“Mamoru was an ordinary grade school student until the day his class trip is caught up in a ferocious attack by the mechanoid alien Zonders. The young cyborg hero, Gai Shishio, is sent by the UN alien defence force “GGG.” He risks his own life without question to protect Mamoru’s class and all of Earth. Drawn by a mysterious power, Mamoru becomes a member of GGG, joining the ranks of humanity’s bravest defenders. They wage all-out war against the Zonders with their advanced vehicles, weapons, and AI robots. When their backs are up against the wall, Gai fuses with Galeon and GGG’s Gao Machines to form the indomitable King of all robots; GaoGaiGar! In the face of these awe-inspiring machines, the bravery of mankind in its darkest hour is the true key to victory.”
GaoGaiGar is pretty clearly a kid’s show, with its grade-school main character and focus on giant robots punching each other in the face, and this carries with it a few pros and cons. The biggest problem is it relies pretty heavily on a monster-of-the-week set up, with every single episode featuring some person getting turned into a Zonder and terrorizing the city. Every Zonder is motivated to carry out their rampage based on something they were angry about when they were humans. The best one of these is easily the Zonder in episode five, whose sole motivation for destruction is his hatred of traffic jams. Most of the Zonders are like that; a weather lady who was angry her forecasts were always wrong, or a fat guy who was angry ‘cause he’s so fat, and so on.
