History Anime / Gaiking

* PunchCatch: Episode 31 has Gaiking The Great do this [[spoiler: to a HumongousMecha several times its size. [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Daiya then asks if that was Proist's best punch, then say that if it was, then she's lost, just before crushing Dborak's fist and part of its arm.]]]]

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Mecha variation. Puria is one of the very few people who refers to the Crab Bunker by its actual name. Everyone else pretty much uses Daiya's nickname for it, "Kani Tank", which pisses off Puria. Daiya takes the nickname further when the Crab Bunker docks with Gaiking by calling the new combined form

''Daikū Maryū Gaiking'' (''Great Sky Demon Dragon Gaiking'') was a Super Robot mecha anime series produced by Toei Animation, credited as an original idea by Akio Sugino. However, in reality the original idea was GoNagai's. [[ExecutiveMeddling Toei deliberately took Nagai out of the credits in order to avoid paying him royalties]]. Because of that, Nagai sued Toei and refused to collaborate with them for many years. The legal battle lasted over a decade. [[WordOfGod Nagai himself confirmed that he was the creator of Gaiking]] at the 2007 Naples Comicon.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Mecha variation. Puria is one of the very few people who refers to the Crab Bunker by its actual name. Everyone else pretty much uses Daiya's nickname for it, "Kani Tank", which pisses off Puria. Daiya takes the nickname further when the Crab Bunker docks with Gaiking by calling the new combined form "Kaniking".
* OrcusOnHisThrone: JustifiedTrope. [[spoiler: Emperor Darius is attempting to arrange transport for a mass-exodus to another planet so they don't have to invade Earth]]
* PowerDyesYourHair: Daiya's hair turns red and stands up [[DragonBall saiyan-style]] when he pilots Gaiking.
* PunchCatch: Gaiking the Great not only catches Dborak's punch, it then shatters the fist.
* QuirkyMinibossSquad: this series is ''saturated'' with them. The Emperor of Darius has his four generals. Nouza, one of them, has ''five'' lieutenants under him.[[spoiler: Later on, after Proist ascends to being the primary antagonist, Suspage dies, and both Nouza and Vestanuu defect, she gets a new batch of generals to work for her too]]
* RealRobot: In spite of being a SuperRobot show, the plot really has more in common with one of these shows due to TheBattleStar, MinovskyPhysics, realistic combination sequences, and emphasis on strategy and teamwork
* RelationshipVoiceActor: One episode features a one off character voiced by HiroakiHirata, another OnePiece actor.
* ReliableTraitor: [[spoiler: at one point, Proist has Daiya's head essentially handed to her on a silver platter. He was only saved because Suspage thought he could kill Daiya and her in one blow, which obviously didn't work out]]
* RocketPunch: Gaiking's Puncher Grind, although it doesn't come back automatically and Gaiking needs to use its Zector Hooks and/or have a support ship grab them. Gaiking the Great, however, does have RocketPunch attacks that come back, much to [[spoiler:Proist's]] surprise.
* SamusIsAGirl: [[spoiler: Proist is not only ''not'' a robot, but the crowned princess of the Darius Empire.]]
* ScaryShinyGlasses: Episode 23 reveals that Shizuka had these once.
* SinisterScythe: Raiking's Sickle Harken.
* SuperMode: Face Open for Gaiking.
* SuperRobotWars: The 2005 series appears in the two of the recent NintendoDS entries, [[SuperRobotWarsK K]] and [[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsL L]].
* TheCaptain: Captain Garis, of course! Ruru gets to be captain for a day as well, [[spoiler: and then fills in for him after he gets injured saving her from getting killed]]
* TheFaceless: Shizuka's eyes are never shown in the entire series. One episode shows her revealing them to the crew, but we, as the audience, to not see them. Captain Garris also wears a mask, but he's shown without it a few times
* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: Noza towards Daiya.
* ThemeNaming: The names of the four Darius Generals are all puns on the cardinal directions.
* ThemeTuneCameo: The opening theme appears as a cellphone ringtone in episode 32.
* TokenMiniMoe: Ruru, of course. This is a Toei series afterall.
* TomatoSurprise: [[spoiler: Nouza being spare parts, Emperor Darius and possibly Proist also being robots]]
* {{Tsundere}}: Puria
* TykeBomb: [[spoiler: '''''Fucking Proist''''']]
* VocalDissonance: Nearly everyone who gets a speaking role in the epilogue.
* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler: When Proist gets Vulking. And then convinces Ruru to try to kill her father. And then gets Raiking. And then convinces Ruru to try to kill her father again. And then nearly kills Daiya. And then reveals the fact she has a monster at her disposal. And then sends Daiya and Puria back to Earth with no way of getting back. Yeah. All those things happening one right after the other too.]]
* WickedCultured: Proist.
* WorthyOpponent: Daiya and Nouza's former boss develop this kind of relationship during their duel. After Nouza kills him, he falls into the same trap and develops a similar rivalry
* XanatosSpeedChess: What makes Proist so dangerous. It's not the fact that our resident BigBad has these long and elaborate plans, it's the ability to nearly instantly remove any advantages you pull. Destroy the Empire's monster? Sure, we'll just activate the even stronger guardian machine of the emperor. Destroy ''that'' and mortally wound Proist? [[spoiler: Her generals will just sacrifice their lives and revive her]].
** And yet, all the protagonists are equally capable of coming up with their own plans (or in Daiya's case [[IndyPloy Indy Ploys]]), making the entire series a constant back-and-forth of each side one-upping the other.
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In 2009, William Winckler, the man behind the infamously cheesy english dub for {{Tekkaman}}, produced equally cheesy english {{Compilation Movie}}s for Gaiking, along with several other of Toei's older titles. What makes Gaiking's compilation movies notable is that, so far, they're the only ones to have received an American release, as ShoutFactory [[http://www.shoutfactory.com/?q=node/216952 released all three movies on DVD]] on May 21, 2013.

