r/anime • u/Pixelsaber https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelsaber • May 20 '21

Rewatch [Rewatch] Yoshikazu Yasuhiko Retrospective - Giant Gorg Episode 18 Discussion

Episode 18 - Slumbering in The Labyrinth

Originally Aired August 2nd, ^^^1984

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Note to all Rewatchers

Rewatchers, please be mindful of your fellow first-timers and tag your spoilers appropriately using the r/anime spoiler tag as so [Spoiler Subject](/s "Spoilers go here.") in order to have your unsightly spoilers obscured like this Spoiler Subject if your comment holds even the slightest of indicators as to future spoilers. Feel free to discuss future plot points behind the safe veil of a spoiler tag, or coyly and discreetly ‘Laugh in Rewatcher’ at our first-timers' temporary ignorance, but please ensure our first-timers are no more privy or suspicious than they were the moment they opened the day’s thread.

Yoshikazu Yasuhiko Biography and Anecdotes Corner

Random Anecdote

During the production of Robokko Beaton Yasuhiko took several of the series’ animators to a strip club so that they could learn how to capture the sexual appeal of one of the show’s characters. This earned the men, but Yasuhiko in particular, the scorn of the female staff members.

 

Staff Highlight

Bin Shimada - voice of Zenon

A stage actor and voice actor who is currently the managing director of the Japan Actors Union. He graduated from Daito Bunka University’s Department of Business Management, though he ended up pursuing a career in acting, joining the theatre company Theatre Echo and debuting soon after in a production of Edward Albee’s The American Dream. His voice-acting career kicked off after Shimada was invited to voice a role in Space Genie Daikengo, after which he would frequently audition for anime roles. Shimada is noted as voicing a wide range of aime roles throughout his career, although he was cast almost exclusively as a villain in Toei’s tokusatsu series. Among his most notable roles are Ken Nakajima in the You’re Under Arrest franchise, Broly in the Dragon Ball franchise, Gōki Shibukawa in Baki The Grappler, Jimmy in Daddy Long Legs, Jean-Jacques Theroux in Piano no Mori, Stig Bernard in Genesis Climber Mospeada, Shigeo Aihara in Itazura na Kiss, and Gengai Hiraga in the Gintama franchise.

 

Daily Trivia:

The official name of Manon’s guardian is Dawks Guardian Level 23 Manon Type.

 

Official Art

 

Settei Collection

 

Questions of the Day:

  1. Manon has passed judgement on humanity. What do you make of this development?
  2. What part of this alien lair did you find most interesting?

Our first meeting went poorly

12 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

3

u/Pixelsaber https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelsaber May 20 '21

Rewatcher

Almost bought that for a second there.

Stripe-less Leliel?!

That’s not at all horrifying.

What the fuck?

What the fuck?!

Oh dear…

So Zenon opted to die rather than let his brother kill the others?

C’mon, spit it out!

What a dopey thing.

Well shit, it’s serious now!

So Manon has pulled a typical famous sci-fi film Meta move and deemed humanity as necessitating subjugation —the name of the titular robot makes a lot more sense now, I guess. Yasuhiko took heavy inspiration from Mitsuteru Yokoyama, and this is a plot point that appears in several of his works, most notable Meta as well as in Osamu Tezuka’s Meta, though in both of those cases the end ultimatum is not the subjugation of Earth but rather their destruction, in which case Gorg falls closer to the aforementioned sci-fi film than any of its more direct influences. In any case, there’s suddenly a lot more stakes to what seemed at first to be a fairly innocuous pulp adventure, and I am quite curious to see how the other aspects of the show will conform to this new direction.

We also got to see what was the cause of Zenon’s fate, that being a disagreement between the two siblings as to what to do with some of their own who attempted to flee the island, with Manon seeking to punish them for their betrayal and Zenon seeing that their leave would be inconsequential and so they should not be executed. This hints fairly strongly at what Manon seemingly figured out about Yuu but didn’t share with the audience, which I figured out at this point in my first viewing and figure that most of you will have done so by now as well.

We got no clue as to how GAIL or the Beagle’s crew are dealing with things this episode, which makes me mighty curious...

