Literature / King of Kings: GaoGaiGar vs. Betterman

“The story and mythology of the Braves has ended, but their star-spanning fable begins...”

"Will made manifest! The phantom of destruction! The purifier! The conqueror! Is born!
The providence and precepts of the universe... The dimensional King of Kings!
The! The! The! The! The King of Kings!!"

— Opening Theme

The King of Kings: GaoGaiGar vs. Betterman (覇界王～ガオガイガー対ベターマン～ / Hakaioh: GaoGaiGar vs. Betterman) is a Web Serial Novel serialized from September 30, 2016 to March 17, 2021 directly by Sunrise's creative contents team under their House Pseudonym, "Hajime Yatate" and released as a website free-to-read through their collective publishing branch, "Yatate Bunko." It acts as the novelization of the planned but ultimately unproduced Brave Series anime, "Project Z," and the official crossover sequel to both The King of Braves GaoGaiGar: FINAL and Betterman.

8 years after the finale of GaoGaiGar Final, the former Kid Heroes of Gutsy Galaxy Guard, Mamoru Amami and Ikumi Kaidou, are now young adults piloting a new King of Braves, GaoGaiGo to defend Earth with newly employed members from the Betterman cast as part of the newly formed GGG: the Gutsy Global Guard. The new GGG is on the mission to research, develop, and use the mysterious and unstable energy source known as "THE POWER" to rescue members of the original GGG, who were rendered M.I.A. in Another Dimension at the end of GaoGaiGar FINAL. However, this mission is foiled by a massive EMP originating from Jupiter, with the team discovering a constantly burning Genesic GaoGaiGar sitting above Jupiter that heralds the emergence of the greatest threat to humanity yet.

GaoGaiGar vs. Betterman gained an ongoing free-to-read Webcomic adaptation drawn by Naoyuki Fuijisawa, and serialized since September 25, 2018 with one drama CD recorded as a premium package with the manga’s first Tankobon release. A new version of GaoGaiGar's opening theme for a hypothetical GaoGaiGar vs. Betterman animated release, "A King of Braves is Born! Juvenile Version" was also included in the release of the 20th anniversary box set for Betterman. This title is also a rare "Video Game First" by debuting, and solidifying many aspects of the project; including animations, character designs, mecha designs, and colorings in Super Robot Wars 30.

---

Tropes in King of Kings: GaoGaiGar vs. Betterman include the following:

• All Your Powers Combined:
  • Betterman Cataphract – the fusion of seven Bettermen formed from Rakan's Pectofores Sanctus ability.
    • Later in the last chapter they form the King of Superbeings Betterman Cataphract Evo, which consistes of all the Somniums empowered by Triple Zero with Lamia eating a seed of Ortus (which itself is three seeds of Forte combined), a seed of Aqua and a seed of Nebula at the same time.
    • Rakan also sometimes uses this ability to turn Bettermen into armor for GGG mecha, culminating in all the Bettermen that form Cataphract fusing with GaoGaiGo or GaoGaiGar to form Musou GaoGaiGo or Musou GaoGaiGar respectively.
  • Final GaoGaiGar is essentially Genesic GaoGaiGar with Mamoru, Ikumi, Renais, Mikoto, Keita, and Hinoki subbing in for Galeon and the Genesic Machines' damaged AI cores. Later even more so when the G-blocks and Goldymarg enter the equation to give Final GaoGaiGar the Goldion Armor and the Goldion Finger respectively.
• And the Adventure Continues: Guy sets off to Jupiter to research, and come up with preventive measures to block Trinity-Zero from affecting Earth.
• Bookends:
  • For King of Braves GaoGaiGar:
    • The story begins with Galeon sending the infant Latio to The Amamis to become their son, Mamoru. By the closing of GaoGaiGar vs. Betterman, The Amami Clan reunites with Galeon at that same location to bid it farewell, with Mamoru—now as a new father who choses to stay on Earth to raise his family, and give his blessings to Galeon in hopes it would be the best partner for Guy.
    • Guy achieves his original dream of heading out to Jupiter as a researcher—personally piloting a spaceship in his ordinary spacesuit. This time, he has Mikoto, J, Renais, and Galeon accompanying him on the journey.
  • For GaoGaiGar vs. Betterman:
    • The story starts with a married Hatsuno—Ayame Ushiyama giving birth to a son named Hajime, with the meaning of "First." By the closing of the story, Hana Hatsuno—now as an Amami, gave birth to a child named Tsubasa, with the meaning of "Flight/Wings."
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: After Guy's return and the reveal that the Gutsy Galaxy Guard technically never disbanded, it's soon realized that there are now two similar organizations with similar names that share an acronym. So to avoid confusion, the Gutsy Galaxy Guard and the Gutsy Global Guard are called "GGG Green" and "GGG Blue" respectively after the respective organizations' uniform logo colorings.
• Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle: Similar to how "mythology" is the arc word for Final, this series uses the word "juvenile" as the arc word. Unfortunately, while the word meant "young adult fiction" in Japanese, it's mostly associated with "childish and immature" in English.
• Crossover Finale: Serves as one for Betterman and GaoGaiGar.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The ending here is much more uplifting than how things were left in GaoGaiGar FINAL, even if it wasn't easy getting there.
• Family Business: GaoGaiGar vs. Betterman employs new members from the Shishiohs and the Ushiyamas—the core clans who became pillars of the GGG program.
  • The Shishioh Clan:
    • Chief of Gutsy Global Guard, Shigeru Akamatsu—late of Betterman—is the son of Liger Shishioh, half-older brother of Renais Cardiff Shishioh, nephew of Leo Shishioh, and cousin of Guy Shishioh.
    • Shigeru’s daughter, Sakura is also part of GGG. Due to Shigeru had her later in age (like his dad and uncle) Sakura’s age is close to her Uncle Guy and Auntie Renais.
  • The Ushiyama Clan:
    • 2nd eldest brother Tsuguo—also originally from Betterman—and youngest brother Sueo followed their eldest brother, Kazuo’s footsteps in becoming maintenance operators for GGG.
    • Hana’s cousin, Ayame became an Ushiyama through her marriage with Tsuguo.
• Fully Absorbed Finale: While this is a sequel to GaoGaiGar FINAL, it also gives some proper closure to Betterman.
• Greater-Scope Villain: It's speculated by Liger that Triple Zero caused Z-Master to go berserk through the Galeorea Comet, causing it to destroy the Trinary Solar System and launch a war against life itself. This would have made Triple Zero this for the original series.
• Human Aliens:
  • Revealed in their home series, Mamoru is the last member of the species that lived on the Green Planet, while Ikumi is a clone of Mamoru created on the Red Planet.
  • Guy and Mikoto evolved into Evoluders by the ending of their home series. Contrary to the belief that they are similar to Mamoru, revealed in FINAL’s novel, Evoluders are genetic fusion of humans with a type of alien inorganic compound, which renders them similar to Zonders.
• In-Series Nickname: Ushiyama brothers Tsuguo and Sueo share the same Affectionate Nickname of “Ushii.” The brothers probably know which of them gets called via the person who is calling out on them. It’s good they’re assigned to different posts to avoid confusion.
• Ironic Echo: The final verse of the opening theme produced for the story has the Big Bad hijacking the lyrics that are usually about GaoGaiGar's Hot-Blooded bravery with ones that play up its own Evil Overlord Destroyer Deity identity just like it hijacked Genesic GaoGaiGar to serve as its vessel.
• Kid Hero All Grown-Up: Both Mamoru and Ikumi are now young men, and pilot the GaoGaiGo together.
  • To a lesser extent, this also applies to Hinoki and Keita, though they're much less active here (Keita in particular) until the Battle of G-Island City.
• Last of His Kind: Yaginuma as the sole member of the Gutsy Galaxy Guard as elaborated under Oddly Small Organization.
• Manchurian Agent: The final act reveals that Guy was one, as it turns out he does in fact have Triple Zero in his system – it was just being suppressed by his G-Stone. It's only when the Bettermen enrage him that it manifests. It turns out this was the Bettermen's intention so that they could rid him of the "Root of Evil" once and for all.
• The Mole: Anyone within GGG who contracts Algernon.
  • Kamuy Pauvre Saginomiya contracts Algernon, which takes hold of his emnity with GGG over the death of his brother during the battle with the Primevals.
• Oddly Small Organization: After Guy's return, it's revealed that while all of the Gutsy Galaxy Guard's duties and staff (apart from those left in the Trinary Solar System) had been folded into the Gutsy Global Guard (later retroactively titled GGG Blue to avoid confusion), Chief Yaginuma hadn't retired as was commonly believed, but had stayed on as Chief of the Galaxy Guard (similarly dubbed GGG Green). And since all the other members (apart from Mamoru and Ikumi) were officially MIA, he was technically the only remaining member of GGG Green until Gai came back. The trope still applies after Guy's return, as while Taiga is reappointed the GGG Green's Chief, with the rest of the group incommunicado, the UN hands over the reins to Guy as "Gutsy Galaxy Guard’s Acting Chief-slash-Mobile Corps Captain-slash-only member."
