Hey, I'm also working my way through Metal Hero! I just started watching Sharivan and want to make it at least as far as Spielban.

I finished watching the original Garo TV series. This was actually a show I tried to watch years ago, but I got derailed partway through and didn't finish it. I have a feeling the opinions I am about to share are going to be unpopular, but here goes!


The Good

• I did a little research and this show had almost double the budget of most of its contemporaries! Though the CGI use can be heavy at times, it really does deliver on some absolutely spectacular fights with all kinds of crazy wire action and creative choreography. Later on I think the show gets a better balance of CGI vs practical effect work too.
• Great suits! The hero's look like they are wearing proper armor and the Horrors usually look properly grotesque and organic.
• I do feel like their is a certain charm to the show, its so serious about what it is doing that you can't help but root for it.
• I liked the Magic Bullet episode, that one was lit.

The Bad

• In spite of the horror genre and occasional very horny part of the show, I don't really think Garo took advantage of being aimed at adults. It isn't really thematically more sophisticated than contemporary Rider shows, and in fact often comes across as MORE immature than them due to it's "edgy teen" sort of writing, where it flirts with dark concepts but doesn't really have the skill to analyze them.
• On the topic of Rider... this show felt a bit lacking in identity because it was just too dang similar to a Rider show, and not even a particularly good one.
• Let me be blunt. I think the writing in this show is laughable. The character arcs are generic and get resolved with no fanfare, the scary elements are usually so goofy as to be hilarious, the cast is unlikable, the romance has no chemistry, things get brought up out of nowhere, etc. It's so uninspired and amateurish, to the point I was regularly laughing out loud.

The Other

• I think this show has the exact same vibe as an M rated PS2 action game. It probably aged about as well as one too!
• Kaoru has no sense. This woman would follow Jason Voorhees into a knife factory.
• I genuinely think that this show is on the same level of legendary meme tokusatsu as the first half of Kamen Rider Blade. I will die on this hill.

I hope the later entries are a lot better? I really like a lot of the ingredients this show is cooking with, but it didn't make good use of them!

Watched all translated episodes of "Voltes V: Legacy". Well, that's very good. Given that the show is considered the first Filipino sci-fi series, the start is very strong. While the narrative structure is very reminiscent of the Power Rangers, they manage to avoid repetitiveness and every Beast Fighter seems like a serious threat. And even though love relationships are given almost more timing than the plot, this helps to better reveal the characters.
Voltes V, like his transformation, is made in great detail and with high quality. Beast Fighters aren't as good, but it's all the more satisfying to see them blow up.And I even like the slow fights of robots more than the high-budget Transformers, where everything merges into a metal mess and it is not clear who hit whom and with what.
What is really bad is the fights of the actors. They are divided into bad and very bad. At the same time, it is clear that something very cool is laid in the idea, like repeatedly taking away a knife, but the cast simply cannot do it. They really should have brought in professional stunt doubles.
Overall I am very pleased with the show and will continue to watch it. Also very grateful to the one who laid out his trailers before the release. I recommend it to anyone who wants to watch an atypical but recognizable tokusatsu.
https://a3x2k4e2.rocketcdn.me/wp-con...y-Insta-10.jpg

Cho Ninja Tai Inazuma2006 year. It's amazing how this little direct-to-video show that serves as entertainment for Sentai's cast caught my eye after the end of Geats. Judge for yourself.
According to the story, in the year 2075, on the 100th anniversary of the tokusatsu franchise, it was decided to travel back in time and film the show in the Edo era. A producer and an assistant find three stupid, but kind and charismatic guys and, with the help of future technologies, convince those that God has given them strength. But it turns out that the legend the show is based on is real. At least the monsters from it...
And if this is not enough for similarity with Geats, then the fox temple is also present in the plot. At the same time, Inazima immediately took a course in a different direction.
The show has a lot of parodies of tokusatsu and jigaigeki (Japanese historical dramas), but they are written with love and respect. The trinity of the main characters is twice deceived, but still does not lose optimism and desire to stop evil. Given the year of release, I would venture to suggest that this was a response to the gloomy tokusatsu 2000s. With references to series from Metal Heroes to Kagestar, they unobtrusively, but without ambiguity, stated that simple, optimistic stories have the right to life.
Of the minuses, I note that after real gaining strength, almost all comedy is lost. Yes, some attacks are frankly parodic, but in general, there is still more attention given to references, rather than humor. It seems to me that it was worth leaving the heroes at least the inability to pose in sync.
All in all, a nice little show, unpretentious but with a big heart. I recommend it to those who have not seen it yet and I sit down for the second season.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f2/f4...bb56548925.jpg

