[GoldenXtreme]

I finished up Janperson and, like... I think I'm a little obsessed? What the heck, I loved that a ton in spite of some shortcomings!

The show clearly didn't know what it wanted to do at the beginning to be blunt. Janperson is more of a plot device than a character and the small handful of recurring friendly humans get phased out quite quickly. I guess they really wanted to play up the mysterious hero angle, but it was a bit too detached. This isn't to say this part of the show is bad per se, the villains lay on the campy vibes particularly hard early on so I was able to enjoy in in a 70s tokusatsu way at least!

After a while though, the show starts to hone in on a more dramatic angle, with the show hitting its stride with the whole "Janperson has emotional trauma" arc, replacing the enigmatic hero angle with a much more emotional Janperson with a concrete backstory that haunts him, along with finally solidifying some recurring allies for him. It was around this point that I started to really appreciate the suit acting in this show. Having a hero who is always "in-suit" can be difficult, but the actor did a good job with both tender moments and sorrowful ones. The show loses a some of the campy appeal at this point, but more than make up for it with better episodes and characterization.

Then came to point where this show gave me brain worms, lol. Folks, I am 100% obsessed with Gun Gibson. His slow burn arc from anti-villain to anti-hero to just a flat out hero with a reckless streak was well paced and fascinating. He's also dripping with coolness. His relationship with Janperson also greatly enhances both of them, with Janperson getting to act as a mentor who gets Gun Gibson to mellow out and seek something beyond violence and revenge, while Gun Gibson serves to challenge Janperson's sense of justice at times and just proves to be a loyal friend to him. This is it everyone. HEATED DRAMA BETWEEN ROBOTS! The show in general just continued to become more dramatic from that point on, with some really quite daring episodes with interesting social commentary. I do think the actual climax of the show was a bit haphazard, but the final fight was undeniably cool and I couldn't help but smile at the ending.

I really had a blast with the show and it dethroned Winspector as my favorite Metal Hero show quite easily (even if Winspector has more spectacular effects and better pacing). The 90s really were a good era for tokusatsu, eh?