Had Tsuburaya wanted to I could see this get the reboot treatment during that time when Zero was the hot new thing and they made the obscure non-Ultra characters his buddies.

Been watching some of the other shows on Toei's Tokusatsu World channel, and I'm honestly enjoying them way more than I should be.

Uchuu Tetsujin Kyodain: It's so absurd and goofy, and I love it.

Akumaizer 3: Am I the only one who would love to see a reboot of this? (I know they appeared in the Wizard X Fourze movie as villains, but still.)

I am hungry for anything that would give Akumaizer 3 some more time in the limelight. That show had such a fantastic concept behind it and I can easily imagine a reboot being amazing in its own right.

As a Hellboy-type horror superhero type story with some humor sprinkled on top? Yes.

I just finished Garo: Makai Senki earlier this week, so I naturally just watched Garo and the Wailing Dragon.

Holy shit, and here I thought Hakaider and Mikazuki were Amemiya completely overindulging himself. I definitely wasn't expecting a tokusatsu Wizard of Oz movie. I admire the ambition and it looks pretty great (aside from a lot of the rough CG), but I gotta say I'm okay with taking a break from the franchise for a little bit after watching it.

So I'm choosing this thread on purpose for a rather weird hunch: Because it got a new animated series I watched "Pacific Rim" again. And why I'm writing this post and why I'm posting it here comes together in a bit of a convoluted mix.

You see, when this movie came out in 2013 I wasn’t watching Toku. I wasn't watching mecha anime either. So when the marketing campaign rolled out full swing somehow every single source that talked about the movie, online or offline, branded it as an Evangelion rip-off. Because giant machine made by humans fights weird monsters that destroys everything.

I went alongside that opinion because I didn’t know any better, watched the movie and then immediately forgot about it. Now flash forward to the present, I am and have been watching Toku and mecha anime now, and thought: Hey let's check this out again.

And would you look at that, it isn’t Evangelion. It's bloody Ultraman. Like, this is as Toku as Toku can get. Giant monsters wreck cities, giant humanoid beats it up. Sure there's anime inspiration in there, that can't be denied. But at its core this is probably the best “modern” American Tokusatsu-style movie that I have seen. Like, this movie is so much better than any of the modern Godzilla or King Kong movies IMO, it's almost painful.

You have a simply story that is portrayed well, some fresh ideas to make it fun, human characters you can actually somewhat care about and be invested in, and the action scenes are cool and enjoyable. Like, some friends still want to make me watch "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" because "At least the fight scenes are fun", but dude, the entirety of Pacific Rim is fun. I don’t need to sit through hours of dumb humans doing dumb human stuff I don’t care about to see Godzilla do Godzilla things. I can watch something actually good instead.

I feel like I have rediscovered a lost gem or something. It isn’t perfect, obviously, but I’m very glad I decided to rewatch it; I had a blast.

Count me as someone who finds Pacific Rim to be utterly amazing and undeniably fun. Before it's release, I was afraid of what an American rendition of a Toku movie would actually look like, but I was more than please.

I also could not imagine a more perfect director. Del Toro really impressed me with Hell Boy and Pans Labrynth and it really felt like he could do the concept justice. Pacific Rim was a huge hit in Japan too, so it's hard to deny how good of a movie it was.

When the "sequel" came out, I preordered tickets and watched it with my close friend group filled with excitement. Oof what a let down. But it didn't change my thoughts on the original and I'll always love it.

Pacific Rim is great.

Me and my brother watched Pacific Rim on Netflix together over summer, and we had an absolute great time. The action is great, but also it has good character work and every actor makes the most of their scenes to lend the whole piece a larger-than-life film, almost fitting for a piece about giant robots. Plus, it has Charlie Kelly and Owen from Torchwood in a surprise subplot.

I know the sequel is meant to be a lot lacking, but is the anme spinoff any good?

I was

Well I sat through the Kikaider reboot movie. That was certainly an experience.

Also it feels jarring to go from a fairly serious plot with hints at something greater to a cover of the original tv song set to a montage of different monsters from the original show.

My unpopular opinion (apparently) is that Pacific Rim Uprising is actually good, or at the very least a lot of fun to watch. It explores the world in some interesting ways, has some good mysteries and twists, and gives us an actual villain character, all things the first wasn't able to do because it had to establish the foundations of the setting instead.