I remember watching this, probably in the early 10s. It has a lot of actors from Dekaranger and Magiranger. I recall the sequel adds Bouken Red as well. While I mostly watched for the ninjas, I think it's a good entry point to get Tokusatsu fans interested in Jidaigeki and maybe vice versa. The two genres mix together in an awesome and enjoyable way and when we inevitably get a fourth ninja Sentai, I'd like Toei to try something like this, with some additional inspiration from Kakuranger and Sekai Ninja Sen.

I think the experience of King-Ohger can serve as a good help to this idea.

Exactly! If they're willing to use CGI settings for a whole show, then the Jidaigeki setting should be no problem. Especially considering they already did this once in 1972 with Henshin Ninja Arashi, so they really just need to take that concept and make it work for Sentai and the modern audience.

After months of putting it off, I finally watched some more episodes of Space Sheriff Shaider and I am now at the start of the show's own endgame arc. I am hoping to get this series finished sometime today.

I have finally finished Space Sheriff Shaider, and the entire Space Sheriff trilogy as a whole, not too long ago. It also means I have watched all three shows (Metalder, Spielban, and Shaider) that were used as source material for VR Troopers. In terms of Metal Heroes, I will probably start watching Juspion next.

A good choice. The show is ridiculous, but funny and with likable characters.

I watched Pacific Rim today, something which might exist in the "not really a proper tokusatsu" category for many, but I say is close enough!

I liked it! I'd say it was simple, but the amount of passion behind it really elevated the whole experience over generic action schlock. You could tell the people working on it has a lot of love for both monster and mecha media. I'd say the most impressive thing about the movie was how it managed to feel very close stylistically to Japanese tokusatsu, which I think a lot of attempts to pay homage to the genre in America end up failing at. Neat little movie, might give its contentious sequel and the animated series a shot at some point.

I feel like the first Pacific Rim movie was very much a case of "you had to be there." I like the movie, don't get me wrong, but I didn't see it as anything super amazing by the time I finally got around to it years later.

I watched Pacific Rim with my brother in 2018 or so? It was late, we were both tired and neither of us had seen it, so I stuck it on expecting to be at least mildly entertained. Honestly, though? Really good film, rises above just being a novelty of "hehe giant robots fight big monsters" as some people seem to only want from Kaiju films into a fun but heartfelt film about overcoming your past trauma, whilst also beating up giant monsters. Also Charlie Day and Burn Gorman are a perfect double act.

I think I went into Pacific Rim overhyped for it. I liked it, but I didn't think it was overwhelmingly amazing or anything.

I can really see how a lot of people would get overhyped for the Pacific Rim, I remember there was a lot of talk back when it first came out about how amazing and revolutionary it was, which is ridiculous looking back on it. In a way watching it 10 years late may have been ideal since I was able to go into it just hoping for a fun time.

