#Daiku Maryu Gaiking

[sleepytortoises]

[selketshaula]

ガイキング by 銀玉男爵

[ktwgallery]

[wanderersrest]

An Abbreviated History of Mecha Addendum 1: Assemble the Forces!

Welcome to the first addendum to An Abbreviated History of Mecha! Today, we'll be looking at some of the media that came out in the 70's and before. A lot of the shows covered here are ones that were fairly big in their own right, especially when compared to the juggernauts of the era like Ultraman, Mazinger Z, and Getter Robo. What should also not surprise anyone with a lot of the shows listed here is that a bunch of the shows listed here have one Go Nagai and Dynamic Planning attached to them in some manner.

Because of course he is.

And I should note: unlike in An Abbreviated History of Mecha proper, the addendums will not be listing these entries in chronological order. This primarily because a) I need to get back into the groove of writing one-off posts (especially after The Devil That is Capitalism), and b) there are a lot of things that slipped out of the cracks, and I treasure my sanity.

Anyways, let's get down to brass tacks.

Daiku Maryu Gaiking (1976) and Gaiking: The Legend of Daiku Maryu (2005)

Daiku Maryu Gaiking (or Dino Mech Gaiking) is a 1976 giant robot series known for having plots take place in real world locations outside of Japan and also for featuring the first ever use of a carrier ship for the titular giant robot Gaiking. Gaiking is also somewhat infamous due to Toei trying their absolute hardest not to pay Go Nagai since he and Dynamic Planning created the series.

Toei would revisit Gaiking in 2005 with the release of Gaiking: the Legend of Daiku Maryu, which would feature a largely unchanged Gaiking and Daiku Maryu but feature a completely different main character.

Kotetsu Jeeg/Steel Jeeg (1975) and Kotetsushin Jeeg (2007)

Created by Go Nagai immediately following the success of Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger, Kotetsu Jeeg alongside its sibling series UFO Robot Grendizer would help to cement Nagai's legacy as one of the big mecha creators in the canon. Kotetsu Jeeg would receive a sequel in 2007, Kotetsushin Jeeg. The sequel was directed by Jun Kawagoe of Getter Robo Armageddon and Mazinkaiser SKL fame and features JAM Project performing the OP Stormbringer.

In other words, Kotetsu Jeeg beat Mazinger Z to the punch with the distant sequel. Or I guess you could say it beat Mazinger Z to the rocket punch?

Eh? Get it? No? Okay...

Planetary Robot Danguard Ace (1977)

Danguard Ace is one of the many mecha shows that came out in the wake of giants like Mazinger Z and Getter Robo. This series is noteworthy for being Leiji Matsumoto's first and only foray into the giant robot genre of mecha.

And hey, guess who's currently the owner of the Danguard Ace property?

It's Go Nagai and Dynamic Planning.

Abassador Magma (1965)

Ambassador Magma is a manga series created by Osamu Tezuka. It would also receive a tokusatsu series shortly after, with one of its big accomplishments being that it would be the first tokusatsu series aired in color. Specifically, it would beat honorary mecha show Ultraman to the punch by about six days.

Invincible Robot Trider G7 (1980)

Something to always keep in mind with the history of mecha is that Mobile Suit Gundam was not initially a hit. Invincible Robot Trider G7 serves as a good reminder of this, as it was an anime series produced by Sotsu (as in the very same Sotsu that also produced the original Gundam alongside Sunrise). Airing at around the same time as Space Runaway Ideon, Trider G7 would mark the beginning of giant robots being used in the deep recesses of space alongside Ideon.

Future Robot Daltanious (1979)

I couldn't find a good gif for Daltanious without watching the series myself, so we'll have to make do with this promotional image instead.

Future Robot Daltanious is a 1979 anime series that had Tadao Nagahama as its original director for its first couple of episodes before he left to direct the seminal Shoujo series The Rose of Versailles (a series that really should be treated as an honorary mecha series due to its influence on anime and manga as a whole). Even though he only worked on the series for about thirteen episodes and passed away before he could come back to work on it, Daltanious is still treated as one of his shows alongside Combattler V, Voltes V, and Daimos.

Daltanious is also an important series for those familiar with the Brave franchise, as Daltanious is the design inspiration for both Exkaiser and GaoGaiGar.

Super Robot Red Baron (1973) and Super Robot Mach Baron (1974)

Super Robot Red Baron would come onto the scene in 1973 as the giant robot tokusatsu shows would wane in abundance due to their expensive natures. Red Baron, and later its sequel series Mach Baron, would serve as a sort of swan song as it would also have to compete with one Mazinger Z for the hearts of children all across Japan. Giant robot tokusatsu wouldn't go away altogether though, and we'd see this with the next and arguably one of the weirdest entries both here and in the canon of comic book history.