Regarding the anime, I saw the first episode and it didn't grab me, but maybe it gets better. What I saw seems just fine if you want more Pacific Rim specifically, but if I just wanted to watch any mecha anime there's definitely others I'd choose over it. It did make me realize how much I hate the "begin the series by killing off everyone the protagonist cares about" trope.

Dragging this thread out of the depths to say I watched the first Rebirth of Mothra movie! I was expecting it to be a lot more mediocre based on what I heard about it, but I actually found it really fun. The human drama was definitely weak, but I thought there was a lot of great monster content. The fights were usually spectacular and destructive, and the monster designs generally looked nice. Heck, even if the human drama was weak, I thought the monster drama was good! The scene where DesGhidorah was brutally beating up the larval Mothra or the one where Mothra dies in the ocean? Far more emotional than they had any right to be honestly.

Great stuff all around, looking forward to watching the rest of the trilogy.

Allow me to apologize in advance for Rebirth of Mothra II.

I just finished Juspion a few days ago. Christ, talk about a show that had all of its personality systematically removed through retools, sometimes literally.

And I mean literally. In one episode, Juspion reprograms his android companion, Anri, to be less snarky. By the end of the series, virtually nothing left that made the early episodes fun and unique remains. And that final episode is one of the worst final episodes I've seen out of a toku in quite some time.

Oh really? I admit Juspion doesn't look quite so interesting to me as Shaider which I am actually watching, Metalder which I also want to watch soon or Spielban to an extent which sadly may not even be subbed, the Metal Heroes which turn me off the most though are just those suit-shows like Jiban and Janperson and I don't think 97 and 98 should count either, sorry but sometimes I am more in the mood for just a regular henshin hero type of show!

Spielban has been subbed.

Oh, really? If so, who did the subs for Spielban? It's one of few Metal Heroes series I have a genuine interest in checking out thanks to its footage being used for VR Troopers. Now, I also have a small urge to get back to re-watching Metalder.

I even have bit of a small interest in checking out Gavan thanks to a pretty epic crossover movie Gokaiger has with the character. Really enjoyed it far more than I thought I would.

To answer your question, Metallic Fansubs.

There isn't really a "What are you watching Ultraman edition" so here I am

Finished X
It's mediocre, with some good moments and good designs, but a generally aimless premise and an unimpactful (if not creepy) final boss.

I hope more Ultraman have overarching plots like Geed.

I've been watching Jiban recently and I don't see it as a typical suit show as Naoto appears "human" quite often (though I've only reached Ep. 5 and they haven't really explained the backstory all that well yet).

It definitely feels like a product of its time, and the genesis for Winspector and the rest of the "Rescue Heroes" is definitely felt both implicitly and explicitly.

I do wish the battles would get a little more interesting, cause while the Biolon Kaijin aren't bad looking, the fights are pretty standard.

Curious as to who Doctor Giba's on-set actor is cause obvious over-dubbing is very obvious!

Gridman is amazing.

https://i.imgur.com/MoZru6Z.png

Same energy as Rita straight up telling one kid that he sucks at soccer. :lol

Yes, but the real highlight of this episode is Khan demanding that Takeshi not use a floppy to transport him again.

Oh the whole episode for me was by far my favourite in a while -- just the entire premise of "Kahn, stuck on a floppy disk; has to put up with a girl who will make monsters but just for funny cute pranks" is hilarious to begin with, and then you add all of Takeshi's antics (since he's actually outside his room for more than the first two minutes for once)? Amazing episode

So are Gridman's subs seriously just like that literally all the time? Because every screencap I see of them makes me more and more glad I just watched it raw. It really deserves so much better than this.

Yeah, it's one of the more infamous examples of TokuHD's rushjobs (well, until 'Honshin' and 'Olfenolk', anyway). That screencap in fact is perhaps one of the better subtitle lines, because it's at least close to grammatically correct!

It's maybe one of the most exciting things about Mill Creek doing Gridman, because it means this show can finally have readable subtitles

I finally found the spare time to sit down and watch Mechanical Violator Hakaider.

To preface this review, the quality of the plastic that the DVD case was made out of was so cheap, that it immediately cracked just by me opening it.