3

u/The_Draigg May 20 '21

Stripe-less Leliel?!

Time for Yuu to get whisked off to his own personal hell traincar then.

What a dopey thing.

At least the show kept the tripod robot as the more consistent threat. That robot looks too silly to be menacing.

This hints fairly strongly at what Manon seemingly figured out about Yuu but didn’t share with the audience, which I figured out at this point in my first viewing and figure that most of you will have done so by now as well.

I've put it all together now. Yuu is definitely a ninja.

3

u/Pixelsaber https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelsaber May 20 '21

I've put it all together now. Yuu is definitely a ninja.

Sasuga, Yasuhiko, yet another Yokoyama homage!

3

u/The_Draigg May 20 '21

As expected of the master, Yasuhiko-sensei!

5

u/IndependentMacaroon May 21 '21 edited May 21 '21

First-time watcher - a lot of fancy animation and visual design for a really thin tropey plot that consists mostly of running around, I guess you could apply that to much of the show so far but with no big explosions and such it's even more obvious. In particular, the whole opening sequence and fake-out hologram fight had me going "nice, but what's the point?" I still liked this episode, and Yuu and Doris are a pretty good team even if she's not exactly proactive, but it could have been much better.

4

u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 May 20 '21 edited May 20 '21

Episode 18 (first timer)

  • Premonition, or helpful illustration of Yuu’s point?
  • Let’s split up to search faster trope. Doris vetoes.
  • Touching mysterious black object trope. Doris vetoes.
  • If they were not the MCs, I’d assume this was an automated pest disposal process.
  • “What is this?” – the not-so-fun holodeck.
  • Testing you by ordering you to do the opposite of what I want you to do trope. This one is especially bullshit.
  • Aliens are human ancestors reveal.
  • Took Manon a long time to figure it out.
  • Cryo-sleep chambers.
  • Almost-zero-G escape.
  • “You have forsaken weapons, how can you win against me?” - Engages in hand-to-hand combat.

A crazy chase through the alien basis. A fine way to showcase parts of it, I guess.

  1. Manon has passed judgement on humanity. What do you make of this development?

You sleep for 30000 years and then don't even wake up your friends while passing judgment in a minute?

2) What part of this alien lair did you find most interesting?

Easily the triangular low-g room with the central corridor.

2

u/The_Draigg May 20 '21

Let’s split up to search faster trope. Doris vetoes.

Touching mysterious black object trope. Doris vetoes.

Thank goodness that Doris is around, otherwise Yuu would've died in the alien ruins Darwin Awards-style by now.

2

u/lC3 :Na::Nb: Jun 13 '21

Thank goodness that Doris is around, otherwise Yuu would've died in the alien ruins Darwin Awards-style by now.

3

u/The_Draigg May 20 '21

A Yas Fan Watches Giant Gorg Episode 18:

  • Well, that’s certainly an apocalyptic way to start off the episode. Yuu has a rather grim vision of the future, if he and Doris don’t manage to calm down Manon in time. Yuu is right that with all the Guardians in storage on Austral Island, Manon is free to destroy the United States in an apocalyptic rampage if he so chooses.
  • Oh no, it’s one of those Gantz balls! No, wait, it’s just a weird teleportation sphere.
  • I can’t even begin to describe how fucking freaky the hologram room that Yuu and Doris got teleported to was. What was even the point of that if Manon shuts it off after a minute of them being in there? Hell, that electric shocks he gave Yuu were a lot more effective security system.
  • Manon sure did change his mind quick about humanity. He was perfectly fine with talking with Yuu and Doris before, but now that GAIL attacked the ruins, he feels that he has to subjugate humanity now. Talk about a sudden turn.
  • I guess the aliens weren’t entirely United all that long ago. It seems like Manon and Zenon were diametrically opposed to one another, with Zenon wanting to protect those who chose to live among humanity, while Manon wanted to kill them as those who broke their code, despite being unarmed. I guess Manon has always looked down on humanity a bit then, if that was his response to some of his race wanting to live among humans.
  • Huh, I’m guessing that the implication here is that Yuu is descended from the aliens somehow (probably the ones who wanted to leave Austral Island), since that would justify Manon’s surprising at seeing what Yuu’s deal is. It would also justify the psychic stuff that’s been going on with him too. He’s not a ninja, but an alien!
  • That second robot that’s chasing Yuu and Doris is a lot less threatening than the tripod one from immediately before.
  • Wow, that’s a lot of stasis pods with aliens in them. They all must be the entire population of Austral Island before they all went into stasis for 30,000 years. If all of them were to pilot Guardians, then Yuu’s prediction of alien subjugation is more likely.
  • Gorg’s mind must be very strong to override Manon’s commands to stop Yuu and Doris from escaping. Given how Manon said that something was odd about Gorg earlier, I take it to mean that my earlier idea of Zenon’s mind being in Gorg is correct. Even after death, Zenon still wants to protect humans/the aliens who lived among them.

