Wow... I was hoping the GaoGaiGar thread would be longer than... 3 pages? And most of the posts are not even discussing the series' content.
Watching this show was long overdue on my list, and with my recent PC upgrading ("Mmm... bread and water, we meet again."), I finally got the final incentive to catch what seemed to be an iconic series to many anime fans.
I am liking what I have seen so far.
Watching GaoGaiGar made me remember what I liked about anime in the past. The colour of blood being red, the Hero not being invincible,
the concept of teamwork, mechas that are actually destroyable, etc...
There were of course... some minus points, like the inexplicable Jesus-like resurrections. Volfogg was the biggest culprit here, and I really felt cheated when he just... appeared out of the blue.
Strangely, in what should have been a minus point, GaoGaiGar managed to avoid making me skip the stock footages of their set-ups/transformations because they actually bothered to make little changes here and there so that while the individual frames were the same, the actual sequences was different. In a twist, sometimes the SEQUENCE was the same, but the FRAMES were not.
Examples include the episode when 3G had to deploy during lunch and Taiga brandished a shrimp while approving Final Fusion, or the episode where GaoGaiGar fought a simulated battle against ChoRyuuJin and Nena sighed before she banged the Danger-button, or when Swan was the one who banged the button instead because Nena was knocked out.
Speaking of which, those girls must have fists of steel...
Other pluses include that Guy is not your typical moronic Shounen-hero when it comes to romantic matters. Even Mamoru is leagues ahead of most male-leads when it comes to romance. When it dawned upon me that these guys actually got a clue, my heart blazed with a burning passion of gratefulness because Aiur knows such mercies are pitifully rare in anime.
Some quick thoughts on the mechas so far...
GaoGaiGar: When in doubt, scream louder and try again.
ChoRyuuJin: Steady support.
Volfogg: Mary-sue showboating mecha.
Pliers: Forgettable.
Goldymarg: Might is right.
King J-Der:
I AM~ the KING!
Oh... and on a final note, why do the evil ladies always have to be so hot?
Cheers.