If you want a short version of what this film has to offer, well, let me just start off by telling that, if you're on these boards, there's a high chance you've already seen it, because this is almost the exact same movie as Kamen Rider Eternal.

The main difference being that, despite my distaste for the Eternal movie, I'd still rank it higher than this Hakaider one. Because say what you will about the former, it at the very least wasn't a absolutely boring slog like what the latter was. Hakaider is very much an example of "doing it for the paycheck" Inoue.

So what's the set-up? Well, Hakaider is an ancient machine who was locked away in a labyrinth of underground tunnels, until one day he is set free, and happens upon a world ruled by the vicious government of Jesus Town, who run a Big Brother style regime in the name of keeping peace and order. Hakaider soon finds himself joining the rebels after being labeled an enemy of the state.

That's about it to any essence of "plot" that this movie has, as pretty much the entire rest of the film is just Hakaider shooting enemy soldiers with a shotgun for about an hour. Oh, and he also gets a love interest after having known her for a grand total of three minutes. Meanwhile there's an enemy robot by the name of Michael who's all white and is secretly Kikaider. Because if Hakaider is meant to be a hero, then Kiakider clearly has to be the villain.

In other words, it's exactly the type of script that an edgy teenager who constantly spouts "down with the establishment maaann" would write.

The movie is 77 minutes long, and feels double that length. The entire thing is boring, repetitive, and completely shallow when it comes to the themes of free will, order vs chaos, and the like. None of the characters are at all likeable or have any redeeming traits. No one has an arc. The actions scenes up until the very end are basically the same thing over and over(does Inoue have a shotgun fetish?), and the film in general just doesn't make any sense when it comes to, well, anything.

It was definitely interesting watching the film with both the English Dub and Subtitles on though, because is showed that the dubbers tried really hard to save the script, but unfortunately it's not like the movie gave them much to work with, and thus both scripts are pretty bad regardless of what you choose. It's frankly kind of insulting given the great legacy that Kikaider has; ESPECIALLY the ending, where the final boss is a monsterfied Kikaider, because that's exactly what fans wanna see, I guess. This movie has zero understanding of what made Hakaider a popular character in the first place.

In the end, don't bother with this film. Other movies and TV shows do literally everything this film does(what little it does do) far better, and that's including other entries in the Kikaider franchise. If you do wanna check it out though(I guess if you just really love shotguns?), then I recommend getting the blu-ray, as it was pretty obvious that there was a screw up in the DVD transfer process, based on my copy.

I give Mechanical Violator Hakaider a 1/6. It's a waste of time.

Takeshi finally won at something
https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/b6/0d/2hFNcts1_t.jpg

The one thing I forgot about before re-watching Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon is the random helicopter noises that start up for no reason during dramatic moments from episode #23 on.

Finished Girl Gun Lady in one go after letting the episodes pile up.

It was... interesting to say the least. Kind of by the numbers but I don't feel like that's a bad thing necessarily? Anyway if they do wind up doing a second season I hope it runs for a bit longer, 10 episodes was nowhere near enough time to develop the cast.

Definitely feels like it needed 2-3 more episodes. Pink and yellow team were basically nothing characters besides Matsuko whom I'm sad we never saw her commander uniform. But I think it's fine enough, my only gripe being that "loop" ending and maybe maybe that small thought in the back of my head if this would have worked better as an actual anime.

Bravo, Charlie, and Delta especially got shafted hard in regards to development, Commanders included. But, yeah, I get exactly what you mean, considering that production-wise it felt... cheap. Even by Bandai standards. Granted an animated format wouldn't exactly solve that issue but still.

Most of the budget probably went into the CG transformations and the commander outfits :lol

But still, yeah, I enjoyed it fine enough. My only real gripe is, again, the ending and the sound effects. Imagine my disappointment when the guns were lasers and made this weak sound (that was fixed by the blast gun thank god), but the girls were making Amazons-level of blood. I was having those "wait, it don't work like that!" moments.

