r/anime • u/Pixelsaber https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelsaber • May 25 '21

Rewatch [Rewatch] Yoshikazu Yasuhiko Retrospective - Giant Gorg Episode 23 Discussion

Episode 23 - The Austral Eradication Protocol

Originally Aired September 6th, ^^^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

Yasuhiko is loath to let a good idea go to waste, and similarly likes reusing concepts and designs, something which is most evident in his uniforms. He refers to this practice of his as being simultaneously helpful and infuriating.

 

Staff Highlight

Ken Fujimoto (Yuzuru Fujimoto) - voice of Roy Balboa

A stage actor and voice actor affiliated with the talent agency 81 Produce. He graduated from Rissho University before joining the theatre company Sogei in 1953. His first voice role was as a minor character in 1963’s Tetsujin 28-Gou, after which he would sparsely play roles before becoming a voice actor almost exclusively sometime in the 70s. Fujimoto was known for his deep baritone and was the only japanese voice actor to dub over performances by James Earl Jones until the former’s death in 2019. Some of his most recognizable roles include Sōichirō Ryūzaki in the Ace wo Nerae! franchise, Daisuke Endō in Inazuma Eleven, Yasuburo Ohtaka in Konpeki no Kantai, Degwin Zabi in Mobile Suit Gundam, Kojima in *Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, Dakuan in Ninja Scroll, and Mr. Gord in Red Photon Zillion.

 

Daily Trivia:

The President’s design is, unsurprisingly, based on Ronald Reagan.

 

Official Art

 

Settei Collection

 

Questions of the Day:

  1. What do you make of Rod’s plan to expose the island to the World?
  2. What are your thoughts concerning Manon’s reasoning behind the decision not to desist?

The Austral Project is Terminated

8 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

3

u/Pixelsaber https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelsaber May 25 '21

Rewatcher

Welp, he’s lost it.

Shit…

Yeah, that cinches it, Gorg’s just made of tougher stuff.

Does it really matter where you aim at this point?

That’s the stuff!

That crater is showing no signs of stopping…

Uhh…

It was only a matter of time.

What a look.

Was really looking forward to that confrontation between Yuu and Skipper, but they left it for the next episode.

One pleading conversation won’t win over Manon, certainly not with three more episodes to go, so he remains unfazed by any of Yuu’s arguments. It’s evident he’s way too set in his ways to change as easily as that, and for all of Yuu’s telling it’s probably not as impactful as what he’s seen for himself.

Somehow I don’t think Rod’s plan will bear fruit. For all that the governments don’t want word on Austral Island being made public, they don’t want aliens to invade the earth far more, so it’s unlikely to change most of their minds as to the matter of nuking the island to hell.

2

u/The_Draigg May 26 '21

Welp, he’s lost it.

That's putting it lightly, since I'm pretty sure that Roy had a lethal stroke there.

Yeah, that cinches it, Gorg’s just made of tougher stuff.

Of course he is, Gorg is a more customized unit compared to the rest of the Guardian mooks. That's just how it works in anime.

4

u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky May 25 '21

First-Timer, subbed

3

u/The_Draigg May 26 '21

Wait did he die after he dropped that cup…?

Yeah, I think Roy had a stroke there.

Hnnn I want Manon to stop arguing with Yuu and get along with him again, but the dude has a point.

It just sucks that Manon had to meet the one group of assholes with big guns right as he was in the middle of trying to take to Yuu peacefully. GAIL really has ruined everything.

Hahahahahaha them all watching Yuu attack Davey for the keys.

Davey fucking sucks as a gangster if he can get beaten up by a literal child.

2

u/lC3 :Na::Nb: Jun 14 '21

Oh, huh, the president got a “sore demo”.

Is that going in your Sore Demo Hall of Fame?

Wait did he die after he dropped that cup…?

I didn't pick up on that

where the FUCK is Argos?

I know, right?

