Series / Space Sheriff Gavan

Say good bye to tears! Say hello to courage! The first Metal Hero, Gavan!

"JOUCHAKU!!"^note Electroplate!

Space Sheriff Gavan (Uchū Keiji Gavan) is the first installment of the Metal Heroes franchise, as well as the first part of the Space Sheriff trilogy. It aired from 1982-1983.

Sometime in the not so distant future, Earth is invaded by the evil Don Horror and his intergalactic criminal organization known as "Makuu".^note A portmanteau of the words for "archdevil/Black Magic" and "evil". Rather than cause the End of the World as We Know It, Don Horror plans to cause fear and panic amongst the populace and steal every valuable his minions can get their hands on. To help him achieve his ends, he can command his minions to use an "Axial Divertor" to suck victims into a frightening otherworld called "Makuu Space", where the Makuu gain three times their ordinary power.

To thwart their plans, Space Sheriff Gavan of the Galactic Union Patrol arrives on Earth with his partner Mimi to protect the planet under the alias of Retsu Ichijouji. Donning a futuristic suit of Powered Armor, Gavan fights the never-ending battle against evil.

In 2012, a film revival/sequel called Space Sheriff Gavan: The Movie was released following Gavan's appearance in Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger vs. Space Sheriff Gavan: The Movie.

On July 31, 2022 Discotek Media announced that they are releasing the series as part of their new label "Toku Time". The series will be remastered in HD on Blu-ray. The Blu Ray set was released in October 2022.

A Recap page is in progress.

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Recurring Metal Hero tropes include:

• Cool Bike: The Cyberian, a cherry-red four-wheeled superbike that can fly. Gavan uses it to chase the Monster of the Week into Makuu Space in order to finish it off at the end of each episode. Gavan Type-G has his own, but it's blue instead of red.
• Monster of the Week: BEM Monsters and Double Monsters. With a rare few exceptions, Gavan kills the monster at the end of every episode, and faces off against a new one the following week.
• Mooks: Don Horror systematically sends a bunch of disposable foot soldiers called Crushers to try and soften up Gavan before deploying the Monster of the Week.
• Transformation Is a Free Action: Justified, due to the whole transformation sequence taking 0.05 seconds. And yet, because it is so quick the narrator feels the need to always repeat it in slow motion to show how it works. With gusto, and no irony whatsoever. Also, there is a single time where a mook does try to interrupt Retsu from transforming, but gets whacked aside as he does so.
• Transformation Sequence: Naturally! Gavan shouts "Electroplate!", strikes several cool poses and summons his battle suit. As Gavan suddenly appears in a different spot than before and strikes more poses, the narrator chimes in to inform the viewers that the transformation is nearly instantaneous, and replays it so they can see the suit being transferred from Dolgiran. The poses are quite well known as well — see Ohba Kenji doing it in 2009 or so.
• Transforming Mecha: The bottom part of Gavan's spaceship, Dolgiran, can separate and transform into the Chinese dragon-styled Denshi Seijuu (Electronic Starbeast) Dol, which is armed with eye lasers, fire breath, and a nasty tail whip attack.

Space Sheriff Gavan provides examples of:

• Action Girl: The female android in episode 16 fights some of the Makuu minions to protect a boy... and then explodes from a single toss like she's Made of Plasticine.
• Alien Geometries: Whenever Gavan pursues the Makuu group, anything can be a portal between completely different environments, such as when he enters a door inside a school only to fall off the side of a ruined building.
• And the Adventure Continues: After destroying the Makuu organization, Gavan is promoted to Captain of the Galactic Union and entrusts the protection of the Earth to Sharivan. The narrator remarks an Evil Power Vacuum is in effect and both heroes will soon have to take on yet more evildoers.
• Another Dimension: Don Horror can send Gavan to an alternate dimension, Makuu Space, in which the Monster of the Week's strength and powers are increased threefold.
• Back for the Dead: Hunter Killer is sent into outer space for his betrayal and is only found by the Galactic Police several episodes later on the verge of death. He reveals Voicer's whereabouts before passing away.
• Ball of Light Transformation: Gavan starts using an energy form to fly and fight enemies as the series goes on. When San Dorva turns into a ball of light, Gavan responds in kind and they tussle for a while in the air as red and blue balls of light, respectively.
• Barehanded Blade Block:
  • In episode 36, Gavan fights some samurai and attempts to block a slash with his hands. He fails.
  • In episode 39, Gavan has more success blocking an axe.
• Beach Episode: Episode 18 is about a series of kidnappings on a beach, so there's plenty of women in bikinis and Retsu is seen just wearing trunks for a portion of the episode.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • In episode 19, Gavan is captured and nearly executed by the Makuu but Commander Qom arrives and beams him back to base.
  • The mysterious space sheriff Alan helps a outnumbered Retsu in episode 30.
• Bittersweet Ending: In episode 26, Gavan manages to destroy the Dream Bird squadron but Sakata is killed while trying to help him. The episode ends on a low note as Gavan is unable to tell the truth to Sakata's little sister and is torn with rage for what the Makuu do to their brainwashed victims.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: In the Brazilian dub for episode 20, the Demonfire Meteorite is never called by name for some reason, and on top of that they make Commander Qom refer to dinosaurs as dragons when speaking of the meteorite's origins.
• Bookends:
  • In the finale, Sharivan is introduced with a villain asking "Who are you?!", just like when Gavan first transformed to fight the Makuu.
  • We last see Gavan in the same place he was when he first arrived on Earth, on a field with Mount Fuji in the background.
  • In the Brazilian dub, the narration about the Makuu Space changes over the course of the series but on the last episode they reuse the original line.
• Boss Subtitles:
  • Dol and Gavan's vehicles are introduced with on-screen text.
  • It takes 36 episodes, but this trope is eventually used for the double monsters as well.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: The Makuu use various methods to brainwash humans and turn them into their soldiers, slaves or brides for the Beast Planet people.
• Brick Joke: Episode 4 ends with the narrator remarking Retsu has no time for dates with Mimi as he'd rather pursue Hunter Killer instead. The next episode ends with him hanging out with both Mimi and Marin, and Mimi is frustrated all the same that her rival is making a better impression on Retsu.
• By the Power of Grayskull!: "JOUCHAKU!", which is the Japanese word for electroplating.
• Call-Back:
  • In episode 24, Mimi shows Retsu footage of all his battles so far to argue that his foes are getting ever stronger and he shouldn't risk his life any further.
  • A puppetmaster who Gavan fights turns out to be the one responsible for the weird animal costume guys the hero fought back in episode 15.
  • In episode 36, the Makuu forces Retsu to watch a film that paints his previous adventures in a bad light (really, it just makes them look hypocritally foolish). Among the footage is a scene from episode 24 that was Mimi's dream and therefore had no business being there!
• Calling Your Attacks: The Brazilian dub parodies Gavan's tendency for this at one point by having him shout "Gavan... breaks the door!" as he does just that.
• Chekhov's Gunman: A minor victim of the week comes back in the final episode as his successor Sharivan!
• Clark Kenting: Retsu insists to civilians that he is not Gavan, and it just happens that nobody is ever around to see him transform. The Makuu are well aware of his civilian identity, and yet they hardly attempt to attack him or the people close to him during his day job.
• Co-Dragons: After Hunter Killer is tossed into outer space, San Dorva and his mother Kiba take his place as Don Horror's main enforcers.