Toei Spider-Man (1978)

In cooperation with Marvel Comics (yes really), Toei would put out their own version of Spider-Man towards the end of the 70's. Note that this is specifically in a post-Kamen Rider/Super Sentai world, so Spider-Man in this series is less "quippy teenager living up to his uncles words about great power and great responsibility" and more "the warrior of hell fighting aliens" (although, I'm pretty sure either Peter Parker or Miles Morales have fought the forces of hell at this point).

Also Spider-Man in the Toei series pilots a giant robot named Leopardon to fight giant alien monsters. This may be funny, but Leopardon is important because it is what inspires Super Sentai to include giant robots in all of their future shows.

Also, to the folks at Marvel. Sony and the production crew behind the Spiderverse films: when are we going to get Toei Spider-Man in the Spiderverse films?

Jumbo Machinder/Shogun Warriors

Image source: Shogun Warriors unofficial website

Finally, to round out today's post, how could I not mention the Jumbo Machinder line of toys. All jumbo machinder was was a line of toys based off of popular giant robot shows like Mazinger Z, Gettero Robo G, Brave Raideen, Gaiking, and many more (also Godzilla and Rodan had their own machinder toys). The toys all came with spring-loaded projectiles and were immensely popular with kids back in the day.

Mattel would eventually get the distribution rights to these toys, bringing them over to the US as the Shogun Warriors. Mattel would also ask Marvel Comics to write a comic series for the Shogun Warriors that would explain why all of these largely unrelated giant robots were working together.

Thank you for reading this addendum to An Abbreviated History of Mecha. Normally, I'd do a conclusion section, but I feel like I'd have to follow up with another Addendum post.

[mechanimereview]

Gaiking: The Legend of Daiku-Maryu - One Boy's Journey of Discovery

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…

[mattman324]

>#bring me a follower who has seen every episode of the original gaiking

yeah hi that's me, the "cishet" who's done that. I don't think it was the worst thing out of the 70s (when the second half of Combattler exists? Or like all but one of the Toei Crossover Movies), or one of the worst shows ever. it isn't particularly good though.

[arkadiaasks]

So basically, ARC-V had the WORST possible timing to come out due to most of the good parts of Yugioh’s anime team leaving and the replacements not being nearly up to the task. Is that correct? If so, was there anything of actual value that the VRAINS team picked up from this to make sure they were good and what did they try to fix that shouldn’t have been fixed?

Less 'good parts' but basically the names everyone lionizes and worships had either retired, moved on, or been promoted up the ladder. Standard generational turnover.

Gallop along with most of the industry in Japan and partner studios in Korea have been getting more and more booked, with less and less animators hired for stable stress-test capacity where any failure turns into an outright trainwreck.

ZEXAL and Dark Side of Dimensions was I would say the last hurrah of most of the old vanguard, not that there weren't folks for ARC-V, but things in the industry changed.

A leaner workforce throughout the industry with the main studio not having the ability to deal with critical production breakdown as easily was a critical issue.

As Mr. Kamishiro near the end was NOT turning his scripts in on time in a timely fashion, causing Gallop and their sub-contracted partner studios to have to basically go into panic crisis mode because they had to animate episodes with barely any script or storyboards to work from in a timely manner.

VRAINS due to that leaner workforce combined with all the production backlog problems from ARC-V uh. Episodes had to CHEAT a lot by reusing resources.

Its god send was two things:

They basically brought back Mr. Yoshida, a non-trouble maker head writer to write the story. I feel like VRAINS had a rough draft nature because the time between script writing to episode animation/production IIRC was absurdly short, but he and his team were basically doing best of a bad situation.

And they brought in Mr. Hosoda Masahiro as Director, who near as I can tell, was hired for essentially a 'crisis management' job for the first cour.

Mr. Hosoda did a LOT of cheating with say the Link Summons being repetitive in a way no-one likes, but it was recyclable and saved time for the staff to try and build up some breathing room. It was never enough but basically he was there I'm pretty sure to give the studio and their partners the ability to reestablish a more coherent workflow and workload that ARC-V had deprived them of.

(Mr. Hosoda had a similar crisis production with Gaiking: The Legend of Daiku-Maryu, which basically had a low budget and no sponsors initially and was only set for 26 episodes. He blew out the budget by episode 13, which the resulting animation work earned him an expanded budget and a ton of sponsorships and the show got signed on for 39 episodes instead of 26.)

Mr. Hosoda gave them enough time to rebuild a stable production flow.

Mr. Yoshida gave them a known quantity head writer who can easily work with the rest of the production with on-time scripts.

The Director for the rest of the show, Mr. Asano Katusya, was willing to do a LOT of flashback clipshows to give his team time, much to viewer aggrevation.

