[Androzani84]

Hello and welcome to the latest instalment of?

Androzani?s Space Squad Detour

And this week, we?re doing?

Space Squad: Uchuu Keiji Gavan vs Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger



There?s a lot less for me to recap, character-wise or plot-wise, other than this.

Heroes:
Geki Jumonji/Uchuu Keiji Gavan Type-G: Originally an astronaut from Earth, Geki was rescued from an accident by the original Gavan and spent the next year training to be his successor. Geki has a lot of potential as a detective, but he often buts heads with his superiors over his refusal to stand down when ordered to.

Villains
Mad Gallant: Satan Goth?s son and heir to the Kyojuu Empire. He faced Kyojuu Investigator Juspion several times, eventually dying against him twice.
Satan Goth: A being born of the negative energy of the Universe, the great demon god whose revival was foretold in the Galactic Bible with the power to enrage the creatures, turning them into vicious monsters. He was born in the Dark Galaxy and made his way to the Milky Way Galaxy, but before long was foiled by the Golden Bird, a being made of positive energy he greatly fears. Satan Goth?s objective was to create a Kyojuu Empire in the Galaxy and rule it from Earth, more specifically from Tokyo, Japan.

This movie has the exact same staff as my last review, So I?ll just start with this one.

We open with the narrator (who I didn?t mention last time was voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya, who was concurrently appearing in Uchuu Sentai Kyuranger as Shou Ronpo/Ryu Commander, a role he returns to in Super Hero Senki), explaining the Genmakuu Society (while I explained the origin of the ?gen? last time, I?ll redirect you to a videoto explain the ?Makuu?)





We then cut to Geki and Shelley on the planet Succubus, observing a weapons trade conducted by Mad Gallant, head of a weapons smuggling ring.



Despite being told to wait for Dekaranger?s Fire Squad (that is, a group of hot-blooded DekaReds from throughout the galaxy, not a side business that functions as a fire department) to back them up, Geki wants to go in.



After assuring Shelley that she?s the only partner he wants, Geki marches right up to the mobsters and flashes his badge (when does that ever work?)



But predictably, that just gets them to attack him, necessitating that he jouchaku into Gavan, which brings him into conflict with Mad Gallant.



Shelley takes advantage of this to beat up the other mobsters to get to the briefcase containing Mad Gallant?s latest weapon? a briefcase which turns out to be empty.



As Shelley realises that this was a trap (though with nowhere near the same gusto as Admiral Ackbar), she gets shot by a cloaked assailant.



Geki gets distracted by this enough that Mad Gallant can defeat him and cripple his back using his finisher.

MG: Mad Galactic!

But before he can kill him, the FirenSquad arrives, necessitating that Mad Gallant and his lackey flee.



Later, at GFP headquarters on Planet Bird, Geki reports in to Director Sophie (the 4th director he?s had to work with in six years, I might add), requesting that he be allowed to find who took Shelley?s life. But she refuses (that makes him 4 for 4 on not getting along with his bosses. If he wasn?t such a damn good employee, he?d have been fired long ago).



She instead wants him to investigate a diaper company, Smile and Gentleness.



Sophie explains that they?ve expanded way too quickly for it not to be suspicious, and that it?s rumoured the company is involved in dirty doings? while hitting Geki on the back, to prove that he?s not fit for duty. But he does get a good look at her computer screen, which has information on the Earth branch?s Dekarangers.



Geki ?accepts? the director?s decision and departs, missing out on a news report about 235 people on a single planet being drained of blood, with two puncture marks found on all of the victims (Police are investigating Castle Dracula for clues).

On Earth, while Tetsu pursues a suspect in the vampiric killings, Swan is watching Sen-chan?s wedding to Umeko and reporting it to him.



Tetsu catches up and briefly subdues his suspect.



But the suspect resists, forcing Tetsu to transform and have a prolonged fight to subdue him. At the wedding, Geki bursts in as the priest gets to the ?you may kiss the bride? part of the service.



Umeko assumes that Geki is here to try and claim her (to Sen-chan?s dismay), but gets annoyed when he goes over to Jasmine.



