[Daikaijuman54]

Just finished Chousoku Parahero Gundeen, and boy what a miniseries this was!

It has fantastic suit designs, a great cast, and a story that works magnificently. It's such a bizarre, out-there kind of idea to have a para-athletic hero, I mean, who comes up with the bright idea of having a superhero riding a wheelchair to fight a giant space lizard? But the thing that makes this great is how well it uses that outlandish concept. (Finally someone acknowledges Stanley The Troll is a villain.)

Not only is it something I don't think I've ever seen done before, but the themes of working together, never giving up until you try, and anyone can be a hero regardless of disability. It's the very culmination of possibility, and everything about this just fits perfectly. It gives the cast a lot of great development, allowing them to directly assist the hero instead of being relegated to cheerleaders, and compliment the story extremely well, without making them condescending or just plain there. The story isn't dragged out, and doesn't even need a continuation in my book, and the added space alien elements don't detract from the story this show wanted to tell.

And then there are the little details added in like the teacher doing the Ultraman Specium Ray pose, that are a lot of fun or Fukai being a narrator to the audience, which reminds me of some old movies where there was someone who interacted with the audience (which was pretty funny how Daishi noticed at the end). And seeing the returning Tokusatsu actors was especially great. And I had a great time watching this.

Join me next time as I watch Tokusatsu GaGaGa! While shows are on break for New Years', I'll be trying to watch some short Toku shows I've been putting off.