I've had a DVD copy of Inazuman from Generation Kikaida for awhile now, but I never got around to watching it in any significant capacity until recently.

It comes across as your standard '70s tokusatsu because it feels like it's just ripping off the basic formula of Kamen Rider '71. The Youth League outfits are more akin to an Ultraman defense team and the aesthetic of Inazuman himself is more akin to Marvel's Electro than a psychic superhero. It's not until the Rose Bambara episode that everything starts to shift around. In fact, the episode immediately after that one with Devil Bambara is one of the most inconsistent episodes of a tokusatsu I think I've seen. It has Goro on a mad dash for vengeance and a nun who preaches pacifism despite being subjected with a bunch of guys into forced labor. Spoiler Alert, she sacrifices herself without being reunited with her mother and all the other workmen die despite her wish that they be saved and Goro only learns how to not be as selfish. Following this is a bit of a shakeup in which Goro is increasingly at odds with the rest of the Youth League. I've only gotten up to Ep. 15, so this could still surprise me further.

Was Raijingo the inspiration for Tridoron in Kamen Rider Drive? There are vague similarities between the two.

I just finished Exceedraft and the final arc gave me a headache. Other than that, the show has many good episodes that fit the recurring themes of the rescue police genre, the heroes have strong emotional moments and fairly balanced development and I must praise the actors for the effort they put in their performances. If the show had played a little safer and stuck to those strengths until the end, I would've called it a great show.

Metal Hero Ranking:

1) Jiban
2) Janperson
3) Spielvan
4) Sekai Ninja Sen
5) Solbrain
6) Winspector
7) Battle Cop
8) Exceedraft

I've been sort of fascinated by the Toei Fushigi Comedy series ever since I first heard of it and I just wrapped up watching my first show from it, Batten Robomaru!

I think the show serves as a good reminder of the fact that "tokusatsu" can really be anything, not just monsters and superheroes. Robomaru certainly has some action and effectwork, but is more of a deranged sitcom than anything. The head writer for this show (and many other Fushigi Comedy shows) is Urasawa, who pretty much any Sentai fan will know as the Carranger guy. Robomaru is even more of a purely comedic and parodic series than Carranger. When this works in the show's favor it really does deliver on some good surreal humor where Robomaru's attempts at heroism cause more problems than they solve, the genre shifts at random, and everyone in Karinto New Town is ready to throw hands at the drop of a hat. But sometimes I felt like it veered too close to generic sitcom fare and I also just found myself wishing for a bit more *substance* to the show. Pure comedy usually starts to lose its impact after a while, much like how an utterly joyless drama stops being compelling. I enjoyed it, but I think it needed a bit more variety, so Carranger is the better show to me. Also, kind of a nitpick, but I felt like its sense of humor did not always age gracefully, whether it was one too many pervy jokes or parodies of other media that was popular in the 80s.

Still, it was something different from your average tokusatsu fare! I'm glad that a few of the shows have finally been subbed in recent years and look forward to checking out more later.

Over the last couple of days, I have been powering several episodes of Jiraiya and I am already up to its 12th episode.

Been watching my Blu-ray of Jiban, and as repetitive as the Showa-Era of Tokusatsu gets, this one gets wild at times!

A goat monster who eats books and manga, a suicidal zombie monster who looks like he's directly inspired by Return of the Living Dead and shows you frightening visions of an Afterlife that's basically ripped from Dante, and a centipede monster who takes the form of numerous kidnapped kids!

I don't really understand the point of the "Mayumi Can't Remember" arc, but it does shake things up a bit.

Recently saw the one with Giba's actor in a dual role alongside the "Moon Power" villainess who wants to challenge Giba and Jiban.

I am now a few episodes away from being at Jiraiya's halfway point and I have to say, I am honestly surprised on how much fun I am having with this show so far especially after revisiting Spielban, Metalder, Janperson, and Gavan last year, Metal Heroes series-wise.