Geki presents a warrant requesting aid with a case, to which Boss appears, revealing that he worked with the original Gavan, Retsu Ichijouji, from time to time.



Boss: Retsu used to call me that a lot.

Geki: Yoroshiku yuuki. Let?s talk later.

Houji and Sen-chan decide to involve themselves with the case, which means that Umeko gets dragged along and Boss is left to carry on the wedding.



Geki explains that he needs Jasmine to read the crime scene to try and get a description for who killed Shelley. At the location on Succubus, Jasmine does so.

?Jasmine is an ESPer. By touching an object, she can read the memory of anyone who has touched it.?



After entering the description (a green alien with a gun for a hand) into their database, the perp is identified as Kronen, a hired gun from the planet Berg. And luckily enough, not only is he already wanted by the Dekarangers, but he?s currently on Earth. When they find him in a truck on the road, he shoots them with a clip of red bullets that prove ineffective, before switching to conventional bullets. He then sends in half of the truck?s contents (the other half being a coffin with the Genmakuu Society emblem on it): Benikiba, who breaks into DolGiran.



While the 4 members of Dekaranger are left to deal with Benikiba (who determines that their ?combat level? is low by looking at them), Geki attacks Kronen, who gets saved from death by the arrival of Mad Gallant.



Geki then gets into a sword battle with Mad Gallant, while Benikiba successfully overpowers Dekaranger?s ?burning justice? mantra (which this time consists of how ?deka? means ?times ten? as well as ?detective?. As Benikiba realises, they?re just spouting random sh*t). Mad Gallant mocks Geki?s Laser Blade, causing the latter to perform his finisher on his opponent.



But without cutting out the music, Mad Gallant cleaves it in two, before doing the same to Geki?s Laser Blade with his own attack.







Geki then flashes back to his training days, when OG Gavan gave him his Laser Blade and stressed its importance.



Before Mad Gallant can kill an even more grieving Geki, Ban shows up in PatStriker and engages the Genmakuu Apostle in a close up fight, causing the latter to withdraw.



We then cut back to Neo-DekaBase (which they moved into after the old one got hijacked by Alien Abrella in the finale of Dekaranger).



As Ban admonishes Geki for allowing his Laser Blade to be broken and for letting his anger and desire for vengeance get the better of him, Geki asks him one question, to which Ban doesn?t have an answer.



But enough of that, because Swan has analysed the red bullets Kronen fired at DolGiran earlier.



She reveals that the bullets are designed to puncture the skin, and then drain half the blood of the target, like a leech. The mark it leaves looks like the victim has been bitten by a vampiric creature (Speaking of which, it turns out that the guy Tetsu detained earlier had an alibi).



They realise that no bullets were found because Kronen took them back to Mad Gallant afterwards. As they wonder what a weapons dealer would want with blood, Jasmine remembers something and calls her husband.



She reveals that she remembered that because Smile and Gentleness are working with leeches to create a diaper that can absorb waste. Geki then realises the case he was reassigned to and the current one are one and the same, taking Umeko with him to talk to their company President. On the way, Umeko gives Geki an answer to his question.



But then she clarifies that she?d still try to work within the law to brig the criminal to justice. During their conversation, Umeko compares Geki to Ban, a comparison he doesn?t see.

Geki: We Space Sheriffs aren?t like you guys. Once the engine in my heart is in full burn, I dash straight forward. That?s how I?ve made it up until now.

Once they get to the diaper company, Geki and Umeko barge into the office of the CEO Lars (played by Hiromi Sakimoto, better known as the ill-fated Yuya Sumii in Kamen Rider Gaim), who ?accidentally? drops something and asks Gekit o help pick it up. When they?re on the floor.



Geki, Umeko and Lars escape to the underground of the company, only to be pursued by the secretary, who turns out to be Benikiba.



Umeko finds that they?re unable to transform down here, due to signal dampeners. So she engages in a fight with Benikiba, as Geki hears Kronen in the distance. Back at Neo-DekaBase, Swan has discovered that all the victims in the bloodletting incidents had trace amounts of rurumodine in their blood.



