Monday, September 16, 2013

Gaiking: The Movie Collection



As good as you're going to get if you are a fan of the series, as this trilogy was sanctioned by the original Japanese studio
The die-hard anime fans out there that are either objecting or hesitant about purchasing these feature compilations need to understand that it was the original Japanese studio Toei themselves who had all these TV anime dubbed and compiled into features in the first place. Many of these shows had filler episodes and I believe this feature format is actually the best way to attract these old shows overseas, as you get the real essential elements of each series, while remaining faithful to the essence of their original series, so they are not sanitized or Americanized in any real way at all. Toei themselves planned out how each series was to be edited for the features. So for all the die-hard anime fans out there, this is really as good as you're going to get. The voice acting in the dubs aren't perfect, but at least, because its Toei themselves putting these out internationally and not a local licensor, you know the scripts never really stray from the original Japanese ones...

Not perfect, but nice to have
Well I got my Gaiking Movie Collection DVD in the mail yesterday and wanted to provide a mini review. First off. Thank you Brian Ward for acknowledging this release on your weekly Shout Out video. Hopefully this will tune some people into the fact that it's out there.

As for the movies themselves, I consider the overall quality fairly decent. I appreciate that all dialogue was pretty much translated from the original series, certainly much more faithful than Jim Terry's "Force-5" adaptation from the early 80's. That being said--in a perfect world, of course I would love to have the entire 44 episode run in original Japanese w/English subs, but I've pretty much consigned myself to the fact that this probably won't happen, so having these films William Winckler put together is quite nice.

Shout Factories presentation of the 3 films seems very nicely done. The only criticism I have is the fact that the packaging clearly states there are subtitles (which I assume are...

As much as I would love to see the entire series of "Gaiking", the movies will do...
When it comes to super robots, back in the mid-to-late '70s, Japan had a mecha boom with Danguard Ace, Raydeen, Combattler and Gaiking.

And it was one of the few moments where that mecha boom extended to the United States thanks to the release of the Shogun Warriors die-cast toys and the Marvel comic book series (in return, Japan was able to create a tokusatsu version of Spider-Man, who happened to have a big robot).

And for "Gaiking", having a popular toy was aided by Jim Terry's "Force Five" animated line-up which included "Gaiking" which was produced by Toei Animation from 1976-1977 with a total of 44 episodes being created. And the series was also seen on television in various countries.

While "Gaiking" was remade in 2005, in 2009, William Winckler Productions produced three all new English dubbed movie versions edited from the original series. Winckler, who is known for his work on "Tekkaman the Space Night", wrote, produced and directed the...

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