• Cool Helmet: Episode 4 revolves around a demonic helm which makes even the weakest individual invincible and that was the cause of several wars in the distant past of planet Bird. The episode's antagonist manages to wear it and fight Gavan, but is easily defeated. The hero concludes the helm has completely lost its powers over the past 5000 years.
• Cool Ship: Dolgiran, a mothership whose lower half transforms into a cyber dragon.
• Cosmic Deadline: Many of the series' happenings are a Random Events Plot, and the goals of finding Voicer and storming the Makuu Castle are only resolved in the last three episodes.
• Creepy Doll: In episode 9, a monster possesses a doll while threatening scientist Tetsuya's family. The man attempts to bury the doll, to no avail.
• Crucified Hero Shot:
  • Episode 28 opens with a witch named Monica chained to a cross.
  • Marine and Tsukiko are both held hostages on crosses during episode 35.
  • In the final episode, all of Retsu's civilian friends are held on yet more crosses.
• Cultural Translation: Early in episode 5, Retsu is talking with some children about what they want to eat, and recommends they have something fanciful like beef. Because beef is a much more common food in Brazil and other Western countries, Retsu's opinion of it is turned around in the dub to avoid any questions from their audience.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Every time a BEM or Double Monster turns into a kaiju, it just fires projectiles at Gavan for ten seconds before either Dol detonates it or Gavan jumps off Dol and fires a Gavan Dynamic beam that turns the giant monster to rubble like it is nothing.
• Death Dealer: Paul in episode 29 attempts to slice Gavan with throwing cards during their fight.
• Dead All Along: Retsu tries to protect Dr. Barnes and his family from the Makuu in episode 16, but finds the man's wife is already dead and being impersonated, while the Dr. Barnes seen in his home is a device programmed to respond to human voices. This was done actually for Barnes' son's protection.
• Descending Ceiling: In episode 15, Retsu is captured and strapped to a table while the villains try to crush him with a spiked ceiling. However, the antagonist keeps rubbing a sort of spork on Retsu's face to taunt him, and Retsu knocks it on the table's controls to break free.
• The Dragon: Hunter Killer is Don Horror's right-hand man for most of the series, though he mostly just stands around ordering the doublemen and never fights Gavan directly. Later on he starts sabotaging other Makuu enforcers to secure his position, and Don Horror sends him into the depths of space for those actions.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: In episode 24, Mimi starts having nightmares of Gavan being killed by his next foe. Her visions of Kojiro being the tiger monster do not happen, and Gavan is able to win the truly grueling battle against him.
• Dub Induced Plothole:
  • In episode 17, Retsu finds Gou was a Makuu spy all along. In the Brazilian dub, Gou claims his dates with Mimi were a plan to murder her, which doesn't make sense as the episode shows everything was all a trap for Retsu and Retsu alone.
  • In episode 22, they remove Kojiro being suspicious of Retsu being responsible for the recent robberies and so he's snooping on the guy for no reason in the following scene. But here's the thing: that scene was a plot hole to begin with because Kojiro doesn't appear for the rest of the episode.
• Dub-Induced Plotline Change:
  • The Brazilian dub is missing dialogue in several scenes. In episode 3, for example, there's a scene where children discuss the disappearance of their pets. The Brazilian dub just has them randomly going "oh my" "oh wow" and then saying "must have been an E.T. thing". In other scenes, they change as much of the dialogue as possible as long as it fits the context and lip sync (and sometimes it doesn't). It gets to the point characters often state the opposite of what was in the original script, but they usually manage to avoid outright introducing plot holes into the episodes.
  • The Brazilian dub for Episode 15 is missing the dialogue for the entire opening scene. And in later episodes, there are instances of dialogue left untranslated for several seconds!
• Dub Name Change:
  • Gavan is known as X-Or in France.
  • The Brazilian dub spells his name as "Gaban" (even though everyone still audibly calls him Gavan) and changed his civilian identity to "Takeshi" for some reason.
  • In the Brazilian dub, Don Horror became "Don Holler". Terms like "Makuu" and "BEM" are left alone, despite their issues with the sylabe "cu" being slang for "ass" and "BEM" literally meaning "good".
  • Hunter Killer is actually rarely called by name in the series and is surprisingly useless, so the Brazilian dub gets inconsistent on what to call him. It starts out as "Evil Hunter", then "Implacable Hunter" and then "Implacable Killer".
