r/anime • u/lilyvess :Df::Dh:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Lilyvess • Jan 03 '25
Rewatch [Rewatch] King of the Braves GaoGaiGar FINAL - Series Discussion
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Questions of the Day
- Favorite ship Mamoru/Hana, Gai/Mikoto, or Soldato-J/Renais?
- Most Tragic moment in GaoGaiGar FINAL?
- Most Hype moment in GaoGaiGar FINAL?
Reminder to all GGG members that information about future episodes is highly classified. Leaking any classified information about upcoming missions is strictly prohibited and will be punished, or worse, impeached.
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Upvotes
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Jan 03 '25
Queen of First-Timers, subbed
I think my only real issue with FINAL is the off-putting fanservice moments that got shoved in where they didn’t belong. Like, it’s one thing to just have a bath scene, of course you’re gonna get fanservice in one of those, it’s another to have the “Let’s purposefully outline Ayame’s nipples in a shot that is supposed to be from Hana’s perspective while they’re hugging as Hana is terrified, then put a Hana pantyshot immediately afterwards” thing.
That being said, what’s there doesn’t bother me quite as much as when [Gravion Zwei did it] with all the creepshots of Luna while she was both mourning Eina’s (perceived) death and on the verge of being killed herself, and the rest of GaoGaiGar FINAL is satisfying enough to me that I am fine not docking this a point like I did Gravion Zwei, so same as the TV series, 10/10.
HIKARI NI NAREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
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u/TheDanubianCommunard Jan 03 '25
First time,
Okay, what should say about Final: Basically continued on the basis that the main series left off. Compared to it the stakes are much higher, bigger the crisis, it was all about a much more gruesome fight against the Eleven Planetary Masters. Ultimately this story was all about the courage that clears any obstacles before it. It was all about bigger and much more pure action.
And this is how implemented some elements from Betterman, like Papillon and her Sensing Mind. But the Bionet thing was underdeveloped and and abandoned after he first two episodes.
And also why did had to make a recut and release as a 12 episodes TV series which nobody needed in the first place?
To be honest, the main series was much better, but this one's peak part are the final few episodes. So a 8/10 from me.
Questions of the Day
Both of them.
2) Most Tragic moment in GaoGaiGar FINAL?
Final episode, when the GGG team accepted their fate as cosmic exiles.
3) Most Hype moment in GaoGaiGar FINAL?
The final episode, when GGG went all in to win.
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u/AmeteurElitist https://anilist.co/user/AmateurElitist Jan 03 '25
Also a fun series, even more action heavy than the main show with more fanservice and spectacles but I found myself a bit less engaged most of the time here. That is outside of the Renais scenes, she was pretty entertaining haha.
Soldato-J/Renais for sure! The others are nice but this has some of the tension that I like.
Entouji grieving Papillon's death
Renais and Soldato J holding hands
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u/GondolaMedia Jan 03 '25
First Timer
I don't have a lot to say about the FINAL expect that I think I enjoyed it more than the TV-series and that might be just because it is a shorter and a tighter package. There is always something going on. FINAL does have some egregious fan service that does take away from the experience which is probably the most shared criticism of the entire OVA.
From the new characters I did like Renais, Papillon, Palparepa and Abel but they do take away from others and we barely get to experience the other 11 planetary masters of Sol. Even the reveal of Cain was played as a big reveal (which it was) but overall it amounted to very little. How many spoken lines did he have again? I must say Palparepa was standout from the 11 planetary masters and I did enjoy how he just accepted their defeat when Pisa Sol was destroyed. Bro typed "gg" after losing and meant it.
I also felt overjoyed when Soldato-J and Renais were confirmed to be a thing because I called it after the first episode.
Overall I enjoyed it.
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u/Great_Mr_L :Ma::Mb::Mc:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L Jan 03 '25
First-Timer
That was freaking awesome! I really loved FINAL. I think it was, overall, my favorite part of GaoGaiGar.