Jasmine then remembers that Shelley had the ability to transform into a parakeet (you thought Benikiba was talking about Tammie last time, didn?t you?). Sen-chan decides to check up on Umeko and Geki, the former of whom is fighting with Benikiba over an artefact that?s just appear (though the handle looks a lot like Mad Gallant?s sword), while Geki hears Kronen singing the diaper jingle, before finding nothing.



Geki returns to Umeko to find that she?s been stabbed? and Sen-chan is blaming Geki, even with Lars shouldering the blame.



Back at Neo-DekaBase, Houji reveals that Geki?s warrant is a fake the latter cocked up and that Geki was removed from the case.



Geki gets led to jail back on Planet Bird, where Sophie makes it clear that she?s disappointed in him.



She then finds herself facing OG Gavan, who is visiting the office.



He?s not put out by Geki going to prison, but is perturbed to hear that his Laser Blade broke.

Back on Earth, Houji and Sen-chan investigate Lars? office, where they find footprints with the same mud that Geki was covered in after his second fight with Mad Gallant. And doing so, he realises that Mad Gallant was in the office earlier, despite Lars saying that he?s never been there.



They then check his desk and discover a hologram of a weapon that horrifies them (does no-one in this organisation know how to be discreet? Because they basically hand everything to the heroes on a silver platter).



While Jasmine and Swan analyse the artefact they took from Benikiba, they discover that it contains a combat suit. And talking of Benikiba, she breaks into Neo-DekaBase and begins murdering the guards (they have a combat level too low to measure, by the way).



Benikiba then breaks it not he lab and takes back the Masker Blade, before going to the interrogation room where Boss and Tetsu are talking with Lars? but not to kill the latter (as I thought when I first watched this), but to give him the Masker Blade.



Lars then reveals that he is Mad Gallant and that the Masker Blade was created from the remains of the original Mad Gallant?s body and mind.



(For those of you who don?t know what a Metaltech suit is, the I suggest you watch Juspion. That kind of makes it clear)

Lars then equips the Metaltech suit, turning into Mad Gallant (with the explanation for how he sounds like the original when transformed being that he has his power), as Boss and Tetsu both transform.

Boss: Emergency, DekaMaster!

Tetsu: Emergency, DekaBreak!

A fight breaks out, with Mad Gallant complimenting Boss based on what he?s heard, before Boss responds by dissing him compared to the real Mad Gallant.





In retaliation, Mad Gallant uses Mad Galactic on them hard enough to incapacitate them.



Jasmine then tries to capture Benikiba by handcuffing herself to her, but the Kunoichi merely cuts her hand off before escaping.



As Houji and Sen-chan return (having been held up at the office by Kronen), with Sen-chan cursing Geki for dragging them into his revenge. But then, Umeko returns from the hospital (sporting a bandage and a crutch) and explains the Geki was still following usual police code, revealing what happened after he heard Kronen?s voice in the underground factory.



But Umeko urged him to go after Kronen, since she thought she had it covered.



And the one who stabbed her wasn?t Benikiba, it was Lars. He was interrupted by Geki before he could actually kill her, so he played the part of the wounded gazelle



Jasmine and Sen-chan then realise that based on Benikiba mentioning Shelley in the present tense earlier, that Shelley is still alive, which is why there was no body. Sen-chan also determines that she?ll be directly drained to power the doomsday weapon. Meanwhile, Benikiba meets up with Lars, reattaching her severed hand with Ninpo: Genmaku Saiseiwa.



Lars then leads her through his portal (which is opened by singing the diaper jingle, which is why Geki heard Kronen singing it earlier) to another planet where, Kronen, now fully converted to Genmakuu?s ideology, is preparing Shelley for use in Lar?s ultimate scheme: the revival of Satan Goth (why Lars wants to revive an alien who?s one ability is sending Kaiju berserk, I don?t know).



Lars then begins punching Shelley until she bleeds (why did he need her alive again?), charging up Satan Goth. Though Benikiba notably disapproves of this.



Dekaranger then breaks into the space prison where Geki is held to spring him, revealing that Shelley is alive to snap him out of his funk.