Wasn't interested in the gun kits or the commander kits themselves, but I am glad Bandai's making an armor set for their 30 minute sister kits that looks like the show uniforms as well as having tiny versions of the guns.

https://scontent.fmnl9-1.fna.fbcdn.n...38&oe=60CC443A

That was some impressive use of stock photography, that's for certain. :D

Honestly the Blast Girl Gun was about the only model that didn't irk me in some way. The Change Girl Gun acted more like a shotgun than a grenade launcher, which is fine, but it was pretty explicitly a grenade launcher. Which... granted there were shotgun-esque rounds issued to M79 operators prior to the development of the M203 for the M16, but I didn't see no shotgun setting on the cartridge...

Eh, I'm not big on the 30 minute mission line though so that doesn't do a whole lot for me.

I watched the second Rebirth of Mothra movie last night, and it was kinda bad! I honestly was a bit disappointed since I liked the first film decently, but this one was just too light on the kaiju content and too slapstick for my tastes. Not that I didn’t enjoy the movie at all, I just thought it was pretty low quality.

Satria Heroes Revenge of Darkness

On June 30th 2013, 8 years ago today, Bima was born! To celebrate this anniversary, I want to talk about my experience with this movie which was released in 2017 but only recently uploaded to Netflix with subs in late 2020. Bima-X finished in mid 2015 with its bittersweet ending, so I've been waiting 6 years to finally find out where the story goes from there. And damn, it was worth the wait!

For those who don't know, Satria Garuda Bima was an Ishinomori-approved and affiliated Tokusatsu inspired by Kamen Rider Kuuga, Agito and Black RX. It's also tragically underrated in the west and I want to change that! The first two seasons are fully subbed and totally worth your time and this movie exceeded my expectations.

The Satria are an ancient order of knights who Berubah (Indonesian equivalent of Henshin) to protect the world using the 7 elemental Power Stones. Each Satria also has a mechanical spirit animal which can change forms to assist them in combat.

Bima's Stones are fire elemental Merah and wind elemental Biru. After becoming Bima-X, he also gains earth elemental Hijau and magnetic elemental Ungu (which shares the name with the awesome band that performs the theme songs for Bima and Bima-X). He has the garuda spirit Helios.

The Dark and Secondary Satria Garuda Azazel's only Stone is darkness elemental Hitam cause he's so bad*ss he only needs one. He has the garuda spirit Taranis.

The Tertiary Satria Harimau Torga's Stones are thunder elemental Kuning (referred to as Oranye starting from Bima-X but I think Kuning sounds cooler and Torga is yellow so that's what I'm calling it) and ice elemental Putih. There's also Sintetis, an artificial Stone used by Evil Torga, another Dark Satria, but with added Evil. They have the tiger spirit Atlas.

There are a lot of characters I could summarize here but I think it'll work better if I talk about most of them as they appear in the movie. As for the format of the movie, I was surprised by how it's similar to classic Movie Wars, where it's 1/3 current show, 1/3 previous show and 1/3 crossover. But there's a twist here. The closest thing to a crossover in this movie is Satria Naga Kai, who makes a cameo in the climax and post-credits. Instead, this movie is 1/3 protagonists, 1/3 spoiler villain and 1/3 protagonists fighting spoiler villain. I think that's a really unique concept! Most of it is actually set and filmed in Japan and only a few scenes occur in Jakarta and Parallel World.

So without further ado, let's discuss each of the three chapters of this awesome movie with as much interesting lore and behind the scenes trivia I can think of!

WARNING: This review contains major spoilers for the ending of Satria Garuda Bima-X.

Chapter 1: Bima-X Returns

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...2/Satria_1.png

He's back!

The story starts in the middle of a fight between Bima-X and Torga, who are Ray Bramasakti and Dimas Akhsara respectively, with Japan's Mount Fuji as a backdrop. They're supposed to be friends, so your immediate question might be why this is happening. To answer that question, the movie then goes back in time to show you how it led to this scenario. This chapter despite being called Bima-X Returns has at least half as much focus on Dimas as it does on Ray. It's also the most comedic of the three.

Dimas is the wealthy CEO of his Akhsara family tech company and he's come to Tokyo by invitation from the CEO of Takarada Industries who wants to discuss collaboration. But since this is comic relief Dimas we're talking about here, it's mostly just an excuse to have him react to Japanese culture and fight ninjas cause duh, Japan is all about the ninjas! President Takarada's secretary Saeko also develops a crush on him after finding out he's Torga. He doesn't reciprocate, most likely due to 1) language barrier and 2) his main love interest Ricca would be mad at him.