Okay, I really debated for a long time whether I should write a review of this film. A film that none of you have seen, will not be able to see, and which is definitely not worth watching. However, this is my first kaiju movie, so I thought I'd share my impressions of it. So, "Monsters" 1993. Just in case, 18+.
https://cdn.fishki.net/upload/users/...ca68529e85.jpg
Plot: The main character, Boris, played by Boris Shcherbakov, the Greatest Creation of the Gods... Now the confusion begins. This is a local meme. In general, the point is that Shcherbakov is an excellent actor with a well-deserved army of fans. But at the same time, in his filmography he has a bunch of very cheap and bad works, which these fans often cannot justify and therefore blindly admire everything that Shcherbakov creates there. “Monsters” is just such a case.
https://images.kinorium.com/movie/sh...00_1025237.jpg
So, Boris is a photographer who specializes in erotic photography, but he is recruited for an expedition to the radioactive zone (obviously Chernobyl, but the name is never mentioned in the film). And, unlike most similar plots, Boris does not have a cool but tragic past. Employers simply liked his work. Well, this still makes some sense.
https://images.kinorium.com/movie/sh...0_39070143.jpg
The members of the expedition: Boris, his love interest played by Ella Safari, who moans loudly in love scenes and more, a cool mustachioed special forces soldier, a scientist and cannon fodder. They come to the Zone, catch huge insects (real ones, because the film’s budget is limited), look at photographs of genetic mutations (also real and for the same reason), then Boris and a woman leave in a car for sex and a giant snake begins to interfere with them. But she can’t get inside, so the heroes get off with fright. After two of the extras, rats the size of dogs are eaten and it becomes known about animals grown due to radiation.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6_0IbTyn75I/sddefault.jpg
The scientist knows a way to make mutants non-aggressive, but he is killed by a cancer that climbs through the window. A full-scale invasion of monsters begins and the arriving military fights with them. In the chaos, the main characters try to survive and they succeed. In the end, they declare that the real monsters are people because it is because of them that mutants appeared.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVIGQTGtZ40
Explanation: these are the works of Cinebridge studio, which filmed Shcherbakov with his wife and others in approximately the same roles in all of their films. They didn't even change the credits, they just didn't write the names of the characters. Their budget was so small that the window breaking was filmed with a swing and the sound of breaking glass. All the monsters in the film are real animals, superimposed over filmed landscapes or interacting with toys. Shots of military equipment are taken from other films, so they are never completely destroyed. Monsters and people never appear together in the frame; at most they only show dummies of tails and heads.
The main problem is that the animals behave like... animals in the frame. They scratch themselves, preen their feathers, sniff each other and show no signs of aggression. Yes, there are cool ideas, like a crow pecking at a helicopter or a turtle fighting a tank, but it was filmed with such a huge number of cuts that you can only be surprised, but not enjoy it. People also don’t pull out the plot, because the characters are flat and boring. As a result, the film was not even remembered as funny trash and is now practically forgotten.
Legacy: Still, Monsters has left its mark on popular culture. First of all: Sam Raimi stole Spider-Man's kiss from there. And don't you dare say otherwise:
https://i.ibb.co/c2Bs9Kn/Un.png
Secondly: this film, by her own admission, inspired the singer Linda (Svetlana Gaiman) to create the song “Crow”. Which is almost as masterpiece as “Monsters” is mediocre:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54CkirSI-ms
Linda is the voice of music throughout the post-Soviet space in the 90s. And “Crow” is her best pitch. All 288 million people, thrown out of a huge country with an iron order and a clear goal, into a bunch of embittered smaller states, faced with a catastrophic increase in crime, racial intolerance and lack of money, felt like Linda’s crazy heroine, screaming “Na-na- on the!" against the backdrop of ruins and zombies. And the poetic allusions of the text, which perfectly describe the devastation reigning around and at the same time do not plunge one into despondency:
“They tick to the tact and the volcanoes sing,
Glasses don't break because they don't exist
Everyone died, I live like a crow!”
The most interesting thing is that the influence of “Monsters” is noticeable even in the video, which is doubly amazing. But I think I got too carried away and distracted, so I'm finishing. There is no conclusion, because I just wanted to share the film.

Just got done binging all of Jisariz, the indie toku made by Decade's' actor.

