Brave Series 30th Anniversary Song
Zenbu Yuusha ga Oshiete Kureta by Masaaki Endoh
lyric translation by me; expand for text lyrics
We gotta be brave!
To run all the way through to anywhere,
we gotta be brave!
Did our sky become narrower?
Look up, and you'll know
There still are things we can do
Against the unknown dangers
that we will face
throw away the readymade ideas
Mind reset
It's a chance for evolution
We gotta be brave!
To run all the way through to anywhere,
to protect the future that may shine,
stand up and fight, with the companions of heart
It's all that braves
It's all that braves
have taught us
Did you fulfill your dreams from the days gone by?
It's yet too early to look back
We're always on our journey
The barrier standing in our way
When you clash against it
Remember, no trials we cannot overcome
Angle change
Break through with the newfound power
We gotta be brave!
To protect the people dear to us
we vow to keep on fighting
Everyone suffers, and yet they become stronger
It's all that braves
It's all that braves
have taught us
Go with me! Exkaiser
Burning! Fighbird
We can fly! Da Garn
Get away! Might Gaine
Heart to heart! J-Decker
The true energy! Goldran
Shine! Dagwon
Ga-ga-ga-ga- Gaogaigar
Courage! It shall never fade away
It's the legacy engraved in hearts
Courage! It shall never fade away
It's the legacy engraved in our hearts
It's all that braves have taught us
Man, this thing just makes me want more units from GaoGaiGar. I've had my eyes on the Brave Gokin versions of Star GaoGaiGar, GaiGo, and GaoFighGar for a while, but still haven't pulled the trigger because of a mix of overall expense, not being in a single location, and Mandarake's shipping being more expensive than other sites. I'd love it if they just did model kit versions of them all since there'd be a lot of shared engineering, but it's been a while since GaoGaiGar and Goldymarg released with no word, so only time will tell if we'll see any other members of GGG.
The Good: Goldymarg is a solid multi-form robot with a very fun build. All the weird accordioning the hammer does, all the added joints for transformation, the little tricks it uses to pull off its on-screen details. Goldymarg has a good range of motion in most of its joints, the MargTank has a neat transformation, and the MargHand is heavy but has a better range of finger posability than GaoGaiGar's included hands. It also includes a left hand if you wanted to build a second one, though it doesn't include the palm piece.
The Bad: There are two major downsides to Goldymarg. The first is the pegs that hold the arms in place as MargTank and MargHand are always extended and get in the way of its shoulders. The second is the legs have so many transformation joints that don't really lock into place, which makes them weird to pose. It doesn't help that the ankles come off for the MargTank, and they fall off sometimes.
The Details: For paint, I just applied panel lining. Its colors are very well distributed and replicated, so there isn't much else to do. I used a few of the stickers, including a few of the GGG stickers, all the reflective stickers (excluding the ones other the eyes, which I just panel lined), and the raised plastic stickers.
Overall, it's a great upgrade for GaoGaiGar, and a decent kit on its own. I don't know why you'd want to own it without GaiGaiGar, but if you do manage to get it first, it's a fun time and a decent kit.
Me: I'll always love Transformers, but lately I've been feeling fatigue over how every new iteration is just some variation of G1 but with little details changed. I need something new with super robots but the plot and characters are completely different from Transformers.
GaoGaiGar: Hey.
turns out that guda isn't very versed in history and myth, despite the staff's efforts to educate them. so when enkidu opens up to them and how they miss their "king of heroes" guda comes to the logical conclusion that enkidu must want to fuck gaogaigar. they then invite enkidu to start binging a lot of mecha anime, and enkidu is confused but appreciates it
I am well and truly stumped by this extra feature included on Discotek's release of GaoGaiGar.
