Gal to Kyouryuu

(You don't need a TLDR review for this GOAT, but it is there...)

Stop.

Stop everything.

I don't care if you are watching Attack On Titan Final Season
I don't care if you are hyped for My Hero Academia Season 5
I don't care if you are still waiting for NGNL Season 2 or Tokyo Ghoul Brotherhood (yeah it's not coming feelsbadman)

Go watch Gal & Dino. Watch it NOW.

I have seen some amazing anime in my life. I simp for Madoka Magica. Pop Team Epic is based comedy humour and influential god. The Promised Neverland hit hard. But Gal & Dino, it's coming to the collection of top 10 anime MAPPA was too afraid to animate. Let's get into why Gal & Dino is intellectually and ingeniously stupendously good (legit was so good that I remembered stupendous was a word, bruh). In which, this review will also offer the feel to the joy the has to bring. You see that synopsis there? Yeah, I wrote that[1]. Because Gal & Dino deserves more. I was so disappointed so no one would dedicate time to convince anime fans to watch such a gem.


Narrative:
As a prestigious comedy 🎭 analyst 📝🧐 and funny 🤣 man 🤵[2][3], I have come to the conclusion that Gal & Dino uses many unprecedented techniques in order to enhance its authentic image. You see, within each episode, Gal & Dino uses what the current generation of users would call 'a vibe' within both shorts in each first half of an episode. Vibing isn't seen a lot in anime, in which, to make such a show based on a niche sector, would be quite the risk, however, vibing does take elements from Iyashikei and CGDCT. It is more chilling than 'vibing' if I am honest. But they have the same concept of everything's cool, take it easy, do fun things. Or in other words, the keanu chungus wholesome 100. But seriously, not a lot of shows other there just take it easy and let reality do the work, which yes, reality is often disappointing, but if you have a literally 'gyaru' type girl and a literal blue dinosaur how the hell will anything be disappointing. Most of the episodes are just the pair having fun with what regular life gives them. Watching movies? Done. Birthday Party? Covered. Workplace chaos? They got you. Hotel? No. Haven't seen such realistic characters in a long while.

Then we get onto the part everyone's been waiting for. The live-action half of the episode. One of the most creative, most imaginative things this ｂｒｕｈ medium has to offer. Never seen live-action used so well, you might be thinking, "Live action? lmao, I didn't sign up to watch DBZ Evolution, I'm out", but I assure you it is used well. The chill vibe is still there, it is essentially like the animated segments but with real-life people and more comedy humour, and very funny!! What has caught my attention recently to Gal & Dino, mostly the live-action, is that people are heavily discouraged to continue watching such a masterpiece due to its unorthodox nature. In response to MAL's nature of bringing up quotes to support their review, I bring forward Charles Darwin's most recognisable one.

"A man who dares to not watch the second half episode of Gal & Dino has not discovered the omnipotent value of comedy humour." ― Charles Darwin[4]

There it is.
The man himself said it.

But honestly, the live-action segments just make you question everything you have watched before, make you wonder, why can't all anime go above and beyond. Gal & Dino isn't there for the moment, it is something to treasure for the years to come. What a godsend of an anime.


Audiovisuals:
Real-life looks beautiful[5]. And for Gal & Dino to utilise such a base, namely that of the East Asian country known as 日本 (Japan), the anime manages to instantly produce high-quality visuals so much so that Vincent van Gogh has been real quiet since the anime dropped. As for the animated segment, I remember on a normal 5th April 2020 when I stumbled across Gal & Dino's anime KV whilst looking for new anime to watch. I was like "yo, imma have to watch this", could you imagine. You don't even need to see the frames progress to see how amazing the visuals are. Legit never seen anything like this in my life.

As for the audio, the silence for Dino was such an amazing idea that it literally correlates to Pingu in the City tactics. Using such a method would allow for no need to worry about language barriers allowing for the world population to enjoy Dino's day to day life. The same is not used for Kaede, but that is ok, for Kaede sounds like your normal type gyaru so there were no problems there. All in all, astonishing ideas.


Enjoyment:
10/10 enjoyment (and based.)