Over the last few days, I have watched episodes 23-32 of Jiraiya.

I also have gone through the first 10 episodes of Spectreman. Not sure if anybody here have heard of the latter series though.

Just finished the episode of Jiraiya where Demost and Lady Spider make their first official appearances in the series.

I have knocked out another set of episodes of Jiraiya and with less than 10 episodes left, it is safe to say that Jiraiya is on its way on becoming one of my Top 5 favorite seasons in all of Metal Heroes and may even displaced Sharivan as my third favorite MH series of the Showa Era.

I know this is WAY TOO EARLY to even speculate at this point in time, but what if the next Project R.E.D. show, after Gavan Infinity proves to be a hit, turns out to be a Jiraiya show in some form?

Then, to quote another ninja, I would get fired up!

And in one episode, out of the blue, they introduce the American Ninja, a New Yorker who eats pizza and learned the "hidden" Turtle style of Shaolin kung fu from a former Shaolin monk who immigrated to Staten Island and runs a matcha latte cafe. :lolol

I've just started up watching Specail Rescue Exceedraft since my copy arrived recently. I've really enjoyed this era of Metal Heroes. I'm a few episodes into Exceedraft and digging it.

I am currently up to episode 20 of Spectreman.

Kanutack and Robotack
 

New to watching the Metal Heroes shows. Started with Gavan and loving it so far. Pretty much have found everything subtitled except for Kabutack and Robotack. Do those exist somewhere?

Maybe, someday they will appear. Alternatively, modern technology allows you to create subtitles yourself, even without knowing the language. I watched the Chinese Balala the Fairies that way.

I finished up Exceedraft today. It wasn't bad but it's notably worse than both Winspector and Solbrain in most respects. The show carries forward the human crime oriented angle of its predecessors and has far less video and sound editing jank, but it suffers a lot from feeling like the show just didn't have anything to say. Winspector is about the importance of saving every life possible and Solbrain takes on the challenging idea of saving the hearts of people, but Exceedraft is a cop drama that just says trite things about people and society. Another minus is that the suits aren't very good compared to its predecessors either (I LOVE the Solbrain suits). The show also tries to delve deeper into the team members as individual characters, but I didn't feel like it added much, and I feel like the characters involved in the crime of the week tended to get neglected instead. Hayato gets far less focus than Daiki or Ryoma did too, so he wasn't much of a leader figure.

The further along the show goes, the more the rescue aspect starts to feel neglected, escalating into the characters getting combat oriented suit upgrades and... peaking when the show features a war between the biblical God and Devil where humanity is nearly wiped out by God's judgement for the finale? Did Exceedraft just get revived from death by aborting the child of God?! After a certain point I just had no idea what the show was even about anymore.

Largely unremarkable, but with occasional good episodes. Then the show loses its mind. Definitely the weakest 90s Metal Hero I have seen so far, but it DID make me appreciate Winspector and Solbrain even more than I already did. I guess things just weren't the same without Noboru Sugimura as head writer.

PS: I added a Metal Hero tier list to my signature recently! If Sentai is ending and I have a list for that, I think Metal Hero deserves one too.

Just finished episodes 43-47 of Jiraiya. Only three episodes to go and I will not only finish this series as of this week, I will also have completed all of the Metal Heroes shows of the Showa Era and yes, I will do a ranking list for them accordingly.

Aaaand, Toei Spider-Man has also been completed! I swear I didn't binge the entire show in one day after Exceedraft, I've been watching it slowly for months with a friend and just happened to finish both within a short time of each other. :lol

I of course came at the show from the perspective of a tokusatsu fan with some minor knowledge of Spider-Man, while my friend came at it from the perspective of a Spider-Man fan with some knowledge of tokusatsu. Neither of us really expected much of the show going into it, but both of us actually came away from it really impressed! It's a show that really respects the "vibe" and powers of the source material it was working with, while also putting a uniquely Japanese spin on things. It's can be hilarious, it can be thought-provoking, and was just all around excellent.

