[Sunred]

And I've noticed a few familiar toku alumni names on the casting sheet. We have Ryunosuke Kamiki who was the kid god in Agito and a humanized bakuryu Tricera in Abaranger, Noboru Kaneko who was Kakeru Shishi aka Gao Red in Gaoranger, and veteran voice talent Tessho Genda who I think most of us who have enjoyed this genre since 2010ish will know as the voice of Buddyroid Gorisaki from Go-Busters as the narrator of this show.
Non-toku fandoms will recognize Kamiki as the voice of Taki in the anime film Your Name and Genda as the voice of Optimus Prime (or Convoy for the Japanese fans out there) in the Japanese dub of G1 Transformers.

[DreamSword]

Episode 2: The Second Night

Amemiya's' influence is very apparent in this episode, and I'm so glad it is.

Because really, I absolutely loved this episode from beginning to end. Wonderful atmosphere ontop of great character development for a ton of the cast.

Izumi, the Purple Ranger of the group, is the primary focus this time, with a gigantic mistake from her past being what causes the recent IDOM to be born; Symbolized by the door of an old abandoned house her and a friend used to play in.

The primary meat of the episode is all about how the events of our childhood form our very lives, the massive importance of friendship, and how the betrayal of trust can lead to devastating outcomes. Izumi betraying the promise she made to a friend of hers lead to his life taking a massive spiral downward, and ending up costing so much more than a single friendship.

This message alone is a powerful one, but it's only bolstered in part thanks to some fantastic directing, such as the scene of the two childhood friends arguing at the ruins of the old house, to the use of red marbles symbolizing both blood and love. All enveloped in an intensely heavy atmosphere that never once feels overbearing either. It all resulted in me being incredibly engrossed all throughout the episode.

Izumi isn't the only one to get in on this theme either. Kazeo, our main lead, is also a part of it, with his desire for personal growth playing at odds with his friendship with Nana, of whom he was also betrayed by. It's the sort of thing you don't see talked about very often, that sometimes people grow apart and that, unfortunately, they become too different from one another to keep things going without some serious effort. Especially loved how we don't get to see what Nana's' response to Kazeo is at the end. There are an equal amount of reasons for them to stay apart as there are for them to keep things going.

Development for a section of the side cast is great here too, even if not as deeply handled, like the designer of Gekkouki and her arc about trying to keep her company afloat as well her prove her own worth in regards to the IDOM threat. Other members of AIT get their little moments too, which really helps it feel like this a full on unit full of actual people. Something Ultraman Nexus was unfortunately pretty lacking in. And all of this being achieved in a roughly 50 minute runtime. Maybe Inoue and Amemiya should work together more often? Assuming Inoue doesn't disappoint me by the end of the show, that is.

This was all around a great episode and I highly enjoyed it. Episode 3 will be covered on Wednesday.

Oh, and Tekkouki Mikazuki's' opening theme is a banger.

[DreamSword]

Episode 3: The Third Night

This episode gave me serious Ryuki vibes with all of the intrigue being built up.

While not quite as focused as the previous episode in terms of its theme, episode 3 still manages to play an important role in developing our cast.

See, in both previous episodes, the "Power of Words" has been mentioned a few times, typically in a literal sense of people's' words being connected to some sort of mystical essence.

However, this episode showcases how that phrase is also rather literal in a real world sense, with how language does indeed hold power over and affect people. Trigger phrases, memories, the establishing of emotions, and how essential they are in trying to understand others.

Our three focal characters this time are Akane(the mechanic girl), Kiba(the hotshot soldier), and the drunken commander. All three of them formed a triangle of connection via their own words and possessions(and not in a romantic sense either). Akane and Kiba via a wind chime that Kiba's' father made and the commander with the others via his drunken/emotional rambling.

The wind chime bit was definitely the most interesting to me, as not only did it serve as establishing Kiba's' tragedy with his late father, but helps the episode showcase the message that objects can be symbols for multiple things, which is the sort of idea that I feel alot of people missed when watching Kamen Rider Revice and expressing confusion over what the Ultimate ViStamp actually stood for. An object can mean multiple things to multiple people.

Kazeo isn't entirely left out, but his part is very much a subplot, with it being about his background connection to Mikazuki and the desire to keep living and fighting onward despite setback. Makes for a decent supplement to everything else going on in the episode though, I will say. All three of our focal characters would have very understandable reasons for throwing in the towel and falling into despair, but they still manage to find the strength to stand up and keeping moving onward.

