History Anime / Gasaraki

''Gasaraki'' was produced by {{Sunrise}}, directed by Ryosuke Takahashi of ''Anime/ArmoredTrooperVotoms'' fame and originally aired in 1998. Creator/{{ADV Films}} released a translated version. It is a bit notable for more recent anime fans as the first big "series-wide" directorial job a certain Goro Taniguchi had - he was "assistant director" for the entire show and helped to make it (somewhat) comprehensible. His work here would lead to him being allowed to fully direct and produce ''Anime/{{Planetes}}'' (which could not possibly be more different from this show) and ''Franchise/CodeGeass'' (which, on some level, might be seen as ''Gasaraki'''s spiritual successor - it takes on a lot of the same fundamental themes as ''Gasaraki'', just [[ByronicHero from a different viewpoint]]).

''Gasaraki'' was produced by {{Sunrise}}, directed by Ryosuke Takahashi of ''Anime/ArmoredTrooperVotoms'' fame and originally aired in 1998. Creator/{{ADV Films}} released a translated version. It is a bit notable for more recent anime fans as the first big "series-wide" directorial job a certain Goro Taniguchi had - he was "assistant director" for the entire show and helped to make it (somewhat) comprehensible. His work here would lead to him being allowed to fully write, direct and produce ''Anime/{{Planetes}}'' (which could not possibly be more different from this show) and ''Franchise/CodeGeass'' (which, on some level, might be seen as ''Gasaraki'''s spiritual successor - it takes on a lot of the same fundamental themes as ''Gasaraki'', just [[ByronicHero from a different viewpoint]]).

* FollowTheLeader: The entire show's been accused of ripping roughly a good three-quarters of its concepts and plot directly from ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''. Exactly how much this is true has been [[FlameWar hotly debated]] over the years; while there are some ''very'' obvious similarities (the clear comparisons between [[TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness SEELE and SYMBOL]], the dysfunctional-family-exploiting-a-son-as-a-pilot dynamic, Miharu's apparent similarities to Rei Ayanami, and [[spoiler:the "divine" origins of the key systems of the mecha]]) the show does take a fairly different direction in the end, with somewhat different messages about the meaning of family and honor and a take on love that ''wholly'' contradicts some of ''Eva'''s [[FreudWasRight Freudian]] assertions.

* DerivativeDifferentiation: It started out as a clone of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', but evolved into more of a spiritual predecessor to ''FranchiseCodeGeass''.

''Gasaraki'' was produced by {{Sunrise}}, directed by Ryosuke Takahashi of ''Anime/ArmoredTrooperVotoms'' fame and originally aired in 1998. Creator/{{ADV Films}} released a translated version. It is a bit notable for more recent anime fans as the first big "series-wide" directorial job a certain Goro Taniguchi had - he was "assistant director" for the entire show and helped to make it (somewhat) comprehensible. His work here would lead to him being allowed to fully write, direct and produce ''Anime/{{Planetes}}'' (which could not possibly be more different from this show) and ''CodeGeass'' (which, on some level, might be seen as ''Gasaraki'''s spiritual successor - it takes on a lot of the same fundamental themes as ''Gasaraki'', just [[ByronicHero from a different viewpoint]]).

* DerivativeDifferentiation: It started out as a clone of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', but evolved into more of a spiritual predecessor to ''CodeGeass''.

* {{Bishonen}}

* BridgeBunnies

* DemonicInvaders

* GenreSavvy: Miharu is very aware that Symbol (and by extension Gowa) views her and Yushiro as a means to an end.

* JigsawPuzzlePlot
* KabukiSounds

* MissionControl
* MiniMecha

* PillarOfLight

* RealRobot
* [[spoiler: ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Yushiro, Miharu, and Phantom]]

* SexyMentor

* SolemnEndingTheme
* TheSquad
* SummoningRitual

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture

* [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair You Gotta Have Teal Hair]]: Miharu.

* SolemnClosingTheme

''Gasaraki'' was produced by {{Sunrise}}, directed by Ryosuke Takahashi of ''Anime/ArmoredTrooperVotoms'' fame and originally aired in 1998. Creator/{{ADV Films}} released a translated version. It is a bit notable for more recent anime fans as the first big "series-wide" directoral job a certain Goro Taniguchi had - he was "assistant director" for the entire show and helped to make it (somewhat) comprehensible. His work here would lead to him being allowed to fully write, direct and produce ''{{Planetes}}'' (which could not possibly be more different from this show) and ''CodeGeass'' (which, on some level, might be seen as ''Gasaraki'''s spiritual successor - it takes on a lot of the same fundamental themes as ''Gasaraki'', just [[ByronicHero from a different viewpoint]]).