Takuya is also a very fun protagonist, he feels like an average Joe in a lot of ways what with his jock-ish personality and mundane interactions with his family and girlfriend. However, he also shows remarkable growth as a hero, becoming less motivated by personal revenge over time and more motivated by his desire to save people from suffering the way he has. Of course, he also gets to have one final, cathartic, revenge motivated smackdown against the villains in the final episode to round things out too. The villains were also quite fun and hammy. The Ninders in particular might be my new favorite mooks in a tokusatsu. They're so utterly hapless and useless that they wrap right back around into being irresistible.

Something that I think really enhances the show is that it has a really strong narrative motif later on in the show, where it focuses on family relationships, particularly parent child ones that tie back in to Takuya's own situation and his grief over the death of his father. There was also an excellent balance of stories that had happy and tragic endings. It's not common for Showa tokusatsu to have such an explicit slant to the story like that.

Supaidaman is definitely a show worth watching. The musical theme alone is worth it, incredibly catchy! And I'm also amazed that they thought to make the plot where Takuya starts working with an Interpol agent a movie, and not part of a series. It's a pretty important plot point. And Doctor Miracle is such an interesting villain that if I were Marvel, I would consider adding her counterpart to the official Spiderman.

Yeah, making the movie plot relevant like that is very... 2010s tokusatsu-coded of them now that I think about it. Doctor Miracle was also pretty great, I totally thought they were going to stick around for more than one episode, what with their onion powered transformation potions and striking appearance seeming like overaching villain material. Talking about Doctor Miracle also reminds me that the episode featured a youth detective squad, a concept the show liked so much that it used it THREE different times with completely unique characters. There is a pair of Toei Fushigi Comedy shows with the same concept too, it must have been a huge fad in Japan in the 70s and 80s!

Pretty much this. While I appreciated how the show had more major arcs compared to its predecessors mostly having standalone episodes, I can't really say what the show is about, beyond what the trilogy is about in general. I think it peaked with Solbrain. Honestly, I don't mind Exceedraft being a lesser version, but the way the plot goes to hell left me with a bad impression, instead of what would've been an okay one.

I actually fairly like the overall design of the Try Jackets, although I wonder how they're supposed to see out of those opaque-looking visors. Sync Redder was a big improvement in that sense. I also winced at that early suit-up scene where Ken slaps his face with the metal gloves. Surely that hurts.

I think the main characters were decent on their own, but yeah, I didn't really feel their dynamic as a team. Looked like there was a hint of rivalry between Hayato and Kosaku, but it didn't go anywhere. Katsuragi got nothing and Ai got screwed by the final arc. They've got nothing on Ryouma, Daiki and Masaki!

You forgot to mention the part where God and Devil use Santa Clauses to fight their proxy war.

Crazy how Miyashita Junichi followed this with Janperson, which we both loved. Blue SWAT could be either high quality or a car crash, I have no idea what to expect from this wildcard writer. I can't even attribute it to being his first time, as the sudden biblical warfare in a rescue police show isn't a sign of poor experience, only poor and deranged narrative.

Speaking of Exceedraft, a young Mamoru Miyano was a guest character in episodes 7 and 8 as a kid. For those not familiar, that's Mr. Ultraman Zero or Deathryuger for Ultra and Sentai fans.

They're really bizarre in the sense that they completely remove the illusion that the suit actor sees out of the visor or "eyes". Even knowing it was probably no worse than any other suits of the era, it still kind of freaked me out to explicitly notice that everything was being viewed through miniscule slits in the helmets!

Yeah, at first I thought the show was really going to lean into internal team conflict as a source of drama for the narrative, which could have made for an interesting alternate sort of appeal compared to Winspector and Solbrain. Totally petered out though. Also you weren't kidding about Katsuragi not being great. I'd barely be registering his presence most of the time.