And it uh... it certainly I watched. Like, I get it, it's intentionally being vague in order to build intrigue, but that combined with the poor English subs does not do it any favors, I'd say.

As a result, my favorite pair of episodes was 5 and 6, the Dogengers crossover, as its overall theme and character development was the most straightforward.

I also feel like the show's' pacing would've been alot better if it'd been released as a six episode miniseries rather than a set of twelve miniature episodes. Because each pair of episodes really do feel like they were all one episode cut in half. Not that it clarifies any plot points though.

If I had to compliment one thing about the show as a whole though, I felt like the overall aesthetic, from the suits to the set design, as well as the cinematography were all done rather well. Even the CGI and map paintings, while very obvious, weren't bad, especially for an indie production. The fight choreography was also fairly decent.

Overall it's very much an alternate take on Kamen Rider Decade, and I felt it was decent. Interested to see where season 2 goes.

Agreed. I decided to wait a fortnight so I could watch each pair of episodes together. If I had to guess, splitting each story in half might've been a cheap way to increase publicity.

For sure, it was cool to see how Inoue's staff could create such a unique style for all the impressive effects, designs and settings, in contrast to what you'd typically expect from Toei. The OP was catchy as well.

Since you dislike Tsukasa, what was your opinion of the character of Jisariz? I thought they were similar, although, maybe this was easier for you with Ayuka being the focus character.

Ayuka being the focus does help, but when comparing Tsukasa to Jisariz, while the two do share some similarities, one big, key difference for me was the reasoning behind why the two act the way they do. Jisariz acts like a showboaty jerk both to hide his own insecurities as well as out of necessity for saving Ayuka's world. Meanwhile Tsukasa is mainly just a douchelord for the sake of it.

So yeah, out of the two, I prefer Jisariz.

I finished Tomica Hero Rescue Fire! Oops, two tokusatsu shows finished in one day. I think this was a straight improvement in almost every way over Rescue Force and honestly had a lot of fun watching it.

The Good

• This show amps up the hotblooded rescue action to new levels of chaos, it's pretty much impossible to not enjoy a show where characters are shooting ice missiles from a giant dragon mech to fight flame demons. Even more chaos than a normal mech fight with the added layer of the rescue theme of the show keeping it feel-good.
• I think the cast had a much better dynamic than the Rescue Force one. Tatsuya, while he does get powers and mechs the others don't, never ends up eclipsing everyone else the way Hikaru tended to in Rescue Force. Even just the way everyone interacts tends to have a lot more charm.
• I actually really liked Ritsuka, even though I didn't expect much going into the show. Dedicated to her rescue work and competent, yet lacking in social skills. At the same time, you can see her kindness in her love of animals and her newfound friendship with her teammates. Really enjoyed all her episodes!
• Masaki Endoh is hotblooded singing at me, hell yeah.
• The CGI looked even better than Rescue Force's, most modern toku doesn't have CGI this good.
• Since the mech fights use CGI, this does mean the show has lots of cool non-humanoid mechas!

The Bad

• Similarly to Rescue Force, there is a real issue with excessive stock footage usage.
• The Sky Team just isn't as good as the main trio. Jun doesn't get too much focus and Tsubasa is... honestly kind of an ass a lot of the time.
• Also similarly to Rescue Force, there is a certain low-budget feeling to many of the sets and props, though it isn't as distracting as in the previous show.

The Other

• It's aimed at a very young audience, like Rescue Force (sorry, I don't mean to keep saying it). I think this show manages its balance of softer elements with more serious moments better though, while still being a good show for kids.
• I keep thinking about the general concept of "Fire Elementals who want to punish humanity for misusing the fire they were gifted with". The show didn't really dig into this much but it's a neat twisted take on a Promethesus fable that I'd like to see another toku try one day.

So overall? I had a great time and I thought it was a unique tokusatsu show well worth watching. Honestly, I'm a little sad the series only lasted two entries, because I think it had the potential to be go on longer and gone some interesting places in the future.