There are a few other bits of background lore established here too, such as Kusaka(leader lady's') part in Z-ONE and her connection to the big bad, but it's nothing much as of yet. In regards to the ratio of plot focus to character focus though, it's the sort of balance that I really wish Ultraman Nexus had, especially since both shows have a very similar style of atmosphere(though not exact by any means). I've grown to really like the AIT crew in just three episodes(six if you adjust for length), something I can't claim for half of the Night Raiders, unfortunately.

But yeah, this show continues to find ways to impress me, and hopefully it'll be able to keep that up in tomorrow's' episode.

[DreamSword]

Episode 4: The Fourth Night

A relatively simple episode compared to the others, which is so odd to say given the subject matter.

The mysterious girl who could sever the connect between Kazeo and Mikazuki? Her name is Yuki, and she's a friend of Akane. And it also turns out that she's possessed by some sort of ancient alien.

And while that certainly advances the plot forward, especially as it seems the grand master plan is to revive an ancient being called Shingetsu, the majority of the episode is more about both Kazeo's' memories of his father, and some creepy stalker who has it out for Yuki. No these are not connected.

Yet again, I gotta give it up for Amemiya's' directing, as it does alot in making a majority of the episode feel really unsettling in all of the best ways while also bringing out the emotional weight of the actors needed for carrying the more quiet and somber scenes, which are mostly in but not exclusive to Kazeo's' part in the episode.

Speaking of Kazeo, it was such a weird thing for me to thinking about during the "creepy stalker nerd creates kaiju" episode, but it's so interesting to me just how much more Tekkouki Mikazuki is in line with Kamen Rider Hibiki than the half of Hibiki that Inoue actually wrote. Like, yeah, the tone of these two shows is way different, but the things Kazeo goes through throughout the series are things I could easily be turned into plots for Asumu in Hibiki proper.

And outside of the Kaiju being a very blatant Godzilla homage(to the point of reusing the iconic Godzilla roar), there isn't too much else to say about this one? It's one which very much pushes us into the endgame of Mikazuki, while providing some very nice atmosphere and character moments. Given how next episode is most likely set to be a showdown between Mikazuki and Shingetsu, I do have to wonder how exactly the final episode is gonna go. But alas, we have one episode before that point.

Tune in either Monday or Tuesday for episode 5. In the meantime, enjoy the show's' ED, which is really nice.

[DreamSword]

Episode 5: The Fifth Night

Tekkouki can talk about Kazeo and Mikazuki all it wants, but to me, the real main character is Akane.

This poor girl has been going through alot this entire show. Her father dying, leaving her in charge of a robotic industry, her best friend getting possessed by an interdimensional demon, her work being constantly undermined... it's alot!

Not to say that the other character arcs haven't been fun to see play out, but Akane's is the one that takes the most time and as a result is the one I find most interesting to see play out. Kazeo's' stuff is good too, but it comparatively doesn't have as much meat to it. Atleast for me.

But that all said, this episode is about 80% plot, 20% character arcs.

It's not a bad thing though. This being the penultimate episode, they kinda had to push things alot a bit, right? It does result in some rather interesting interplay between the villains too. Not to mention the fun aspect of the evil knockoff mecha getting captured by the heroes near immediately after putting on a spectacle; Something I don't think I've seen a mecha show do before.

Torupa, the big bad, wants to revive his home world of Gaira via blowing up Earth, whereas Zame, the alien possessing Yuki, wants to leave Gaira behind and conquer Earth instead. And the key to both goals is to force Mikazuki and Shingetsu to merge and become the ultimate killing machine. All while Akane's' crew struggles to build the Gekkouki Mark 5 in the background. Would not be opposed to Gekkouki being the ultimate hero in the end!

There's also this bit of the plot about AIT considering commissioning mecha from a different company. And while it does lead to some great character moments in terms of Akane, it does however show how, due to the low episode count, this story is slightly rushed. Zame's' plan of infiltrating AIT really doesn't amount to too much, and as such feels almost totally unnecessary. I say almost because it does still push the mystery of the link between Kazeo and ikazuki forward some(even if the answer is pretty obvious at this point).

Still, the general direction and atmosphere does alot to carry the episode as always, and I am still very much looking forward to how this is all gonna end. Tune in tomorrow to find out!

[DreamSword]

Episode 6: The Sixth Night

Not perfect, but Inoue and Amemiya went all out on this finale, and I respect it.

There's so much going on here. From the nonstop action to the absolutely dream-like cinematography. It's a great ride from start to end.

But again, it's not perfect. I would've much preferred if the Generalissimo had been the one to face off again Torupa and if Akane had been the one to break Yuki out of her mind control, but for what the events are, they work out.