I don't say this lightly, but I now consider those episodes the new winner of the "most unhinged tokusatsu Christmas story" prize. That is a HIGHLY competitive category!

Even the episodes he did for Winspector and Solbrain were a lot better than what he did for Exceedraft in my opinion. Blue SWAT is one of those shows that almost no one seems to have seen, so yeah, no idea what I'll be getting into when I tackle that one. Ah, the joy and terror of never knowing when a tokusatsu is going to jump you with the greatest or worst thing you've ever seen.

Well, this is not tokusatsu at all, but it’s still related, so I’ll share my impressions here. I watched "The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaysia" from 1942. That is, the same propaganda film for which Eiji Tsuburaya made miniatures long before Godzilla and Ultraman.
If we talk about impressions, now this film is interesting precisely as a piece of the era. Thanks to him, you can find out what people thought at a critical historical moment, because neither before nor after they would have ever filmed something like this.
Viewers, along with young Tomoda, go from a cadet to a military pilot participating in the attack on Pearl Harbor and the battles near the Malay Archipelago. The scenes with the military are very massive and impressive in scale. It is clear that no expense was spared on the film. Propaganda for the most part manifests itself in the absence of any conflicts. Tomoda gets along well with his peers and with his elders, and his family also fully supports him. Although some of his mother’s phrases and actions can be interpreted in two ways, and it is quite possible that the director dared to put a secret meaning into the film, unnoticed by the censors. Also slightly surprising is the almost complete lack of justification for the war.
Typically, in propaganda films this is the main emphasis: to explain the need for bloodshed as eloquently and as accessiblely as possible. Here it is presented simply as a given. Apparently, by that time the Japanese were already in the mood to conquer the world and they had no need for additional explanations. The enemy in the film is faceless. Only technology and an English-speaking voice on the radio. Most likely this is explained by the lack of European actors, but in the end this only benefited.
If we talk about the technical side, the miniatures are excellent. I understand why they were mistaken for real filming at the time.
Planes fly and drop bombs on ships and buildings. Of course, in my situation, when there is no electricity for 15 hours a day due to the bombing, it doesn’t look very nice, but it’s still worth appreciating good work.
As a result, I can recommend watching this film to those who want to know the origins of Godzilla, as well as those interested in that period. But both as a work of art and as propaganda, the movie is frankly weak. I think that the director and screenwriter clearly did not believe what they were filming.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...MQAv4ucPwnpw&s

As of last night, I have just finished Jiraiya and with it, all of the Metal Heroes of the Showa era in its entirety. It's been a long time coming and as such, here is my ranking list for them all and this is probably the easiest ranking list I've ever done thus far:

The Complete Metal Heroes Rankings (Showa Era Edition)
1. Metalder
2. Spielban
3. Jiraiya
4. Sharivan
5. Gavan
6. Shaider
7. Juspion

I started watching Winspector today.

I am now 18 episodes into Winspector.

Only 12 episodes of Winspector to go.

Just finished Winspector. I think I am going to do a rewatch of Space Sheriff Sharivan next before I eventually start watching Solbrain.

As of yesterday, I managed to finish the first disc of my Space Sheriff Sharivan Blu-Ray series set. Currently trying to watch 6 or 7 episodes a day.

Not exactly tokusatsu, but still a bit. I'm currently watching 3 Nen A Kumi -Ima kara Mina-san wa, Hitojichi Desu-, aka 3rd Grade A Class: From Now On, You Are Hostages, aka Mr. Hiiragi's Homeroom. It's a school detective/drama with elements of cheap action and interesting filming techniques. The connection to tokusatsu is that the teacher who takes the class hostage is a former suit actor, and the show features clips from what appears to be his show, which also serve as plot clues. So, if you're interested, you can check it out.
https://dr.one-way.work/uploads/pics/03/82/746_o.jpg

I looked it up. It has Suda Masaki and Shinjo Yume and it's written by Muto Shogo. I'll totally have to check it out sometime.