Don't you just love that transition in the beginning? Talk about a passing of the baton.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go9zYHwZvQQ



Yeah, my assumption on that is Takara Tomy probably spent a lot of their budget for it so they were trying to make the most out of all the combination CGI clips. I mean, I thought the effort showed and quality was slightly better than what Toei had going.

And loved how they pretty much had their own rendition of the Go-on Wings. :lolol

It's Short Form Sunday! Figured I'd keep up my momentum and watch various smaller tokusatsu things I've wanted to catch up on.

Garo Special: Beast of the Demon Night
This would fit in easily as two extra episodes of the original Garo. The new Makai Knight is pretty forgettable but it's decent enough I guess.

Garo: Red Requiem
I think THIS is actually the most I've enjoyed a Garo thing yet. It's focused, well-paced, and let's us see some interesting new characters as they fight a unique new Horror. The higher budget of being a movie also helps smooth out some of the rough edges of the CGI that plagues the TV stuff. This really made me realize that Garo might be best as a film series, at least for my personal tastes.

Garo: Kiba Gaiden
This, meanwhile, it pretty awful. A bunch of stitched together flashback sequences giving backstory to a couple of characters who really, really didn't need backstory. Barely any action, heck, a lot of it was done in an inked visual style, so it barely felt like a tokusatsu!

Kikaida Reboot
This was pretty fun. It's interesting seeing how Kikaida was re-imagined and the fights were quite cool. The human characters all tended to feel very stilted though.

Speaking of Garo, it took over a year or so, but I have finally started watching Garo: Demon Beast of the Midnight Sun TV special which takes place not long after the events of the original 2005 series. I even re-watched On Halloween Night and Vampire City episodes of Ultraman Tiga as well as It Came From Angel Grove episode from Power Rangers Zeo as parts of my Halloween marathon on which I'm currently doing the same for Garo's first TV special/movie.

No one was around to stop me this weekend so I ended up binge watching Garo: Makai Senki in only 2 days. This one did it for me. I went in thinking Garo as a series was a little lame and boring and by the time I finished it I thought Makai Senki was just AWESOME. I think there's several factors at work here that made this particular entry finally, truly work for me.

I think the CGI finally reached a point where I didn't mind it much. There was enough cool actual choreography to satisfy me, and they tended to go really heavy on the CGI when doing frankly ridiculously awesome things, so it felt more charmingly fake than anything. I think in terms of characterization and lore things really started to come together satisfyingly. Kouga, while still extremely emotionally constipated, has lots of moments where you get to see how much he cares for other now. Kaoru, in spite of generally getting less attention than the original Garo, feels more like an actual character than just a horror heroine. Rei doesn't have random, weirdly psychotic moments anymore. I really enjoyed all the emphasis on Makai Priests in this one too, the tensions between them and the knights made for an interesting story and it was nice to see the priests really get to show their stuff in all the fights. Nice to see Jabi and Rekka really show off. I also enjoyed Leo as a new addition, it was nice to have a Makai Priest more consistently help Kouga. The mystery surrounding whether he was a traitor was interesting too, I ended up correctly guessing that he was a red herring pretty early on but I still enjoyed seeing how it all played out.

I think the episodes were also generally better quality. The one where it's all a game of poker was awesome. I loved the stage play episode, which had lots of entertaining meta elements referencing tokusatsu's theatrical roots. It was genuinely fun seeing so many characters come back and the entire climax felt like they were just slamming together every stupid awesome thing they could think of. I had SO much fun and am actually really looking forward to what else the series has in store now. Two thumbs up!

I was going to wait until I finished Gamera the Brave before posting about Heisei Gamera, but I think I need to talk about the Heisei Trilogy while it's fresh in my mind.

A while back I posted about Pacific Rim (bear with me here), and at the time I was able to enjoy it as a fun little diversion because I had somehow managed to completely forget about it's overblown reputation from back when it initially released. I *wish* that had happened with the Gamera trilogy, but I went in with sky-high expectations after constantly hearing them lauded as some of the greatest kaiju movies movies ever created. I saw the Shibuya scene from G3 referenced frequently even outside of tokusatsu contexts among Japanese nerds. Unfortunately, the movies just weren't able to match up to all of this overhype.