  • In the Brazilian dub, Gavan's "Gavan Dynamic" sword beam is changed to him shouting "Gavan will win!" as a Battle Cry. In fact, the dub sometimes has him saying that while performing other attacks.
• Empathy Doll Shot: Episode 26 opens with the Dream Bird squadron razing a village with poisonous weapons, and we see a tank running over a clown plush. The plush becomes etched into Sakata's mind whenever he is brainwashed into becoming more violent.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • In the first few episodes, the Makuu attack Gavan at his spaceship. This becomes much rarer later on.
  • The first dozen episodes have a doubleman and a silent BEM monster opposing Gavan. Afterwards Gavan only faces a composite of those two, the double monsters.
  • The first time Dol battles a kaiju, there is actually physical fighting between them. As the series go on, those battle scenes become very lackluster, with Dol either simply blasting the kaiju dead from a distance or Gavan jumping off Dol and delivering a Gavan Dynamic before the kaiju does anything.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: San Dorva is one big momma's boy, always listening to Kiba and following her plans to avoid facing Gavan head-on.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: While in the Makuu dimension, Gavan often has to dodge random objects that suddenly fly at him. Such as the one time, in episode 16, that both Gavan and the villain briefly crouch to avoid a swinging planet.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: When a boy finds a double monster egg and keeps it, dogs and cats show hostility towards him.
• Finishing Move: "GAVAN DYNAMIC!" A powerful Laser Blade slash that can either split the monster in half vertically or just straight up cause it to explode.
• Friend to All Children: Retsu is very kind to children, which is a given as the evil organization he fights tries to harm and kidnap kids practically all the time.
• Fusion Dance: In episode 13, the Makuu claim a device that is able to combine living beings and use it to fuse BEM monsters and Doublemen. The resulting Monster of the Week is tough enough to be the first who survives an episode, and afterwards all episodic antagonists are those Double Monsters.
• Guest Fighter: Served as one for Street Fighter Online: Mouse Generation in probably Capcom's weirdest Capcom vs. crossovers ever.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Gavan is the son of a human woman and a Human Alien man.
• Hand Blast: "LASER Z-BEAM!" Arrow-shaped bolts of energy that fire forth from Gavan's index and ring fingers.
• Heroes Love Dogs: At least three episodes show Retsu protecting puppies, and the Makuu even take advantage of this to trap him inside Makuu Space.
• Heroic Willpower:
  • When Retsu is strapped to a device that erases memories and brainwashes people to become Makuu slaves, the hero sends it into a Logic Bomb explosion through sheer willpower.
  • Voicer spends nearly the entire series under Cold-Blooded Torture but never gives his captors the information needed to complete the Planetary Cannon. This is because his death is what would've revealed the secret which was hidden on the palm of his hand.
• Hostage Situation: In episode 39, a family is held hostage while the Makuu use their home as a base of operations so they can snipe Retsu while he's helping a girl with her rehabilitation exercises. The plan only fails by sheer coincidence when a truck gets in the way of the shot.
• I Have Your Wife:
  • The Makuu regularly force scientists to develop technologies for them by holding their families hostage.
  • In Monica's backstory, she was made a hostage by a criminal who was after her space sheriff husband. The policeman didn't hesitate to risk killing her to get at the criminal, and as a result she ended up killing him in self-defense.
• In a Single Bound: Gavan's battle suit lets him jump up to 300 meters high.
• Indy Escape: In episode 2, Retsu escapes from a rolling boulder while inside a trap-filled cave. A portion of this scene is recycled for episode 20 while the hero is in a secret base hidden under a hospital.
• Instant Armor: Gavan can materialize his combat armor in .05 seconds. Every time this happens, the narrator informs the audience of this fact, then shows a slowed-down version of the Jouchaku/electroplating process where we can actually see the Gavan suit being beamed down from Gavan's ship.
• Invasion of the Baby Snatchers: The Makuu organization frequently kidnaps children and subjects them to brainwashing and harsh training to transform them into monstruous terrorists.
• Invisibility: In the first handful of episodes, BEM monster battles in the Makuu Space end the same way — the bad guy turns invisible but Gavan easily detects him and blasts him dead with a laser beam.