That said, I think the weakest aspect was actually the big thing that a good chunk of the show had been building up to: Kazeo reuniting with his father. Not only is the reunion temporary, but to me their conversation comes across like Kazeo's' dad passing responsibility onto his son, which is messed up.

It's an odd choice too, because all through the show, even in this very episode, there have been so many signs that Mikazuki houses the soul of Kazeo's' father, but yet it never goes anywhere, and we never get an explanation on who the heck the mysterious woman who takes Mikazuki away at the end actually was. I can only guess that she was a priestess of Gaira.

But, in the end, I still did rather like this finale for what it was. There's alot of great directing and storytelling here, full of wonderful character moments too. I'll admit, all of the different version of Gekkouki showing up at the end totally got me, even if the choreography of the final battle itself was a bit basic. I also really loved the entire extended sequence of Kazeo generating his own IDOM and his journey through it, even if logically it should be impossible.

Could the show have used one more episode to flesh some things out? Absolutely. But for what we got, I will say that I am overall satisfied. But we aren't done just yet. We still have that bonus content from the DVD to go through: An entire episode of Wonder Seven, which is the fake tokusatsu that Akane is a fan of. Tune in next week for that.

[DreamSword]

Episode 9: S.O.S Jun Unable to Transform! (Part 1)

It's kind of impressive how thorough this thing is.

Like, I could almost, almost see this as an actual Showa era Tokusatsu that really existed due to just how much effort was put into this one-off gag.

Really though, the key giveaway is that the production clearly has too much budget, and the effects are actually too good to ever be an actual Showa show, despite the efforts to be as cheesey as possible.

But hey, this was still fun to see regardless. There was some legit funny gags, both "in-universe" and meta-wise, the script pretty accurately reflected what would be a ninth episode of the TV show, there's a surprising amount of original music, and they even went to the effort of making their own toy commercial, the likes of which you still see unto today.

It's nothing super amazing, but it's a very fun sit, especially as a DVD bonus feature, and I'm glad that they went through with it. But with this out of the way, all that leaves is the final thoughts on Tekkouki Mikazuki, of which I'll type up tomorrow. See you then!

[DreamSword]

FINAL THOUGHTS ON TEKKOUKI MIKAZUKI

Weirdly enough, this post took a bit of thinking.

That's not to say I have any super deep thoughts on Tekkouki Mikazuki as a whole, mind you, it's that how I exactly go about wording everything was escaping me.

Because really, I could just say "The show is good for what it is! Check it out!" and leave it at that, but that really doesn't make for any sort of deeper look into the show or my experience with it, right?

Not helping, I think, is that while I certainly loved the show in and of itself, I must admit that atleast some of that enjoyment came from more meta factors, and I'm not sure how much removing that aspect changes things, if at all. It's a bit of an odd thing for me specifically to think about.

See, the thing is, for those who don't know, I have a very love-hate relationship with Inoue's' works. I tend to call him the "almost" guy, because more often than not he'll present an idea to me that I'm rather fond of, only to seriously fumble it for me by the end and thus ruin the experience. The third act of Faiz, the second episode of the Kiva two-parter in Zi-O, so on and so on.

So color me surprised when this obscure mini-series comes along and, while it's not one of my favorite stories of all time, manages to keep me hooked from start to finish. No serious fumbles, no pretentious narrative, just a straight-forward, well done story about these characters and the world that they inhabit. It's something I don't often expect to see from a writer who tends to prioritize plot over characterization.

But Mikazuki manages to be the exact opposite. Many a plot detail is glossed over or left unexplained, but almost every character gets their own arc that is both enjoyable to see play out as well as conclude. And aiding in that is some wonderful directing by Amemiya, with his signature atmosphere that's thick as molasses and dream-like visuals that kept my eyes glued to the screen. This show is great as both a story and an art piece all at the same time, especially for something made in 2000.

Could there have been another episode to flesh some things out? Absolutely. But I do feel as though all of the important aspects of the show got covered to a satisfactory degree, so I really don't mind. Every episode had me drawn in. Every character was one I was interested in learning more about. And the giant robot action was just the cherry on top. Experiencing this and Changerion back to back really made me want a tokusatsu with Inoue as the writer, Amemiya as the director, and Shirakura as the producer. Even if it didn't end up good, I think think that'd make for a rather memorable experience overall.

It's just a well done piece overall, and I really can't think of a much better compliment I could give it than that. If a giant robot show about how language and memories impact people sounds at all appealing to you, then by all means, give Tekkouki Mikazuki a shot. I feel that it is far and away Inoue's' best work, and I'd be very surprised if that changed anytime soon.

I give this show a 5/6. I really enjoyed it from start to end, and I hope you do too.