In 2009, William Winckler, the man behind the infamously cheesy english dub for {{Tekkaman}}, produced equally cheesy english {{Compilation Movie}}s for Gaiking, along with several other of Toei's older titles. What makes Gaiking's compilation movies notable is that, so far, they're the only ones to have received an American release, as ShoutFactory released all three movies on DVD on May 21, 2013.

* HannibalLecture: Proist rarely does this... but ''god DAMN'' they're effective

* BigBad: At first, Emperor Darius 17th who spends most of the series [[OrcusOnHisThrone focusing on other matters]], so his generals take center stage. Later on Proist ascends to being TheDragon, again near the end to being the BigBad after Darius reveals his intentions

* SuperRobotWars: Appears in Shin Super Robot Wars, [[SuperRobotWarsAlpha Alpha 2]] and [[SuperRobotWarsAlpha Alpha 3]].

** The first use of Face Open also counts, as Noza is reduced to being beaten around like a ragdoll while screaming [[ThisIsInconceivable IMPOSSIBLE!]] [[OhCrap WHAT IS HE?!]]

* CapuletCounterpart: Vestanuu to Lee's Romeo

* HeyItsThatVoice: AkiraKamiya for Sanshiro Tsuwabuki, MamiKoyama for Midori Fujimiya (her debut role), KeatonYamada for Gen Sakon, HidekatsuShibata as Professor Daimonji, KenichiOgata for Bunta.

* HarmfulToMinors: More than one kid gets hurt or in danger here, with Hachirou the Tagalongkid being only ''one'' of them. [[spoiler: Fan Lee's kid brother San-Lee is shot to death, and so is a little girl named Lisa who's the daughter of a member of Darius's army. Peter's pre-teen brother Tom gets used as a hostage.]]
* HeyItsThatVoice: AkiraKamiya for Sanshiro Tsuwabuki, MamiKoyama for Midori Fujimiya (her debut role), KeatonYamada for Gen Sakon, HidekatsuShibata as Professor Daimonji, KenichiOgata for Bunta, and MayumiTanaka for Daiya Tsuwabuki in Gaiking: Legend of Daikuu Maryuu.