• Killing Intent:
  • When Retsu meets the first double monster's human form, both men stand beside each other for a second and then jump away. Retsu gets too intimidated by the man's malice to fight him immediately.
  • In episode 33, Retsu gets a bad feeling whenever the Makuu people are nearby.
• Laser Blade: Gavan wields one which he generally uses to finish off the main villain of each episode.
• Last Episode, New Character: Space Sheriff Sharivan appears in the last episode when Gavan's on the ropes.
• Living Weapon: In episode 38, San Dorva has Gavan captured and stabs him with the Sun Sword. The blade does not wound the hero and starts shocking and attacking San Dorva instead.
• Look Behind You: In episode 4, Kojiro pretends to toss the mystical orbs behind Hunter Killer to evade him.
• Losing Your Head:
  • Guard Doubler can deattach its head and send it flying at his enemies.
  • After having his body destroyed, Don Holler's desembodied head persists in trying to kill the hero until it is Impaled with Extreme Prejudice.
• Make My Monster Grow: In #25, the Doshiki Doubler straight up grows Super Sentai-style during the Makuu Space sequence, but still falls to the power of Dol and the Gavan Dynamic.
• Male Gaze: Episode 18 begins with Kojiro rather rudely taking pictures of pretty women at a beach.
• Master of Disguise:
  • After two incidents where his disguises are foiled by the Makuu, Retsu confuses a double monster by putting on a wizard custume, and then swapping between several other costumes instantly by beaming them down from his spaceship.
  • In episode 29, Retsu puts on a Pinocchio disguise and observes Paul Issei trying to sabotage Tenko's human warp cabinets to get him killed.
• Monster Clown: Among the numerous enemies Retsu faces in episode 15 are clowns on unicycles whose balloons explode into a smokescreen. Retsu doesn't even defeat them, and instead runs the hell away!
• Mood Whiplash: After a lot of fighting in episode 41, Retsu escapes the Makuu Space and picks up the puppy the villains had used as bait against him. The scene then cuts to the two walking by a beach, and Retsu suddenly has an emotional crisis over his Disappeared Dad that hadn't been mentioned in quite a while. Retsu then turns cheerful again and starts playing with the puppy while the narrator makes a closing remark about his missing father.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The former Space Sheriff who betrayed Gavan's father in the past is named Hunter Killer. Gee, with a name like that, you'd think his Face–Heel Turn wouldn't have surprised anyone. Not to mention Don Horror...
• New Powers as the Plot Demands:
  • Gavan's ability to fight in energy form is introduced step-by-step as the series go on, and he first becomes a ball of light by imitating San Dorva.
  • The tank called Gavion only acts as transportation for the Scooper drill tank for a few early episodes. Much later, when viewers likely already forgot the tank existed, Gavan suddenly starts using it to fight.
• Nice Guy: Outside battle, Retsu/Gavan is a pretty nice and friendly guy.
• Not Quite Saved Enough: Retsu finally saves his father Voicer in the next-to-last episode, only for the man to die shortly afterwards on his sleep. He was hanging by a thread the whole time, as dying to Makuu's torture would've revealed the secret message on his palm.
• Oblivious to Love: In episode 17, Retsu is told that Mimi has a crush on him and that she's dating a police officer to make him jealous. The Brazilian dub changes his response to calling himself an idiot and later has the narrator remark Retsu now realizes he has feelings for Mimi as well.
• Once per Episode:
  • Infiltration scenes followed by chase scenes.
  • Retsu fights in base form for a while, and then goes into his transformation routine. If there's two fights, only the second one will have the full transformation sequence.
  • Right as Gavan manages to overcome an episode's BEM monster, it is dragged into the Makuu dimension and Gavan follows on the Cyberian. If the monster doesn't become a kaiju, Gavan will shoot it dead after negating its invisibility abilities. If it does (either right away or if it survives the first phase), Gavan calls Dol for help. Afterwards, Gavan has a swordfight with the episode's doubleman antagonist and kills him with a Gavan Dynamic beam.
• One-Hit Kill: The Gavan Dynamic can kill even the kaiju monsters in a single hit, though it is only used to end fights. This is why San Dorva devises a plan in episode 35 to prevent Gavan from using his sword.
• Orcus on His Throne:
  • Don Horror is a living statue that just sits in place sending minions after Gavan. Ironically, the main reason he loses is because he deliberately exposes his mothership to Gavan. There's no indication the hero was ever looking for Makuu Castle at all throughout the series!
