out the Triple-Decked Flying Carrier to release Galeon on the beast. The horse in the meantime continues toward Tokyo with Mamoru's small handful of friends in tow. Hyuuma drags the other classmates onto the island, as Defense Force jets try to attack the mecha. With a cluster of microwaves in its right claw, the mech knocks the jets out of the sky with a single shot. The released Galeon charges at it, only to be stopped by a powerful barrier. Before Galeon has a second chance, the mecha freezes it solid with the freon from a few thousand refrigerators in the left claw.

Both of Mamoru's parents watch the mech on the news, and his father recognizes Galeon immediately. Kazuo tells Taiga that one of the kids on the ship is his brother Sueo, and Taiga tells Mikoto to send in Guy. The orange-haired cyborg is already on the scene, watching the mech from a rooftop. Jumping into action with his 'Equip' mode, Guy summons the DrillGao, a large dual-drill tank, to distract the mech with an attack from under the water. Guy gets on the half-assimilated ship, knocking away the pulsating metal to bring the kids to safety. Mamoru thanks him while calling him old, which flusters Guy enough that the machine has time to knock him into the sea with a pillar of metal. Reaching the a bridge, the rampaging mech transforms into a train, which confirms 3G's suspicions about its origin. Taiga names it Extra-Intelligence 02 (EI-02), and soon enough Guy is in hot pursuit with the high-speed LinerGao train. Galeon finally thaws out, so Taiga has Guy pull back to attempt fusion. EI-02 shoots through the subway and reaches Tokyo City Hall, returning to horse form and preparing both claw cannons to destroy the building. Just as it is about to fire, Galeon's roar catches EI-02's attention, and Guy takes the opportunity to fuse with Galeon, becoming the humanoid mecha, GaiGar. EI-02 fires both cannons, but GaiGar thrusts into the air and calls the StealthGao Bomber to pick him up. EI-02 tries to keep track of GaiGar, only to find that he used the StealthGao as a distraction to slice the boat from its body with his claws. The kids are placed safely on the rooftop of City Hall, and yet another old man reference by Mamoru gives now-airborn EI-02 enough time to attack the annoyed GaiGar. He requests authorization for Final Fusion, and Taiga approves despite the low chance of success. Slicing free from EI-02, GaiGar fuses with the three GaoMachines, forming the massive GaoGaiGar. EI-02 fires both cannons at GaoGaiGar, only to have them reflected with his Protect Shade move. The barrier protects EI-02 from its own attack, so GaoGaiGar uses the Broken Magnum attack to shatter the barrier and EI-02's head. The team realizes that EI-02 can quickly regenerate, so GaoGaiGar punches it out and attacks with his ultimate technique, Hell and Heaven. Ripping into EI-02 and removing its core, GaoGaiGar begins to crush the fragile sphere. Mamoru sees it and cries out for him to stop, sprouting wings and glowing green. He lands on the core and tells Guy not to break it, and Taiga wonders aloud what Mamoru is.

The first episode of GaoGaiGar starts off, for better or for worse, like a very typical super robot series. It manages to squeeze in every possible character and mech it has right now, which causes them to be relegated to minor status in the episode. Swan and Entouji, the other two members of 3G, only get one scene a piece! We're also introduced to Mamoru's friends, but only Hana and Sueo are really mentioned. All that aside, the animation is colorful and sharp, and Okawara's work on GaoGaiGar itself is very nice. It does have a very realistic feel when it transforms, and even tries to explain how Guy has time to perform the time-killing Final Fusion. The battle is short and again showcases GaoGaiGar's three most used attacks before making short work of the EI-02. It's interesting to see how much Mamoru's dad shows up though. He even works at G-Island under Taiga. All that aside, the episode does show a decent degree of plot. Who are the people shown on the TV monitors in the trash island? And why does Taiga keep mentioning an incident from two years ago? It would seem that both Galeon and EI-02 are connected somehow to the strange head under Tokyo Tower. Perhaps he is the EI-01 everyone is hinting at.

Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars



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