Among them, I think I actually like G1 the most. It's the most practical effect heavy of all three of them of course, but there's several other aspects working in its favor. The plot is well paced and coherent, with a broad but focused cast where everyone served some narrative purpose. I also generally find the general visual style the best in this one. The scenes are always well lit and stylish, with action sequences that are easy to follow. A pattern I found did not continue in later movies. It is definitely the most "standard" kaiju film of the three, but I thought it hit a pleasing balance of classic Gamera and a modern, adult take on the series. Not to say it blew me out of the water, but I liked it quite a bit, even if when I initially finished it I was like "That's all? I guess the next two movies must be really special if everyone talks so highly of the trilogy!"

G2 and G3 were both considerably weaker in my eyes unfortunately. I like to think I am not excessively picky about every detail when it comes to tokusatsu, but man... Why are these movies so badly lit? Both of these films are really into nighttime kaiju scenes, which doesn't HAVE to be an issue, but they are almost always really dark with terrible contrast combined with some extremely heavy smoke usage. These movies also had a frequent aversion to showing the lower bodies of the kaiju, which often makes it even harder to see what's going on! To me, it came across almost like they were embarrassed by aspects of their effects and were trying to obscure the details, even though they were clearly amazing for the time period and genre. With any tokusatsu show or film there are times where the "flaws" are visible, but I think most genre fans consider it part of the fun? I know I do, so it was actually pretty frustrating how it felt like they didn't want me looking too closely at their work. Maybe I'm just reading too much into things.

I also feel like both these movies have notable narrative issues. G2 mostly just has the issue that the nature of Legion's motivations and lifecycle are really hard to follow and understand along with more cast members who achieve very little. That being said, I do think Legion is a very unique monster and this movie is probably the most respect the JSDF has ever gotten in a kaiju movie, which is nice. G3 is a proper spectacle at times, but it overall very light on the amount of kaiju content. Like yes, the scene where Shibuya gets wrecked and all the civilians killed is spectacular and very daring for a kaiju movie show, but it is also an extremely small sliver of a larger film. This means more human drama overall, which I didn't think was that great. The cast is really large in this one, and there just isn't enough room for them all to develop, or even for us to learn what happens to them after the movie suddenly decides their screentime is up. The Ayana's brother just kinda disappears partway through. The guy who was a detective in the first movie disappears after getting arrested. We spent quite a while in this mountain town with the locals but every last one of them besides Moribe dies or stops being relevant. Whyyyy? but There are also numerous aspects of the movie that just aren't really relevant to anything but eat up time anyways. There's a Gamera graveyard? Not important at all apparently. What the heck is up with that game developer and the shine maiden lady with him? I'm not sure even the writers knew.

I didn't hate these movies but I wasn't impressed either. I guess the moral of the story is that you should live in blissful ignorance of any sort of claims of a piece of media being the most amazing, mind-blowing thing so that you can actually enjoy it. :lolol

Watched High School Heroes. The impressions are mixed. The first episodes dedicated to assembling the team are good. But then everything slips into repetition, and the events are too ridiculous to sympathize with and too dramatic to laugh at. The coolest part of the show is Akaranger, which in itself is not a good sign. Overall, an interesting work, but of all the parodies/copies of Sentai that I have seen, perhaps the weakest.
https://tokuzilla.net/wp-content/upl...-heroes-01.jpg

After being quite thoroughly disappointed by the Heisei Gamera Trilogy I rounded things off with Gamera the Brave. I ended up totally loving it! The human drama and kaiju are interwoven well and both are compelling. The movie has proper lighting so I can actually see things (yes, I'm still mad at the Heisei trilogy about this) and in general has satisfying special effects! I was particularly pleased at Zedus, who was an aglie and fierce opponent for the adorable young Gamera to battle. I really appreciated how it was a kids' movie, but one that granted proper respect to both child and adult characters while also not shying away from some intense battles and sad moments. I think this might actually be among my favorite kaiju films now, talk about an unexpectedly good note to end the era on!

I feel like I'm really hammering this thread with all of my niche tokusatsu watching sometimes, haha.

Today I watched Mechanical Violator Hakaider! Featuring a dream team, or perhaps nightmare team, of Toshiki Inoue as the writer and Keita Amemiya as the director, both of which I was absolutely unaware of before seeing the opening credits. The movie that unfolded before me was... how do I put this... It had its head thoroughly rammed up its own ass. A generic dystopian setting with a hilarious dosage of faux-christian names and themes. Our anti-hero and his utter lack of characterization and dialogue. That pointless romance between Hakaider and a random woman he met that was filled with Inoue's typically hamfisted romantic stylings. Listen Keita, honey, I think you are very charming but also your directorial style is *a lot* and when you combine it with all the rest of this stuff the entire movie just becomes so laughably pretentious and bad. The Inoue Zone never ends and never stops.

Sorry you didn't like it. I found the film very fun from a visual perspective. The fight near the end in the white room is easily the part of the film that stuck with me the most: very cool idea to put red stuff under the walls to make it look like the room was bleeding as it was damaged.

I'd say it's probably about on par with ZO for me as far as Amemiya's 90s trilogy is concerned.

As a fan of most things Kikaider, the Hakaider movie was one I didn't like at all. It just overall felt really pointlessly edgy at best. And while the dub did try to help the script in a few ways, it wasn't enough to save anything.

I go to Tekkouki Mikazuki for my ideal Inoue and Amemiya team up.

Watched Moon Mask Rider/Gekko Kamen (1981). It was... very much the kind of thing you'd expect to find on an episode of Best of the Worst. At 1 hour 47 minutes, it is weirdly paced, devoid of substantial characterization, questionably choreographed, and the action is rather... poorly framed.

That being said it is an absolutely bonkers ride, a beautiful showcase of late 70s Tokusatsu camp, and well worth the time if you've got two hours to kill. And it's free to watch on Toei's YouTube channel!

And yes, it is in continuity with the original Moonlight Mask, as it turns out!

https://i.imgur.com/I2MFD5t.jpg

I did think the movie had a good deal of fun value as a visual spectacle, but the combination of Amemiya's style with Inoue going full Kamen Rider The Next on the script may have just been too overwhelming for me, haha.

The edginess of this movie is really odd in relation to the broader Kikaider series, which always had a much more positive outlook. Gritty, adult-oriented entries are nothing unusual for tokusatsu series, but even stuff like Shin Kamen Rider Prologue grasped the general ideas of Kamen Rider while this is so completely dissociated from Kikaider that I really question the point of it being in the same series.

Today (actually yesterday) I learned there was a Jump series about a Tokusatsu fanboy from the 80s called Wing-Man and subbers are currently working on it (currently at 21/47).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTI9EZglHX4

Speaking of something very vaguely related to tokusatsu... From 1973 to 1979, the spy series "Invisible Sight" was released in the GDR, that is, East Germany. Two episodes from it, released in 1978, were called “King Kong Flu.” In the Union they were shown in cinemas as an independence movie. The plot is that the Americans have developed a deadly virus that first acts like a regular flu, and then the patient turns into a violent, uncontrollable animal. They test it in the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), one of the experimental subjects escapes, the Stasi becomes aware of him and espionage squabbles begin. The connection with King Kong is very tentative, although to confirm it, they play the 1933 film in the background. At that time, the social bloc could not agree on the screening of King Kong 1976, so it was a kind of attempt to console fans of the giant ape in Eastern Europe.
https://i122.fastpic.org/big/2023/09...dfacba.jpg?r=1

I'm back again, this time having watched The Aquabats! Super Show!