Incidentally, it's noticeable that Muto Shogo wrote the show at the same time, or at least with the same spirit, as KR Build. The same smart guy with the fists style protagonist.

In preparation for Super Space Sheriff Gavan Infinity, I watched all the show that began the Metal Heroes, inspired RoboCop, and is definitely not to be confused with Daft Punk. Uchuu Keiji Gavan!

While the show is basically par for the course when it comes to Tokusatsu Super Hero Shows from the Showa Era, there are clear additions to the show that make it unique compared to its brothers Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, and more. From the addition of Space Battles, bizarre almost dreamlike battle scenes, and the very shiny combat suit (that only takes 0.5 milliseconds to equip. Now let us watch the Electoplate Process one more time!), besides being mainly taking from the Star Wars/Sci-fi hype at the time, it's clear Toei wanted to make this show as different from their other Super Hero shows as possible, and in some ways, it works but still feels the same.

But despite that and them constantly explaining the Elecroplating Process and Makuu Space (I get why they do that, but still Ultraman didn't have to do that every episode), this show has some moments that made this show absolutely stand out in a truly special way. I was initially watching this the same way I did with the original Kamen Rider where I just watch it for fun and not think too hard about it because I like watching people in funny costumes fight with lots of explosions, but then the episode where Retsu reunites with his dad hit me like a train. And then after that where the animal loving guy returns as Space Sheriff Sharivan, the next show's protagonist, was such a cool reveal. Spoilers in case you haven't seen the show yet.

So, while, in many ways it's very formulaic, I think this show was absolutely worth it and I hope to see some of the unique elements brought back in Gavan Infinity!

Speaking of Space Sheriffs, I am up to episode 38 on my Sharivan rewatch and I have to say, I definitely find the series even more enjoyable than I did the first time I watched it a few years ago. Hopefully, I should be able to finish my revisiting of Sharivan sometime this weekend.

As of last night, I am officially finished with my Space Sheriff Sharivan rewatch and it surprisingly holds up even better than when I watched it for the first time and the show itself is indeed still among my top favorite Metal Heroes series.

Has anybody seen the Tomica Hero Rescue shows? They've always looked pretty interesting to me, wondering if they're worth a shot (or if I'm better off just watching another Sentai or Rider)

*raises hand*

I've always been kind of fascinated by rescue-themed tokusatsu, so I've seen both Force and Fire. They're very explicitly for kids, without many appeal elements for the older crowd, which is fine as long as you control your expectations. If you've seen any of the Rescue Police Trilogy from the Metal Hero series, the Tomica Hero Rescue shows are basically a softer take on those.

Force is alright, but you should keep in mind that it's really low budget compared to Sentai and Rider so the whole experience oozes cheapness, except for the oddly good CGI (and there will be a LOT of CGI compared to other tokusatsu of the era). The protagonist, and to a lesser extent the secondary male lead, really dominate the show's focus too. It's probably a show that is best watched by someone who would enjoy the novelty of a show made by a different company than usual and who hasn't seen enough similar shows to make it feel less novel.

Fire is actually really solid in my book though! It's a direct sequel to Force, so there are some characters that crop up in both, but I think you could just jump directly to Fire if you wanted. It's an all around more polished experience, with some decent cast members, better fights, better visuals, and better plot. Just a solid show if you want some light and fun rescue action with some actual substance under the surface. It's nothing mind blowing but I do randomly find myself thinking fondly about the show and its flaming CGI banana monsters and how much I like Ritsuka. I think most Sentai fans would be able to find something to appreciate in it!

I agree with everything GoldenXtreme wrote. These are truly good series, as long as you don't expect them to change your worldview and remember that these are kids' shows. I'd also add that Tomica's motto is: "Not a single episode without a new toy!" So, even compared to modern tokusatsu from Toei, there are a lot of gadgets and vehicles.