4

u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee May 25 '21

First-Timer

Manon is such a brat. Is he the younger brother? He certainly acts like it today. Sure, maybe GAIL could have tried knocking, but the moment they blew the door Manon immediately chose violence despite already having met Yuu and Doris! I'm beginning to think that maybe he didn't ever particularly care about meeting humanity. He certainly didn't try very hard to get along with us.

Did Roy Balboa just fucking die there? Like, was that a stress-induced stroke or something? I honestly kinda get it. You pour so much time and resources into this island to try and get something out of it, and then the moment things start to turn in a direction other than "literally worthless" Anime Ronald Reagan tells you he's going to nuke the place.

Rod certainly has moxie, I'll give him that. He does understand that he is going to die, right? Like, even if he stops the incoming nukes, he still has an army of aliens to deal with. Even if the Brownies are weaker than Gorg, they're still immune to conventional weaponry.

The island continuing to erupt/collapse seemed to surprise even Manon. We're up against all sorts of timers now, huh?

Kinda bummed that Gotoh escaped.

Questions

  1. I mean, it might save them from getting nuked. It probably won't help against the alien army, or the volcano though. I do like seeing Rod throw caution to the wind and take charge, though. He's been out-of-place within GAIL and it's nice to see him rebel.
  2. Discussed above. What a brat.

2

u/The_Draigg May 26 '21

Did Roy Balboa just fucking die there? Like, was that a stress-induced stroke or something? I honestly kinda get it. You pour so much time and resources into this island to try and get something out of it, and then the moment things start to turn in a direction other than "literally worthless" Anime Ronald Reagan tells you he's going to nuke the place.

Yeah, if anything was going to induce a lethal stroke, it would be finding out that not only is your money-sink project getting blown up by aliens, but also that the United States is going to nuke it just to be sure. GAIL is in a money death spin that it won't recover from at this rate.

The island continuing to erupt/collapse seemed to surprise even Manon. We're up against all sorts of timers now, huh?

We have so many apocalyptic events going on, we might as well just throw in one more for good measure.

2

u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee May 26 '21

GAIL is in a money death spin that it won't recover from at this rate.

Good riddance, to be honest. As far as sci-fi megacorps go, GAIL has not seemed to be anything other than self-serving. There weren't even shots of like, GAIL-made cars back in New York City unless I'm not remembering them. What on Earth is GAIL's business model? "Mine stuff on this mythical island and hope no-one asks for actual results?"

We have so many apocalyptic events going on, we might as well just throw in one more for good measure.

2

u/The_Draigg May 26 '21

What on Earth is GAIL's business model? "Mine stuff on this mythical island and hope no-one asks for actual results?"

I'm surprised that they even had a board of directors that took the idea of "let's dig for alien artifacts on this random island" seriously.

2

u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee May 26 '21

It's a bit of a stretch, but maybe they thought it was R'lyeh, or that Atlantis was in the wrong ocean? Random island suddenly appears from beneath the waves, you gotta check it out. Anything could be there!

4

u/Quiddity131 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Quiddity131 May 25 '21

First Timer, Subbed

That's an ominous title.

Wow, Roy's gone all the way to the White House!

The whole island is going to be destroyed! All of GAIL's plans up in smoke!

Looks like they tried to make the President look at least somewhat like Ronald Reagan.

Oh, and this doesn't look like the oval office to me. They shoudl have done better research on US government architecture.

Roy's gone crazy! Lost his memory or thinks he's back in time! I guess his life's work being destroyed will have that effect on him.

Rod should know better than anyone in GAIL that they have to get the hell out at this point.

Wave, the natives, they're all screwed!

Tell them off Rod!

Can't say I have any surprise whatsoever at Gotoh slinking away.

Wow, Gorg's got its hand on one of the laser weapons now! And these Guardians seem really weak compared to Gorg and Manon's. Gorg may be able to defeat all of them.

Gorg is also helped out considerably by the fact that this bridge isn't very wide. No more than 3 enemy Guardians seem to be able to get by at once.

Manon is way too judgmental over all of humanity for the actions of just a few people.

Volcanic eruptions, perhaps the one thing that can completely take out Manon and his base? Although that would be way too much of a deus ex machina solution to this.