''Gasaraki'' was produced by {{Sunrise}}, directed by Ryosuke Takahashi of ''ArmoredTrooperVotoms'' fame and originally aired in 1998. Creator/{{ADV Films}} released a translated version. It is a bit notable for more recent anime fans as the first big "series-wide" directoral job a certain Goro Taniguchi had - he was "assistant director" for the entire show and helped to make it (somewhat) comprehensible. His work here would lead to him being allowed to fully write, direct and produce ''{{Planetes}}'' (which could not possibly be more different from this show) and ''CodeGeass'' (which, on some level, might be seen as ''Gasaraki'''s spiritual successor - it takes on a lot of the same fundamental themes as ''Gasaraki'', just [[ByronicHero from a different viewpoint]]).

** This is probably a case of OlderThanTheyThink combined with SelfPlagiarism. Ryosuke Takahashi, the director of Gasaraki, is also famous for ArmoredTrooperVOTOMS, a series from TheEighties that uses many of the themes Gasaraki allegedly "stole" from Evangelion. In particular, the cosmic force in the series is fairly similar to [[spoiler: Wiseman]] from VOTOMS, Yushiro and Miharu's relationship is much closer to the one between [[spoiler: Chirico and Fyana]] than the one between Shinji and Rei, and SYMBOL is very similar to the [[spoiler: Secret Society]].

** Creator/NobuyukiHiyama plays the SuperRobot pilot... yet he's far from HotBlooded.

* [[spoiler: ReallySevenhundredYearsOld: Yushiro, Miharu, and Phantom]]

* BatmanGambit: Nishida's plan to restore Japan's honor[[spoiler: by intentionally causing the economic collapse of both the US and Japan's stock market/economy by using Japan's economic information and liquid assets as a weapon of sorts, forcing Japan to endure 3 years of poverty, being confident that Japan's people would be able to endure such hardship. It gets derailed slightly when the US president [[TakeAThirdOption Takes A Third Option]], lifting the wheat trade embargo and admitting defeat, resulting in Japan getting what it wanted mostly peacefully. Although Nishida was satisfied with this, he still felt he had failed, and takes his own life.]]

* PossessionImpliesMastery: Subverted; throughout the series, neither side fully comes to grips with using their mecha. Ataka even says in episode 5 when three ishtars show up "This is crazy! We haven't even faced other TA's on the simulator yet."

Yushiro is the fourth son of the Gowa family (he has a younger sister, Misuzu, in addition to his brothers), and one of the test pilots for a new piece of military hardware referred to as "Tactical Armor", or [=TAs=] -- in other words, HumongousMecha. He is also involved in a ritual dance (based on traditional Nou (or Noh) dance movements), overseen by the Gowa family, which appears to be a type of SummoningRitual. During his first attempt at this ritual, Yushiro is attacked by a vision of a teal-haired female wearing a mask (probably Ko-omote, see below) who no one else can see, and who, before she disappears, begs him not to bring back the "terror". At the same time, in another part of the world, a mysterious organization is conducting an experiment of their own -- involving the same teal-haired female, a girl named Miharu...

* PlayingAgainstType: NobuyukiHiyama plays the SuperRobot pilot... yet he's far from HotBlooded.
** And ShowHayami plays "MadScientist" Kiyotsugu... but as mentioned above, he's ''not'' the BigBad and even has more than one line he won't cross.

* NotSoCrazyAnymore: The United States invades a Middle-Eastern dictatorship in pursuit of weapons of mass destruction that apparently never existed...
** Also the idea of using unmanned flying/gliding drones for reconnaissance.
*** And the US being almost crippled by an economic collapse.

* EvaFins: While not ''quite'' as prominent as the TropeNamer, the Raiden/Shinden mechs do have rather notable shoulder fins that are especially prominent from the sides (which are, in-universe, the power batteries for the mechs); SYMBOL's Ishtar technically has fins as well, although they're quite small in comparison to the rest of the mech.

