The King of Braves GaoGaiGar Final

The King of Braves GaoGaiGar Final (勇者王ガオガイガー FINAL) is the OVA sequel to the 1997 anime television series The King of Braves GaoGaiGar. The series begun in 2000, created by Sunrise's internal "Studio 7" under the direction of Yoshitomo Yonetani, and the first Yūsha metaseries funded by both Takara and Bandai and produced by Sunrise.

Premise
The series is comprised eight episodes and is chronologically set after the events at the end of the original television series, featuring new and returning characters from the television series and other GaoGaiGar media. Notable inclusions are the return of Mamoru and Galeon; the first anime appearance of Renais Kerdif-Shishioh, Guy's cousin from GGG's sister organization Chasseur (as first seen in the novel "The King of Braves GaoGaiGar: Queen of Leo ". as well as GaoGaiGar's successor mechanoids GaoFighGar and Genesic GaoGaiGar.

Grand Glorious Gathering
Starting in April 2005, a twelve episode "re-imagining" of the series, "The King of Braves GaoGaiGar Final -Grand Glorious Gathering-", aired on TV Tokyo. Due to the different running lengths of the OVA versus the space allowed on TV, the episodes were re-edited and spread across those twelve episodes. Footage from the original TV series and new voice recordings were used to fill in the allotted time, as well as new footage which almost exclusively serves to further establish a connection between GaoGaiGar and the anime series "Betterman," which takes place in the same world and setting. Several incidences of nudity found in the OVA were also censored or omitted.

Themes
Final has a very different set of themes from the original series, focusing primarily on two central themes. The first is "together with the oath sworn through courage", a phrase which Guy and many of the other heroes reference many times throughout Final. The oath is not an actual oath per se, but rather an embodiment of the will of the heroes to fight to their last breath. It is the concept that, as Papillon Noir says in the finale, we will always overcome the difficulties ahead of us as long as we have courage.

The second primary theme is the recurring imagery of God versus the Devil, a concept briefly touched on during the last fight of the original series. From Palparepa's view, the victor becomes God and the vanquished the Devil. He quite clearly sees himself as God, and at two points he mentally sees Guy as the Devil, the demon who brings ruin. Later in Final, Guy (or rather, Genesic GaoGaiGar) is revealed to be the God of Destruction, the one who brings the hope of a fresh start from zero, the challenge of infinite possibility. The dualist nature of GaoGaiGar suggests that there must then be a God (or Goddess) of Protection - all factors indicate that this would be Mikoto Utsugi, herself an invincible life-form formed from the remains of the power of Zonder Metal.

Plotline
Taking place well after the end of the series, GaoGaiGar FINAL tracks the events surrounding the Q-Parts, mysterious black machines that possess powerful energy conversion properties. Episode 1 begins with the criminal organization BioNet having stolen one of the Q-Parts being researched at CERN, and serves primarily to introduce the changes to the main cast since the end of the series. Guy debuts in his new Super Mechanoid GaoFighGar, a combination of upgraded GaoMachines and the reconfiguring jet PhantomGao that was built to replace Galeon after the latter's departure from Earth at the end of the series. This episode also introduces the new cast, including Guy's cousin Renais-Kardif Shishio and the biologist Papillon Noir, a character first introduced in Betterman. The end of the episode sees the appearance of an off-color Mamoru Amami, who was also briefly seen at the start of the episode doing battle with a resurrected Ikumi Kaidou.

Episode 2 tracks Mamoru as he takes the rest of the Q-Parts, either by guile or by force, and assembles them into their full form, a matter replication device known as the Pas-Q Machine. In the process, Papillon is killed, and Guy takes off after Mamoru. The encounter ends in a battle between GaoFighGar and a copy of GaoGaiGar using Mamoru and a pale copy Galeon(Repli-Galeon) as the core component. The battle ends in Guy's victory (at the cost of the helper robo Goldymarg, causing Guy to use Hell and Heaven as his finishing move once again), and both Mamoru and Galeon are revealed to be replicants that dissolve into sand. The machine is promptly taken by a mysterious man with butterfly wings, and GGG prepares to take after him into space.

Episode 3 is almost entirely non-combat. In order to get around the UN's refusal to allow them to leave Earth, GGG stages an elaborate ploy together with their related organizations and the Secretary General of the UN, Rose Approval. The result is that three of GGG's Division ships and their crew (that is, the entirety of the main cast) are exiled from Earth, and are free to follow Ikumi Kaidou's directions to the Tri-Solar System. Their enemy is revealed to be the 11 Soul Masters, programs designed to regenerate the Tri-Solar System after the Z-Master was eradicated.

Episode 4 sees GGG arrive to find a replica of Earth - like all the previous replicants, this is an off-color version. Its only inhabitant is a replica of Papillon, who reveals that this replica of Earth was created moments prior to her original's death by a misfire of the Pas-Q Machine, which produces imperfect duplicates. Papillon was the only human duplicate that was stable enough to survive for more than a few seconds. The Galeon and Mamoru previously met were also Pas-Q Machine duplicates. GGG scours the Earth for Mamoru and the Soul Masters, but fails to find so much as a hint of them. Over time, the majority of GGG becomes lethargic, and most eventually slip into sleep. The Mobile Unit is shut down by them prior to this, leaving only Guy, Papillon and Renais active. Guy hunts for the source of all this, and is accosted by the Soul Masters. He faces off against Palparepa, the man who stole the Pas-Q Machine, but falls against Palparepa's God and Devil attack when he sees that one of the Soul Masters is Cain, leader of the Green Planet.