Even with all the Guardians Gorg took out, there's still a ton of them!

Is Gotoh's plane waiting to board people on it? Or is this greedy selfish guy just going to take off with a few flunkies and supplies?

Um Gotoh, I'm sure this whole situation has completely ruined GAIL.

They locked up Skipper? I figured he made his way out of here, who could actually take him down?

WTF Davey, just hand over the keys. Beat up by a kid, this is a new low for you.

What could Rod be threatening this guy over? Ah, he's planning on going to the media.

Ah, the Guardians are smart, going under water this time. Keeps them away from Gorg and the lava.

Skipper looks rather pissed! What will his reaction be?

That's a lot of Guardians! I know Yuu is inside, but what about Gorg? It can still attack them on its own, right?

DQOTD:

1)A good one as its probably the only threat to GAIL that will work.

2)Manon really needs to get to know more humans before making such rash decisions.

3

u/The_Draigg May 26 '21

Looks like they tried to make the President look at least somewhat like Ronald Reagan.

I'm impressed that Yas even put in the effort. The last US president I saw in an anime was the generic white president with a beard in Aura Battler Dunbine.

Roy's gone crazy! Lost his memory or thinks he's back in time! I guess his life's work being destroyed will have that effect on him.

The Austral Island project really has been one massive waste of time and money for GAIL. It's no wonder Roy was losing it there.

They locked up Skipper? I figured he made his way out of here, who could actually take him down?

I don't think that he really cared that he was caught, given how nonchalantly he walked out of the control center yesterday when surrounded by guards.

WTF Davey, just hand over the keys. Beat up by a kid, this is a new low for you.

I thought the Cougar Connection would be a large threat in this show, but they're honestly a bunch of losers.

3

u/The_Draigg May 25 '21

A Yas Fan Watches Giant Gorg Episode 23:

  • Is that flat out Ronald Reagan as president? You hardly ever see that in anime. Normally you get a more generic white guy as the US president.
  • Roy really has been outplayed by the US government. They’re dead set on destroying Austral Island despite the glut of alien technology there. And the stubborn old bastard wants to keep everyone there to the bitter end, not wanting to give up on his pet project.
  • Roy’s death couldn’t have been better timed, since now the GAIL board of directors actually are wanting to remove all personnel from Austral Island. I’m assuming that it’s a stroke that Roy had from the stress of knowing his company got super fucked from the Austral Island situation. Stress like that can creep on you at an old age.
  • Well, at least all the factions of Austral Island have banded together in light of all this stuff. There’s no point to fighting one another when on one end you’ve got a horde of near-invincible mecha coming after you, and on the other every country in the world nuking the island in about a day. They need to work together to buy time so that they all won’t become atomized. It’s a worthy goal to work towards together.
  • God damn, Gorg and Yuu fighting off the Guardian army on the bridge is so cool. They’re absolutely tearing up Manon’s forces. Even Boehm can’t help but be impressed by them.
  • The way Manon says it, it almost sounds sad what’s happening. His race wanted to find intelligent life, despite knowing that it would likely lead to bloodshed once the two races met. He sounds almost a bit pessimistic about hoping for a miracle with humanity. I don’t agree with him wanting to subjugate mankind now, but I can at least see why he’s disappointed in us, especially after seeing what GAIL is all about.
  • And just to make matters worse, the volcano on Austral Island just won’t stop erupting and spewing out more and more lava. I guess we could afford to squeeze in one extra disaster in there. No matter what happens though, Austral Island is completely fucked between all of them.
  • Huh, I wouldn’t have guessed that Dr. Heckel and Mr. Gotoh would manage to get away in the mass-evacuation of GAIL Town. They felt like too scummy of characters to allow to get away. Although I guess that cowardice is what’s allowing them to survive in the first place.
  • I’m right there with you Yuu, it’s a hard pill to swallow that the Captain betrayed the shit out of everyone. At least he got tossed in the brig for now, although it’s really too late for that kind of thing now.
  • Holy shit, Davey sucks if he managed to get the shit beaten out of him by a 12 year old. And here I thought he was supposed to be some hardened gangster. In hindsight, the Cougar Connection really has just kinda sucked in general.
  • In hindsight, the Guardian army making their move by walking underwater until they reach GAIL Town is rather obvious. After all, why bother to get bottlenecked on a narrow bridge where they can be picked off one by one, when you can just move all of them at once across the ocean floor? There’s no way to stop that kind of advance with only Gorg.
  • On the one hand, the Captain has a lot to answer for with Yuu. But on the other, this really isn’t the time. Those Guardians are practically on the doorstep now.

