Gekiganger III exists only as brief clips within
Nadesico, but a basic storyline can nonetheless be determined. As seen in the
OVA, the story began with
Professor Kokubunji (a character similar to the professors seen in other
Super Robot series, such as Professor Saotome of
Getter Robo) discovering cave paintings somewhere underground placed by the "Super Paleolithic people". The paintings predicted that the '''Kyo'akk Empire''' would invade the Earth, and provided plans for a super robot, Gekiganger III. Other clips seen throughout
Nadesico establish the characters and setting. The main characters, and pilots of the titular robot, are
Tenku Ken (A reference to
Voltes V's sword name),
Umitsubame Joe, and
Daichi Akira. The characters are similar in appearance and personality to the Getter Team from
Getter Robo, as well as having counterparts in
Nadesico itself (most prominently Gai and the Jovian robot pilots). Also similar to
Getter is the Gekiganger robot, which is made up of three machines: the Gekiga Jet, piloted by Ken; the Gekiga Marine, piloted by Joe; and the Gekiga Tank, piloted by Akira. The names of the machines are similar to three of the component parts of
Combattler V, bringing another 70s mecha anime into the influence on the series. Like
Getter, the machines assemble in three different ways to form three robots:
Gekiganger III is formed with
Jet as the head and torso,
Marine as its waist and upper legs, and
Tank as its lower legs, and is similar to
Getter 1 in its preference for air combat.
Umiganger is formed with
Marine as the head and torso,
Tank as the waist and
Jet as the legs, and is the fastest, but weakest, form of Gekiganger. Finally,
Rikuganger is formed with
Tank as the head and torso,
Jet as the waist and
Marine as the legs, and is slow but has great brute strength. These last two, however, switch their best areas of battle from
Getter Robo: Umiganger works best underwater and Rikuganger works more on land, whereas Getter 2 was the land-based robot and Getter 3 was for water in that series. The villains of
Gekiganger are the Kyo'akk Empire, an alien race from the "Dark String Universe" (a galaxy shaped like the
infinity symbol). They are led by the Emperor Hyperion, and under him Prince Akara. Throughout
Nadesico we see that Akara sends out many "mecha-monsters" to fight Gekiganger. There are only a few major plot advancements that occur in
Gekiganger, many of which are actually shown out of order in
Nadesico. In one clip, a new character,
Cowboy Johnny is introduced. He is from America, and pilots the "Texas Robo" machine, an obvious parody of Jack King and the "Texas Mack" from
Getter Robo. Another clip features the death of Akara's
sidekick, Mii-e Mii-e who was in love with the oblivious prince. Akara himself is killed later after infiltrating a highschool finding to his shock that humans are capable of emotions. By far the most important plot moment in
Gekiganger is the death of Joe, at the hands of Prince Akara's replacement, General Masaka. In
Nadesico, seeing this scene is a major bonding moment between Akito and Gai, and it is seen and heard several times in the first few episodes. The characters continue to watch
Gekiganger past this point, though not much is known about the remainder of the series. Joe is replaced by a new character,
Ryuuzaki Tetsuya, and the Gekiganger III is replaced by Gekiganger V. (Like
Combattler V, the V is pronounced as the letter V; the English dub, however, referred to it as "Gekiganger 5"). Eventually, it is seen that Masaka is defeated. The final episode features a battle between the Gekiganger V (upgraded into "Spaceganger") and Emperor Hyperion, which Gekiganger is losing until the original Gekiganger III appears, piloted by Joe. With a final Super Passion Slash and Double Gekigan Fire, Hyperion is defeated. However, by this point most of the
Nadesico characters have given up their fanaticism over Gekiganger; several characters criticize the ending. ==OVA==