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GaoGaiGar Final Ep. 8: Mythology

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Summary

One year ago, Mamoru encounters the Eleven Sol Masters for the first time and vainly tries to reason with them to stop absorbing dark matter to restore the Trinary Solar system. When that fails, he steals the Pas-Q machine and uses it create a clone of himself and Galeon to distract the Sol Masters while he escapes. After hiding Galeon in the G-Crystal, he sets off to Earth to deliver the Pas-Q machine to 3G but collapses from exhaustion when he arrives at Jupiter. After Kaidou found him and got flung to Earth with the Pas-Q machine, J holds the Sol Masters off to allow Mamoru to return to the G-Crystal but eventually gets captured. While Mamoru tries to restore Galeon to his original programming, Abel has Palparepa and Pei La Cain reprogram the fake Mamoru and Galeon to go to Earth and steal the Pas-Q machine back for them. In the present, Mamoru faces Cain while Abel taunts that their victory is certain thanks to Pisa Sol’s powers and the fact that no one can get close to her. In Shinjuku, Guy begins overpowering Palparepa and the latter can’t believe he’s stronger than his Loud G-Stone. Guy reminds him that the G-Stone converts courage into power, and that combined with his courage and Evoluder powers give Genesic GaoGaiGar unlimited energy. Guy then proceeds to plow through and destroy Palparepa. In Athens, TenRyuJin does her Dance of Light and Darkness attack, which covers the area in a cloud of smoke and reflective shards. Puranus fires a beam but it gets reflected right to her backside. The light blocking smoke and jamming make her helpless to defend against TenRyuJin’s attacks. The latter tells her that the Dance of Light and Darkness was based off of EI-01’s attack data. She then baits Puranus into attacking her dislodged chest piece before destroying her with her Lime A Ongles beam swords. In Los Glaciares, Pia Decem’s fighters continue to hit J, forcing the latter to retaliate with a full barrage of cannon fire. Abel asks J if he’s trying to kill Kaidou, and J replies that he knows that Kaidou would rather die than be a tool for the Sol Masters. J tells Renais to hang on tight and has Tomoro release all the limiters on the Generating Armor, turning King J-Der into a large J-Quath, the J-Phoenix, and slamming into Pia Decem. In Sankyuu, Ptulone tries to restrain GekiRyuJin with an electromagnetic tornado but the latter uses his Xian Tou Long attack to destroy him. At Taj Mahal, ChoRyuJin dodges P-Vater’s shockwave and destroys it with a heavy barrage of UI-Tech beam fire. In Vladivostok, Volfogg distracts Poltrun with his Silver Cross shuriken, giving him time to combine with the Gun machines into Big Volfogg. The two clash until eventually Big Volfogg shoves his 4000 Magnum into Poltrun’s face. In London, Mic uses Disc F to perform a Wave Riser attack and destroy Percurio. Pisa Sol then regenerates the destroyed Sol Masters and Percurio uses his sound waves to wreck Mic’s instruments and his Baribarien. Poltrun overrides Big Volfogg’s control of his arms and forces him to shoot himself in the face. He then has the Gun machines separate and attack Volfogg with their machine guns before slamming into him and destroying themselves. The regenerated P-Vater slices of ChoRyuJin’s arms and with his chainsaws then chops him in half. Ptulone nullifies Xian Tou Long and wrecks GekiRyuJin. Puranus stabs TenRyuJin and shoots off her arms and weapons. Pia Decem dodges the J-Phoenix by hiding in an ES Window, and now J has run out of energy. Pia Decem knocks J down and fires its anti-neutron fighters. Palparepa announces that he found the flaw in Hell and Heaven and injects Genesic GaoGaiGar with chemical nanomachines that wreak havoc with Guy’s body. Palparepa taunts Guy and runs him through with his God and Devil attack.

