The Brave Express Might Gaine

LET'S!! MIGHT!! GAINE!!!!!

Brave Express Might Gaine was the fourth Brave Series produced by Sunrise. Might Gaine aired in Japan in 1993, with a total of 47 episodes. Unlike prior shows in the Brave Series, the robots were created by humans, as opposed to having more extraterrestrial or supernatural origins.

Might Gaine is set in the near future, when the world's reserves of fossil fuel have nearly run out; cars are powered with recharageable electric batteries, and long distance trade is handled by surface ships such as trains. Also made possible are the construction of powerful mecha, some of which are used for criminal ends.

Opposing them is the Brave Express Team, lead by by the teenage industrialist Maito Senpuuji. Given life by an advanced AI program, he is assisted by his own team of transforming mecha, and he also takes time to give a hand to Sally Yoshinaga, a girl he's growing fond of. The episodes are fairly stand-alone for the first part of the series; it isn't until Maito's rival, Joe, shows up that there is really any connecting thread between the episodes. The main enemy isn't even hinted at until further on.

Best known as the other Brave Series entry with Nobuyuki Hiyama voicing the lead character.

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Tropes used for this series:

• Arbitrarily-Large Bank Account: The Senpuuji Corporation.
• Badass: Maito
• Barrier Maiden: Sally Yoshinaga becomes one at the end. She's THE person capable of channelling the "Wave of Innocence" that can give Gaine the power-up needed to defeat the Big Bad.
• Big Bad: Black Noir
• Bishonen: Maito.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Sally... but towards Joe Rival. rather than to Maito.
• The Charmer: Maito
• Cool Train: MIGHT GAINEEEEE! Also, the Bombers and the Divers. Oh, and Might Gunner and Might Kaiser.
  • To explain just how much Cool Train the Brave Express team is packing: Might Gaine is comprised of 3 trains, 2 of which can be stored within the larger. Might Kaiser and Might Gunner are 1 each. The Bombers and Divers are 4 trains each, which can combine into 2 larger trains. That's thirteen trains total, capable of combining into five larger ones. Oh, and those 5 can lock together to pull off their ultimate Finishing Move: Joint Dragon Fire. (Yes, their ultimate attack involves the opponent getting run over by thirteen Cool Trains.)
• Combining Mecha: Duh.
• Cinderella Circumstances: Maito's girlfriend Sally is a high school girl struggling to make ends meet in taking care of her hospitalized single parent dad and elementary school little brother, takes on different part time jobs per episode throughout the series and unfortunately gets trapped within enemy disputes practically all the time. And the one who always saves her was Prince Charming Maito... ah-hem, conclusion please.
• Distressed Damsel: Sally. She's more of a Barrier Maiden, actually.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: And earn it, they did. Especially Maito and Sally, who get married at the very end.
• Mr. Fanservice: Maito and Joe. Maito even provides an awesome length of his Shower Scene upon his introduction shot right on the first episode.
• Heel Realization: As he dies, Black Noir questions if, instead of being The Player of his game, he was actually the villain.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Battle Bomber is destroyed taking an attack for Great Might Gaine.
  • Joe pulls this at the very end to kill Exeve, flying his Goryu in jet mode through his cockpit. Maito, however, says that he wants to believe Joe survived. He's right.
• Humongous Mecha: Great Might Gaine.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Exeve is killed when Joe flies Goryu's jet mode through the cockpit of his mecha, impaling him on the drill.
• Merchandise-Driven: Infamously deconstructed by way of Writer Revolt. When the writers were on the outs with the merchandisers, the protagonists discovered that their entire world was created by a malevolent alien toy company to serve as a commercial for their toys. Cue epic battle to control their own fates.
• The Rival: Joe. (his last name is obvious enough....)
• Rescue Romance: The first interaction between Sally and Maito has him saving her when she gets caught in one of his battles. Several times he ends up rescuing her from danger, and they get to know each other better as time passes. Sally manages to return the favor in the Grand Finale, turning herself into a Barrier Maiden, handling the Innocent Waves that give Maito and Might Gaine the boost they need to destroy the Big Bad.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Guard Diver is destroyed, Maito and Might Gaine go on one of these against Purple. Battle Bomber is then destroyed. Maito and Great Might Gaine respond by bisecting the robot that did it, then killing Purple by blowing his battleship and army into oblivion with the Perfect Canon. This probably extends to Exeve and Black Noir as well.
• Sailor Fuku: When Sally isn't in her part-time jobs, she's seen wearing a white and blue one.
  • Yamada and Maito's highschool has gakuran for the boys and all-blue fukus for the girls.
• Shipper on Deck: Grandpa Senpuuji is very, very active in taking Maito and his staff to wherever Sally part-times in, calls Sally in to serve during meal time for everyone to see the embarrassed look on Might's face.
• Shout-Out: A little boy from a ridiculously wealthy family witnessed his parents' death at a young age, was brought up by his butler, swears to fight to protect his city in the name of justice and revenge on whoever plotted his parents' death, and so, teamed up with his butler in using his mansion to build machines to fight against their enemies, does that even freaking remind you of somebody?
  • In the episode featuring the Evil Twin, Black Might Gaine, its transformation sequence finishes off with the villain docking with it a la Mazinger Z.
  • Targeting method and working of internal mechanisms of Perfect Cannon show it to be not just a Wave Motion Gun but The Wave Motion Gun.
• Spell My Name with an "S": Might is often translated to Maito, much like how Guy is sometimes translated as Gai, primarily to keep consistency with how names of mecha are spelled. The pages here will use Maito to avert confusion.
• Taking You with Me: Joe does a suicide run and flies his mecha right into Exeve's cockpit, impaling him on the drill.
• Teen Genius: Maito is just 15 years old, and yet he commands the Gaine group and runs his very succesful enterprises. Heck, one episode is centered on his 16-th birthday and his attempt to spend it normally with Sally.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Grandpa Yuujiro can't live without his nattōs.
• Transforming Mecha: Do we really have to say it?
• Truman Show Plot
• Warrior Prince: Maito
• X Meets Y: Batman... With Trains.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Sally does her best to be one, and to be fair she at least has the basics of the trope down already.
  • It's implied that Maito's Missing Mom, Ruriko Senpuuji, also was one.