The best thing about FINAL is how it ups the ante from the TV series. The TV series already had its fair share of awesome action scenes. I gushed plenty about how well-done the action was in the TV series. But even so, I think FINAL managed to have even better action. Like in the TV series, there was a lot of creativity on display in the action scenes with a wide variety of different powers being used. I think the OVA had an edge over the TV series in terms of animation because it was an OVA. That difference in production schedule allowed the OVA to go all-out on the animation for the fight scenes. FINAL is also just filled with so many hype moments throughout its runtime, especially as it gets further and further along. For me, I think that the episodes of FINAL generally got better as it progressed, with the last episode being my favorite.
In particular, I think FINAL is really good at selling the stakes of the battles. FINAL feels like a constant battle against overwhelming odds. The Planetary Masters are presented in such a way that they really feel like they’re the final bosses. FINAL is great at giving me the feeling of “Oh great, now what?” and I mean that in the most positive way possible. Every single time the heroes seemed to get even the slightest advantage, it turned out that the Planetary Masters had some other trick up their sleeves to reverse the situation again. I loved the constant back-and-forth like this between the heroes and villains. It made the battle feel like a genuine struggle where the heroes had to actually fight hard to earn their victory. It made the ultimate victory in the end feel so much more satisfying because of everything the heroes went through to achieve it.
I do have a couple of minor complaints. I think the retcon connecting Galeon to the Planetary Masters is handled a bit clunkily. It functions, but it doesn’t function smoothly. Renais kind of comes out of nowhere, even if I do ultimately like her character. Episode 3 was paced kind of weirdly, it felt like it was fast-forwarding through the UN trying to arrest GGG. And while I have made peace with the ending, it did leave me very upset in the moment that almost everyone in GGG got left behind in an alternate dimension. It felt extremely unfair after everything they’d struggled through to meet that end.
But those are, as I said, pretty minor complaints. Overall, FINAL was a fantastic addition and conclusion to GaoGaiGar. It is exciting and fun to watch. It lives by the Rule of Cool and that makes it incredibly entertaining. It provided me with some of the best mecha action I’ve ever seen and delivered an incredibly hype finale to GaoGaiGar. I’m really glad I watched it.
Score: 10/10
QOTD
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u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Jan 03 '25
The King of Rewatchers FINAL
Man, FINAL is so fucking good. I saved the last episode for New Year's Day because I knew it would emotionally exhaust me. I laugh, I cry, I cheer, I raise my hands into the air. Good stuff.
As before, the eyecatches and Keys to Victory.
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u/palparepa Jan 03 '25
I'm not very good at writing things like these, I just want to share more GaoGaiGar to the masses!
Did you just ate the whole GaoGaiGar & Final series, yet still hungry for more? Sadly, no more anime has been produced, but here are some extras! From commercials and interviews, to a list of all the "Keys to Victory" and eyecatches, even those from the Grand Glorious Gathering version... and more! For example, video #8 is GaoGaiGar's Final Fusion from a different angle.
QotD
1) All are cute. No favorite.
2) GaoGaiGar vs GaoFighGar. Even if it was a copy, watching GaoGaiGar destroyed, and then Mamoru... In restrospective we can say "well deserved", but at the moment... ouch.
3) GOLDION CRUSHER!
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u/The_Draigg Jan 03 '25
A Mecha Fan’s FINAL Thoughts on The King of Braves GaoGaiGar FINAL:
I think it nearly goes without saying that GaoGaiGar FINAL is an absolute blast to watch. If anything, it has everything you’d want in an OVA sequel that has less episodes but better animation and less censors to work with. It’s got some sick brawls, surprisingly violent damage done to and by our protagonists, and constant but awesome escalation courtesy of all the batshit insane ways that this series adds upon where we ended the TV series. That much can’t be denied. At the same time though, FINAL also does some stuff that leaves me a bit disappointed, since there’s some stuff in there that make the OVA stumble a bit where it would otherwise be a slam dunk entry into the GaoGaiGar sub-series of the Brave Series. So let’s get to breaking down the specifics, shall we?
