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Gall Force - Your thoughts

Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2022 8:04 am
by George W
I got hooked on Gall Force - BAD.

At first by Wyvern's Web, where I used to get my anime. She sent me up the tape when I asked to her to send me something good.

I watched that tape, untranslated, again and again and again.

And when Gall Force 2 came out, I grabbed that.

And when Gall Force 3 came out, I grabbed that on Laser Disc - now that was nice.

Now I have watched a bunch of the follow on stuff - the effort is there, but the original attraction of the first trilogy was not. They are engaging, but the storyline is less clean, more contrived to fit the structure they built.

I really enjoyed the original 3 movie arc enough to buy the DVDs which are translated (subtitled) which to me is really the only way to watch anime. I want to hear the original voice actors, not try to have someone fit their speech to the "labials" (which is what the translated voice actors and script writers do - they try to match the mouth movements to the words.

If you don't know what I mean, watch some early live action karate translations, where you see the person's mouth speaking long after the translation stops.

Now that I'm through that mini-rant, what do you think of Gall Force?

Re: Gall Force - Your thoughts

Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2022 11:23 am
by Elytron Frass
Yeah I think the series is dope. I especially like Earth Chapter for it's "boots on the ground" approach to futuristic warfare and Eternal Story for all the weird killer space monsters. Certain elements overlap with Fight Iczer 1 and even though I do prefer Iczer, I revisit them every couple of years.

Re: Gall Force - Your thoughts

Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2022 11:58 am
by George W
Really? I always felt Iczer 1 (I have the untranslated tape from Japan) was not as clear or good as Gall Force.

Then again, I didn't see the similarity either, so maybe you have better perception than I do.

Can you elaborate a bit on what you saw was similar? I'm not saying in any way you are incorrect - I just missed it.

Re: Gall Force - Your thoughts

Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2022 2:00 pm
by Elytron Frass
eh it's probably just coincidental but I pick up on similar visual cues, mostly the staging posturing from each respective series' villains when aboard their spaceships.

Re: Gall Force - Your thoughts

Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2022 2:03 pm
by Elytron Frass
I do enjoy Gall Force however. The theme of reincarnation and interspecies feuds are handled in an interesting way. It's a lot of fun.

Re: Gall Force - Your thoughts

Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2022 5:55 pm
by George W
I agree. I thought we'd get some more members weighing in here - Gall Force was one of the better translations that I have run into.

Re: Gall Force - Your thoughts

Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2022 8:57 am
by DKop
Rhea Gall Force was my first introduction to the series on VHS when I got it from either some anime store near NC State or the angry middle eastern fellow that sold anime/records/movies/video games at the Raleigh Flea Market back in the mid 2000's. I found the Gall Force first three films on DVD at a defunct bookstore place called Edward McKay. I believe I got the rest of the series online through other means like ebay/other individuals selling their stuff on Twitter. I have a mix of the series between VHS and DVD.

I remember Earth Chapter being alright, and I cannot tell you what happens in New Era. Ive got Gall Force Revolution on a fansub tape that I've yet to watch that ive had for a few years.

Re: Gall Force - Your thoughts

Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2022 9:15 pm
by danth
I love Gall Force!

What's not to like about a space/mecha show with peak Kenichi Sonoda character designs and mecha by Hideki Kakinuma? And the mecha was awesome, and included various combiner space ships and transforming designs. Basically catnip for any 80s space/mecha nerd.

I had read about Gall Force in Animerica & Animag as a kid but didn't see it until college. I was a little disappointed by the Eternal Story when I finally did see it. Without giving it away, it was obviously derivative of a certain US movie, and the story didn't feel very "eternal". It sort of did its thing and was over. I wanted more stories with those characters and mecha designs but it was not to be.

However Destruction and Stardust War made up for that and delivered more cool designs and space adventures.

I never really got as into Rhea or the Earth chapters. Honestly I kind of forget about those. I want to go back to the Star Front! Being grounded on Earth just seems less interesting.

Re: Gall Force - Your thoughts

Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2022 6:38 am
by George W
73 people have looked at this thread.

7 people have engaged.

Surely there must be some more opinions out there.

Love it? Hate it? Please share!

Re: Gall Force - Your thoughts

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2022 11:35 am
by llj
I recently rewatched the first three Gall Force productions and part one of EArth Chapter. I really like the designs of course. The pacing can be a bit inconsistent. There are stretches where nothing is happening and then good stretches that end too soon. I think Eternal Story is probably still the best. The franchise offers a wealth of great ideas, but i am not sure it fully reached its potential. Alas, it is probably too late to expand on it now without losing much of its original charm.