  • Hunter Killer spends a lot of the series just overseeing what the doublemen do, to the point the most notable thing this jackass does is mortally injuring a female mercenary for being more competent than him. Once San Dorva comes along, Hunter Killer sabotages his plans and is tossed into the ends of the galaxy for this betrayal.
  • San Dorva himself takes on Hunter Killer's passive role after his first bout against Gavan, because his mother Kiba fears the two can only kill each other simultaneously at best if Gavan is fought fairly.
  • In episode 35, Don Horror actually berates San Dorva for slacking off and relying on the double monsters to do his job, and tells him to only return to their castle after bringing Gavan's head. So what San does is rely on his mother and minions to get Gavan to hand over his Laser Sword and STILL doesn't fight the hero directly. Don Horror refuses to create a Makuu Space to help any of this buffoonery.
• Original Generation:
  • Gavan's Evil Counterpart Gavan Bootleg, who appears in Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger vs. Space Sheriff Gavan: The Movie.
  • Also in the video game Space Sheriff Spirits with the seemingly evil Variozecter who turns out to be the Combat Suit of the revived Hunter Killer.
• Overlord Jr.: San Dorva, Don Horror's son who's introduced in episode 30.
• Production Foreshadowing: Space Sheriff Gavan is referenced in Episode 45 of Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan. The episode introduces a space pirate named Inazuma Ginga, who was once caught in a trap by the Galactic Police, fleeing to Earth from them. Former Super Sentai writer Shozo Uehara was already working on Gavan by the time Sun Vulcan was ending and Gavan began airing on the same month Sun Vulcan concluded.
• Paper-Thin Disguise:
  • Retsu dresses himself as the folk tale figure Lord Urashima to fool a turtle double monster who is obssessed with his legend. It works because the monster seemingly isn't familiar with Retsu, but then Hunter Killer walks by and immediately rips the fake beard and 'stache off Retsu's face.
  • Later Retsu puts on a nerdy reporter disguise to interview a dancer who's really a bee double monster. She quickly recognizes Retsu, and then pushes him into a pool.
• Redemption Equals Death:
  • After being forced to serve the Dream Bird army, Sakata dies trying to protect Retsu from his leader.
  • Monica is mortally poisoned by Hunter Killer for defying his orders, and insists Retsu takes the single-use cure to Mimi after acknowledging his true love for the girl. She's blown up in a last stand against Makuu, and Retsu is outraged by her death.
• Put on a Bus: From episode 32 until 42, Mimi drops out of the story to visit her sickly mother back at Planet Bird, and Marine replaces her as Retsu's partner.
• Rent-a-Zilla:
  • Dol, the bottom half of the Dolgiran in attack mode, qualifies as one, measuring 200 meters in length and weighing a whopping 2000 tons.
  • Sometimes the Monster of the Week becomes kaiju-sized.
  • In episode 33, the Makuu develop eggs that hatch special double monsters who are supposed to turn into kaiju within hours. Only a single egg is left after the others are destroyed by Gavan, and the resulting monster does not grow into a kaiju.
• Rolling Attack:
  • The Makuu creature in the second episode curls into a ball to strike Gavan, who kicks it away and later has Dol tail whip it when it changes to a giant form.
  • Guard Doubler in episode 30 can also curl into a sphere.
• Save the Princess:
  • Alan comes from Planet Bee to Earth to save Princess Rin and prevent their homeland from becoming a Makuu colony.
  • In another episode, Retsu saves a bug-like alien princess so she can find a lost treasure her people hid on Earth.
• Save the Villain: Although Monica was responsible for Mimi nearly dying from poison, Retsu saw her more as a victim of circunstances than someone truly evil, and scoffs at the idea of abandoning her once she herself is betrayed and poisoned by Hunter Killer. Retsu actually would've used the cure-all on Monica but is told it can only be used once, and is distraught when she's blown up by the Makuu.
• Shout-Out:
  • Gavan's name is a Shout-Out to French actor Jean Gabin, famous for playing numerous police officers, among many other roles. See Dub Name Change higher for some irony.
  • When Retsu and Marine are going to see the movies at the end of episode 36, a large poster for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is prominently seen in the background.
• Space Police: It's in the title.
• Spikes of Doom: Gavan nearly falls into a spike pit in episode 4.
• The Starscream: After San Dorva is disowned by Don Horror, Kiba has him propose Don Horror attempts to destroy Dolgiran to deprive Gavan of his combat suit. Whatever happens, she hoped to escape with her son in the confusion. However, Don Horror only sends out an ultimate attack out of frustration and forces the two traitors to fight Gavan for real.