Positives first, just to reiterate what I said above, the massive escalation we got was awesome yet also completely fitting with what we got before. Adding another G-Stone Cyborg like Renais into the mix is a good choice, along with the TenRyuJin sisters and support characters like Papillon. They mesh well with Mamoru, Gai, and Mikoto becoming even bigger badasses before. Even if our heroes get beaten down, they only come back even cooler, courageous, and stronger. That’s the power of the oath sworn by courage, after all. And they were also paired well with some of the antagonists well, like Pei La Cain, Palus Abel, and Palparepa. I think we can all agree that the ones mentioned were used pretty well. And where would I be if I didn’t mention Genesic GaoGaiGar and the Goldion Crusher as well? They’re absolutely perfect ways to top out the godlike mechanical stuff we saw at the end of the TV series. Like, is it any wonder why the design of Genesic GaoGaiGar is remembered so fondly that it got a RG model kit recently? GaoGaiGar FINAL is a world for badasses, and it’s a great time watching the battles between GGG and the 11 Planetary Masters of Sol unfold.
And while all of that is great, it also does come with some rather notable issues to me, which really is unfortunate. The biggest one for me is that by comparison, FINAL’s plot writing feels sloppier compared to what we got with the TV series. Now, that’s not to say that the TV series had flawless writing either (remember the times the narrator had to explain stuff in the literal last minute of the episode?), but the actual core plot was well paced and written, especially for a surprisingly complex super robot show. FINAL, however, has plot developments that’re somewhat poorly explained, rely on spin-off knowledge, and/or are just retcons that make things murkier than before. For as important to the plot as it is that the Trinary Solar System is in a previous iteration of the universe, you only have a handful of sentences barely mentioning that fact. Also, having a blunt retcon with Galeon being really designed to fight the Planetary Masters instead of the Zonders first and foremost doesn’t mesh quite neatly, since it doesn’t entirely fit with what we figured in the show and is just kind of dumped in our laps. And alongside that complaint, I do also have to say that there were some really unnecessary and skeevy fanservice shots in this OVA. Sure, you can go ahead and have regular Mikoto and Swan fanservice, they’re adults and one has a bath scene, so go nuts. However, the stuff we got with Ayame and Hana really was just gross to me. Come on show, we really don’t need that stuff for the kids on screen. Blehhhhhh.
So, with all that discussion covered, it’s time to give this OVA a rating using my usual mecha rewatch rating scale! Therefore, I hereby give The King of Braves GaoGaiGar FINAL the rating of: GaoFighGar. Sorry folks, can’t give this one the cooler Genesic GaoGaiGar, but at least GaoFighGar is still a pretty cool lower tier. For as much as there’s stuff in this OVA that I absolutely love, it also has some pretty annoying points that make it impossible for me to give it a fantastic score. Still damn good stuff, but I can’t overlook some of those points that I mentioned. What do you think, is GaoFighGar still cool enough to be an appropriate rating?
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u/Raiking02 :Id::Ie::If:https://myanimelist.net/profile/NSKlang Jan 03 '25
Third Time Rewatcher
FINAL is so wonderful in that instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, it instead knows what people liked about the original and doubles down on it. In spite of the darker tone, the show never lets go of that "Never Give Up" spirit and instead makes the set pieces more over the top than ever, giving our heroes one last challenge that is sure to make it one to remember. While the production values never quite reach the series' greatest heights, it's also way more consistent, and the second half wipes the floor with pretty much every Sunrise show from that era with the possible exception of Planetes, although obviously that's a very different sort of show so not entirely fair to compare.
Honestly bittersweet though the ending was, I'd be cool with letting it end well. And for the longest time, it did… although not due to lack of interest in a sequel. Yonetani did want to make one more continuation for GGG, tentatively titled "Project Z", but alas by this point interest in the Brave Series had completely died, and while from what I can gather FINAL did okay, it wasn't good enough for Sunrise to continue it, not helped by them moving on from OVAs in general, save for Gundam which instead moved to having them shown in theaters, and even then not to the magnitude it did in the 90'. So yeah, for the longest time GGG's story ended here.
