Gad Guard
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| Gad Guard | |
|---|---|
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| ガドガード (Gad Guard) |
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| Genre | Adventure, Mecha |
| TV anime | |
| Directed by | |
| Studio | GONZO |
| Network |  Animax, Fuji TV G4techTV |
| Original run | – |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
Gad Guard (ガドガード) is a 26-episode anime television series produced by GONZO, which was broadcast across Japan by the anime television network, Animax, and Fuji Television. It has been licensed for North American distribution by Geneon Entertainment and also aired on Anime Unleashed.
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[edit] Story
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In the anime, Hajiki Sanada lives with his widowed mother and younger sister in a gloomy ghetto known as "Night Town," where criminals and gangs run the streets in mechs called Heavy Metals. Working as a delivery boy for a hard-nosed man named Hachisuka to help his family pay the bills, Hajiki also secretly saves up money to buy back their old summer home in Unit Blue, which is pretty much the suburbs of Night Town.
One day, while playing hooky from school to go to work, Hachisuka gives Hajiki a weird assignment: Hajiki is to deliver a strange, rare relic called a "Gad" that Hachisuka received from the most infamous couple of Night Town, Jacque and Wanda Woman. As Hajiji gets halfway to the dropoff point he is cut off by a speeding car. He swerves to avoid it and crashes his scooter. The package bursts open across the street revealing something that resembles little more than a stone cube.
As Hajiki looks at the Gad, Jacque and Wanda Woman arrive with a trio of mysterious heavy metal operators. As the conflict between the two side starts to get ugly, Hajiki ends up getting caught up in the middle of the action, setting off a strange reaction in the Gad. The Gad then begins to absorb every piece of machinery in sight--including Jacque's and Wanda's car--and gives birth to Hajiki's prized robot: a Techode called "Lightning."
Before long, Hajiki meets four other children who also possess Techodes: Arashi Shinozuka, Aiko Harmony, Takumi Kisaragi, and a boy known only as Katana. Katana is almost always accompained by a young, blond-haired girl named Sayuri; Katana tries to keep Sayuri near him because she resembles a childhood friend of his.
It turns out that Katana plans to take over Night Town with his Techode, Zero. Hajiki and Takumi vow to stop him; Arashi chooses to never use her Techode, Hayate, in combat, while Aiko is of the opinion that all Techode operators should be friends.
Aiko's father, as it turns out, has been hoarding a huge number of Gads (intending to make them Aiko's inheritance). When his Gads are stolen, Takumi assumes that Katana is to blame. Aiko attempts to stop Takumi from looking for Katana; Thunderbolt (Takumi's Techode) suddenly breaks and begins attacking Aiko's Techode, Messerschmitt, without orders. Takumi repeatedly attempts to make Thunderbolt stop, to no avail. Finally, Thunderbolt dissolves into nothingness, and Messerschmitt is left badly damaged.
Eventually, Katana attacks Hajiki's home and tries to kidnap Hajiki's younger sister, Satsuki. Satsuki is unharmed, Hajiki cannot face his mother after this, and leaves the city in a stolen truck. Arashi quickly joins him, saying that she understands why he wants to run away.
Katana, meanwhile, begins to suspect that Sayuri is not really human; she looks identical to a girl he knew as a child, without any signs of age. Sayuri suddenly remarks that Katana is about to die, and, thus, he no longer needs her. With this, she runs away.
While on his journey, Hajiki and Arashi find a photo of a man who looks exactly Haiki's father, Yujiro Sanada. Yujiro had been a rocket pilot, and he was assumed dead after a rocket accident when Hajiki was very young. Hajiki, although unsure that the man is his father, decides to pursue him.
Hajiki and Arashi track the photo to a small island, which once served as the launch site for a space burial company. There, they locate the man from the photograph; he never speaks, but spends his days digging for the remains of old rockets. Hajiki (although still doubtful about the man's identity) and Lightning begin to help him dig.
When a fire breaks out in the mine, Hajiki realises that the man is a Techode who only looks like Yujiro. Still, the false Yujiro is severely burned and unable to dig. Hajiki and Lightning decide to continue digging in his absence. Suddenly, Sayuri arrives on the island as well, stating that she wants to go to her homeland in space.
After some time of digging, Hajiki and Lightning unearth a rocket and prepare to launch it. However, Katana and Zero suddenly rush to the launch site and begin trying to stop the launch. Katana claims that he will never let Sayuri leave him. In the ensuing battle, Lightning merges with the Techode-Yujiro. Now able to speak, Lightning explains that Gads merge with people's thoughts and wishes. However, some people have more than one wish, and so multiple Techodes are occasionally born from the same Gad. Lightning and the Techode-Yujiro were an example of this; Sayuri and Zero were the same case.
Katana realises that Sayuri is a Techode, and tries to make her merge with Zero to make Zero more powerful. However, he pulls Sayuri away at the last moment, unwilling to lose her. Hajiki and Lightning manage to make it into the rocket, while Sayuri and Katana decide to go home.
The rocket carries Hajiki and Lightning to 'the birthplace of Gads' in space. The voice of Hajiki's father (issuing from a Gad) explains that the Gad was sent to Hajiki to fulfill Hajiki's dream to fly. Hajiki comments that now, his only dream is to become a responsible adult who can protect his family- in short, he wants to be like his father. He then is sent back home, and Lightning dissolves. Hajiki then decides to go on a journey to find Katana, remarking that the two of them probably have a few things to discuss.
[edit] The Significance of a Gad
Known in the Gad Guard world only as "powerful stones," everyone desires gads and believes that gads will fulfill everyone's dreams. However, each corrupted person to handle a gad soon came to realize the nightmares hidden inside them. Though the real importance of a gad is unknown, they are used as very high sums of currency and are usually only owned by the rich in the color-coded sectors and units. Nevertheless, a gad has many peculiar abilities, and some of the things that have come forth from gads have been beautiful dreams while others are metal nightmares.
[edit] Techode
A techode is one of the three things that sprout from a gad. It is usually a powerful robot fueled by the emotional bond between the robot and the owner, giving it uncanny abilities and strengths to do almost anything. They are usually "born" by the gad's owner having a strong or serious emotion in an area occupied by a lot of metal.
[edit] A-Techode
A-Techode is a manifestation of one's greed or lust for a gad. A few of the A-Techodes to plague Night Town have been a monster woman, a dragon train, and a flying fortress.
[edit] External links
- Gad Guard (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
