Giant Gorg is undoubtedly one of the most successful anime of the 80s, it has now been remastered and is finally available on Blu-ray.
When the DVD edition of the series was released in 2016, I naturally loved it. Originally aired in 1984, Giant Gorg was a huge missed opportunity on Sunrise’s part. Mainly because if it had been released worldwide when it was originally released, it probably would have blown other people’s minds.
The animation alone for a television series of this era is incredibly good. There is no earthly explanation why the animators had to put so much effort into this series. But they worked hard and the effects were, and still are, indeed. , wonderful.
It also contained a wonderful story and delved into mysterious ancient civilizations, which caused a furor in the 80s for cartoons. I, for one, grew up watching Mysterious Cities of Gold and Ulysses 31, both of which were Japanese-produced, and I can perfectly see Giant Gorg fitting well between the two screens.
However, Giant Gorg was and still is on another level, and in 2016 I was very pleased that, despite everything, it could be had in any format outside of Japan.
Fast forward to last year, when the Japanese Blu-ray remaster of Giant Gorg was released in the West, and once again I’m faced with the question “what if?”
This new Blu-ray release shows just how incredibly clever animation is for an animated TV series. While Future Boy Conan explained an entire generation of children’s anime, Giant Gorg does the same. The unfortunate thing about all this, however, is that in Japan, when Giant Gorg was released, it did so in the midst of a distant silence.
Since my review of the DVD version, I interviewed Giant Gorg author and director Yoshikazu Yasuhiko and heard directly from him how the series was received. I also spoke with Mamoru Nagano about how he worked on the series and redesigned the interior of the friendly vehicle called Beagle.
On the contrary, having talked to those two mythical characters of the anime made me appreciate Giant Gorg even more.
The remastering of this series is truly impressive.
When a new mecha screen came out in the 80s, the mechas had gadgets and appeared directly in the first episode for everyone to see. This is a big component of how they made money on the back end through designing kits and toy marketing.
Giant Gorg subverted all of that by having a titular mecha who didn’t appear until the fourth episode and had no elements to speak of other than being blue and looking cool.
Instead, Yasuhiko and his team focused on creating a fun edition of Treasure Island with an engaging concept of encountering extraterrestrial beings who had arrived in Earth’s remote afterlife and fallen asleep only to awaken from the present day.
Much of the appeal of the show, apart from how great it looked, was the thoughtful and gradual pacing, where you found out what’s so special about this tiny island in the Pacific and why very powerful corporate forces wanted to control it.
Back when I reviewed Future Boy Conan, I was pretty upfront about how great it was for families, even today, decades after its initial release. I really feel the same is true for Giant Gorg. It’s a great show on so many levels and is also more nuanced than you would first think, with many of the characters playing against type in surprising ways.
As for this Blu-ray version, as with other Discotek Blu-rays, there are no genuine extras to speak of. These are just the 26 episodes superbly remastered with forged translation treated through English subtitles. However, all of this is selling for the very moderate price of $37. 46, which is a fraction of what the Japanese Blu-ray box set charged when it was released in 2022.
That said, a small addition is that the canopy features a map of the Austral Island on the front, which is a great touch.
Overall, Giant Gorg is a real crop in the anime realm. With very good animation, a glorious story, and attractive characters, this is one of the most productive anime ever created. So don’t worry, because I’m watching this at the same time as Gorg on the same Gorg channel.
Giant Gorg is available on Blu-ray on Crunchyroll’s online store for $37. 46.
Disclosure: Crunchyroll sent me this Blu-ray for this review.
Follow me on X, Facebook and YouTube. I manage Mecha Damashii and lately I appear in the Giant Robots exhibition that lately travels around Japan.
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