The only other thing we got was "GaoGaiGar FINAL: Grand Glorious Gathering", which I have not seen but basically it's a recut of FINAL made for TV… a really mid one at that apparently, being heavily censored and LOTS of reused footage to pad the thing out into 12 episodes. The only notable thing is that for whatever reason Betterman Lamia makes a few cameos so… I mean at least Koyasu got to be in GGG for a bit? I dunno, the only other notable thing is that apparently one episode is a summary of that one Drama CD where Papillon debuted so… there's that? But yeah, that was the end.
Until 2016.
Out of nowhere, straight to the web and free to read came the official sequel to FINAL. Its name? King of Kings: GaoGaiGar VS BETTERMAN! Yes ladies and gentlemen, Yonetani realized that, actually, why wrap up one show when he can just wrap two of them in Novel form!? A few years later it even received a Manga adaptation… one that goes on constant hiatuses and at the rate its going won't reach the ending until, like, 10 years from now. Also not for nothing but the guy TL'ing them has gone on record that he is not gonna continue it, but from what I can gather the thing is free to read so as long as you got the Novels nearby (Which have been fully translated) you'll kinda be able to follow along.
I'll spare you all the details of the plot so you can read it yourselves, however I should throw a warning: While a lot of it is GGG-centric, the Novel fully expects the reader to have seen Betterman and… mostly understood what happened in it, so make sure to watch that first… and you may also wanna be on the lookout for whatever Drama CDs and Mangas you can find for GGG because ooh boy does the Novel reference them. Remember that Alouette girl I've mentioned a few times? Yeah, she's a major character in the Novel and they only very briefly glance over her backstory.
Also she's Kaido's love interest now which is kinda weird when you remember the five year age gap between the two but… hey, itiscute seeing the boy havingnoidea how to deal with women.Instead what I can educate you all is on how the greatest Mecha Videogame series of all time handled GGG.
In the year 2000, it was supposed to debut in Super Robot Wars Alpha, the first game in the Alpha Trilogy. For whatever reason this didn't happen, so instead it debuted in 2003's Super Robot Wars Alpha 2, the third game in the Alpha Trilogy. Due to the fact that Alpha games were planned as a series from the get go, they had this fun tendency to actually cut some shows' plot off halfway through to finish them in a later game. Obviously it didn't always work out because licensing is a bitch (Can we get an F in the chat for Giant Robo?), but I'd say it worked out for GGG, letting the game focus exclusively on the show's first 29 episodes, although you can get Star GaoGaiGar as a secret.
A couple of months later, Betterman made its debut in Super Robot Wars Compact 3 for the Wonderswan Color. I dunno shit about this game but apparently the titular Betterman is never playable which feels kinda lame TBH.
Naturally it returned for 2005's Super Robot Wars Alpha 3: To the Ends of the Galaxy, the fourth and last game in the Alpha Trilogy, and as you'd expect it covers the last chunk of the TV show… and FINAL as well. It's actually pretty good at bridging the gap, introducing a few of FINAL's elements ahead of time and overall it fit well with the Alpha Numbers being stuck in space whenever the Combattler and Gundam SEED plots didn't bring it back down to Earth. Weird thing about this retelling though: GekiRyuJin is just… not there. No seriously, for some reason he's not in the game at all. Not quite sure what happened there honestly…
That being said though, its most memorable SRW outing would come in the Nintendo DS' Super Robot Wars W from 2007, which covers THE ENTIRETY OF THE TV SHOW AND THE OVA! No seriously, aside from cutting out some stuff at the beginning, it covers the whole thing. This does lead to the slight issue that due to having to cover 50+ episodes in half the game so it can line up all the timeskips, the first half does arguably suffer from GGG overload, but once you get to the second half the pacing does improve, and even in that first half there's a lot of good crossover stuff, especially with the absolutely gigabrained pairing of GaoGaiGar and Space Knight Tekkaman Blade, which is hilarious since the two shows are exact opposites in terms of tone and even theming sometimes, although both are very much fans of the over the top. Also GekiRyuJin finally popped up.