But it turns out the invitation was a trap as Takarada, Saeko and the ninjas were all brainwashed by an unnamed guy in a gold mask and black cloak (Mamoun, according to the wiki) using some kind of magical purple device and now Dimas is under his spell!

Meanwhile, in Parallel World.... I'm not being vague, that's just it's actual name. The barren planet that VUDO Empire came from to steal Earth's resources and where Ray's scientist parents went missing. Komura Junko was the head writer for Bima-X, so if you think that sounds similar to Zenkaiger, that might be why.

Azazel, who is Reza Bramasakti, Ray's little brother, sacrificed himself in the finale of Bima-X and Ray used his Power Stone Hitam to assume his Final Form, Ultimate Dark Mode, to defeat Black Lord. Ray and Reza are actually double adopted, since Paman Iwan adopted them after the disappearance of Rena and Randy Iskandar's parents. Having reunited with his long lost Bramasakti parents, Ray and his adoptive little sister and heroine, Rena, returned here with them believing that Reza might still be alive somehow. They haven't made much progress though and the plot doesn't really advance here.

What does happen is that Dimas isn't the only guy on the receiving end of an unreciprocated crush, as Rena suddenly asks Ray if she can just call him Ray, instead of Brother Ray, before attempting to kiss him. They're only adoptive siblings so it's not that weird, but Ray is visibly grossed out as he has always considered her as a little sister. Now this isn't exactly new, she did have a crush on him in the first season and expressed jealously towards his other love interest Belinda, who disappeared along with that subplot pretty much as soon as Nakazawa replaced Hayase as head writer for Episode 16-26. But Hayase returned to write this movie, so I guess he wanted to bring it back. Fortunately for Ray, Helios freezes time around him just before the kiss to tell him he urgently needs to come to Japan.

Something else worth mentioning is that Ray has a new Bima-branded smartphone-like device that appears to be the same model as Dimas' Torga-branded version, so I guess Dimas invented them specifically as an asset for the Satria.

Ray teleports to Japan and it picks up from the prologue, showing the full battle between Bima-X and the brainwashed Torga using all of their usual form changes. Ray actually comes close to defeating him but a moment of hesitation gives Dimas the win. Fortunately, Dimas' strength of will allows him to overcome the brainwashing and stop himself from killing his friend. Mamoun is unhappy about this, but he has another plan to destroy the Satria, which leads to....

Chapter 2: Arsya

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...8/Satria_2.png

My favorite villain from the first two seasons is Topeng Besi. He's a wildcard, the original user of Power Stone Biru and manages to have a rivalry with all three of the main Satria for different reasons. With Bima, it's just the classic hero vs SIC villain trope. With Azazel, they were in competition to prove who was the most useful to Rasputin, prior to Reza's redemption arc. It's basically a repeat of Dino Thunder's rivalry between Trent and Zeltrax. With Torga, it's revealed that Topeng Besi was once Torga himself and then he became Evil Torga to prove to Dimas that he was the true Torga.

Anyway, in case you haven't figured out who's that spoiler villain I mentioned before, I'm talking about Topeng Besi! Going in to this movie, I didn't expect to see 25 minutes, enough to fill a whole episode, dedicated entirely to his backstory, which was only briefly brought up near the end of Bima-X. It's easily one of my favorite things about this movie. He's in limbo here, after Torga defeated him, until Mamoun starts to remind him who he was since he never fully recovered his memories that VUDO erased. That's where this chapter starts, in the time of dinosaurs when Topeng Besi was a human kid called Wira. Maybe the Satria and Zyurangers know each other!

The active Satria of this time was Torga Legend, which is basically just Torga with a cool cape. Since VUDO don't exist yet, his enemies are feral monsters similar to Summer Makamou and actually, this chapter is a lot like Hibiki. Torga Legend travels the land with Wira, his apprentice, and the titular girl Arsya, Wira's friend, both of whom were orphaned by these monsters. Arsya was left with elective mutism as a result.

