A Wonderful Reboot
It's not often that I watch a show that takes on the ideas of an older anime series with modern animation and fills the show with details that weren't there beforehand. Space Battleship Yamato 2199 is a great series that takes the original, already good Yamato series and makes it even better. This show is for Dino Mech Gaiking, something I reviewed for Mecha March this year and really enjoyed. Except this is older than 2199 because it came out in 2005. It ignores the more Ultraman nature of the show and makes it a much more contemporary show like TTGL. Except, once again, it came out before TTGL too.
The main ideas of the original Gaiking series are still there. The mechanical designs are the same, just animated with high quality 2005 animation. It's also an Isekai series now because the Daiku-Maryu crew doesn't fight to defend the Earth on Earth most of the time. No, the show takes place in a different dimension/world. There are also a much more complex cast of women in it that expands that cast in a good way. The episode is also a bit shorter at a length of 39 episodes instead of 42. That's all I can mention now before digging into it deeper so let's do that. Let's dig a bit deeper into this really hype ride that I just love to death.
The Plot of Gaiking: Legend of Daiku-Maryu
During an unspecified year in modern Japan, a young boy named Daiya Tsuwabaki and his father were enjoying each other's company in a boat. After finding a blackstone, an incident occurs where his dad was taken away by a monster in an ocean. What Daiya said after that happened was a giant dragon and a young girl telling him to train himself because he will be useful someday. Cut to five years later and Daiya has worked hard to train his body and is made fun of full of his flights of fancy.
The Daiku-Maryu, the dragon that is a ship, did show up that one day led by Captain Garris and his crew came to recruit Daiya. He is to be the pilot of the flame giant Gaiking. He becomes Daiku-Maryu crew number 47 and the official pilot of the Gaiking after defeating the monsters that attacked his city. That means traveling to the land of Darius to defeat the enemy empire that is invading Earth for keeps. Yes, this is an Isekai series with such a different approach because it's two dimensions at war with each other.
A lot of ideas from the original series are in the show. The Darius empire is run by a king (King Darius) with his four generals of the cardinal directions. There is also a death cross point blackhole that is needed for crews or ships to dive from one dimension to another. The mechanical designs of the show itself are either just straight up designs from the og series with modifications or are heavily influenced from them to fit the style. As I mentioned before, the style is different. The main one is this show focuses on a young boy going after his dad and not a young adult whose baseball career is ruined.
Great World Building
As an adventure series with the Daiku-Maryu slowly heading towards the capital, there are so many stops along the way. It's interesting to see how the Daiku-Maryu is seen by the people in this land. Some places are so propagandized that the Daiku-Maryu crew are seen as enemies despite the ship and crew fighting for their freedom. Though some resistance crews exist because of how heavily they oppressed throughout the show, the generals and King don't care about them.
There is also a lot of work with getting the Earth involved in some ways. That tension of it being what the Daiku-Maryu is fighting for and how it's constantly at threat of being invaded. Since every single character on the crew loves the Earth even if they are a bit displaced from the Earth for their own reason, each one is still fighting to protect the earth for those who aren't displaced. I could keep going but I'm splitting the rest in their own sections.
The Great Daiku-Maryu Crew
There is nothing really unique about Gaiking Legend of Daiku-Maryu, but it's execution is amazing. Especially with its cast and this show knows it. As soon as Daiya was on the Daiku-Maryu and eating more than everyone else, he was given odd jobs across the ship to know the cast more. As well as showing how strong he is and how the ship functions. He meets the other pilots Puriya, a massive Tomboy, and Lee, the calm martial artist. There is the lesser Captain Harlock, Captain Garris, Shizuka the really strong waifu in the maintenance bay, Lulu the happy girl with extremely strong sense, Vice Captain Rosa, and so many others.
The best part is that no one is ever forgotten. There are points where Puriya and Lee start to lose the spotlight because Daiya consistently outperforms everyone in combat. That is until the Darisuan forces become even stronger and Gaiking needs to combine with their units to fire even stronger attacks. Each major member of the cast has their own arc, special focus episodes, or even both. All while Daiya becomes the shonen style mecha protagonist he was meant to be as he does one bad ass thing after another. It's such a good time.
Complex Villain Dynamics
Another thing that I love about this show is how much the villain politics affects the heroes. There are four generals of the cardinal directions. Each one has a very different personality in how they perceive information and deal with the Daiku-Maryu itself. The scummiest general Suspage who is constantly underhanded and really messes with the generals quite a bit when fighting the Daiku-Maryu and getting credit as soon as possible. Nouzen is the general who is obsessed with fighting honorably in combat and the Gaiking/Daiya represent that opponent. Vestaanu is the one woman amongst the generals and she is the most even handed one. Two of these people join the heroes in the end and one just dies.
The mysterious Proist, the fourth general, is the mysterious one who pushes so many layers or hidden plots behind the rest of the show. Hidden in the armor, Proist comes in with plots against the Daiku-Maryu which also injure civilians because they are forced to slave away at mining for something. Though the reveal of Proist being the daughter of the king is completely insane as she drags almost the entire world against her for her own insane and selfish reasons. That is a situation where there is no choice but to fight against Proist or the whole world is just completely dead. Proist is annoying and selfish, but they are the kind of person that would cause the largest friendships in the world to stop her because she is constantly that much of a threat.
Awesome But Grounds Itself
Gaiking: Legend of Daiku-Maryu consistently has the most hype moments possible and it keeps building off of all of those. For me, that started very early the moment Daiya rocket punched his arms away and grabbed them again with the zeta hooks and then continued to do cool things. The face open ability in this show compared to the original gives the Gaiking more power, but it's for a limited amount of time. There is also a limit to the strength and output for so long before Daiya can possibly die. He can only use it once and the Gaiking has a limit to how much it can do by itself or combining with friends for more impact. There is a steep curve that the Daiku-Maryu and Gaiking can do by itself.
I have to say this now, my favorite part of the grounding part was the special appearance of Gaiking the Great. This is something that only formed when in cooperation with so many others because it is friendship in the form of the most powerful mech possible. Then the episode after, Daiya had to fight with faulty parts from Earth so he automatically went from the highest level of fighting to the lowest in such a wonderfully natural kind of turn because it also expanded the current conflict to also include Earth once again. You know, for the better and for the worse because the stakes have just grown even more than ever before. When Gaiking the Great appears again, it also means it gathered the hearts of everyone who wants freedom.
It did take a while for the animation to kick in, but this show genuinely looks great. I love the balance of newer character designs with classic mecha designs from the older Gaiking series. So many great character designs, so many fantastic and intense mecha battles, and a lot of great settings too. It really is such a wonderfully produced series with a lot of love put into it. I think that is why it is so good. It is everything you expect to be, but it's so well produced and so deep into itself that you have to believe in how good it is. I couldn't recommend this show enough especially if you are into TTGL because it is the same wavelength with the same amount of passion.
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