[GoldenXtreme]

I'm back again, this time having watched The Aquabats! Super Show!

Some people take a very hardline stance towards what counts as tokusatsu, only qualifying Japanese live-action Henshin Hero and Kaiju stuff along with their adaptations in other countries. Personally, I'm down with counting anything that is mostly live-action and takes strong influences from Japanese tokusatsu. Super Show definitely qualifies as the latter. To give a little background, in real life The Aquabats are a band stationed in California, known for their campy, theatrical style during their concerts, where they put on personas as superheros and fight guys in suits on stage, all very much in the vein of 70s Japanese tokusatsu shows (not so much Power Rangers like you might expect for someone in the US). This all seems likely due to the influence of the founder Christian Jacobs, who did Mormon missionary activities in Japan for a while. Somehow, in the early 2010s, they got a TV show based on this band, which ultimately combined tokusatsu elements together with campy retro US children's television sensibilities and a heavy dose of surrealism. Needless to say, this is a weird, weird thing. I truly can barely comprehend how it happened.

I've generally avoided US tokusatsu, not because I have anything against the idea, but because I'm simply not interested in market-specific adaptations like Power Rangers or Americanized Godzilla films. So it was quite exciting to give this a try and honestly I had a pretty good time. The show is very goofy and had strong parody elements, but it also has an earnestness to it that I really appreciated. It loves and relishes in what it is doing, and honestly at times they'd do a properly choreographed action scene or blow something up with real explosives and it was great. It was also 100% kid friendly while also being fun for adults, so it would probably be a great show for a tokusatsu loving parent to watch with their young kids! I do think the humor was often a little... basic? It got some good laughs out of me at times but I was generally more amused than in hysterics.

It also had a few shorts made after the television show. Generally these weren't as good, perhaps since the budget was lower it lacked a lot of the madcap tokusatsu elements and felt more like skits aimed exclusively at the younger crowd. I'd say just watch the TV series and give these a pass.

Still, what a magical thing to exist at all. I often find people in the States miss the point when they try to make something in a tokusatsu style but this actually nailed it while also feeling like something that could have only been made here, the best of both worlds! Definitely recommend giving this a shot if you ever just want something silly.