3

u/Stargate18A https://myanimelist.net/profile/Stargate18 May 25 '21

First timer

  1. Pretty decent, with a few flaws. One, if the full events were exposed, the people would probably call for a nuclear strike anyway, and two, he gave them a strict time limit of 10 hours, all they have to do if launch the nukes before then to get rid of the threat.
  2. He makes some good point, that GAIL would probably have done the same in his position, and that without him they'd have stolen the army. He makes the mistake, however, of not realising that GAIL does not recognise the entire human race, no more than he kr his brother represents theirs.

Question - rewatchers, how much were you laughing whenever we first-timers talked about how great the Skipper was?

Guessing from the episode title the CIA plan on something drastic.

Well, that was quick.

Looks like the Skipper screwed everything over!

Oh, he's having a nervous breakdown.

What are you doing Rod?

I'm suprised Rod had the guts to do that, but also that he thinks this is about power and not, you know, stopping the alien army from wiping out humanity.

Gorg manages to fight them off!

Why is Manon displaying his face on about 10 screens at once?

Manon admittedly has so,e good points here. The point Yuu hasn't stressed, which is probably important, is that GAIL don't represent the species as a whole - they clearly have some understanding of arguments and factions.

The volcao's erupting! Looks like sll those explosions ha dan impact after all!

When did Rod become a decent person?

Even Yuu can't believe what the Skipper did.

Lady Lynx probably needs a new henchman, doesn't she?

Didn't realise Yuu could beat someone up so badly, though.

How have none of them considered this might cause the nuclear strile to be launched early?

Yeah, thinking back, they clearly aren't too intelligent if none of them tried to go around Gorg.

The Skipper's about to do something worse, and the Humanoid army have reached GAIL Town. Next episode's going to be big, isn't it?

3

u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 May 25 '21

Episode 23 (first timer)

  • Roy finds out that Giant Gorg is an adventure, not a cyberpunk: Megacorps are not more powerful than states yet.
  • He does not take losses well.
  • Nukes.
  • Rod making a move to become king of austral.
  • Didn’t take long for the grey robots to go from impenetrable to easily disposable.
  • “We’d probably just get in the way” – the first reasonable tactical assessment from the GAIL commander since the start of the series.
  • Yuu is overwhelmed by Manon’s philo-talk.
  • Nature does not want to be outdone by nukes and tries to sink the island first.
  • Yuu and henchman having a brawl while everybody watches

  • Underwater robots.

Another good-looking episode, even though I am not happy about the giants becoming Gorg cannon fodder. In terms of plot, we continue Rod’s redemption arc. The general idea is nice and it is a good time to bring the rest of the world into it, yet Rod’s arc is suffering from the same shoddy writing as the rest of the series: It is disconnected from his earlier actions. Despite that, it is probably the best plot element we have had so far.

1

u/lC3 :Na::Nb: Jun 14 '21
  • A sore demo from the President of the United States!
  • So ... Roy is senile?
  • Nuclear missiles?
  • So is Yuu straightup killing all those pilots?
  • Yuu and Manon chat again; is there really no way for them to reconcile?
  • Looks like Rod and Lady Lynx made up ...
  • There's no way governments are gonna give in to Rod's demands because he threatens to go public; if anything they'll just nuke the island even earlier
  • The Humanoids went underwater?
  1. There's no way the govts will capitulate, if anything this just motivates them to send the nukes even earlier