It's listed as "Opening Theme Karaoke", and the backing track is definitely the karaoke version of the opening theme, but the actual video appears to be video game renders, considering the number of two frame loops of a character talking on a solid color background. But there's a number of weird things about that:
As far as I can tell, there's only been one GaoGaiGar specific video game, which was for the PlayStation. In fact, on the BD menu, this is sandwiched between a promo video for and the fully animated cutscenes from that PSX game. But this can't possibly be for that game, because not only were these animations made digitally (judging by the total lack of film grain), it also appears to have been rendered in HD, which would have been criminally inefficient in the late 90's, and even early 2000's.
The next best guess would be that these were made for Super Robot Wars, but these portrait animations are not only too elaborate, but there are unique portrait frames based on faction (GGG frames versus Zonder frames versus SRW30's UI):
Anyone know what the hell these are actually from?
What is it about GaoGaiGar that's so special about it? Well, being the last installment in the Brave series, it had to go out with a bang. And, for all I know, if I ever completed every single Brave show, this would end up being one of my favorites.
First, it started off as MOTW, and then it became an all-out war with the 31 Machine Primevals, and Final comes along and ups the ante with the 11 Planetary Masters of Sol. Much like with Dagwon, the characters in GaoGaiGar were ones I grew to love.
The final arc, while not perfect, is a great ending to the series. And then, there's GaoGaiGar Final. That series of OVAs is a different beast entirely.
Not only are we introduced to Renais Kerdif Shishioh, Guy's cousin, we also meet a new set of antagonists, the aforementioned 11 Planetary Masters of Sol, of which its members are the antithesis of each of our heroes, some more blatant than others.
Final, if I'm being honest, is the perfect sendoff for the characters we come to know and love. And yet, their adventures are not over, as we would later see in GaoGaiGar vs. Betterman. Hopefully, with the release of the RG GaoGaiGar and RG Goldymarg, it could reignite interest in this show and, by extension, the entire Brave series.
Speaking of reignited interest in the Brave series, the remaster for Might Gaine had been announced some time ago, meaning a whole new generation can experience all of GGG's predecessors.
This is probably the most accessible of the 8 Brave shows, so give it a go if you like.
I actually went back and rewatched this show last year, and it really holds up. Y’know, apart from the constant flashing lights (epileptics be warned). I’m aiming to get Goldymarg at some point, but I really hope they do some of the other versions, like the Star upgrades, GaoFighGar, and GaoGaiGo. Maybe Genesic, but I’d be more interested in getting the others first. A lot of them reuse parts between them, so you wouldn’t need to fully remold everything. I’d also like to see some of the other robots in High Grade; at least ChouRyuJin.
The Good: This was probably the most fun RG I’ve built. Because it was four separate builds, everything was concise without getting tiring, and also created dedicated stopping points. Also, it’s a Gunpla produced combining build, so you can expect there to be some crazy engineering.
Some notes about the actual build, the train windows are some very cool plastic stickers I haven’t seen elsewhere. The Dividing Driver has a metal spring in it, on top of having a metal screwdriver head. They used a twin wire setup for the helmet piece to maintain posability while still having it attach to Stealth Gao. And while the combination can be a little finicky to put together, once assembled it’s super solid.
And it doesn’t really use adapters, either. Any combination with GaiGar can be made with no additions, and the only ones it does come with are to attach Stealth Gao and Liner Gao, and for the Broken Magnum.
The Bad: While the build itself is mostly solid, the face plate inside the helmet likes to pop off, and can get lost inside Stealth Gao. Also, apart from the Hell and Heaven hands, it only has posable finger hands. They’re good hands, but I still would have added at least standard fists. There’s also the grates that cover the fists; just for aesthetics, not really needed.
The Details: For the most part I did black panel lining and the plastic and metallic stickers. I did use some of the larger GGG logo stickers, but omitted many of the tiny Warning and Caution stickers.
Overall, this is an amazing kit. If you’re a fan of GaoGaiGar, not only is this a great representation, but also one of the cheaper options for getting a combining GaoGaiGar. If you’re a fan of Gunpla or model kits, this is an amazing build, with fantastic and clever engineering. A must buy, in my opinion.