[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesnick

Oh, Maskman! What a memorable show. The revelation of the final boss's origin made my hair stand on end. Showa really knows how to add horror to kids' shows!
There's also a cameo appearance by Gotchard's very young mother!

*Googles Yoko Minamino and Maskman* Holy cow, that was her. Good find.
And apparently, the Sukeban Deka movie she starred in was in theaters the same year as when Maskman aired.

[Sh Ranger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunred

You mean Super Sentai Presents: Romeo & Juliet.

So it's a romance drama, huh.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunred

* Its working title was Fiveman until they settled on Maskman, and you'll notice this was likely in some of the design choices and selection of words in a thing or two.

I recall some people complain about the vagueness of "Fiveman", but I think "Maskman" is even more vague. All the Sentai are masked men!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunred

Kickass opening theme by Hironobu Kageyama too, whose singing career was on a major resurgence at the time after the Changeman theme song.

Kageyama's work on Jetman was awesome for sure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesnick

Oh, Maskman! What a memorable show. The revelation of the final boss's origin made my hair stand on end. Showa really knows how to add horror to kids' shows!

From the writer behind Bias and Vulgyre, good to know I can look forward to more crazy villain plot twists.

[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

So it's a romance drama, huh.

Yeah, I'd say the romance drama element is a significant part of the show, although it's not beat for beat Romeo & Juliet, but in a more broad sense.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

I recall some people complain about the vagueness of "Fiveman", but I think "Maskman" is even more vague. All the Sentai are masked men!

My personal observation is that, given their gimmick, I think they settled with mask because when they transform they're masked in Aura Power, the very source of their strength as rangers.

[Sh Ranger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunred

My personal observation is that, given their gimmick, I think they settled with mask because when they transform they're masked in Aura Power, the very source of their strength as rangers.

In that case, the name Auraman was right there....

[GoldenXtreme]

I wanted to get to the point where I had seen at least one Sentai show from each decade and all that was left for me was the 80s. I wanted to do Sun Vulcan, but since it is some kind of semi-sequel to Denziman I went ahead and tackled that show first!

Honestly though, Denziman is a dull, dulllll show. It's not like it wasn't funny or never had good episodes, but as a whole I found it to be a slog that didn't really have anything going for it that another Sentai show didn't do better. In particular it struck me as very similar to Goranger if you shuffled the character traits around, made the show less absurd, and just lowered the quality all around. A particular sore point is that Kiyama doesn't get a single episodes where he is focused on until half way through! The show also has the surreal, incomprehensible sort of video editing that I tend to associate with the early 80s Metal Hero shows, and that isn't a good thing. In the end, I think the biggest highlights were how discotastic the show was and seeing some iconic tokusatsu actors. Machiko Soga never has a bad villain role and it was interesting to see Gavan's actor take on a more comedic role as Denzi Blue.

Yeah, not too much to talk about with this one. I hope Sun Vulcan can at least interest me on some level when I get to it.

[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenXtreme

it was interesting to see Gavan's actor take on a more comedic role as Denzi Blue.

Daigoro is one of my favorite characters because anpan FTW.
Seriously, after you get used to the azuki bean taste, it's one of the greatest pastries/delicacies to eat.
Other than that, another thing I love about Denziman is the uniforms, very retro cool IMO. Helmets are probably hellish to replicate for those who are into making sentai helmets.

[GoldenXtreme]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunred

Daigoro is one of my favorite characters because anpan FTW.
Seriously, after you get used to the azuki bean taste, it's one of the greatest pastries/delicacies to eat.
Other than that, another thing I love about Denziman is the uniforms, very retro cool IMO. Helmets are probably hellish to replicate for those who are into making sentai helmets.

Daigoro was my favorite too, his comedic gluttony hit the same notes as Daita from Goranger for me and he had a lot of episodes focused on him. I liked some of his silly attack techniques too, like Blue Snake (how does pretending your hand is a snake always prove so effective?). He definitely gave me a craving for anpan even though I have never had it before too. I like sweet azuki beans so I'm pretty dang sure I would like anpan!

The Demziman suits ARE very charmingly 80s, but even more than them I love whatever Queen Hedrian was rocking. Denziman was the last of the trio of tokusatsu that Toei did as part of their Marvel collaboration, so the design is apparently based on Hela from Thor!