* AbnormalAmmo (the Plastic Rounds used in the TA's 25mm machine guns for riot suppression, the gun is also switched to single shot when using them, [[spoiler: and the HESH rounds used by the US Navy Fakes during their assault on the gowa building, HESH rounds are a TruthInTelevision however.]])
* AloofOlderBrother (Yushiro has ''three'' of them, though Kiyotsugu and Kiyoharu probably show the most concern for him out of the three [[spoiler: Kiyoharu goes so far to help him get in contact with his TA platoon so he can find Miharu]], on the other end [[spoiler: Miharu had Tsuna, who she ends up killing cos he tries to kill Yushiro.]]

* EyesAlwaysShut (Nishida, though its due to the fact that he ''took his own eyes out with his katana'')
* FauxlosophicNarration (The next episode previews.)
* FollowTheLeader (The entire show's been accused of ripping roughly a good three-quarters of its concepts and plot directly from ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''. Exactly how much this is true has been [[FlameWar hotly debated]] over the years; while there are some ''very'' obvious similarities (the clear comparisons between [[TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness SEELE and SYMBOL]], the dysfunctional-family-exploiting-a-son-as-a-pilot dynamic, Miharu's apparent similarities to Rei Ayanami, and [[spoiler:the "divine" origins of the key systems of the mecha]]) the show does take a fairly different direction in the end, with somewhat different messages about the meaning of family and honor and a take on love that ''wholly'' contradicts some of ''Eva'''s [[FreudWasRight Freudian]] assertions.)
* ForeignLanguageTheme (The opening theme, "Message #9")
* ForScience (Kiyotsugu's MO)
* GenerationXerox (as the flashback shows, [[spoiler: Kazukito's actions mimmic those of the Watanabe clan member Tsuna]])
* GenreSavvy (Miharu is very aware that Symbol (and by extension Gowa) views her and Yushiro as a means to an end)
* AGodAmI ([[spoiler: Kazukiyo]])
* GoodHairEvilHair (Kazukiyo has Slicked-Back Hair, easily identifying him as evil)
* GoodSamaritan ([[spoiler: Wan]])
* GoodScarsEvilScars (Nishida has a horizontal scar that goes across the bridge of his nose and over both his eyelids, from where he cut his own eyes out.)
* HeroicBSOD (Miharu has one 2/3rds into the series;[[spoiler: Yushiro eventually snaps her out of it at the end. TA pilots Takayama and Kitazawa also have one inside their TA's during a riot.]])
* HeroicBystander (when first introduced, Wan appears to be one of these [[spoiler: then its revealed that actually one of Symbols former field agents]])
* IJustWantToBeNormal (variation; a third person example from Kaburagi, who feels that Yushiro shouldn't be in the TA platoon as a) he's a civilian not a soldier, and b) its unfair that he hasn't been given a choice in the matter.)

* ImprobableAge (Yushiro is 16; justified in that he is still a civilian, and that the TA squadron he's assigned to wasn't meant to serve in combat at all. This is also lampshaded during episode 6, when Yushiro disappears:

* {{Jerkass}} (Kitazawa is one of these briefly, and even remarks on it later on in the series.)

* LivingStatue (Miharu's kugai, Kokuten, is sealed away inside a statue and guarded by one of Daizaburo's brothers, due to this it never awakens in the present day, unlike Yushiro's Kugai, Shuten)

* TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness (Symbol)

* PsychoSerum (the Eyeglobulum injected into the test pilots for the Type 17I without their knowledge, to make matters worse said substance is actually a compound molecule that was extracted from the Kugai's muscles.)

* SenselessSacrifice ([[spoiler: Yeah, Wan, trying to take on several armed Navy SEALS with a pistol on the open deck of a cargo ship with no cover was probably not one of your brightest moves.]])
* SergeantRock (Major Takayama)

* SuperPrototype (Subverted; the Type 17I Shinden is a mass produced model that is superior to the original Type 17 Raiden both in performance and operating time (36 hours compared to 60 minutes))
* SuperRobot (Cruelly desconstructed to NightmareFuel levels with the Kugai.)
* TeamMom (Lieutenant Kaburagi is a more stern example of one of these, crossing into SergeantRock)

* {{Tykebomb}} (Miharu. [[spoiler:Also Yushiro.]])
* [[UsefulNotes/JapaneseCulture Useful Notes on Japanese Culture]] (Identification of the Nou-men (the ''Noh'' theatrical masks that play a role in the series):)

* WellIntentionedExtremist (Nishida)
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity (the test pilots for the Type 17I suffer nasty side effects from the PsychoSerum they're given in the cockpit.)
* WhoWantsToLiveForever ([[spoiler: Phantom.]])
* [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair You Gotta Have Teal Hair]] (Miharu)

* {{Expy}}: One of the biggest complaints thrown at Miharu is that she's a ''blatant'' copy of [[NeonGenesisEvangelion Rei Ayanami]], in both appearance and character. In the first half of the show, this seems to hold a lot of water (she even has a [[PeopleJars People Jar]] scene or two), but to the show's credit the arc of her development and story eventually go in a much different direction than Rei did.

