[Androzani84]

Probably the most notable episode for me, but rather than go through the faff of saying it again here, I’ll just quote what I said on the other guy’s thread to start us off.

Quote:

Well, there’s a lot to explain reference wise. Not least that Gauma’s blurry flashback is actually footage from an episode of the OG Gridman, entitled “The Legend of Dragon”.

To explain the plot of that episode, and how it relates here, said episode revolves around a 5000 year-old Chinese mummy being brought into the local museum, with a legend stating that he was separated from his lover, a Princess. The bad guys think this will mean he has a lot of pent up rage and send the monster Mecha-Baguila into the museum’s CAT scanner, reprogramming it to revive the mummy and send it on a rampage. But the kids trapped in the museum realise that the mummy isn’t angry, he’s sad that he didn’t get to reunite with his lover (who one of them just happens to resemble). Meanwhile, Gridman fights Mecha-Baguila and gets help in the form of a new Assist Program modelled after the sarcophagus the mummy came in, Dyna Fighter, which can transform into the Dragon Cannon, allowing him to win.

And other things to note about this episode include:

When the subs came out, Funi mistranslated “mummy” (mirraa) as “mirror”. Though that’s been corrected since, any third party sites you may or may not watch still have the original preserved in all its glory.

Shizuma’s monster form actually appears briefly in the opening credits, during the shots of the Eugenicists. But it’s zoomed in so far you can’t tell what it is until this point.

And since I made that post, I’ve learned that the monster in question is called Gagular, after the Caligula effect, a psychological term referring to the guilt and excitement that comes after doing something that a person isn't supposed to do. (Named for Emperor Caligula, the Roman Emperor who ran the country into the ground through his incompetence and insanity. He got parodied on the Simpsons, with the parody also having irrational dislike for foreigners and people believing him to be a potential great leader since he was born into wealth. But there’s no obvious reason for an American show in the new 20s to add such traits to a tyrannical dictator s/)

And rather than any of Studio TRIGGER’s design crew, they got Masayuki Gotoh, the head designer at Tsuburaya, to design Gagula. He deliberately made it so it would be too complex to be made as a real suit… and hence they went and made one anyway.