Ga-Kin

by Rory Esperanza

Magnetic Robot Ga-Kin.  Young karateka Takeru meets the crew of a strange flying carrier and Mai, daughter of the scientist who commands them.  Takeru soon learns that the people of Izar want to invade our earth and that he and Mai have special powers that enable them to pilot the Ga-Kin robot and stop them.  The way they do it is quite unique.  It begins with the two of them undergoing a transformation of some sort, then, after what seems to be, an obstacle race, they finally get into ugly, boxy mecha.  Takeru's is red, Mai's, pink.  Once they're high in the sky, they get out of their machines and jump into the air.  They grab each other by the arm and begin to spin, their bodies forming a ring.  After a while, they transform into a pair of hexagons stuck together.  Next thing you know, the carrier is shooting the disassembled body and limbs of Ga-Kin at them with its cannons.  The parts attach themselves to Takeru and Mai's new form and tada!  If you wonder about the robots at the beginning, they've kept on flying somewhere up there, but will eventually be called for at the end of every episode, changing shape into two "guns" that Ga-Kin will use to finish off the enemy.  Mai and Takeru usually regain their original form shows have that kind of unending, mumbo-jumbo, choreographic transformation that can be repeated in each episode and therefore, save lots of drawing time.  But this one pushes it.  Another interesting detail about this series is the character designs of the bad guys, mainly their leader, whose brain is so HUGE it looks like a big green afro haircut.  Ga-Kin was renamed Magnos in the US and released in a TV format.

Pictures of Ga-Kin