* FollowTheLeader (The entire show's been accused of ripping roughly a good three-quarters of its concepts and plot directly from ''NeonGenesisEvangelion''. Exactly how much this is true has been [[FlameWar hotly debated]] over the years; while there are some ''very'' obvious similarities (the clear comparisons between [[TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness SEELE and SYMBOL]], the dysfunctional-family-exploiting-a-son-as-a-pilot dynamic, Miharu's apparent similarities to Rei Ayanami, and [[spoiler:the "divine" origins of the key systems of the mecha]]) the show does take a fairly different direction in the end, with somewhat different messages about the meaning of family and honor and a take on love that ''wholly'' contradicts some of ''Eva'''s [[FreudWasRight Freudian]] assertions.)

* DerivativeDifferentiation: It started out as a clone of ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'', but evolved into more of a spiritual predecessor to ''CodeGeass''.

* ImpossiblyGracefulGiant

* TheArcher: [[spoiler: Tsuna Watanabe's weapon of choice, even using it to kneecap Yushiro when he refuses to keep summoning the Gasaraki]].

''Gasaraki'' was produced by {{Sunrise}}, directed by Ryosuke Takahashi of ''ArmoredTrooperVotoms'' fame and originally aired in 1998. {{ADV Films}} released a translated version. It is a bit notable for more recent anime fans as the first big "series-wide" directoral job a certain Goro Taniguchi had - he was "assistant director" for the entire show and helped to make it (somewhat) comprehensible. His work here would lead to him being allowed to fully write, direct and produce ''{{Planetes}}'' (which could not possibly be more different from this show) and ''CodeGeass'' (which, on some level, might be seen as ''Gasaraki'''s spiritual successor - it takes on a lot of the same fundamental themes as ''Gasaraki'', just [[ByronicHero from a different viewpoint]]).

* KatanasAreJustBetter: Subverted; the Kugai tried to use one against one of symbols Fakes...Only to get its arm blown off by the mecha's grenade launcher, Nishia is always carrying one however he talks of of how it takes lots of work to keep the blade in good condition as a metaphor for the japanese people, he only actually uses it twice, once to slice his own eyes out, [[spoiler: and again to commit seppuku]]

* XanatosGambit: Nishida's plan to restore Japan's honor[[spoiler: by intentionally causing the economic collapse of both the US and Japan's stock market/economy by using Japan's economic information and liquid assets as a weapon of sorts, forcing Japan to endure 3 years of poverty, being confident that Japan's people would be able to endure such hardship. It gets derailed slightly when the US president [[TakeAThirdOption Takes A Third Option]], lifting the wheat trade embargo and admitting defeat, resulting in Japan getting what it wanted mostly peacefully. Although Nishida was satisfied with this, he still felt he had failed, and takes his own life.]]

* HimeCut (Misuzu, and Miharu)

->''"Don't bring back the terror!"''\\
--'''Miharu'''

->''"Time is written on the wind, fate is not carved in sheets of stone, these are the words I hear."''\\
--'''Yushiro'''

* {{Nakama}}: The [[TheSquad TA platoon]] treat Yushiro as one of their own, even though he's a civilian, and Yushiro does the same in kind.

''Gasaraki'' was produced by {{Sunrise}}, directed by Ryosuke Takahashi of ''ArmoredTrooperVotoms'' fame and originally aired in 1998. {{ADV Films}} released a translated version. It is a bit notable for more recent anime fans as the first big "series-wide" directoral job a certain Goro Taniguchi had - he was "assistant director" for the entire show and helped to make it (somewhat) comprehensible. His work here would lead to him being allowed to fully write, direct and produce ''{{Planetes}}'' (which could not possibly be more different from this show) and ''CodeGeass'' (which, on some level, might be seen as ''Gasaraki'''s spiritual successor - it takes on a lot of the same fundamental themes as ''Gasaraki'', just [[VillainProtagonist from a different viewpoint]]).