Wira dreams of becoming strong enough to succeed his master as Torga and trains hard for that goal. One day, Torga Legend is defeated by an especially powerful monster and barely saved by Wira's intervention, which is pretty impressive for a kid. Wira asks permission to use Power Stone Kuning to avenge the honor of his injured master, but Torga Legend tells him a Satria needs to practise both physical and mental strength, the latter of which he finds Wira lacking in. Wira ignores this advice, secretly takes Kuning in the middle of the night and goes hunting.

He finds his target in that grass mountain area you might recognize as the place where BladeRUN killed Metal Alice in Goseiger. Then he Berubahs in to regular Torga and beats him in to a rock wall. He even declares the monster as his first victory, showing how he cares more about the bloodlust than protecting people. That's where this chapter takes a tragic turn, as Arsya followed him and she was very impressed with his debut. But his finisher caused faults to appear in the rock and it collapses on her. Wira is too late. He cradles Arsya in his arms and she uses her first words in years to confess her love for him before dying. Damn, this scene is so tragic!

Torga Legend shows up and scolds Wira, telling him he's no longer fit to be a Satria and demands Kuning back. Yeah, he totally could have picked a better time to do that. Wira teleports away with Arsya and Kuning, ending the master's career.

Sometime later, the new Torga approaches the Satria Holy Ground Dimension and is denied entry by Bima Legend, which similarly to Torga Legend, is just Bima with a cool cape. He's a little more interesting under the suit though, being a recurring character from the first two seasons and he's portrayed by Gackt of all people. Yeah, that Gackt, the alternate Riderman from Decade! Bima Legend heard about Wira's sin and tells him, in fluent Indonesian, that Satria can't bring back the dead. However, Wira reveals that his intention has changed. He wants to destroy the Satria.

He misguidedly blames Satria for Arsya's death, since he was a Satria when he caused it. Even though he became one without permission. It's a twisted justification he made cause he didn't have the mental strength to take responsibility for his mistake. This makes him a foil to Dimas, who showed great mental strength by overcoming the brainwashing. What was once Wira's dream is now something he hates and wants to destroy out of spite. So the only thing he lives for now is that desire for destruction.

They fought for years. One little detail I find cool is how Bima Legend cracks Torga's visor in the same place it appears on Evil Torga's visor, making it a literal scar for the suit! It's symbolic as well, since he's no longer seeing reality, but his own delusion instead. Bima Legend was much more skilled and eventually defeated and imprisoned adult Wira in a timeless dimension for millennia. There he stayed until 2013, when VUDO sensed his undying hatred for Satria and freed him so they could brainwash him in to their cyborg soldier Topeng Besi.

When they erased his memories, that hatred was the only thing that remained and it explains why he had so many rivalries. All Satria are his personal enemies. Honestly, I think this backstory did a lot to make him sympathetic. He was just a kid when he caused the accident and his master was ready to abandon him in that moment. If things were different, he might have become a hero, a true Satria. It's really a shame what happened to him. Topeng Besi was already my favorite villain and I love how the movie spends so much time in the middle to tell the tragic story of the event that made him this way. Such a great and complex character!

Chapter 3: Revenge of Darkness

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...4/Satria_3.png

We check back in with the Satria's friends at the Iskandar residence in Jakarta, as Ricca (the only one here who isn't an Iskandar) angrily eats a cake by stabbing through a Torga-shaped icing decoration. She's mad at Dimas for going to Tokyo without her, so good thing she doesn't know about Saeko, huh? I definitely ship Dimas/Ricca. It's a brief comedic moment that ends when Rena appears through a portal to alert them that the city is in imminent danger.

The ground of Jakarta is bent in to the shape of a giant cauldron, causing massive destruction and trapping all the citizens inside. A big black orb of liquid darkness appears above it, which is apparently the titular Revenge of Darkness.

Mamoun restores Topeng Besi's memories and grants him the power to become Satria Osiris, which kind of looks like Bima-X given the Another Rider treatment, and then leaves him to carry out his plan of destroying Earth by dropping the orb in to the cauldron. Say goodbye to Mamoun for now, cause he doesn't appear again until the post-credits.

