To otakus, Gaogaigar and the following Gaogaigar Final are like the holy grail of anime, some fanboys can't praise them enough: "such bad ass action", "awesome mecha designs", "such drama" etc. The list goes on and on. But when you come to this show minus the adoration and the hype, you'll realize the series and the subsequent original video animation as one of the sacred cows of anime.
On first viewing, GGG is a fairly decent, if mediocre and underwhelming show (translation: boring). It starts off as a monster of the week type of show like Voltron with each episode, a human is "zonderized" by a bunch of aliens and metamorphoses into a giant monstrosity. Naturally, like Godzilla and King Kong, this monster rampages and causes untold destruction in the districts of Tokyo. A long-haired "cyborg" named Gai pilots a mechanical lion called Galeon which transforms into a robot called GaiGar; during "Final Fusion" with so-called "gao machines", Gaigar transforms into "Gaogaigar" To be fair, the stock footage used in the Gaigar and Gaogaigar transformations are okay by super robot genre standards and show great attention to detail; they are in fact comparable to other great transformation and combining sequences in other mecha anime. In addition, clichés in the super robot genre are many; Gai needs to shout the name of every weapon and hi-tech tool available at his disposal: "Broken Magnum!!" "Dividing Driver!!" on and on, etc (this is not bad actually, as a kid, I thoroughly enjoyed "Voltes V" and "Daimos" and thriled to every announcement of "Ultraelectromagneticpop!" or "Daimos Death Blow!"). There is also a lot of red tape that accompanies these verbal acrobatics, apparently, approval from bureaucrats is required before final fusion or the use of the dividing driver is permitted.
As the series progresses, a bunch of new characters are introduced; twin robots Horyu and Choryu are brought on-board to give Gai some new allies; the tedium of the show stops a little as their imaginative combination sequence called "symmetrical docking" is truly inspired; later, Volfogg, Goldymarg and Mike Saunders the 13th are added. In a way, this gradual introduction of the robot characters is more fascinating and interesting than the initial "monster of the week" gimmick the show is saddled with as the viewer expects the cool factor with each new character introduced as they anticipate a new transformation or combination sequence (yeah, I'm a sucker for those, especially if done well).
While the robot characters are interesting only because they have some cool transformations or some related ability, they are comparable in personality to those in Transformers Victory, they're too normal and boring, like people who wore robot costumes to the office; this seems like a tradition in anime as the Japanese cannot imagine transforming mecha as nothing more than cheerful yes men with the exception of Goldymarg and the annoying Mike Saunders the 13th. The human characters aren't that interesting also; Gai is boring with little to no personality, Hikaru in Macross is a lot more interesting and sympathetic, Gai though is a one dimensional cardboard character; the other major character though, Mamoru (which means "to protect" in Japanese language) wins hands down as the most boring and wack character in the whole show. His adoptive parents are also irritating for some reason. Each time, Gaogaigar beats a zonder monster, Mamoru transforms into a male tinkerbell and waves a magic wand while uttering some gibberish: "horatio..koktura" to purify the "zonder core".
In the middle to latter episodes, the series change gears and suddenly adopts a more epic way of storytelling. The character "Pizza" becomes "J", (no he's not some hip hop emcee) a hero and rides his own mech and so on. In the end, while things get interesting, it is not enough to salvage the show from its inherent blandness. The last episode tries to salvage the damage done by the previous runs and is surprisingly good but unfortunately the writers turn it into another clichéd ending.
While some may enjoy it, Gaogaigar is eventually overwhelmed by its derivative script, boring characters and lack of subtlety.
On first viewing, GGG is a fairly decent, if mediocre and underwhelming show (translation: boring). It starts off as a monster of the week type of show like Voltron with each episode, a human is "zonderized" by a bunch of aliens and metamorphoses into a giant monstrosity. Naturally, like Godzilla and King Kong, this monster rampages and causes untold destruction in the districts of Tokyo. A long-haired "cyborg" named Gai pilots a mechanical lion called Galeon which transforms into a robot called GaiGar; during "Final Fusion" with so-called "gao machines", Gaigar transforms into "Gaogaigar" To be fair, the stock footage used in the Gaigar and Gaogaigar transformations are okay by super robot genre standards and show great attention to detail; they are in fact comparable to other great transformation and combining sequences in other mecha anime. In addition, clichés in the super robot genre are many; Gai needs to shout the name of every weapon and hi-tech tool available at his disposal: "Broken Magnum!!" "Dividing Driver!!" on and on, etc (this is not bad actually, as a kid, I thoroughly enjoyed "Voltes V" and "Daimos" and thriled to every announcement of "Ultraelectromagneticpop!" or "Daimos Death Blow!"). There is also a lot of red tape that accompanies these verbal acrobatics, apparently, approval from bureaucrats is required before final fusion or the use of the dividing driver is permitted.
As the series progresses, a bunch of new characters are introduced; twin robots Horyu and Choryu are brought on-board to give Gai some new allies; the tedium of the show stops a little as their imaginative combination sequence called "symmetrical docking" is truly inspired; later, Volfogg, Goldymarg and Mike Saunders the 13th are added. In a way, this gradual introduction of the robot characters is more fascinating and interesting than the initial "monster of the week" gimmick the show is saddled with as the viewer expects the cool factor with each new character introduced as they anticipate a new transformation or combination sequence (yeah, I'm a sucker for those, especially if done well).
While the robot characters are interesting only because they have some cool transformations or some related ability, they are comparable in personality to those in Transformers Victory, they're too normal and boring, like people who wore robot costumes to the office; this seems like a tradition in anime as the Japanese cannot imagine transforming mecha as nothing more than cheerful yes men with the exception of Goldymarg and the annoying Mike Saunders the 13th. The human characters aren't that interesting also; Gai is boring with little to no personality, Hikaru in Macross is a lot more interesting and sympathetic, Gai though is a one dimensional cardboard character; the other major character though, Mamoru (which means "to protect" in Japanese language) wins hands down as the most boring and wack character in the whole show. His adoptive parents are also irritating for some reason. Each time, Gaogaigar beats a zonder monster, Mamoru transforms into a male tinkerbell and waves a magic wand while uttering some gibberish: "horatio..koktura" to purify the "zonder core".
In the middle to latter episodes, the series change gears and suddenly adopts a more epic way of storytelling. The character "Pizza" becomes "J", (no he's not some hip hop emcee) a hero and rides his own mech and so on. In the end, while things get interesting, it is not enough to salvage the show from its inherent blandness. The last episode tries to salvage the damage done by the previous runs and is surprisingly good but unfortunately the writers turn it into another clichéd ending.
While some may enjoy it, Gaogaigar is eventually overwhelmed by its derivative script, boring characters and lack of subtlety.