• Stars Are Souls: Episode 28 closes with Retsu and Mimi watching a shooting star and wondering if it was Monica's soul.
• Stepford Smiler: Retsu is shown to be a friendly and easygoing guy who also harbors great suffering for the loss of his parents, which explains why he always goes out of his way to help so many kids and their families.
• Stunned Silence: When Retsu finally manages to find Voicer, the two spend a full minute just gazing at each other, both on the verge of tears.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • Marin becomes this to Mimi when the latter is Put on a Bus for a few episodes.
  • Geki (Gavan Type-G) is one for Retsu (the original Gavan), though they both appear in the movie.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works:
  • In episode 3, the makuu monster tosses his trident at Gavan. The hero catches it, but the weapon shocks him, forcing him to drop it and dodge it further as it assumes a boomerang-like trajectory.
  • In the final episode, Gavan tosses the Laser Sword at Kiba's head to disable her binding spell before finishing her and San Dorva off.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Retsu, towards Geki in Super Hero Taisen Z.
• Translation Trainwreck: At its worst, the Brazilian dub makes up dialogue that is often the opposite of what's being said or flat out removes lines or leaves them untranslated.
• Uncertain Doom: The recurring female Makuu spy is last seen when Gavan destroys the base they were holding Voicer in, but is not explicity shown dying.
• Unrealistic Black Hole:
  • Makuu Space is entered via a black hole that causes Earth to change its axis instead and enter the space of sucking up the entire solar system. To make it crazier, Gavan's Cyberian somehow minimizes harmful effects on the planet once entered.
  • The video game Space Sheriff Spirits and the Gokaiger crossover movie take it to another extreme where it implies that Makuu Space has breathable oxygen with the latter establishing that the dimension had its own prison tower (which never appeared or even mentioned in the series).
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Episode 7 begins with a girl picking up a pot of roses a BEM grasshopper was hiding in. She gifts it to a man who gifts it to someone else, and this goes on until the trap reaches the armored cash car driver the villains meant to ambush.
• Victory Pose: Every time Gavan defeats a Doubleman or Double Monster in Makuu Space, he's teleported back to some random place in Japan such as the top of a transmission tower. The camera pans over him as he poses, and a victory jingle plays. In a few episodes they recycle previous victory scene footage like nobody's going to notice.
• Villain Team-Up:
  • Because it is the anniversary of their empire, the Makuu get serious about killing Gavan on episode 15, and send numerous assassins after him. The entire episode is one huge action scene.
  • Episode 41 has the same theme, with Retsu fighting all sorts of enemies while trapped within the Makuu Space.
• Villain Teleportation: Paul Issei challenges Tenko to a human warp trick match, and with Makuu magic he is able to genuinely perform such a thing. In his battle against Gavan, he even performs Teleport Spam on him.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Mimi can turn into a bird with her "Laser Vision" pendant.
• Voodoo Doll: In episode 36, the Resentment Doubler hits nails into a picture of Retsu to inflict pain onto him. To solves this, Gavan simply blasts the picture when he finds it and that does nothing to him.
• Wham Episode:
  • In episode 13, Gavan is unable to kill the villain of the week and the Makuu escape with the technology that enables them to fuse monsters. This marks a change in the fight scene routines for the following episodes.
  • In episode 43, Gavan finally rescues his father but the man dies afterwards from his injuries. Still, Gavan's determination is renewed and only the ultimate battle against Don Horror remains.
• Would Hurt a Child: The villains prey on children in several episodes.
  • In episode 3, Don Horror orders Dr. Kuroboshi to use a child for his first human experimentation, because "children have more vitality". The Brazilian version changes his line to "a child is always the easiest target".
  • In episode 6, the villains establish a school as a front for a plan to brainwash children and feed them drugs that will mutate them into Doubleman soldiers after a certain period (three months in the Brazilian dub). Later on the episode, the children are also given some spartan combat training.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Gavan shows shades of this with his Dimension Bomber attack.

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