Garaga (1989) User Reviews

Good looking sci-fi intrigue thriller

[dave13-1 · 6/10 · 18 April 2012]

The plot is sort of a Lost In Space rip-off: a ship with a mixed crew - some of whom seem to have hidden agendas - crashes on a very hostile planet. The crew members struggle to survive animal attacks and each other, while the mystery of their mission unravels. The plotting is a bit complex and far-fetched, but at least it's not boring and predictable. And most importantly, the action animation is good and so are the background drawings. Nothing screams cheap like poorly animated characters or crappy background art. With good-looking production values and a real plot, this piece is already a bit ahead of the average for this sort of exercise.

Unfortunately, the weak characters and slow developing plot line keep this video from being any better. The dialogue is pedestrian and perfunctory and there is no effective comedy relief or other change of mood in the writing. It all works, in short, but it could have been better.

Better than I expected of this older film

[Miwa Satoshi · 7/10 · 6 December 2001]

Though not a great anime, Garaga was actually worth the rental price, featuring surprisingly slick action sequences with a decent storyline and characters.

Of course, one wouldn't expect this after seeing trailers of this title which feature the main character (Jay M. Jay, unfortunately one of the worst hero names conceived of in anime) slicing through a bunch of incommunicado apemen. ("Get the spaceman!")

It's not exactly like that, with the apelike Umlanga actually being a very important part of the plotline, and almost every character having some sort of ulterior motive or dark secret. Jay certainly has his hands full figuring out the secrets of the mysterious planet Garaga, and it's actually neat seeing an intelligent plot in a late '80s anime.

Unfortunately, the movie ends too abruptly, with an ending that's a bit of a letdown, but apart from that (and some utterly awful background music), it actually escapes being fodder for MST3K and ends up as a worthwhile viewing after all.

Time is precious why watch One movie when you can watch Five or more at the same time

[djkulu · 10/10 · 29 August 2020]

Garuga Dubbed is a convoluted masterpiece when a story borrows character designs from movies like Aladdin , Aliens , The Terminator and also includes a sales brochure for a 1988 Ford Bronco ! You know they mean business . To give you a brief summary is impossible because I don't know what happened . Garaga is when you take a 100 hour JRPG and squeeze it into 1 hour and 41 minutes without redacting first or leaving anything out . First its a space adventure , then its a crash landing survival movie ,then a rescue mission , then a magic adventure, then an infiltration mission it goes on and on . Only piece of wisdom I can share is that the guy with the red shirt seems to be the protagonist . Watch This Movie It might not be good but you'll definitively remember Garaga : For the talented voice actors 😃 The multi dimensional characters 😃 Jafar from Aladdin 😃 A 1988 Ford Bronco sales brochure including engine options , vehicle dimensions and other technical measurements (you'll know when to pause to see it) 😃 A well written main character 😃 You can't go wrong enjoy 😃😃😃