They were never able to get back to ZEXAL/early ARC-V level production breathing room, but they were able to create a much less intentionally hostile work environment.

If this makes sense.

[good-smile-company]

MODEROID ガイキング

https://www.goodsmile.info/ja/product/9962/

[mecha-gifs]

[reversemoon255]

MODEROID Raiking / Great Gaiking

And we finally get to Raiking. While its limbs are a lot more slender than the other two, it matches Gaiking’s appearance a lot more than Balking does, making Balking stand out even more. The wings and scythe are a nice touch, too. And then there’s Great Gaiking, who’s an absolute tank in comparison to its components. It’s a neat set of robots.

The Good: Raiking has a decent set of posability. Nothing really goes beyond 90°, but it’s just far enough to get some really good poses. Despite its small legs and feet, it has decent balance, and comes with a small stand to compensate for the moments where it may falter. That stand also doubles for propping up its flight mode.

Great Gaiking is a lot of fun, and the engineering built into the individual machines to create it is pretty cool. It doesn’t technically require any additional parts to do so apart from the helmet. And since it uses the arm joints from Raiking and the leg joints from Balking it has their posability as well (plus some additional from the added thighs).

The Bad: Raiking requires quite a few parts swaps to go between its normal and flight modes, having a cover for its neck joint and swappable, shorter forearms. And remember when I said technically Great Gaiking didn’t require any part swapping? That’s only if you go from flight mode, as it requires the shorter forearms. You also have to pull a few parts off of Raiking as well. Speaking of additional parts and Great Gaiking...

There’s a lot. Remember, if you bought these as a set, you’re paying around $105 for that Great Gaiking, and that is something I HEAVILY recommend you consider before purchasing. You can hobble together two robots out of those parts, but they’re kind of weird. Also, as a random note I didn’t have any other place to put, Balking’s ankles, even when extended, aren’t as good as Gaikings, so have a stand ready.

The Details: I panel lined the back of Raiking’s knees O_O

And I painted the black in between the horns on Great Gaiking’s helmet. I’ve hinted at this a bit, but you’re not really building model kits, you’re building figures with these three, hence the severe lack of typical model-kitting going on.

Overall, I’ve said it twice and I’ll say it a third time; this is a good set if you can find it on sale. They are all very serviceable kits, and there’s very little wrong with them on a construction level, but they are overpriced. Get them for what you think they’re worth, but definitely don’t pay retail for them.

[velsh]

Legend Of Daiku-Maryu GX-100 Gaiking and Daiku Maryu Soul of Chokogin Action Figure

[selketshaula]

着せ替えシート（2022年・玄光社）

[joekirby]

Daiku maryu Gaiking

A4 Copic e aquabrush

In vendita

[gatorbiscuit]

With Darling in the Franxx practically over and the show becoming unsalvageable for the past couple of episodes here’s some recommendations for actual hype mecha works:

Literally any mecha anime by Gainax.

Almost any UC Gundam

G Gundam

Getter Robo manga

Getter Robo Armageddon

Shin Getter Robo Vs. Neo Getter Robo

New Getter Robo (it’s the weakest out of these but still pretty good)

Mazinger Z manga

Mazinger Z/Great Mazinger anime (it’s a really old one so either you’ll enjoy it as a nice time capsule series or drop it after a couple of episodes)

Mazinksaiser

Mazinkaiser SKL

Shin Mazinger Z plus the manga Shin Mazinger Zero

Mazinger Z Infinity

Kotetsushin Jeeg

The Vision of Escaflowne

Gaogaigar

Space Runaway Ideon

A fuckton of Macross shit

Fight! Iczer One

Gaiking Legend of Daiku-Maryu

Pacific Rim (avoid Uprising at all costs)

Blue Gender

These are just a few off the top of my head and some are only 3-12 episode ovas or films you could watch over the course of 2 hours or a couple of days. Anything in bold is a strong recommendation from me.

[actionfigureinsider]

SPONSOR NEWS: @HobbyLink New Robocop & Mecha, and Transformers Weekend Sale

SPONSOR NEWS: @HobbyLink New Robocop & Mecha, and Transformers Weekend Sale

No.1 MODEROID ED-209 (Robocop)

No.2 HAGANE WORKS Robocop Alloy Action Figure

No.3 MODEROID Gaiking (Gaiking Legend of Daiku-Maryu)

  No.4 MODEROID Raiking (Gaiking Legend of Daiku-Maryu)

No.5 MODEROID Balking (Gaiking Legend of Daiku-Maryu)

No.6 Tokusatsu Gokin Daitetsujin 17 (Animation Style Ver.)

No.7 RB-09D SILA (Miyazawa Model Distribution Only)

No.8 Tokusatsu Gokin Daitetsujin 18

No.9 Game…