What it will say is that some of the comedy humour used to bring the viewer to a state in which they exhale air from their nose, fails at times. You can expect the nihonjin cringe humour, but that is not a bad thing. You need to remember that this was intentional. You can't tell me that MLG horn, lightsabers sound effect and nihonjin humour is all dedicated to one audience. The team knew this was going international. It was going out there, for the world to see. Literally what I was on about with Dino's silence. This is for all to enjoy. What a blessing. There is also a game you can play in the anime, being Find Dino. As it says on the tin, find Dino! And GG. Who would have guessed that an anime in this day and age full of shitty isekai would go to such a length for the sake of the audience? In addition to this, there is Dino Channel. Kinda like YouTube but it is based on Dino. Just funny skits to laugh at. Seriously, how can you argue against this, how enjoyable this is is just something that not just anyone will put effort into, the team was out here thinking about every possible thing for their audience. It is just so amazing.


Overall - 💯
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TLDR Review:
Story - 10: 10/10 vibe
Visuals - 10: 10/10 real life
Audio - 10: 10/10 dino silence
Characters - 10: 10/10 dino and gyaru and other chill people.
Enjoyment - 10: you won't forget this.
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I am honestly saddened to death to see that the anime has a score of 6.33. Unbelievable. But honestly, go watch this masterpiece. This one of a lifetime gem. I needn't say more.

For anyone who thinks I am a liar:
References:
[1]Check on MAL Rewrite club
[2]If I link I will get in trouble by mods
[3]So go surf my profile or ask me to show you where.
[4]Google "Charles Darwin quotes" most certainly not edited btw.
[5]Google "beautiful landscapes"

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The (2nd) last of the COVID-delayed shows, AND REALLY, WHAT A DISASTER for this to be postponed, because this half-anime, half-live-action show is continuing director Jun Aoki's record at producing one-of-a-kind special and incomparable GOAT shows of the 21st Century (along with his studio Kamikaze Douga), with the cooperation from the same team that did Pop Team Epic over at Space Neko Company of hilarious short skits and stop-motion animations.

Based on Moriko Mori's short manga about a gal who accidentally picks up an unexplanable Dino and doing daily comedic slice-of-life elements, all you need to know is that these two really hit it out of the ballpark, and let those daily communions drive you nuts with the everyday lives of "Gal and Dino". You don't just watch this show for the gyaru Kaede, her best friend Yamada and boyfriend Shouta, but for the exhilarating blue Dino, whose expressions can go from being smitten through animated and IRL discoveries to pure "catastrophes" of situations that wrecks Dino time and time again, all while eating its favourite food: cup noodles. All of these simple, yet entertaining timeless comical hilarities, you won't get it anywhere else other than here.

As if I did not know any better that watching Pop Team Epic's masterpiece of a whack-ton of various styles of animation would become the norm (and prepare me for another masterpiece in a span of 2 years), Gal and Dino might as well re-affirm my sentiments of the same variations of identifying future Jun Aoki/Kamikaze Douga works, and it's still GOAT, no questions asked. But due to COVID (of which you can easily figure out WHICH part got axed), sadly this show joined some other concurrently airing Spring 2020 shows, only to resurface by future seasons. Coming back to the Fall season mid-way was even less of a consolation, because this show also had its audience, but COVID stripped the anime masses away, to the point of "obsolescence" with the resulting barren of a wasteland. It's all for people's safety, and a much needed precaution, so that's an essential thing.

"G-A-L, with DI-NO-SAUR! Age-age-age Agemizawa~~~"
I'd swear, these trippy OSTs always gets me going abuzz and bopping along with the music, because it's THAT entertaining feel like we're part of the song (at least for the OP, although we're just weirdly watching this IRL and can only act like a weeaboo when no one's watching). The ED with Ryuuko Takahashi's "Peaceful Days" is no slouch either, bringing the entire feeling of the show to a close altogether in a calm and collective position.

In a nutshell: If you feel like most comedy nowadays are getting old, throw away your old ways of perception, dedicate your time to watching Gal and Dino, and give it the stamp of "definitive masterpiece" approval. Don't try to understand it, but experience it for yourself.

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Gal to Kyouryuu initially presents itself as a faithful adaptation of its manga counterpart: a series of relaxing animated shorts of a gyaru who met with and took home a dino. With the source material itself being rather short, it receiving a full-length adaptation (as opposed to a 5/10-minute short) is rather curious indeed. And at the halfway point, when the live-action segments begin, and you are greeted with Mieharu-san.