Bima-X and Torga have difficulty fighting Osiris on their own. But they don't have to for long, as Reza finally returns as Azazel for the climax and the three Satria Heroes are reunited! This is what I thought Revenge of Darkness meant, considering that Azazel is darkness elemental. Maybe it still is, in a double meaning kind of way. After all, Reza's sacrificed the most out of the heroes, so he probably has unfinished business with Topeng Besi. And that's what's so awesome about this final battle. We've seen Topeng Besi's resolution from his tragic backstory, so I can really appreciate how he's not a pushover as the final villain. It's not just the power of Osiris, it's the power of his hatred. It's a very personal fight. Even with Azazel here to help, they're barely able to match him and it takes everything they've got as he surrounds himself with a shield of darkness.

Some highlights. Bima-X is able to assume Ultimate Dark Mode without using Power Stone Hitam, thanks to Azazel and Torga infusing him with their energy and the three of them become a golden bullet to destroy Osiris' shield of darkness. Osiris himself is left unharmed while the heroes are incapacitated.

This is where Satria Naga Kai makes his first cameo, albeit as his dragon spirit form only. He asks Ray why he fights. Ray says he wants to protect people, which is what seperates them from Topeng Besi who merely seeks destruction. Kai approves of the answer and gives the three heroes a power boost. It seems like a deus ex machina but the post-credits hint that he might have a deeper reason for being here.

They combine all their Power Stones and mechanical spirit animals to create a giant griffon-like mount! This isn't the first time that Helios, Taranis and Atlas had a combined mode as they previously became a giant energy blade in the finale of Bima-X and when I say giant, I mean Squall's Blasting Zone from Final Fantasy VIII! Mechanical spirit animals are able to change between weapon and "God" modes, so this griffon is their combined God mode and it looks awesome! The Satria ride it in to space, charge up their power from the Sun and come back down to destroy the orb of darkness, foiling the villain's plan. Consecutively, Torga, Azazel and Bima-X use their finishers to destroy Topeng Besi for good. This fight has everything!

The ending is unexpectedly bittersweet though. Everybody is celebrating the Satria's victory, including Ray and Dimas. But when Ray looks at Reza, he's walking away all aloof. There seems to be a mutual understanding between them though and Ray lets his little brother leave without protest. At least Reza isn't dead anymore, but it's sad to see their reunion cut short. Now according to the wiki, Reza might have a reason for having to leave so suddenly. Power Stone Hitam revived him as a darkness construct after his true body was destroyed by Black Lord, so it seems that he can no longer hang around for too long or he will die again. It's a cruel fate, but he doesn't have any regrets.

Post-credits

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...6/Satria_4.png

The first scene is Topeng Besi in limbo again, but Arsya reaches out to him from above and he reverts to his kid Wira form. It's implied they go to the afterlife together. I never expected that Topeng Besi would ever get a happy ending but after seeing his tragic backstory and how much he suffered, I'm glad that Wira can finally rest and put his hatred behind him.

The second scene is Mamoun scheming his next plan, when Kai appears in his Satria form to confront him. Looks like they have a history. Mamoun summons a rhino cerberus creature to fight him and it cuts off just before they clash. Now this would get me excited to see Satria Naga Kai, if only I could find subs for it! Oh well.

Overall, this was an amazing movie that can easily stand on the same level as Toei's Tokusatsu with Kamen Rider, Super Sentai and Metal Heroes. I honestly enjoyed seeing all of these characters again. If any of my praise has convinced you to consider getting in to Satria or even just watch this movie, I totally recommend that you give it a chance!

Who subbed those two seasons? The fact that it's on Netflix without an ounce of additional context seems almost random, but I've been tempted to look at it regardless.

"Ishinomori-approved"? By the Ishinomori Estate?

Skyfansubs. I'm glad I got your interest! :D

Approved by Ishimori Pro to be specific and it takes a lot of inspiration from Kamen Rider.

If I'm following the implications of your praise, the Satria franchise goes even deeper than the seasons which directly preceded the Darkness movie, right?

That's correct. Revenge of Darkness was followed by Satria Naga Kai, but unfortunately I haven't been able to find subs for that.

EDIT: Wow. FlameSubs did it!

Do you have a total franchise documentation list? What season or series is named what, year of release, and available fansubs or official subs? I know it's a tall order, sorry.

I managed to see all of the first 26-episode series with subtitles way back in 2014 but never got round to Bima-X or anything else, it was definitely a good addition to a year where I much preferred the more alternative sort of toku to either Kyoryuger,Wizard or Megaforce!