* AbusiveParents: [[spoiler: Fan Lee's adoptive parents, hence why he and his younger brother ran away from them. ItGotWorse.]]

And in a rather surprising twist over other Super Robots, ''Gaiking'' is getting a CG movie remake. Watch the trailer [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS6E-Nu3xsg here.]] In January of 2011, Toei put up the entire ''Legend of Daikuu Maryuu'' series subtitled[[hottip:*: [[BadExportForYou badly]]]] on Hulu. [[http://www.hulu.com/gaiking People living in the United States can view it here.]] The show is also available on Crunchyroll[[hottip:*: although the version shown here may actually be worse than the Hulu version]], Crackle and the U.S. Playstation Video Store.

* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler: When Proist gets Vulking. And then convinces Ruru to try to kill her father. And then gets Raiking. And then convinces Ruru to try to kill her father again. And then nearly kills Daiya. And then reveals the fact she has a CosmicHorror at her disposal. And then sends Daiya and Puria back to Earth with no way of getting back. Yeah. All those things happening one right after the other too.]]

* XanatosSpeedChess: What makes Proist so dangerous. It's not the fact that our resident BigBad has these long and elaborate plans, it's the ability to nearly instantly remove any advantages you pull. Destroy the Empire's CosmicHorror? Sure, we'll just activate the even stronger guardian machine of the emperor. Destroy ''that'' and mortally wound Proist? [[spoiler: Her generals will just sacrifice their lives and revive her]].

* LesYay: [[spoiler: Proist seems just a ''little'' too interested in Vestanuu]]

!!This series provides examples of:

* DesignatedHero: Double-subverted ''hard'' in-universe. Daiya finds out fairly quickly that the people on Darius view the Daikuu Maryuu as invaders and he has to face the fact that technically they ''are'' the bad guys. And then we find out they're just helping out a pre-existing rebellion that got started by inhabitants of Darius anyways and the Darius Empire isn't as noble as the citizens think.

* EldritchAbomination: Chouryu Dborak is a lesser version of one, but it's still overpowered

* DesignatedHero: Double-subverted ''hard'' in-universe. Daiya finds out fairly quickly that the people on Darius view the Daiku Maryu as invaders and he has to face the fact that technically they ''are'' the bad guys. And then we find out they're just helping out a pre-existing rebellion that got started by inhabitants of Darius anyways and the Darius Empire isn't as noble as the citizens think.

* FragileSpeedster: In premise Raiking and Tenku Maryu are supposed to be this. In ''execution'', they're freaking [[LightningBruiser Lightning Bruisers]] that shrug off some of Gaiking and Vulking's best attacks

* ImportantHaircut: Ruru [[spoiler: after becoming the Daiku Maryu's Captain]].

* InNameOnly: Aside from Daiya's last name, the Daiku-Maryu and Gaiking themselves (which both use the same attacks) and the names "Darius" and "Death Cross", this series has no other connections to the original series.
* JackOfAllStats: Gaiking and the Daiku Maryu, of the three sets of CombiningMecha, are considered the most balanced of the three

* MightyGlacier: In contrast to Raiking and Tenku Maryu who subvert the FragileSpeedster trope, Vulking and the Daichi Maryu play this one straight

* SuperRobotWars: The 2005 series appears in the two of the recent NintendoDS entries, [[SuperRobotWarsK K]] and [[SuperRobotWarsL L]].

* WeCouldHaveAvoidedAllThis: If Captain Garis had just told Ruru that [[spoiler:he didn't kill her mother]], Lulu wouldn't have been as susceptible to (either of) Proist's urgings to try to kill him in revenge. [[spoiler:Ironically, Proist was the one who killed Ruru's mother.]]

* BadassBookworm: Gen was not only the head mechanic, he also was pretty decent at self-defense.
* BigBrotherMentor: Gen is this to Sanshirou

* GentleGiant: Yamagakake. He actually used to be a Sumo wrestler before joining the group.

* ThrownOffTheAirlock: Happens to the wife of [[spoiler: the already mentioned future member of the Dark Horror Army]]