[GoldenXtreme]

I am well aware that the incoming rant I am about to unleash will make it sound like I have snapped, but I am going to type it out anyways! I finished watching Super Rescue Solbrain!

When I started with Solbrain, my reaction to it basically amounted to "Sweet, more Winspector!", not realizing that it was really "Winspector but more!". A show even more bizarre and singular than the already very unique first entry in the Rescue Police Trilogy, I would even go as far as to call this show the Ultraman Leo or Kamen Rider Black Sun of the 90s. Winspector is more of a rescue drama, while Solbrain leans very hard into the police drama angle, and at it's absolute best delivers on some astounding sci-fi crime stories. The show, while at times having lighter episodes, often instead goes for some honestly very heavy ones with bittersweet endings at best and being blatantly depressing at worst. Odds are in a given episode someone sympathetic will commit a crime due to their circumstances. Or there will be suicide. My god this show had so much suicide in it, almost like Solbrain saw me comment on the depressing episode of Kamen Rider X about it a while back and was like "That's nothing, check THIS out". The show was also surprisingly politically charged, with a lot of critical references to real life organizations and events by name, from NATO to Japan's ties to Nazis in WWII. Even the less direct references often clearly invoke elements from recent events like the Tsutomu Miyazaki serial killings or Happy Science's crackpot beliefs and exploitation of believers. All of this combined makes for an honestly fascinating (though exhausting) show that seemed to have some recognition of tragedy that often lurks in the shadows of society, shadows that can often lead good people to tragedies that the heroes can only partially save them from. The show does have a lot of rough points though, don't get me wrong. Like many Metal Hero shows, the editing of the video and music can be jarring, but it was actually so bad in Solbrain sometimes that it completely took me out of the moment. Some episodes ended up feeling repetitive when they would touch on similar concepts too. The main cast is also largely lacking in any in-depth characterization, which prevents it from reaching the highs of something like Janperson. But in the end I was impressed by the show and consider it a must-see for anyone who is intrigued by more unusual tokusatsu shows.