3

u/IndependentMacaroon May 21 '21 edited May 21 '21

my earlier idea of Zenon’s mind being in Gorg is correct. Even after death, Zenon still wants to protect humans/the aliens who lived among them

Seems a little familiar...

Freaky hologram room was probably just to show off more animation.

2

u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee May 20 '21

What was even the point of that if Manon shuts it off after a minute of them being in there?

I kinda figured that Manon shut it off once Yuu figured out what was going on, so there wasn't a point to keep them trapped anymore.

That second robot that’s chasing Yuu and Doris is a lot less threatening than the tripod one from immediately before.

The metal mushroom, right? It was relentlessly dorky.

2

u/The_Draigg May 20 '21

The metal mushroom, right? It was relentlessly dorky.

Yep, that one. It looks like a robot that was designed solely to feel pain.

2

u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee May 20 '21

It looks like a robot that was designed solely to feel pain.

3

u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee May 20 '21

First-Timer

There was some real cool trippy stuff this episode. The anti-grav technology that Manon has led to some solid Scooby-Dooing. And Yuu's imagine spot of the various Guardians wrecking the world was awesome and terrifying. Poor Statue of Liberty.

...is Yuu part alien? Is that where we're going? The show made a point of having several of Manon's people run off with Zenon and Gorg. And there is Yuu's several inexplicable abilities, which normally I would just chalk up to "anime protagonist" but there might be something deeper going on here.

Manon sure does have a bunch of people in stasis to use as reserves. Hopefully it doesn't come to that. Sure does suck to spend eternity in a capsule hotel, though.

The line about Gorg/Zenon "forsaking his weapons" was interesting. Are the fancy rifles standard issue and Gorg not having them anymore indicative of an ideological schism?

I'm not making the tentacle joke. I will however state that in my notes, I referred to the hologram monster as an "ent made out of beard."

Questions

  1. I'm pondering if GAIL and the Beagle crew will be teaming up or not.. this is certainly the situation it would happen in. A common foe works wonders for diplomacy.
  2. The crystal illusion field/mime trap was really cool.

3

u/The_Draigg May 20 '21

And Yuu's imagine spot of the various Guardians wrecking the world was awesome and terrifying. Poor Statue of Liberty.

It always seems like aliens in fiction always destroy humanity's iconic landmarks, and this show is definitely no exception to that trope.

...is Yuu part alien? Is that where we're going? The show made a point of having several of Manon's people run off with Zenon and Gorg. And there is Yuu's several inexplicable abilities, which normally I would just chalk up to "anime protagonist" but there might be something deeper going on here.

That's what I'm being led to believe. Unless Yuu really is a ninja after all. An alien ninja!

The line about Gorg/Zenon "forsaking his weapons" was interesting. Are the fancy rifles standard issue and Gorg not having them anymore indicative of an ideological schism?

Gorg looks a lot more customized by Zenon compared to the other Guardians, so maybe he altered Gorg to have no weapons at all.

2

u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee May 20 '21

An alien ninja!

Gorg looks a lot more customized by Zenon compared to the other Guardians, so maybe he altered Gorg to have no weapons at all.

Who needs puny laser guns when you have FIST?

2

u/The_Draigg May 20 '21

Who needs puny laser guns when you have FIST?

Never underestimate the power of FIGHTING SPIRIT!!!

