[EpsilonX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenXtreme

*raises hand*

I've always been kind of fascinated by rescue-themed tokusatsu, so I've seen both Force and Fire. They're very explicitly for kids, without many appeal elements for the older crowd, which is fine as long as you control your expectations. If you've seen any of the Rescue Police Trilogy from the Metal Hero series, the Tomica Hero Rescue shows are basically a softer take on those.

Force is alright, but you should keep in mind that it's really low budget compared to Sentai and Rider so the whole experience oozes cheapness, except for the oddly good CGI (and there will be a LOT of CGI compared to other tokusatsu of the era). The protagonist, and to a lesser extent the secondary male lead, really dominate the show's focus too. It's probably a show that is best watched by someone who would enjoy the novelty of a show made by a different company than usual and who hasn't seen enough similar shows to make it feel less novel.

Fire is actually really solid in my book though! It's a direct sequel to Force, so there are some characters that crop up in both, but I think you could just jump directly to Fire if you wanted. It's an all around more polished experience, with some decent cast members, better fights, better visuals, and better plot. Just a solid show if you want some light and fun rescue action with some actual substance under the surface. It's nothing mind blowing but I do randomly find myself thinking fondly about the show and its flaming CGI banana monsters and how much I like Ritsuka. I think most Sentai fans would be able to find something to appreciate in it!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesnick

I agree with everything GoldenXtreme wrote. These are truly good series, as long as you don't expect them to change your worldview and remember that these are kids' shows. I'd also add that Tomica's motto is: "Not a single episode without a new toy!" So, even compared to modern tokusatsu from Toei, there are a lot of gadgets and vehicles.

Thanks! That actually sounds doable. My view of Tomica is going to toy stores in Japan and seeing piles and piles of cool toys and such, and I love that era of TV, so my expectation going into this is basically just nostalgia + something different (Aside from 2-3 movies, every tokusatsu I've seen is Toei, Godzilla, or Ultraman). Plus I love the suit designs.

So far I watched the OP and I loved the vibe of it, so I think I'll find enjoyment even if I never finish it.

On that note, I am interested in some of the TOEI rescue shows as well, specifically Winspector. I've been wanting to get into Metal Heroes, since I absolutely loved Beetleborgs as a kid, but aside from that all I've seen is the "You've been had!" episode of Shaider

[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EpsilonX

On that note, I am interested in some of the TOEI rescue shows as well, specifically Winspector. I've been wanting to get into Metal Heroes, since I absolutely loved Beetleborgs as a kid, but aside from that all I've seen is the "You've been had!" episode of Shaider

Winspector is special because it was the bread winner for Toei in 1990 despite a limited budget but printed money with one of its roleplay toys, and the show itself was really unique in that it wasn't another beat up bad guy wearing clunky fiberglass armor and helmet. They really committed to the rescue side of things more compared to most toku hero shows.

[GoldenXtreme]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EpsilonX

On that note, I am interested in some of the TOEI rescue shows as well, specifically Winspector. I've been wanting to get into Metal Heroes, since I absolutely loved Beetleborgs as a kid, but aside from that all I've seen is the "You've been had!" episode of Shaider

Winspector and Solbrain are fantastic shows that truly comitted to their unusual concept. Can't recommend them enough to anyone who wants something different. Janperson is also phenomenal. I've been getting more into Metal Hero stuff in the past few years and I went from "Metal Hero is Toei's third-rate tokusatsu franchise that couldn't survive Kamen Rider's comeback" to "Metal Hero is Toei's awesome and experimental tokusatsu franchise" pretty quick.

[EpsilonX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenXtreme

Winspector and Solbrain are fantastic shows that truly comitted to their unusual concept. Can't recommend them enough to anyone who wants something different. Janperson is also phenomenal. I've been getting more into Metal Hero stuff in the past few years and I went from "Metal Hero is Toei's third-rate tokusatsu franchise that couldn't survive Kamen Rider's comeback" to "Metal Hero is Toei's awesome and experimental tokusatsu franchise" pretty quick.

I always viewed it as just Toei's continuation of non-sentai hero shows but without the limitations of "Bug guy riding a motorcycle" that Kamen Rider presented. Then, when they ran out of ideas for Metal Heroes, they brought Kamen Rider back. Actually, I see Sentai/Project RED the same way - they want to expand beyond the scope of Sentai even more than they have been, and Project RED lets them do that while still returning to a typical Sentai format in the future if they so desire.

Anyways, I've been interested in checking it out for a while, just wasn't sure where to start. I was thinking that either Gavan (the beginning), B-Fighter (grew up with Beetleborgs), or Jiraiya (it just looks cool) would be good picks, but if there are other standouts maybe I could check those out too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunred

Winspector is special because it was the bread winner for Toei in 1990 despite a limited budget but printed money with one of its roleplay toys, and the show itself was really unique in that it wasn't another beat up bad guy wearing clunky fiberglass armor and helmet. They really committed to the rescue side of things more compared to most toku hero shows.

Was that the first "rescue" tokusatsu? Would it make sense to start there before watching the Tomica shows? Or just jump into Tomica to have it be even more different (instead of a different shade of Toei format)

Also, random question - I haven't seen Gogo V, but how much would you say it was influenced by something like Winspector?

[Mesnick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EpsilonX

Also, random question - I haven't seen Gogo V, but how much would you say it was influenced by something like Winspector?

I can say that Tomica's shows was clearly inspired by Gogo V. As for Metal Hero Rescue Trilogy, in my opinion, the only thing Gogo V has in common with them is the idea of ​​rescue heroes.

[GoldenXtreme]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EpsilonX

Was that the first "rescue" tokusatsu? Would it make sense to start there before watching the Tomica shows? Or just jump into Tomica to have it be even more different (instead of a different shade of Toei format)

Also, random question - I haven't seen Gogo V, but how much would you say it was influenced by something like Winspector?

As far as I am aware Winspector was the first "rescue" tokusatsu. In addition, both the Tomica Hero Rescue shows and GoGoFive were very clearly influenced by the Rescue Police Trilogy in the Metal Hero franchise. I watched the various rescue themed tokusatsu in the order of GoGoFive -> Tomica Hero Rescue Duology -> Rescue Police Trilogy and this order was fine for me and almost went in a perfect gradient of increasing quality (if I'm allowed to ignore Exceedraft, lol). In a way it was nice because I was able to accept the shows I watched first without getting hung up on the fact they were much "safer" takes on what the Rescue Police Trilogy did. In fact, I actually would say that the Rescue Police Trilogy is easily the furthest from what I would call a stereotypical Toei tokusatsu of all of them, Winspector and Solbrain are so genuinely peerless and hedge closer to some kind of bizarre sci-fi fantasy police drama than a superhero story, while the Tomica Hero shows were clearly playing follow the leader and copying popular Toei shows of the Heisei era.