Daikiu Maryu Gaikingu/Divine Demon Dragon Gaiking/Gaiking/El Gladiador

More robots, more action!

In 1976, Toei gave us Gaiking, yet another story of a prodigious athlete, baseball player Sanshiro Tsuwabuki! Well, actually, maybe it is about broken limbs, because during Sanshiro’s debut game in the Japanese big leagues, alien assassins break his wrist with baseball-firing sniper rifles. Seeking bloody, wrist-breaking revenge for his ruined career, Sanshiro becomes the pilot for a giant robot (Gaiking) that converts into the golden metal skull of a chubby dinosaur spaceship (Great Space Dragon). The chubby dinosaur spaceship itself is piloted by complete jerk (and sole American character) Pete Richardson.
Living within this chubby dinosaur are three smaller robot dinosaurs: a pterodactyl (Skylar), a triceratops (Bazoler), and some kind of brontosaurus-with-wings (Nessar, as in “Nessie The Loch Ness Monster”), piloted by the Getter Robo-esque trio of a Hong Kong kickboxer, a sumo-wrestling pickpocket vagrant, and Fat Guy. We round out cast with the Crusty Scientist, The-Girl-With-A-Tragic-Past, and the Little Boy Sidekick. An innovative addition is science officer Gen Sakon, who doesn't really fit into the standard super-robot roles; he is super-smart, kind and always comes up with plans to beat the bad guys or finding weaknesses in enemy robots when Sanshiro's raw violence and telekinetic powers aren't enough. He's basically Mr. Spock without the superiority complex.

Are you talking to me?

You may be thinking, “Wow, this sounds like a really generic super-robot show,” and I do have to admit it shares a lot of elements with other ‘70s robot-fighting adventures. However, the way I look at it, Gaiking is the pinnacle of the Toei ‘70s super-robot mountain. Director Tomoharu Katsuma worked on Mazinger Z (Tranzor Z), Great Mazinger, UFO Robo Grendizer (Goldorak/Goldrake), and Getter Robo and most of the staff were anime veterans. The exception is Dan Kobayashi, the robot designer for the show. While the basic concepts of the Great Space Dragon and Gaiking as his head were already there before he came aboard, Kobayashi is the one who have to thank for the look of Gaiking and his dinosaur pals. We also need to talk about Akio Sugino (Ashita no Joe, Aim for the Ace!, Jetter Mars), who Toei credits with the creation of Gaiking, along with Kobayashi and Kunio Nakatani (sometimes rendered as Nakaya).

Notice I said, "Toei credits." The actual creator of Gaiking was under dispute. Toei gives a vague credit of "Collaboration (Episodes 1-22)" to Dynamic Kikaku, Go Nagai’s company. Dynamic worked with Toei on many shows—not just the Mazinger and Getter Robo shows but also Devilman, Steel Jeeg, and Cutey Honey. The story goes that Go Nagai came up with the original concept (which is pretty believable considering how closely it hews to previous Dynamic robot shows), but Toei chose not to credit it to him. This soured their relationship, and Dynamic soon refused to work with Toei. This part is definitely confirmed; go look at how many Dynamic shows were produced with Toei before 1976 and how many after.

The enemy.

The great Dragon crew.

Apparently Go Nagai sued Toei and won his credit after a ten-year battle. (I've only seen Italian language sources about the court case, so take it with a grain of salt, though William Winckler, the producer of a recent English version of Gaiking stated that Toei told him Go Nagai was hard to work with.) It is also perhaps telling that in the Gaiking remake from a few years ago features zero characters or storylines returning from the original. The only thing tying it to the 1976 Gaiking is the robot design.

Legal issues aside, Gaiking has a killer staff that knows they are doing. Gaiking is in many ways a refinement of what can before. 1972's Mazinger Z features a Koji, a hot-blooded robot pilot, his comedy relief fat guy sidekick, his spunky female counterpart, no less than six crusty scientists, and freakish monsters that have mangled anatomies. Gaiking repeats all of these ideas, but cuts down the number of scientists, which I think is probably a good move. How many mad scientists does one show need? I can't even remember the sidekick scientist trio's names without looking them up. 

Of course, Gaiking's creators know what's funny, so they increased the fat guy count to two. They even have a villain, Dark Horror Army leader Darius, whose unnatural upside down head (with a mustache that may also be eyebrows) fits well with the tortured anatomies of Dr. Hell's underlings, the twisted half-tiger, half-man Archduke Gorgon from Great Mazinger, and the Grendizer villain Gandal, whose face splits open to reveal the nagging pint-sized wife that lives in his face. The original Getter Robo show from 1974 had one pilot who was a soccer player, one who was a judo expert, and one who was a murderous lunatic. Hey, murdering people can be athletic, right? Anyway, Gaiking has a baseball player, a kickboxer, and a sumo wrestler. Of course, replacement fat guy Benkei from Getter Robo G was also a baseball player. Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger did not have athletes at all (unless you consider motorcycle riding athletic), but sports heroes as robot pilots was an ongoing theme in 1976.

Don't worry planet Earth, I'm a trained baseball hero!

Gaiking in action!

While Grendizer, Getter Robo G, and Steel Jeeg were still running that year, Gaiking was the epitome of the Toei super robot show. After they lost the support of Dynamic, Toei went on to produce several mediocre shows (Barattack, Space Guardian Daikengo, Future Robo Daltanius). The only post-Gaiking Toei robot show of note is Danguard Ace, also directed by Tomoharu Katsumata, but with Leiji Matsumoto's love for spaceship and disdain for robots, the show has an uncomfortable tension that doesn't really work. It's true that after 1976 Toei found success with space operas (Galaxy Express 999, Captain Harlock, SF Saiyuki Starzinger), but the golden age was over. If Mobile Suit Gundam was the bullet that killed super robots, the break-up of Dynamic and Toei was the gun.

Here's the original 1978 toy commercial of the "Shogun Warriors" which, in essence were Mazinger & Gaiking:

Here's the original japanese opening:

Here's the American opening:




 
Here's the Latin American opening. However, this opening sequence was used as the ending of the series since it was a part of the "Festival de los Robots" which had its own opening featuring scenes from the four series it had. This happened also with Steel Jeeg, Starzinger & Gakeen. The original opening sequences were used as the ending for each of these Animé.

Here's the opening for the "Festival de los Robots" featuring images from Gaiking, Steel Jeeg, Starzinger, and Gakeen: