As far as I remember, this kaiju was removed from the American version. A terrible decision, because that?s what people watch movies like this for!

You know, I think sometimes we tokusatsu fans forget just how GOOD we have it. Then you watch something like Giant Saver, which really puts things into perspective.

Since this series is super obscure I think a little bit of background is required. Giant Saver is a tokusatsu TV show from mainland China, which shared one of it's production companies with the maker of China's Armor Hero series. Giant Saver takes it's inspiration from Sentai, with a team of transforming heroes and their assortment of combiner mechs for when the monsters get big, to the point it might be more accurate to call the series a knockoff of Sentai rather than inspired by it. Notably, it has action done by Takanori Shibahara's Wild Stunts company!

One of the first things that immediately struck me about the show was the veneer of jank on pretty much every aspect of it. The stunts, while occasionally busting out cool moves, were generally a bit slow and clumsy. The camera work was truly awful, many shaky handheld shots and often they ended up with this vaguely nauseating distortion of the background in scenes. Episodes regularly end extremely abruptly. Heck, even the final episode pretty much did a smash cut from finishing off the final enemy to a 45 second epilogue. The show has a real bad case of adult actors badly pretending to be teenagers (especially Windy). The subtitles were just TERRIBLE. And yet... there was an earnest effort to add in overarching characterization and plot points, which actually shocked me. Sometimes a character would get injured and it would persist over several episodes or incidents from the past would get brought up. Really jarring that they actually tried on that front, as imperfect as it was.

Occasionally really unhinged episodes would come up, like the one where the team kidnaps a magical fishman doctor to force him to heal someone, getting said doctor killed in the process. Or... the episode with the monster that gives people intellectual disabilities, which is handled with even less tact than you are imagining. The plot overall was two-parter monster of the week fare. Fight the Super Elf (or occasional other monster), get the item, repeat. I think the story was at it's best when it came to episodes focused on winning new members over to fight on the team, which were usually quite fun. As far as the characters go, the cast was generally charming but lacking in substance. I felt like Zoe in particular got the short end of the stick when it came to focus.

There were a few interesting cultural things that got my attention during the show. Being filmed in China it was interesting to take in the scenery. Much of what I saw seemed nothing like Japan, and actually reminded me more of what you might see in the US, which really surprised me! Another thing, and one I personally found very funny, is how the actors were all very touchy with each other, which makes a very amusing contrast to the slightly aloof impression a lot of Japanese actors give off. Finally... I learned something really unusual about a lot of Chinese TV shows from this. Most shows aired in mainland China are required to have the dialogue be in Putonghua, the "standard" form of Chinese. However, most actors have strong regional accents in one form or another, so it's standard practice to redub live action shows with voice actors with a more "normal" accent, and Giant Saver is no exception. As someone who isn't used to watching Chinese TV, this creates a slightly uncanny effect where the voices feel slightly off all the time. In my mind, this is sort of like if the US redubbed anyone with an accent to sound like a New Yorker. :p

So... it was just kind of a disaster! We eat so good most of the time that sometimes we forget that tokusatsu can be really janky. I did find the show had a certain charm to it though, I'd legitimately be curious to try the other two entries in the series if they had subs, see if they were more polished and all that.

There is also such an interesting thing from Chinese tokusatsu as Metal Kaiser 2007. Essentially, he is a Chinese Ultraman with a mystical background. If we put aside the fact that this is not a film, but three episodes of a show that they decided not to continue, then the thing seemed to me of quite high quality. The characters are fleshed out, the action is multi-layered and the finisher is simply awesome. And the most successful Chinese tokusatsu franchises are the Armor Heroes and Balala the Fairies for fans of magical girls.

Metal Kaiser sounds really interesting since it has that direct Tsuburaya connection! I'm hoping to try out some more Chinese tokusatsu in the future, it's a shame so little of it is available in English.

I started watching Kikaider 01 and I already regret that the series didn’t last a little longer so that the androids could assemble their own orchestra.

I watched Space Sheriff Gavan.

My only prior experience with the Metal Hero series was Juspion and after watching Gavan I understand how the series caught on a lot more. The two best aspects of the show for me have to be the large amount of quality and creative out-of-suit action scenes along with Retsu himself, who pulls off an excellent combination of 80s coolness and being adorably endearing. Like, I kept thinking as I watched the show that if Brazil had gotten this instead of Juspion it would have even MORE popularity.

Overall though, while not a terrible experience, I came away feeling like the show was utterly sauceless. The show tends to include a lot of extremely chaotic camera cuts that really took me out of the experience. Sure, the Makuu Space battles are wacky, but I can't really enjoy a cool fight when the camera is cutting away to some new nonsense every few seconds! The show also tended to reuse a lot of footage unfortunately. As far as the story goes, while there are some highlights such as Voicer's tragic end, tended to just not make much sense. I love a silly Showa tokusatsu plot as much as the next person, but they tended to be too serious to really enjoy on that level, while too also silly to take seriously. Really think the show would have benefited from moving a bit further in one direction or the other. Between the visuals and the narrative style the show could barely hold my attention most of the time.

I dunno, it's a show where I finished it and didn't feel sad or excited, just kind of tired. Really hope I find at least one MH entry I love down the line somewhere.

Well, Sharivan in a way corrected what you didn't like about Gavan by going completely crazy in the second half. And so, taking into account the claims, I can recommend Metalder. There are several factions of villains competing with each other and, due to the shortened number of episodes, the show is much less repetitive than most of its peers.

Sharivan going completely off the rails sounds like a fun time if nothing else! I'm also really intrigued by Metalder, I'd seen other people suggest it too and Kikaider is a great show to take inspiration from. Some of the other shows in the series have also caught my eye, Jiraiya sounds pretty unusual with its battles against global ninja masters and I'm always really fascinated by tokusatsu shows with a focus on rescue such as Winspector too.

Metalder is a great show and the only Metal Heroes series I could get into of the ones I've tried. I find that a lot of the other shows just have really messed up pacing and editing, which makes them feel like individual episodes are disconnected and hard to follow.

There is a reason why Metalder, at least for now, still remains the sole Metal Heroes representation of my own personal list of top favorite Toku Shows of all time which, incidentally, is currently a work in progress.

Both good options. If you want something dramatic, I would also recommend Spielvan and Jiban!

I watched through the films that Shout Factory put out on their recent Classic Tokusatsu Collection!

Prince of Space: Weird and absurd, love the villain absolutely hamming things up.
Invasion of the Neptune Men: There's something about the energy of this one. The silly, unexplained superpowers of the hero, the Neptune Men costumes.
Watari the Ninja Boy: I spent a lot of the runtime of this movie wondering why the heck it was formatted like a battle shounen, only to realize afterwards that it was in fact based on a shounen manga called "Watari", a manga so obscure that there is basically no information available on it in English. From what I could gather the original manga actually looks super neat, with a story about class liberation during the Tensho era. The movie adapts the first of the manga's three story arcs into a very condensed film, something which I think might make for a cool novelty for fans of the original story but doesn't stand that well on its own. Lots of neat action set pieces though! Honestly now I just wish someone had translated the original manga into English, I really want to read it now...
Golden Ninja: I want a guy who dresses sharply. A man who likes to laugh! Who likes animals and has a strong sense of justice! The ideal man is Golden Bat. In all seriousness though, I thought this one was a lot of fun. Ancient Atlantis skull men coming back to life in order to fight aliens in their drill squid space ship who are trying to smash planets together. Delightful.
Dragon Showdown: This is an unusual genre mashup. Part kaiju movie, part ninja film, part romance. I thought it was pretty good! I was really surprised at how a lot of the cast actually got their own little character arcs. The heroine learns to be happy without her terrible father, the protagonist leaves the region without a ruler in the end after seeing the troubles caused by the system. Surprisingly character driven for a movie that has a climax with a giant toad, dragon, and spider beating each other up!
Ninja Scope: Another manga adaptation. To my understanding, the manga was a fairly standard ninja comic, but the tv tokusatsu adaptation became famous for its absurd content such as random sci-fi stuff happening. Ninja Scope is a movie adaptation of the tv tokusatsu (with some reused footage and some new) in much the same vein, with a guy flying around with giant razor geta on his arms and aerial kite battles. Truly ridiculous fun.
Terror Beneath the Sea: I actually didn't watch this one since it was the English cut of the film. It was an international co-production between Japan and the US, so I think you could make the argument that both languages count as the "original" version, but it looks like the Japanese cut is a bit longer so I'd prefer to try that one, but alas, no fansubs were in sight. If anyone knows where I could watch the Japanese cut I'd love to know.

I have only seen the first two through MST3K, and all I remember as a result is “the Hitler Building” from Neptune Men.

When I saw that building I thought it must be social commentary of some sort only to learn that it was reused footage from some WWII era film. You'd really think they could find a different clip to use. :lolol

Didn't it seem to you that George Lucas borrowed the dialogue between Luke and Obi-Wan in A New Hope from this movie?

I don't remember that movie well enough to say! For some reason Star Wars never sticks in my mind, no matter how many times I've randomly seen the films.

OK. And since I mentioned in another thread about the different names of "Golden Bat", I will also mention that Dragon Showdown is also known under the names Magic Serpent and Ninja Apocalypse (the last is something completely crazy).

Watched the first three episodes of Akumaizer 3, and it's unique even for its time.

The action is definitely extensive, and the effects are period standard. The real kicker that sets it apart is the set-up and characterizations of the main and recurring characters. Zabitan has already walked away from his people and is fighting against them, but shows mercy even to potential enemies (though violent enemies who've already killed won't get the same treatment). The Demon Clan is definitely a fully formed society with its own laws (though I noticed some contradictions). There are some unique concepts you might not anticipate, like a dramatized Hollow Earth (complete with an underground sun) and the idea that Downworld is potentially the basis for Hell in the minds of past civilizations. The ideas set forth by Kamen Rider are on the table, but dialed up a tad. The heroes are the same as the mechanized subterranean demons they fight, but they chose their path. The idea of humans not accepting the heroes because they're different is present and very much explored almost from the beginning. This makes the idea of our heroes being the types of protectors who fight evil and hide from people (remember the Kakuranger motto) all the more significant to both the story and its characters. I do see some ideas that could be considered prototypical of modern tokusatsu, like enemies who are on the ropes and try to bring out the "big guns" in the form of fanciful sci-fi vehicles (tanks are pretty typical here). Speaking of vehicles, the first one we see doesn't get used by evil for long and...well, I don't want spoil too much. Suffice it to say, using the enemies' own equipment against them is so significant in this show and it's only three episodes in!

I think it's a unique show given the period it was made in. It originally aired around the time of Gorenger and Stronger, but I think it was tackling themes one would equate with a more modern tokusatsu. I definitely want to explore more of this.

https://tokusatsunetwork.com/2016/05/15793/

I ended up binge watching Legend Heroes over the course of a few days. The show was a little confused, but it got the spirit!

Legend Heroes is a Korean tokusatsu show from 2016. I remember back when it was new a lot of people really loved it, and I still occasionally see people comment on the series today, so I was very excited to try it out. The show combines Sentai-esque mech fights with Kamen-Rider-esque ground action. Narratively it borrows elements from various Battle Royale Kamen Rider shows. The protagonist Liu Bei is a lot like Shinji from Ryuki, a nice guy who gets swept up in a dangerous battle. The general suit style feels like a combination of Ryuki (animal knights) and Gaim (the warlords aesthetic). Perhaps most interestingly, the Dream Battle in Legend Heroes is very similar to the Desire Grand Prix from Geats, with people battling to have a wish granted and risking losing their dreams upon loss. This in spite of the show predating Geats by several years. Still, the show does enough unique things that it felt like its own show, and not just a knockoff.

Being a show from outside of Japan and not from Toei or Tsuburaya, it does feel like a unique take on the medium, though it does unfortunately feel like it suffers a bit from lack of experience by the staff. One thing that really struck me about it was how obvious it was that the show wanted to tackle more serious stories, but probably was not allowed. I have to say that I actually like the idea of one of these battle royale shows where characters don't necessarily die. Having characters stripped of their dreams offers plenty of interesting drama by itself, but the show was hesitant to really dig into the repercussions of it, with most characters who end up losing just getting instantly written out of the show without dwelling on it too much. Gongsun Zan in particular really stuck with me, since she was a major recurring character for the first stretch of the show and basically Liu Bei's sister, but after her loss is not even acknowledged in passing. It was so extreme I thought there must have been some sort of conflict with the actor, and was genuinely shocked she showed up again at the very end. Similarly, the show is very light on the blood and death, to the point it can get confusing! It's hard to tell if someone was serious injured, heck, it's hard to tell if character's merely lost the dream battle or legit died a lot of the time! Cao Cao meanwhile really felt like he was intended to be a sort of dark vigilante character before having his behavior toned down. The whole thing reeked of having been serious rewritten at points. Some more minor issues include the show's tendency to introduce plot points or characters, completely drop them for vast swaths of episodes, then suddenly bring them up again. Also it is light on the practical effects and the mech fights aren't too great (though this is an issue in quite a few Sentai shows too).

Still, I think the show had a real tokusatsu soul to it. It's goofy and weird and dramatic, everything one of these shows should be. The fact that I can actually critique on the same level as a big tokusatsu show is impressive in and of itself! It was really fun to watch and had quite a lot of charming characters and poignant moments. Liu Bei's relationship with his two angel partners during the show is nice in particular, with Xu Shu's death providing some genuine weight to the story. Even if it isn't quite as good as I initially hoped it would be, it was a particularly impressive effort for something from outside Japan.

I watched the last part of the trilogy about the original Yokai Monsters: “Alone with the Ghosts” of the 69th. Well, I liked the return to horror after the fantasy 2nd part. Some episodes were even creepy, although, of course, it is difficult to be afraid of yokai who harm only notorious scoundrels. The story also turned out to be extremely successful. I love road jidaigeki with all these roads, taverns, ferries and not at all random encounters. However, the film also has significant disadvantages.
Compared to previous parts, the scale has greatly diminished. No destruction of the city or even the estate, just running through the forest. There are a little more than a dozen yokai themselves, and among them there was no place for the colorful characters from the previous parts. Yes, after the second they would not be perceived as threatening, but the ghosts are sorely lacking in character. And their power has diminished.
Here I will digress for an analogy. In the Soviet film adaptation of Mary Poppins, the action is moved to the 80s of the twentieth century and there are many veiled references to the Cold War. Considering that all of Mary's abilities in that film come down to illusions and hypnosis, there is a funny theory that this is actually a story about a spy. So, the situation with the yokai from “Alone with the Ghosts” is approximately the same, but it’s impossible to come up with an interesting theory.
To summarize, I would say that this is the better film in the trilogy in terms of plot, but the worst as a yokai film. But it's worth watching, at least I wasn't disappointed.
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/...pg_UX1000_.jpg

Return of Ultraman:
I'm famous for my stellar quality. A show excellent enough to be the best in the Showa era.
Kaiketsu Zubat:
I'm afraid you have it wrong. You are only the second best in the Showa era.
Return of Ultraman:
The second-best? What else could be better?!
Kaiketsu Zubat:
https://c.tenor.com/5eaqQswPA7kAAAAd/tenor.gif

Lately I've been watching a lot of really questionable tokusatsu, so I thought I owed it to myself to pick out a show I was almost guaranteed to love. Kaiketsu Zubat delivered. Hiroshi Miyauchi as a suave vigilante private investigator cowboy superhero with a guitar? Check? Funny? Check. Dark? Check. I think if you condensed everything I love about the Showa era into a tokusatsu, you'd just get Zubat. I don't even really have any complaints. I mean, like any older show it has some dated writing in spots, but there isn't any point in complaining about the times. I guess they changed Hayakawa's outfit near the end to one with more white on it and it wasn't nearly as cool as his original one.

Hayakawa himself makes for quite the interesting hero. He's a merciless vigilante who is on a quest to avenge his dead friend, but he's nonetheless a hero who tries to help the people he encounters on his quest. He exemplified the lonely Shotaro Ishinomori hero to me, pushing onward through both physical injuries and mental strain. At the same time, he is a completely ridiculous character who is always the best at everything and saying completely surreal things. I think this split nature is reflected in many parts of the show. It effortlessly flips between stuff like Hayakawa defeating a golf assassin or an Uri Geller expy to stuff about human trafficking and a boy who contracts an extreme strain of rabies so his father nearly kills the kid with a shotgun. It's absolutely BUCK wild. The show is extremely formulaic, but I actually think it worked to the story's advantage most of the time because I got so excited every episode when it reached the point where the hired muscle of the villain of the week showed up, I just couldn't wait to see what nonsense was going to occur every time.

The setting is maybe my favorite part of the whole show though. A Neo-Western Japan overrun by organized crime, the people living in suffering and fear? Just fantastic, and super fresh for a tokusatsu show. Notably, none of the villains are monsters or aliens or even modified humans. Everyone is just... humans, even the worst villains. No blaming the vices of our species on some external force here! We regularly see corruption running through the police force and several other people that originally seem to be allies even. The setting really comes to life nicely, the action is very solid and the cinematography is quite stylish.

Great stuff, from the same head writer as Kikaider and Akumaizer. I really think this guy has vision, most of his shows are a cut above and very unique! I definitely want to try Akumaizer myself now...

The notion of a hero willing and able to kill is on my mind heavily right now, and it leaves me a little weary when the protagonist has a desire to commit an extrajudicial murder (which if memory serves, is definitely on the table with Zubat, especially towards the end). It's to his credit if he's trying to help someone and understandable if he kills the villain of the week while trying to prevent the death of an innocent, but it still runs into anti-hero territory. Then again, Ishinomori always did kind of straddle that line (looking at you here, Skull Man).

The first few episodes of Akumaizer are different and leave you wanting more, but to my knowledge, the entire series has not been completely subbed yet.

Zubat is an incredibly fun show with absolutely no respect for any of the laws of physics.

Well, in heroic tokusatsu, when putting a ban on killing people, the question invariably arises: ?Who should be considered people?? ?Why is it possible to kill a kaijin, but not a human?? Of course, W, Fourze and some Sentai avoid killing, but still these are rather exceptions. In fact, in my subjective opinion, Janperson handled this best. He destroyed robots because they can be restored if the memory chip is not damaged. And he fought with human criminals much more delicately.

If you watch the "Let's Talk Toku" docu-series by TokuSHOUTsu, you see them briefly touch on the idea of Sentai being partially symptomatic of Japanese xenophobia.

To be honest, the Tokusatsu approach to villainy is not unlike "Buffy, The Vampire Slayer": Humans and Demons are initially treated as both potentially threatening, but humans are subject to pre-existing laws while Demons and Vampires hide in the shadows and are a supernatural threat that aren't well understood by most humans and the protagonists tend to draw a clear delineation between killing a demon/vamp and killing a human. In later seasons and the spin-off "Angel", the line becomes more and more blurred and the arbitrary elimination of demons and vamps is treated as a moral conundrum especially when they aren't threatening anyone's life.

Honestly, the best answer comes from Page 17 of Saban's Power Rangers: Ultimate Visual History by Insight Editions: "One person who had no doubts was Fox Kids Network president Margaret Loesch, who ordered a large number of episodes that would air in late summer 1993. But Fox executives were still worried about the action-packed sequences, which involved the Power Rangers using martial arts to fight the bad guys. Nervous Fox affiliates asked about Loesch's plans for damage control if the high-kicking action led to a backlash from concerned parents. But the savvy executive stuck to her guns: "This is an action-adventure show, and these kids are karate experts," she says, "but we always tried to get across that this show is a fantasy, and in real life, you've got to solve your problems with means other than fisticuffs."

I'm surprised that Attack on Titan wasn't criticized for its xenophobia. This is right on the surface: people live in a limited protected space, into which huge, bestial monsters burst in from the outside.

It was. I remember seeing an article that tried to examine the various sociopolitical theories that surrounded the franchise (prior to the Marley and Eldian revelation and the overall climax).

I have decided to get back to the swing of things for the Metal Heroes franchise. This time it's for Kidou Keiji Jiban.

First episode is pretty strong, but light on explanation. Things aren't well explained from the onset. A little easier to extrapolate than Janperson though.

I can't find the questions thread for "other toku," but it seems like you're on a similar topic, so I'll ask it here - I'm interested in watching some older, non-big-3 toku. How does Winspector hold up? I absolutely adore the aesthetic and costumes, so it has my interest. Also, what are some other shows from the 70s and 80s that are worth watching? Your discussion about Zubat seems interesting, would you recommend it?

If I recall correctly, this was the show that Miyauchi had the most fun with and considers it his most favorite putting it above all his other shows.

I would absolutely recommend Zubat: it was an outrageously fun, serious, silly, and unusual tokusatsu. Even if you end up not liking it as much as me, the show is relatively short, so it isn't a huge commitment.

I also highly suggest Kikaider, which has the same writer as Zubat. I think it strikes a really great balance between being a funny, kitschy Showa-era show and the more poignant, serious elements to its story. Jiro is an interesting protagonist too. In contrast to Showa-era Riders, who have had some of their humanity stripped from them, Jiro is an android who desperately wants to be more like an imperfect human. I really enjoyed it!

I only managed to watch the first eleven episodes of Kikaider myself. I really need to watch the rest of the show at some point.

Coming back in here to say I watched Space Sheriff Sharivan. It wasn't incredible, but was pretty solid!

I learned as I watched this show that apparently the first 5 Metal Hero shows all had Shozo Uehara as head writer, which probably explains why the three I've seen so far have all been so similar. I think Sharivan manages to pull ahead of Gavan and Juspion though, largely on the merit of Sharivan being much, much weirder. I complained about Gavan being too boring when I watched it, but this one managed to be pretty consistently entertaining with its surreal visuals and plots about the spirit world, even if it carries forward some of my complains about Gavan, like the chaotic video editing. Heck, I ever think the atmosphere manages to make up for the out of suit action feeling weaker and the episodic plots often being very abruptly ended. The whole thing is actually a pretty good case study in how important "the vibe" is to these shows. Good Showa-era tokusatsu junk food.

Oh, good choice!

Winspector was my first Metal Hero. Personally, I thought it was decent and it has Miyauchi Hiroshi as the mentor so that's cool. Whether or not I can recommend it to you depends on how much you can enjoy shows with virtually no plot. Basically each episode is its own one-and-done story, so if that's not for you, then maybe watch a different Metal Hero instead. Hope that helps.

Huh, interesting. I guess it really depends on how it does it. I enjoy how old the original Ultra Q and Ultraman are basically anthologies of mini kaiju stories, but I find some of the older Rider and Sentai seasons to be a bit too repetitive. Winspector is more focused on rescue operations than on actual fighting, right? Maybe that'll keep my interest more because I haven't seen it done to death in every Sentai/Rider show out there.

Which Metal Heroes series would you recommend for something that's more story-based?

Choujinki Metalder springs to my mind. Even though, it is a Showa era series, it never feels all that episodic and it's, at least to me, not even repetitive. And as an added bonus, the show only has 39 episodes.

Yeah, Winspector, Solbrain and Exceedraft are all part of the Rescue Hero Trilogy, which is set in the future of 1999-early 00s. So I'd say it's kind of like a mix of GoGo V and Dekaranger with robots, but with less MOTWs and more focus on fighting organized crime and saving lives.

If you want a more conventional story-based Metal Hero, from my experience I can recommend Spielvan and Jiban. I'm currently 30 episodes in to Janperson and I'm enjoying that as well.

Or there's Sekai Ninja Sen, if you like ninjas.

I am currently 16 episodes into Jiban.

Still keeping with Spielvan, but it gets somewhat repetitive. It has a tendency to pad the episode times by repeating the same facts and backstory that the audience should already be aware of. Granted, it was the '80s and syndication wasn't like we understand it now, but it's still grating and compounded by the clearly recycled footage of Gaios and Gran Nazca blowing up ships and jets and tanks.

Another note worthy detail is how they replaced the original ending theme with the "Kesshou Da" insert theme around Ep. 11, but still used the former as an insert theme.