• Power Fist: The Goldion Armor's G-Block 07 is a massive hand the size of GaoGarGar itself, with Goldion Hammers for fingers. And yes, Goldymarg is installed in it.
• Practically Different Generations: The Shishioh Clan.
  • Patriarchs Liger and his late brother Leo have the penchant for May-December romances due to being married to their jobs, with Liger being the troublemaker of living the lifestyle of a Casanova; which made him go through 7 marriages and fathered 28 offsprings. Shigeru and Renais are only two of his 28 kids; no wonder the two of them went Nom de Mom.^note See Renais' character folder on FINAL for more details.
  • Due to being born in a much more average parent-to-child generational time-frame, the age gap between Shigeru in comparison with his half-sister Renais, and cousin Gai are pretty wide in length; with Shigeru already in his middle ages.
  • Shigeru’s daughter, Sakura is in the same age group as Mamoru, Ikumi, Hana, Alouette, and Sueo.
  • Guy is in the same age group as Renais due to his father Leo marrying late in age under May-December romance, with his mom giving birth to him in average settings.
• Production Foreshadowing: The four Ushiyama brothers played the important role of weaving the GaoGaiGar and Betterman projects together. Sueo was established in GaoGaiGar (1997) as the “last boy” of Kazuo (first boy)’s brothers, Tsuguo (second boy) then was introduced in Betterman (1999), then Tsuguo and Mitsuo (third boy)—now understood as the one wearing glasses, both appeared in FINAL (2000) with Sueo, albeit a blink-and-you’ll-miss-them moment, where the three younger Ushiyama brothers huddled each other in a city shelter as Earth was affected by The 11 Planetary Masters of Sol; signifying the two storylines has been planning to merge since the development of Betterman.
  • The Ushiyamas' meaningful Numerical Theme Naming also chronologized all major projects within the GaoGaiGar / Betterman universe:
    • Kazuo—The first boy, representative of King of Braves GaoGaiGar. (1997)
    • Tsuguo—The second boy, representative of Betterman. (1999)
    • Mitsuo—The third boy, first appeared in GaoGaiGar: FINAL (2000) shown united with Tsuguo, Sueo, and active in GaoGaiGar vs. Betterman as one of the key characters in pulling Betterman hero Keita Aono back into action; represents the official merge of the GaoGaiGar / Betterman story lines.
    • Sueo—The last boy, active in GaoGaiGar vs. Betterman; represents the final project of the original GaoGaiGar / Betterman generation.
    • Tsuguo's firstborn son, Hajime has the meaning of "First," which hints on the reset of the GaoGaiGar / Betterman project to a whole new generation in the future.
• Shout-Out: GaoGaiGar's new ultimate attack: GOLDION FINGER!
• Spell My Name With An S: The "Hakai-Oh" title has the common issue of the meaning of the kanji put together not being the clearest: 覇界王 means "Supreme," "World," and "King" respectively. This was, historically, an informal title often given to great conquerors, so you could also translate it as "King of Conquerors". The linguistic twist, though, is that in spoken language, it's a perfect homonym for 破壊王, or "King of Destruction" (which links back to certain themes surrounding GaoGaiGar as an idea in FINAL), and it is very intended that the reader is meant to think of both readings when hearing the title. The title has, variously, been fan translated as "Overlord" or "King of Ruin" in attempts to capture the full nature of the title in English. In its official English language debut in Super Robot Wars 30, the title was translated as "King of Kings".
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Nichiryuu, Getsuryuu, and their fusion Seiryuujin are easily comparable to Kouryuu, Anryuu, and their fusion Tenryuujin. Likewise, Porc-Auto has many similarities to Volfogg.
  • On the Somniums side Yewya, Gajumaru and Hiiragi are similar to Seeme, Bodaiju and Lord Palkia respectively, they even consume the same Animus Seeds as their counterparts.
• The Corruption: Triple Zero (also known as Oath Over Omega), the main antagonist of the story, originated from the Orange Site, the egg for the universe that would have been born after our universe ends. Every intelligence touched by its energy, whether organic or inorganic, has their values rewired to help it bring about the end of the current universe.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Normally, Triple Zero would have stayed dormant until the universe dies in the Big Crunch. However, when the 11 Planetary Masters of Sol tried to rebuild the Trinary Solar System by absorbing massive amounts of dark matter, they ended up disrupting the fabrics of the universe and causing Triple Zero to leak into our dimension through Jupiter.
• Versus Title: As the name implies, the story has various characters and tech from GaoGaiGar facing off against their counterparts from Betterman, with GaoGaiGo being made using neuronoid tech and being supported by members of the cast from Betterman facing off against the demonically possessed heroes and mechanoids from GaoGaiGar, and Lamia seeming to have some kind of umbrage with Guy as well. However, it's not until the final act that the Bettermen and GaoGaiGar itself actually face off.
• Year Outside, Hour Inside: GGG was inside the Orange Site for some moments but when they returned to Earth almost a decade has passed.
• Zero-Approval Gambit: The finale has the Bettermen attack the UN base on the moon and then (seemingly) annihilate all of GGG's mobile unit except Final GaoGaiGar, and then go after the parts of it that are controlled by Guy's human allies until only Guy and Mamoru are left in Final GaiGar (in reality they've all been sent to a pocket dimension). This turns out to be a ploy to get Gai to awaken the last bit of Triple-Zero within him so he can become the final King of Ruin. This done, they hope to defeat him and allow an Animus Patria seed to grow from Guy's G-Stone, which would allow the Bettermen to move to a new world.

---

"Follow the path of Patria!
Burn the ancient future!
Light up the mourning universe!
O dreamers, tell the tale forever!"
This is the tale of those hot-blooded dreamers...