Ban then joins up with them, resolving his differences with Geki before giving a v for victory at the camera (so much for a covert breakout).



Back at the evil base, Benikiba takes her leave? which Lars takes as an opportunity to be even more brutal to Shelley (how did this guy ever pass himself off as normal?)



But before he can do worse, the heroes fight their way through his ninja army (where did these guys come from?), before arriving to take up his time.



As Lars turns into Mad Gallant and Kronen loads his arm-gun, the heroes transform.

Geki: Jouchaku!



Geki: Uchuu Keiji Gavan!

?It takes Uchuu Keiji Gavan 0.05 seconds for the Jouchaku process to complete. So let?s watch the Jouchaku process again.?

Geki: Jouchaku!



DolGiran: Roger. Transmitting Combat Suit.



Ban: Change, standby!

Others: Roger!

All: Emergency, Dekaranger! Face On!

?When DekaBase receives the signal, it transmits particles of the space alloy Deka Metal onto Dekaranger, forming the Deka Suits.? (Oh hey, their individual narrations make up Gavan?s original full narration).





A fight then breaks out, with Kronen shooting it out with the Dekarangers, while Mad Gallant drags Geki into the Satan Goth Zone.



?The Satan Goth Zone is powered by a black hole, giving an advantage to Mad Gallant? (While other dimensions were a staple of early Metal Heroes shows, I have no idea if the Satan Goth zone was a thing in Juspion)

While Kronen also gets the better of the Dekarangers elsewhere in the Satan Goth Zone, they come up with a plan. Meanwhile, Geki gets knocked out of his transformation, but is only saved from the punishment of another Mad Galactic by OG Gavan showing up and saving him.



The two Gavans then have a conversation set to Gavan?s ED, which ends with OG Gavan handing his Laser Blade to his successor, before going to fight off more ninja mooks.

Somewhere in the starry sky lies my home
The ones I love call out to me
When the nights weigh down on me with the burden of sadness
I lift up my eyes and gaze at the galaxies far beyond

Stop at the soft sound of the night
Don't give up on your dreams
Countless spots of light whisper
The message from the warm and gentle starry sky



Meanwhile, Kronen finds Umeko dancing around singing a kid?s song (the same song she was singing in episode 1 of Dekaranger proper, which can also be heard in episode 1 of Fiveman, episode 35 of Kakuranger and episode 42 of Go-Busters).



But his is a ruse so the others can ambush Kronen with their roll call.

Ban: 1: To hate cruel wickedness?

Houji: 2: To give chase to mysterious cases?

Sen-chan: 3: To investigate with futuristic science?

Jasmine: 4: The malicious evil of space?

Umeko: 5: ? With immediate speed, eliminate them!

All: S.P.D!

Ban: DekaRed!

Houji: DekaBlue!

Sen-chan: DekaGreen!

Jasmine: DekaYellow!

Umeko: DekaPink!

All: Tokusou Sentai? Dekaranger!

They then cue their theme song as they try Kronen.

Oh, light, reach out for the angels of the city
Like you could make the brightest dreams come true
With the sirens' wail, it is the time to dispatch
We will not let the stench of evil go free

One! Emergency
Two! Dekaranger
Three! Action
Four! Perfect!
Five! Get on!

Ready to go! Pursuing to the ends of the galaxy
Hitting the gas with the souls coursing within our bodies
Ready to get! Five powers coming together wherever our enemies are
In order to bring back the silent stars, so...
Get up! It's our chance (Get up! Dekaranger!)
Wow-wow, judgement! Decide it! (Judgement! Dekaranger!)
Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger!

Ban: Kronen of the planet Berg! For murders on 88 different planets, Judgement!

Fire License: Judgement Time!

?For Alienisers, the Special Police can request judgement from the highest court, located in a distant Galaxy.?



Ban: Delete approved!

With Kronen swiftly dispatched, we cut back to Geki?s battle with Mad Gallant, set to his own theme.

You?re a man, aren?t you?
Then you shouldn?t hesitate.
The engine of your heart,
Start it at full burn.

I?m on the scene, always one step ahead of you,
Moving at the speed of light towards tomorrow, now dash!