Some people take a very hardline stance towards what counts as tokusatsu, only qualifying Japanese live-action Henshin Hero and Kaiju stuff along with their adaptations in other countries. Personally, I'm down with counting anything that is mostly live-action and takes strong influences from Japanese tokusatsu. Super Show definitely qualifies as the latter. To give a little background, in real life The Aquabats are a band stationed in California, known for their campy, theatrical style during their concerts, where they put on personas as superheros and fight guys in suits on stage, all very much in the vein of 70s Japanese tokusatsu shows (not so much Power Rangers like you might expect for someone in the US). This all seems likely due to the influence of the founder Christian Jacobs, who did Mormon missionary activities in Japan for a while. Somehow, in the early 2010s, they got a TV show based on this band, which ultimately combined tokusatsu elements together with campy retro US children's television sensibilities and a heavy dose of surrealism. Needless to say, this is a weird, weird thing. I truly can barely comprehend how it happened.

I've generally avoided US tokusatsu, not because I have anything against the idea, but because I'm simply not interested in market-specific adaptations like Power Rangers or Americanized Godzilla films. So it was quite exciting to give this a try and honestly I had a pretty good time. The show is very goofy and had strong parody elements, but it also has an earnestness to it that I really appreciated. It loves and relishes in what it is doing, and honestly at times they'd do a properly choreographed action scene or blow something up with real explosives and it was great. It was also 100% kid friendly while also being fun for adults, so it would probably be a great show for a tokusatsu loving parent to watch with their young kids! I do think the humor was often a little... basic? It got some good laughs out of me at times but I was generally more amused than in hysterics.

It also had a few shorts made after the television show. Generally these weren't as good, perhaps since the budget was lower it lacked a lot of the madcap tokusatsu elements and felt more like skits aimed exclusively at the younger crowd. I'd say just watch the TV series and give these a pass.

Still, what a magical thing to exist at all. I often find people in the States miss the point when they try to make something in a tokusatsu style but this actually nailed it while also feeling like something that could have only been made here, the best of both worlds! Definitely recommend giving this a shot if you ever just want something silly.

After this, toku/superhero-wise the creator of Wingman would go on to work on the Iria OVA, Zetman, Tiger & Bunny, and GARO: Crimson Moon.

I watched Warning from Space! What a strange movie, though ultimately one I found charming in the end. The oddest thing about is had to be the fact that a lot of things happen and never really get resolved. We never see what becomes of the people who want to buy the formula for the new radioactive element, most of the Pairans barely do anything, etc. Still, the premise of some friendly starfish aliens trying to help save Earth from fiery destruction at the hands of a rogue planet is quite novel, and the panic and destruction later on in the film as the planet looms ever closer is quite impressive and haunting! Worth watching for and weirdcore tokusatsu enthusiasts.

Yes, I watched it recently too. A very interesting movie for fans of retro tokusatsu.
If you haven?t seen it yet, there is also a similar movie called Gorath.

I started watching Ryukendo, already about halfway through. I liked the comedy in the beginning, but after the first ten episodes the show went into drama, although it retained the same ridiculousness. I also don’t like the fact that the main character almost collects a harem, because a third of all female characters are in love with him. On the good side: I really like the huge cast of colorful secondary characters, the atmosphere of a provincial town, the episodic nature of what is happening and the fact that the show is not afraid to embody the craziest ideas.
Also, given the year of release, I had a question: what is with the huge number of toys? For modern tokusatsu this is normal, but for 2006... They probably offered more merch than Kabuto, Majirengers, Mebius and Garo combined. What is the reason?
I also can't help but think that Ryuiino inspired Kiva.
https://cdn.wallpapersafari.com/64/4/qwFQ6f.jpg

I haven't tried Gorath yet but I know of it, definitely on the list of things I'll get to eventually! The thing I always remember hearing about this one is the out-of-place kaiju that shows up. Can't have a tokusatsu film without one, especially in the 60s!