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GaoGaiGar Ep. 36: Its Name is GekiRyuJin

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Summary

Guy manages to deflect the magma blast with Protect Shade at the last second, but his main engine overheats and gives out. Guy plummets down to Earth and Hyuuma quickly has Amaterasu intercept him. J quietly watches the battle from afar. Liger guesses that ZX-05 is very likely building up energy to target the Orbit Base. Inside Amaterasu, the 3G robots are being repaired. The battered HyoRyu and EnRyu assure Guy that they’re good to go as soon as they replace their armor plates. Taiga arrives at the main order room and Entouji informs him that ZX-05 will replenish its energy in one hundred and sixty minutes which is around sunset in China. Over at the Chinese army’s camp, FuRyu and RaiRyu wonder why HyoRyu and EnRyu risked their lives to save them. Yan goes over their battle records and notes that their SympaRate is abysmally low, which means they won’t be able to combine into GekiRyuJin. Guy stares out at ZX-05 when he senses J behind him. Guy demands to know why J is collecting the Zonder crystals and the latter says that it’s what he needs to do. He adds before flying away that since the Primevals still haven’t completely awoken the Earthlings still have a chance. Volfogg arrives with Mamoru and Guy asks what they’re doing here. Volfogg says that he determined they would need Mamoru’s help for the next operation, and Guy cheers Mamoru up by saying he’s counting on him to recharge his G-Stone if needed. Leo contacts Orbit base saying that the repairs to the 3G robots are complete and Liger says that they’ll send Mic down with Disc P. Leo tells Liger to just use Disc X since ZX-05 has reached space but the latter retorts that they used them all up in the last battle. Taiga calms them down and starts the operation to attack ZX-05 from the air and ground simultaneously. Guy performs Final Fusion and flies up to ZX-05’s head while HyoRyu, EnRyu and Volfogg review their objectives: They must rescue the Zonderized civilians then destroy ZX-05’s lower body to cut its connection to the magma flow. Volfogg notes that FuRyu and RaiRyu are currently the strongest offensive units and HyoRyu says that they need to cover up for their disregard for human life. As they all take off, Yan silently tells the Brave Robot Corps to be FuRyu and RaiRyu’s shield.

Mic transforms to Boom robot mode and plays Disc P while Goldymarg charges with his Marg Cannon. FuRyu and RaiRyu attack the Zonders but are unable to breach their barriers and get knocked down. Volfogg quickly combines into Big Volfogg and disables the barriers with Melting Siren. HyoRyu and EnRyu charge in and attack the Zonders. EnRyu yells at FuRyu and RaiRyu to pick up their dropped jaws and follow them. Leo contacts Yan and the latter compliments the Brave Robot Corps’ skills but Leo reminds him that their attacks won’t do much good since the Zonders and Primevals can regenerate. Leo asks if FuRyu and RaiRyu still haven’t mastered Symmetrical Docking and Yan grudgingly admits. Leo hopes that this operation will help develop their AI’s further. Guy reaches ZX-05’s head and penetrates its body with Broken Magnum. However the Primeval reconfigures the damaged section into another mouth and fires a magma blast at the Orbit Base. The blast is reflected by the Orbit Base’s onboard Protect Shade system and sent back into ZX-05, causing a large explosion at the ground level. Leo quickly orders HyoRyu and EnRyu to use the Eraser Head, and the two combine into ChoRyuJin. ChoRyuJin quickly disperses the explosion into space but ZX-05 is completely undamaged. ChoRyuJin charges the Zonders and attacks them with his tonfa. With ZX-05 trying to recharge its energy, Guy combines with Goldymarg to try and destroy it. The Zonders combine into several cannons and try to fire at Guy but ChoRyuJin and Big Volfogg intercept their fire. FuRyu and RaiRyu are in awe by all of this but finally decide to charge in, saying that destroying the Zonders is their job. This raises their SympaRate and allows them to combine into GekiRyuJin. GekiRyuJin quickly uses his ultimate attack Xiang Tou Long to destroy the cannons and retrieve the Zonder cores at the same time, much to everyone’s surprise and Yan’s annoyance. GekiRyuJin tells ChoRyuJin that learning to respect human life is what allowed them to combine and ChoRyuJin tells him that he has matured. Guy finally manages to disintegrate ZX-05’s body but Swan reports that a small part of it escaped into the magma and they can’t pursue it. Spine Primeval runs into the J-Ark and J quickly changes into King J-Der. J kicks Spine Primeval then fires his Maser Cannons at point blank range to destroy its body and retrieve the core. Mamoru purifies the Zonder cores.

Commentary

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Chinese robots can combine like their Japanese cousins, and this episode was mostly a buildup towards that. ChoRyuJin’s got nothing on Xiang Tou Long though. The real surprise was Orbit Base’s new defense system. Adapting GaoGaiGar’s Protect Shade to cover an entire space station is a nice touch and prevented a messy end to the Orbit Base’s still budding career. It was also pretty sweet of Volfogg and Guy to not let Mamoru sink into despair by making him feel wanted, which is what true friends do. J still wants to settle his rivalry with Guy, but refreshingly he’s not allowing his pride to override his directive.

Overall Rating
4/5

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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