In the shuttle incident two years ago, Galeon attacks Pasdar before he can land on Earth. However a small piece of him survives and goes into hiding under Tokyo, assimilating various machines to reconstitute itself over time. In light of these events, the Japanese government creates the secret organization 3G to prepare for more attacks. In the present, Mamoru purifies the Zonder core back into Bomber Death, who’s in tears and thankful. Taiga tells Entouji not to loose track of Mamoru this time. Guy tries to chase Mamoru when he leaves but passes out from exhaustion. Mikoto frantically screams thinking he’s dead, but Leo assures her he’s not. Mamoru lands in a field near his house and wonders about the identity of GaoGaiGar. His thoughts are cut short when he finds himself surrounded by helicopters and vans full of armed men. Mamoru tries to get away but is eventually surrounded and screams out in fear as the men grab him. This wakes up Galeon, who flies out of his cooling pool in the Amphibious Armored Maintenance Vehicle and lands in front of Mamoru. Galeon opens its mouth and Mamoru, assured by a sense of familiarity, steps in. As Leo and Hyuuma watch the examination of Bomber Death and wonder how he got turned into a robot, Kazou informs them that Galeon returned and has Mamoru with him. Galeon opens his mouth and Mamoru is greeted by Taiga, Swan and the much friendlier looking 3G staff, who assure him that he’s safe. Elsewhere, Pasdar scolds Penchinon for his failure and Polonaise suggests having the next Zonder robo attack a populated area so GaoGaiGar can’t freely retaliate. Pasdar approves the plan.
In a train yard, a young man sits on a panda and pretends to be a train. He wishes he was big and strong as them just as Polonaise appears before him. As Mikoto sits by the unconscious Guy’s side in the infirmary, Leo walks in and assures her he’ll be ok. Mikoto angrily yells at him for not being concerned, and Leo replies that every parent is concerned for his child. Guy was supposed to have died two years ago, but he chose to become a cyborg and live on to fight, so Leo will support him in any way he can. A tearful Mikoto apologizes, and Leo tells her that it’s her support that allows Guy to keep on fighting. Isamu watches a news report where Hana and her cousin Ayame are being interviewed about the EI-03 incident since they were at the ring that night, and Ai tells Entouji on the phone to give Mamoru her regards. Mamoru’s scan results reveal that he’s human, and Taiga asks him to tell his parents that he’s an eyewitness helping a police investigation. At the train yards, several trains connect and 3G’s alarm goes off, signaling the appearance of EI-04. Leo says that Guy needs 12 hours before his body adapts to the replacement parts. Mamoru’s senses the Zonder just outside the infirmary, and sees Guy on the table after Mikoto bumps into him. Mamoru touches the G-Stone on Guy’s wrist, restoring his vitals and waking him up to everyone’s surprise. Guy chases after EI-04 in the LinerGao and uses the train couplings to slow it down. Mamoru rushes into the 3G main control room and begs to be taken to the fight, but Taiga refuses. EI-04 merges the trains together and forms a large red robot. Guy jumps out and signals Galeon to fuse into GaiGar. Not missing a beat, Taiga approves Final Fusion. GaoGaiGar blocks EI-04 giant lumps of burning coal with Protect Shade, but the shots start bouncing around and causing damage to the neighborhood. Guy has no choice but to take brunt of the assault, and everyone realizes that he can’t fight effectively in this situation. Taiga orders the launch of the Dividing Driver despite everyone warning that it could destroy the city if it fails, because he believes that Guy’s bravery will save the day. The Dividing Driver is launched and Guy docks with it in midair. He uses it to cause a dimensional rift and open a large empty space where he can fight the Zonder robo without harming the surrounding area. Guy uses Broken Magnum to destroy EI-04’s head then smashes it in some more with a heel drop. EI-04 tries to crush Guy with its large arm but Guy uses a stationary Broken Magnum to knock the arm off. Guy pummels EI-04 some more before slamming it into a wall and extracting the core with Hell and Heaven. Leo says that Guy will bring back the core now but Mamoru says that won’t work because the core transforms into a Zonder creature to Guy’s surprise.
This episode is where the show starts distinguishing itself from the typical super robot fare. Although it makes sense for 3G to be cautious about approaching Mamoru, it did look like they went overboard by having multiple armed men manhandle a child. That made for quite a disturbing scene before Galeon came to the rescue. 3G had already planned contingencies to avoid more collateral damage in the form of the Dividing Driver, which is certainly an interesting tool. How many other mecha shows have giant screwdrivers that can cause dimensional rifts? Thanks to that, the battle at the end of the episode went mostly without a hitch as Guy gave the Zonder robo a satisfying beat down. However, no one had taken into account what would happen if the Zonder core wasn’t immediately purified after extraction, which leaves us with yet another cliffhanger ending.
GaoGaiGar Info
Director:
Yoshitomo Yonetani
Writer(s):
Yoshitomo Yonetani
Ryosuke Takahashi
Fuyunori Gobu
Yuichiro Takeda
Mechanical Designer(s):
Kunio Okawara
Takahiro Yamada
Takehiro Kirao
Character Designer:
Takahiro Kimura
Musical Composer:
Kouhei Tanaka
Format:
49 episodes
Airdates:
Japan 02.01.1997 – 01.31.1998
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