(Beam! Beam!)

Youth, youth, what is it?
It?s never turning your back.
What is love?
It?s letting nothing stop you.

Gavan! Wipe away the tears.
Gavan! Yoroshiku yuuki.
Uchuu Keiji Gavan!

Meanwhile, OG Gavan reveals that the Laser Blade actually has a connection to the guy who defeated the original Mad Gallant (because of course it does).





Geki then begins using the Laser Blade to cut through Mad Gallant?s armour.

He then finishes his opponent with Gavan Cosmic Dynamic!



However, even with the armour of Mad Gallant destroyed, and Shelley safely rescued, Lars still gets to see Satan Goth?s revival through, getting crushed by the rubble in the process.



Since DekaWing Robo is too small to face him directly, Ban instead uses a new command: Shooting Formation, which allows him to sync the DekaWing Cannon to his D-Magnum (which Geki realises is just a knockoff of Shaider?s Big Cannon).



After Satan Goth is vanquished for good with the Giga Magnum, Benikiba is reassigned by Fumein himself/herself/itself (in the one glimpse we get at them) to work with Coolgin (the secondary villain from Choujinki Metalder, who led the Neros Empire?s Yoroi Army).



As Geki is debriefed at GFP headquarters, Sophie let?s him know that there are no charges for his rule breaking and explains why.



She explains that after his pride was wounded in his first battle with Mad Gallant, Ban suggested that Geki work with his old comrades.







Sophie explains that she also had a secondary reason, to see if he was good enough to lead a crack team of superheroes to battle against Genmakuu. Including:

The legendary warrior who defeated Mad Gallant, Space Wolf Juspion.

The inheritor of the Tokagure-Ryu Ninpo who fought for the Pako in the World Ninja War, Fighting Ninja Jiraiya.

The warriors fighting with Prism power from the Flash system, Choushinsei Flashman?s Pink and Yellow Flash.

The future?s chosen ones to protect love, hope and kindness, Makng a stand against ever-evolving crime, Undaunted, whatever the peril, bearing their scars, they are the decorated Special Rescue Exceedraft



The schoolteachers who are also 5 siblings, Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman

His mystery is the only one that intrigues us, cutting through the wind with his JP Card, Tokusou Robo Janperson.

The legendary fire warrior wielding the power of the Seijuuken, Seijuu Sentai Gingaman?s GingaRed, along with his brother who wields the power of the legendary warrior, Kurokishi Hyuuga.



The warriors fighting for love and peace, their name is Jukou B-Fighter. In addition, he is the chosen next generation warrior of the guardian, Kabuterios, B-Fighter Kabuto.

The warriors protecting Earth from the Negiregia, Denji Sentai Megaranger?s Mega Silver and Mega Red.



The officers fighting to uncover Aliens invading peoples of Earth, Blue SWAT.

The warriors fighting with the science of planet Denshi, Denshi Sentai Denziman?s DenziBlue and DenziGreen.



The story of a young man and a little girl?s shared dream to protect peace and justice, Mobile Detective Jiban.

And finally, Gavan?s successors and comrades, Uchuu Keiji Shaider and Uchuu Keiji Sharivan.



Geki agrees to be promoted to Captain, on the condition that Shelley works with him. But she turns it down, saying that he can do it without her, while she recovers at a cushy desk job.

Cue the credits.

It's a sharp clash of metal spirits
Break through any obstacle

I get annoyed when told to get in line
Ignite the peerless power

Gather the scattered stardust
The shining constellations light up the dark galaxy

Seek out your ideals. Overcome your limits
Hold tight on your courage
Bash with your justice, Space Squad

After the credits, the film ends with take two of the Sen-Umeko wedding. Only this time, Sen-chan freaks out, causing Umeko to shoot up the place (and people call Geki reckless).



Final thoughts: As a story, this was perfectly serviceable. But even considering that Juspion is Arakawa?s favourite Metal Heroes series and that Mad Gallant is his favourite character from said show, it feels weird to have Juspion?s Mad Gallant as the bad guy here.

To be continued in: Hero Mama League