Up in space, Kazou, Entouji and Stallion report the loss of contact with the Brave Robot Corps. Hyuuma reminds everyone that Mamoru is still fighting and asks Taiga if there’s anything they can do. Taiga tells him to be patient and wait for their chance for victory. The prayers of Mamoru’s friends on Earth reach him as he uses his purification powers to counter Cain’s Two Powers into One attack. J takes a page from Pia Decem and hides in an ES Window to dodge the fighters, then slams into him and fires all his cannons at point blank range, destroying Pia Decem Pit. HyoRyu and EnRyu transform back to robot mode and attack P-Vater’s Loud G-Stone directly with their Supernova attack. GekiRyuJin charges past Ptulone’s tornado and prepares to use the bomb hidden in its right arm. TenRyuJin separates back into the French dragons who use their internal Projectile X to overload Puranus’ Loud G-Stone. Poltrun senses something and throws his sword at it. It turns out to be Volfogg’s Remote Projection Beam, which distracted Poltrun with a fake image of Volfogg’s wrecked remains long enough for the latter to sneak up and stab his Loud G-Stone. Volfogg realizes that all G-Stones are connected and transmits this information to everyone using his sirens. Mic uses Tower Bridge’s suspension wires to cause a massive sound wave that shatters Percurio’s Loud G-Stone. Guy manages to reprogram Palparepa’s nanomachines and sends them right back at him. The two engage in a fierce battle. Guy tries to counter Palparepa’s drill with his Straight Drill but the latter uses his cylinders to shatter it. Guy uses his Will Knife to destroy the cylinders but they regenerate on Palparepa’s back. Palparepa head butts Guy and destroys the Will Knife with his own blade. He then fires Poison Solid bolts that damage Genesic GaoGaiGar’s left arm and disable his Protect Shade. As the Brave Robot Corps destroy their Sol Master opponents a second time, their voices of encouragement, as well as Mikoto’s, reaches Guy. Guy gains a burst of strength and brutally pummels Palparepa over and over, yelling out that Sol Masters used all these underhanded tactics because they were afraid of 3G and the G-Crystal. Guy then hits Palparepa with Hell and Heaven, and the latter flies out of his mech and into Galeon. Guy is stabbed but manages to smash Palparepa’s Loud G-Stone, destroying him again. Mamoru manages to wipe out Cain. J and Renais destroy Pilnus and Abel cries out to Pisa Sol. Pisa Sol generates dozens of copies of the Sol Masters and Abel gloats over their victory. J and Renais however smugly tell her that this is exactly what they planned for. On cue, Guy uses the Bolting Driver to break past the Palparepas and fly into space. Entouji reports that the regenerating waves from Pisa Sol have stopped as they had predicted, and Taiga immediately orders Formation G to commence. Using the key entrusted to him and Swan by Rose, he starts the combining sequence for the 3G ships and has all the crew evacuate to the escape shuttle. In her unconscious state, Mikoto managed to tell Papillon that Pisa Sol would use up a lot of energy from regenerating the Sol Masters multiple times and requires time to recharge, giving 3G the chance to strike at her directly. As the combining of the ships completes, 3G ejects the escape shuttle and Liger tells Guy that he needs to make an improvised connection because the handle was designed for GaoFighGar’s use. Guy slams his fist into the handle and activates 3G’s ultimate weapon: The massive Goldion Crusher! A panel slides up revealing Goldymarg’s face, and Guy quickly sets to work by wiping out the Palparepa copies. Abel calmly tells J and Renais that Pisa Sol’s regeneration powers will soon be restored but Kaidou appears and tells her that it’s too late. The J-Ark warps into space and opens an ES Window for Guy to reach Pisa Sol. Guy is initially overwhelmed by Pisa Sol’s immense energy but with cries of encouragement from all his friends he manages to bring down the Goldion Crusher and destroy Pisa Sol once and for all. The remaining Sol Masters are disintegrated and Abel laments that the Trinary Solar system will be destroyed before she disappears. Kaidou and Mamoru however correct her and say the system will be reborn again eventually thanks to the power of courage. Things finally calm down back on earth and mankind celebrates their victory. As the fake Earth vanishes and the 3G escape shuttle docks with the J-Ark, Papillon tells Entouji that she will always be in his heart before disappearing. Mamoru and Kaidou wake up and find themselves loaded into missiles. 3G tells them that this universe will disappear soon and they have no way of getting back now that the Galeoria comet is gone, however, utilizing THE POWER, they can create an ES Window just large enough to send the kids to Jupiter and back to Earth from there. Taiga tells the kids that 3G is entrusting the future to them. The missiles are launched and pass by the wrecked bodies of the Brave Robot Corps, who each offer parting words. Kaidou sees visions of J and Renais, who tell him that he no longer needs to live as a Warrior of Abel and to always care for his parents. Mikoto and Guy remind the two that they are children of Earth now and to go forward with the oath of courage. Mamoru and Kaidou eventually reach Earth and have tearful reunions with their parents and Hana. Later, a monument is erected in honor of 3G’s brave deeds, with a plate reading “With the Oath of Courage. Let’s meet again one day in the sea of stars!”

Commentary

The curtain finally closes on the story of GaoGaiGar and the Brave Saga. Clocking in at forty five minutes of non-stop action, you can’t ask for a better finale. Goldymarg finally makes his brief return after being destroyed back in episode two, as part of the awesome Goldion Crusher. It makes sense for 3G to have such a devastating weapon ready after barely overcoming a threat like the Z-Master. 3G’s victory is bittersweet, however, as they’re now stuck in a slowly collapsing dimension with no hope of return. But their legacy lives on in Mamoru and Kaidou. Speaking of which, Mamoru has come a long way as a character. The TV show and OVA had done a good job of avoiding the trap of making him a simple tagalong kid character or a static plot device, and earned him the right to go home and embrace his loving parents once more. Interestingly, it seems that through this OVA, the spirit of his real mother spoke to Mikoto the way Cain spoke to Guy in the TV series. The only thing keeping this send-off from perfection is that the mammoth task of cramming seven separate fights into one episode caused some of them to be extremely formulaic and brief, though it was nice to see the Brave Robot Corps pull out some new tricks we never saw in the TV show. There also didn’t seem to be much point to some of the Sol Masters’ mechanical forms other than being thematic counterparts to the Brave Robot Corps. It worked in Pia Decem’s case at least but the rest felt heavy-handed and unnecessary. On the Easter egg front, we got yet another cameo by Alouette and characters from Betterman, and Guy’s beat down of Palparepa is a nice homage to his final battle with the Zonuda robo in the TV show. Especially fitting considering how delusional Palparepa was, believing himself to be an immortal god. I also like how 3G adapted Pasdar’s powerful reflective laser attack into TenRyuJin’s arsenal. As a follow-up to the TV show, FINAL took its characters and setting to heights of intensity that surpassed even the already great second half of the TV show, and is a fine conclusion to the story of the King of Braves. It also didn’t repeat the Nadesico movie’s mistake of leaving too many important plot details in the supplemental material.

Overall Rating
4.5/5

GaoGaiGar Final Info

Director:
Yoshitomo Yonetani

Writer(s):
Yoshitomo Yonetani
Fuyunori Gobu
Yuichiro Takeda0

Mechanical Designer(s):
Kunio Okawara
Kazumi Fujita
Takahiro Yamada

Character Designer:
Takahiro Kimura

Musical Composer:
Kouhei Tanaka

Format:
8 episodes (OVA); 12 episodes (TV re-edit)

Video Release:
Japan 01.21.2000 – 03.21.2003

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