The second half of the show is a live-action segment that is incredibly surreal in nature with branching timelines, mysterious tomes, and weird celebrity guest cameos. It's also about a gyaru and her Dino (originally an old man and his Dino). While occasionally disjointed and strange, this incredibly surreal series still manages to tie into the main themes of the original source material about the relationships of a gal and her Dino, albeit in a very roundabout fashion. Every week I sit in anticipation for the next unpredictable moment of the show, and the Covid-19 pandemic just made the waiting even more unbearable. And at the tail end of it, even if the resolution wasn't what I wanted, I still felt something inside me as Mieharu-san parted with Dino so it could have a better life with Kaede.

Not to discredit the animated segments as well. You also get the occasional variety-esque sections with guest animators providing short scenes of the Dino in various (grounded) scenarios that keep the show fresh. And the actual adaptation is fairly well done in it of itself.

While it wasn't what I expected, I'm glad to have experienced this one of a kind of show to its end. To say any more would be to spoil its many surprises. So long as you have an open mind to anticipate the unexpected, you'll be treated to one of the most original and wildest shows of the current generation.

8/10

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“Do you like funny anime? Do you like good jokes? Do you want to feel like you have spent your time well? Well, then I have some anime suggestions for you! Nichijou, Kill Me Baby, and Jashin-chan Dropkick. Gal to Kyouryuu, or Gal and Dinosaur, is not one of those anime.”
This is how I started my review of Gal and Dinosaur back in April of 2020, however, now I feel that this is too harsh and unnecessarily mean. Now, I didn’t have this sudden realization that Gal and Dinosaur is good, but it is above the 2/10 I was going to give it all those months ago. Quite a few of my opinions still hold firm, such as the humor and editing are akin to a C-tier modern Cartoon Network show than what many people think of as an anime. My opinions that changed were the story is fine instead of terrible, the art is okay instead of awful, and the music is oaky instead of unbearable. Honestly, I also kind of enjoyed this anime more than I did back in the spring. Really, Gal to Kyouryuu isn’t bad, it’s just not to my taste. 5/10.

The story is limited. Really, it’s a slice of life where Gal and Dinosaur are followed around doing whatever. The first half is animated and the second half is live-action, which is largely disconnected from the animated part. These live-action segments are simultaneously funny and cringy. Honestly, I think a silent comedy would work a lot better for this anime, and this might even make the show more enjoyable for me.

The sound in the anime is very weird and off-putting. There are random sound effects that sound like lightsabers and airhorns in places where they just don’t belong. Some may say that’s the point. That the whole show is meant to be random and meant to be watched with your brain turned off. Now that’s fine, but it bothers me nonetheless. Moving on from the sounds to the OP and ED, I have to say I kind of like the OP and ED. There have been times when I was at work or a boring lecture at university when one of the songs played in my head, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy them.

The art in the ED is nice, but the art in the OP is just random images with Dinosaur somewhere in them, and I think that is rather lazy and should be stepped up for an OP because this is one of the first things people see going into an episode. Speaking of the first things people see, the sole image of this show on here is terrible. The perspective is all wrong and it looks worse than one of my 12-year-old cousin’s drawings. The art in the show is fine. It doesn’t make me stare in awe like Made In Abyss does, and it doesn’t make me want to go blind like The Seven Deadly Sins: Wrath of the Gods does.

The characters are nothing special. They are just stick-puppets that the story flows through. They have bits of personality sure, but a few little bits can’t support all the characters in the story.

I kind of enjoyed the whole Gal to Kyouryuu, but it wasn’t good. I don’t hate this show. In order for me to hate this show, it would have to make me slightly worked up. If someone were to tell me that they really liked Gal and Dinosaur I would just shrug my shoulders and say something like “Good for you man, or, I’m glad you like it so much.” When I watch Gal to Kyouryuu I feel like I’m watching a modern Cartoon Network show with my cousins. That being said if you like modern C-tier Cartoon Network shows you will probably like this anime too. In the end, the story gets a 5, art and sound a 4, characters a 5, and enjoyment a 6. For a final score of 5.

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