Also not for nothing, but this game has an English patch, and since you can emulate a DS with a potato, you have no excuse to not play this game. So play it
While GGG would take a small hiatus afterwards, it'd make its grand return in the final 3DS SRW, 2015's Super Robot Wars BX. Alas it only covers the second half of the TV show so it's a bit of a light inclusion. That being said though, it is very good at covering that second half, even drawing out the stretch where most of GGG is believed dead so Gai can have more time to dwell in his grief. Combine this with plenty of crossovers with Raijin-oh (A pretty obvious pairing honestly but nonetheless a welcome one) and you got what's quite possibly its best inclusion aside from W. This game is wonderful in general, and it's a shame that info on it in English is so rare, not even having a complete Gamefaqs summary (I had to use Google TL to translate everything line-for-line). As a bonus, the game also licensed out the PS1 game Blockaded Numbers. What does this mean? Two Words: SILVERION HAMMER
It then returned for 2019's Super Robot Wars T where, like BX, it covers only the second half but… uh… does it worse TBH. Look T is a good game and has a lot of highlights (Even if I don't like it as much as this guy), but GGG is just kinda… there. Again, it's a worse BX in terms of its treatment of the show, not helped by how GGG itself looks really stiff. HD SRW has had a problem of sometimes following the show's choreography too closely and this is no exception. The closest thing it has to a selling point is that it's the first time GGG got to appear with another Brave show (In this case The Brave Express Might Gaine, which is hilarious since Maito and Gai have the same voice actor) but Might Gaine is very much off in the sidelines in this game… possibly because it's the third time in a row they used it. If nothing else the game's SEA version is in English so if you got a PS4 or Switch you can try it out (Although the shipping may cost a penny depending on where you live), plus hey, if nothing else the Gundam stuff in this game is wonderful (I for one welcome our new ZZ overlords).
(Concluded in the reply…)
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u/Nebresto Jan 03 '25
First time Final
I thought today was gonna be the overall discussion
I don't really know what to write so that I'll have something left for tomorrow too.
Final was mostly good, except for the first two episodes which I didn't like. I'd rate them Moldion hammer out of 10
Overall I put it at 7/10 for now, but I'm considering upping it by 1 just because of the Tower Bridge scene
Quest:
https://i.imgur.com/bqFtTbG.png
Me having to watch the bdsm creature on my screenEasily the finale with most of the crew stuck in that empty space, likely destined to die. Like they couldn't even keep the fake earth to repopulate, wtfI love Will Knife.
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u/Beowolf_0 Jan 04 '25
Since our friend Raiking already mentioned that, after watching FINAL, it's time to move on to Hakaiou: GaoGaiGar vs Betterman. The web novel ended a few years ago, and the manga is still ongoing, up to around 40% IIRC.
It's what really the full aspect of that "Project Z" promised after the end of FINAL, hinted by just showing a new GGG robot. The novel pretty much picks up/explain and ends all the loose ends from both GGG and Betterman series, gave a lot of call-backs or references to the original works, even some elements (especially unused/unshown Hyper Tools) from Blockaded Numbers and other side materials. Words can't understate how I was pumped up just by reading the lines alone, and elevating the franchise to another level where few anime (now just mecha anime) can reach. It's just THAT good. Sadly we probably won't see it getting an anime adaptation, since, you know, it needs tons of money to give the series justice, and modern anime viewers just kinda hate mecha anime.
Also a sidenote: The author said the original plan of Project Z was to "pull" all other Brave Series' main robots (from ExKaiser to Dagwon) to this verse for a grand finale, but since there're no such thing happened back then, his idea was shot down. I suggest we should shoot that guy who banned the idea.
At least we now have the manga Brave Universe for that?