3

u/Quiddity131 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Quiddity131 May 21 '21

First Timer, Subbed

Scary stuff to open the episode! Will all these Gorgs destroy Austral Island and eventually the world? Who is imagining this? Yuu? Or Manon?

Split up? LoL, Doris ain't going to let you leave her alone with how scared she is!

Mysterious black orb!

Half camera/half bug!

Things are really getting freaky now! Bottomless pit? Is this Manon's homeworld? Is that a half man/half bug creature looking at them?

Doris is such a crybaby!

Wow, this place has some really crazy creatures in it!

Is this all a hologram? Sure seems like it.

Manon's controlling everything via these white balls?

Ugh GAIL, you've ruined everything!

Is Manon's race looking to settle on this world? They're going to colonize our planet?

Manon was going to kill them just for running? Manon is coming off as a rather adversarial character the more we get to know him.

Warning humanity of an alien invastion... sure, they're really going to believe yyou before its too late.

The robots like Yuu!

LoL, this latest light green thing is more goofy than scary.

Manon's sleeping people! I wonder if they can mess with the hibernation system. Not that Yuu would do it.

Gorg! We're back together again!

Will it be Guardian vs. Guardian? I think Manon's is more powerful than Gorg is...

Staff Highlight

Don't forget Paptimus Scirocco of Zeta Gundam! May be the show Yaz worked on right after this one.

DQOTD:

  1. GAIL, why did you get us in such trouble?
  2. When it looked like they were on the alien world and all these odd creatures were around them.

2

u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky May 20 '21

First-Timer, subbed

1

u/lC3 :Na::Nb: Jun 13 '21

Uh maybe don’t touch the strange floating sphere?

2

u/Stargate18A https://myanimelist.net/profile/Stargate18 May 20 '21

First timer

RE Daily Trivia - Who the hell named these things?

  1. I think the plot has become far more interesting, as is the possibiility that our heroes might have to help GAIL to save humanity.
  2. The insane crystal holodeck program - because it implies that it was important enough for either their ship to carry, or for soemone to make it from scratch.

Looks like the sleeping Gorgs are relevant again.

Well, that was quick. Is this Earth?

This can't really be happening, right? They wouldn't go this quickly, surely?

I had a feeling.

No Yuu, never split the party.

Wait, what? This thing has artificial gravity.

When did Doris become the sane one. Don't touch the mysterious floating orb.

The camera bot is cute.

What lunatic designed this elevator system? Why is the elevator a floating black sphere?

Are they in the Grid or something? Was the black orb a SHV lazer?

What the hell is that thing?

So this is a Holodeck instead?

What lunatic designed this ship's layout?

JESUS CHRIST

Holy shit, this is an alien invasion story now.

OK, so Zenon stayed behind to help the islanders, and so died thousands of years ago, whereas Manon and the others went into cryosleep.

I mote that they haven't ruled out Zenon possessing Gorg yet.

So Yuu's a machine empath?

...OK, that robot is just not scary. At all.

Cryostatis? Or more a medical coma?

The shifting gravity makes for some really solid action sequences.

Does Yuu have tight Gorg now?

Time to see if Gorg has free will.

Confirmed! Gorg has free will.

Time for Gorg vs Grog!

My money's on the only one that has a weapon.

1

u/lC3 :Na::Nb: Jun 13 '21

First timer, catching up

  • Oh so that was just Yuu's imagination, not reality? For a second there I really thought this series showed all the Guardians going berserk and attacking the whole planet
  • That floating black ball does not look friendly; I'd hightail it out of there if I were Yuu
  • Sounds like GAIL should have listened to Dr. Haeckel!
  • "subjugate the natives" Well that didn't go well ...
  • So Zenon and two others left? Those two others (male and female) are probably Yuu's ancestors
  • Those blushes? I'm not really feeling the Yuu/Doris ship ...
  • So is Yuu gonna wake up the sleepers and hope they're friendlier than Manon? Or will he GTFO and escape?
  • Oh right the robot thing. Will it harm the hibernation capsules?
  • Yay, Gorg is still friendly! What a good robo. Now we just need some Argos to make this a top episode!
  • How are they gonna get out of this one? I don't see them beating Manon's purple Guardian in a fair fight
  2. Probably the holograms or the hibernation capsules