Episode 5 is the remainder of Guy's fight with Palparepa with GaoFighGar being destroyed during the battle, followed by Mikoto's awakening from her slumber. Papillon reveals that Mikoto is an invincible life-form like the new machine species Zonuda, and thus was able to recover from the nerve-relaxing Paras Particles Palparepa had spread across the replicant Earth. Papillon begins work on an antidote, while Mikoto goes to find the imprisoned Soldato J, now mankind's last hope. In the process, she meets the real Mamoru, who had been in the Tri-Solar System for a year and a half. Upon meeting and freeing J (with the help of Renais), Mikoto is attacked by the Soul Masters Pillnus and Pia Decem, respectively Renais and J's counterparts. The heroes escape on the reborn J-Ark, which is dragged up into the upper atmosphere and forced to do battle with replicants of the entire Mobile Unit and a replica of GaoFighGar piloted by none other than Guy, now under Palparepa's control.

Episode 6 concludes the battle and results in Guy's purification, J's J-Quath is shattered in the fight after the Repli-Mobile Unit sacrifice themselves to take some of the blow from the Repli-Goldion Hammer, as the Repli-Mobile Unit rebel the Repli-Goldymarg self destructs not long after wards. The Soul Masters attack J-Ark directly, and in the process Guy, Mamoru and Mikoto escape to the G-Crystal located on the replica of the moon, while J finds his J-Jewel shut down. The G-Crystal is the only thing left from the original Tri-Solar System, and it is here that Mamoru has been hiding out all this time, working to restore Galeon to its original form and programming. The Soul Masters attempt to destroy the Crystal, and their duplicate of Cain attempts to conduct Fusion with the new Genesic Galeon. It refuses, and instead reveals that Guy is within, alive and well. Guy conducts Fusion with Galeon, and Mikoto breaks a crystal plate to release the Genesic Machines, the original GaoMachines. Guy performs Final Fusion for the last time to form the God of Destruction, Genesic GaoGaiGar. Mikoto, however, is critically wounded in the aftermath. She is left nearly dead - however, if what Papillon said is true, Mikoto cannot die.

Episode 7 is mostly Genesic GaoGaiGar demonstrating its sheer destructive power against the Soul Masters. GGG arrives partway into the battle, now awakened by Papillon's antidote. The members of the Mobile Unit (as well as J-Ark) end up faced off against their counterparts, with J's power being restored and enhanced by proximity to Renais's G-Stone. The battles end up spread across the entire Earth, and Genesic GaoGaiGar's fight with Palparepa is shown to be very one-sided until Palparepa powers up by injecting himself with his own Doping Cylinders. The episode ends with Palparepa using his improved God and Devil as Guy unveils the true form of Hell and Heaven.

Episode 8 is fifty-one minutes long, as opposed to the normal half-hour length. It chronicles the individual fights, where GGG fares well initially against each of the Soul Masters. However, the Soul Masters are capable of regenerating infinitely, and ultimately manage to overpower the heroes. Each member of the Mobile Unit uses their desperation attack, most of which were formerly only listed in tech specs, and emerges victorious. Guy manages to defeat the powered-up Palparepa even after he undergoes yet another transformation, and reveals that the G-Stones convert courage into life force. Against this power, the Loud G-Stones that power the Soul Masters lose their strength and that also the G-Stone's power can continue to grow exceeding the Loud G-Stone's limit. The Soul Masters' Regeneration Machine, Pisa Sol, proceeds to duplicate all the destroyed Soul Masters a hundred times over. This drains its power, giving GGG the opportunity they need to use their ultimate weapon, the Goldion Crusher, to destroy it and thus end the menace of the Soul Masters. Unfortunately, GGG is faced with the discovery that this Repli-jin universe is collapsing, and there is only a 1-meter gateway that will be open for 2 seconds for anyone to escape. In the end, Mamoru and Kaidou are sent in torpedoes out of the universe, bidding tearful farewells to their comrades. Upon their return to earth, Mamoru, Kaidou and Hana create a memorial to honor GGG's sacrifice. The final moment of the episode closes with the narrator saying that we all hope and believe that GGG will return again someday.

Trivia

 * Due to the Goldion Crusher not being introduced until the last OVA, the theme song used in Episode 7 blanks out where Masaaki Endoh would normally shout the name of the weapon and for two seconds afterwards, replacing the expected video of the Goldion Crusher with an image of Genesic GaoGaiGar and GaoFighGar shaking hands while the original GaoGaiGar looks on.


 * Most of the villains in FINAL are intended to be direct counterparts to members of the main cast. This is subtle in some cases (such as Palparepa, who initially bears very little resemblance to Guy), while in others it is much more blatant (such as Percurio, who plays swing music in a musical duel with the guitar rock of Mic Sounders the 13th.)