[Sh Ranger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenXtreme

Some of the other shows in the series have also caught my eye, Jiraiya sounds pretty unusual with its battles against global ninja masters and I'm always really fascinated by tokusatsu shows with a focus on rescue such as Winspector too.

Both good options. If you want something dramatic, I would also recommend Spielvan and Jiban!

[GoldenXtreme]

I watched through the films that Shout Factory put out on their recent Classic Tokusatsu Collection!

Prince of Space: Weird and absurd, love the villain absolutely hamming things up.
Invasion of the Neptune Men: There's something about the energy of this one. The silly, unexplained superpowers of the hero, the Neptune Men costumes.
Watari the Ninja Boy: I spent a lot of the runtime of this movie wondering why the heck it was formatted like a battle shounen, only to realize afterwards that it was in fact based on a shounen manga called "Watari", a manga so obscure that there is basically no information available on it in English. From what I could gather the original manga actually looks super neat, with a story about class liberation during the Tensho era. The movie adapts the first of the manga's three story arcs into a very condensed film, something which I think might make for a cool novelty for fans of the original story but doesn't stand that well on its own. Lots of neat action set pieces though! Honestly now I just wish someone had translated the original manga into English, I really want to read it now...
Golden Ninja: I want a guy who dresses sharply. A man who likes to laugh! Who likes animals and has a strong sense of justice! The ideal man is Golden Bat. In all seriousness though, I thought this one was a lot of fun. Ancient Atlantis skull men coming back to life in order to fight aliens in their drill squid space ship who are trying to smash planets together. Delightful.
Dragon Showdown: This is an unusual genre mashup. Part kaiju movie, part ninja film, part romance. I thought it was pretty good! I was really surprised at how a lot of the cast actually got their own little character arcs. The heroine learns to be happy without her terrible father, the protagonist leaves the region without a ruler in the end after seeing the troubles caused by the system. Surprisingly character driven for a movie that has a climax with a giant toad, dragon, and spider beating each other up!
Ninja Scope: Another manga adaptation. To my understanding, the manga was a fairly standard ninja comic, but the tv tokusatsu adaptation became famous for its absurd content such as random sci-fi stuff happening. Ninja Scope is a movie adaptation of the tv tokusatsu (with some reused footage and some new) in much the same vein, with a guy flying around with giant razor geta on his arms and aerial kite battles. Truly ridiculous fun.
Terror Beneath the Sea: I actually didn't watch this one since it was the English cut of the film. It was an international co-production between Japan and the US, so I think you could make the argument that both languages count as the "original" version, but it looks like the Japanese cut is a bit longer so I'd prefer to try that one, but alas, no fansubs were in sight. If anyone knows where I could watch the Japanese cut I'd love to know.

[Androzani84]

I have only seen the first two through MST3K, and all I remember as a result is “the Hitler Building” from Neptune Men.

[GoldenXtreme]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

I have only seen the first two through MST3K, and all I remember as a result is ?the Hitler Building? from Neptune Men.

When I saw that building I thought it must be social commentary of some sort only to learn that it was reused footage from some WWII era film. You'd really think they could find a different clip to use.

[Mesnick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenXtreme

Dragon Showdown: This is an unusual genre mashup. Part kaiju movie, part ninja film, part romance. I thought it was pretty good! I was really surprised at how a lot of the cast actually got their own little character arcs. The heroine learns to be happy without her terrible father, the protagonist leaves the region without a ruler in the end after seeing the troubles caused by the system. Surprisingly character driven for a movie that has a climax with a giant toad, dragon, and spider beating each other up!

Didn't it seem to you that George Lucas borrowed the dialogue between Luke and Obi-Wan in A New Hope from this movie?

[GoldenXtreme]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesnick

Didn't it seem to you that George Lucas borrowed the dialogue between Luke and Obi-Wan in A New Hope from this movie?

I don't remember that movie well enough to say! For some reason Star Wars never sticks in my mind, no matter how many times I've randomly seen the films.

[Mesnick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenXtreme

I don't remember that movie well enough to say! For some reason Star Wars never sticks in my mind, no matter how many times I've randomly seen the films.

OK. And since I mentioned in another thread about the different names of "Golden Bat", I will also mention that Dragon Showdown is also known under the names Magic Serpent and Ninja Apocalypse (the last is something completely crazy).

[TokuKnight89]

Watched the first three episodes of Akumaizer 3, and it's unique even for its time.

The action is definitely extensive, and the effects are period standard. The real kicker that sets it apart is the set-up and characterizations of the main and recurring characters. Zabitan has already walked away from his people and is fighting against them, but shows mercy even to potential enemies (though violent enemies who've already killed won't get the same treatment). The Demon Clan is definitely a fully formed society with its own laws (though I noticed some contradictions). There are some unique concepts you might not anticipate, like a dramatized Hollow Earth (complete with an underground sun) and the idea that Downworld is potentially the basis for Hell in the minds of past civilizations. The ideas set forth by Kamen Rider are on the table, but dialed up a tad. The heroes are the same as the mechanized subterranean demons they fight, but they chose their path. The idea of humans not accepting the heroes because they're different is present and very much explored almost from the beginning. This makes the idea of our heroes being the types of protectors who fight evil and hide from people (remember the Kakuranger motto) all the more significant to both the story and its characters. I do see some ideas that could be considered prototypical of modern tokusatsu, like enemies who are on the ropes and try to bring out the "big guns" in the form of fanciful sci-fi vehicles (tanks are pretty typical here). Speaking of vehicles, the first one we see doesn't get used by evil for long and...well, I don't want spoil too much. Suffice it to say, using the enemies' own equipment against them is so significant in this show and it's only three episodes in!

I think it's a unique show given the period it was made in. It originally aired around the time of Gorenger and Stronger, but I think it was tackling themes one would equate with a more modern tokusatsu. I definitely want to explore more of this.

https://tokusatsunetwork.com/2016/05/15793/

[GoldenXtreme]

I ended up binge watching Legend Heroes over the course of a few days. The show was a little confused, but it got the spirit!

Legend Heroes is a Korean tokusatsu show from 2016. I remember back when it was new a lot of people really loved it, and I still occasionally see people comment on the series today, so I was very excited to try it out. The show combines Sentai-esque mech fights with Kamen-Rider-esque ground action. Narratively it borrows elements from various Battle Royale Kamen Rider shows. The protagonist Liu Bei is a lot like Shinji from Ryuki, a nice guy who gets swept up in a dangerous battle. The general suit style feels like a combination of Ryuki (animal knights) and Gaim (the warlords aesthetic). Perhaps most interestingly, the Dream Battle in Legend Heroes is very similar to the Desire Grand Prix from Geats, with people battling to have a wish granted and risking losing their dreams upon loss. This in spite of the show predating Geats by several years. Still, the show does enough unique things that it felt like its own show, and not just a knockoff.

Being a show from outside of Japan and not from Toei or Tsuburaya, it does feel like a unique take on the medium, though it does unfortunately feel like it suffers a bit from lack of experience by the staff. One thing that really struck me about it was how obvious it was that the show wanted to tackle more serious stories, but probably was not allowed. I have to say that I actually like the idea of one of these battle royale shows where characters don't necessarily die. Having characters stripped of their dreams offers plenty of interesting drama by itself, but the show was hesitant to really dig into the repercussions of it, with most characters who end up losing just getting instantly written out of the show without dwelling on it too much. Gongsun Zan in particular really stuck with me, since she was a major recurring character for the first stretch of the show and basically Liu Bei's sister, but after her loss is not even acknowledged in passing. It was so extreme I thought there must have been some sort of conflict with the actor, and was genuinely shocked she showed up again at the very end. Similarly, the show is very light on the blood and death, to the point it can get confusing! It's hard to tell if someone was serious injured, heck, it's hard to tell if character's merely lost the dream battle or legit died a lot of the time! Cao Cao meanwhile really felt like he was intended to be a sort of dark vigilante character before having his behavior toned down. The whole thing reeked of having been serious rewritten at points. Some more minor issues include the show's tendency to introduce plot points or characters, completely drop them for vast swaths of episodes, then suddenly bring them up again. Also it is light on the practical effects and the mech fights aren't too great (though this is an issue in quite a few Sentai shows too).

Still, I think the show had a real tokusatsu soul to it. It's goofy and weird and dramatic, everything one of these shows should be. The fact that I can actually critique on the same level as a big tokusatsu show is impressive in and of itself! It was really fun to watch and had quite a lot of charming characters and poignant moments. Liu Bei's relationship with his two angel partners during the show is nice in particular, with Xu Shu's death providing some genuine weight to the story. Even if it isn't quite as good as I initially hoped it would be, it was a particularly impressive effort for something from outside Japan.

[Mesnick]

I watched the last part of the trilogy about the original Yokai Monsters: “Alone with the Ghosts” of the 69th. Well, I liked the return to horror after the fantasy 2nd part. Some episodes were even creepy, although, of course, it is difficult to be afraid of yokai who harm only notorious scoundrels. The story also turned out to be extremely successful. I love road jidaigeki with all these roads, taverns, ferries and not at all random encounters. However, the film also has significant disadvantages.
Compared to previous parts, the scale has greatly diminished. No destruction of the city or even the estate, just running through the forest. There are a little more than a dozen yokai themselves, and among them there was no place for the colorful characters from the previous parts. Yes, after the second they would not be perceived as threatening, but the ghosts are sorely lacking in character. And their power has diminished.
Here I will digress for an analogy. In the Soviet film adaptation of Mary Poppins, the action is moved to the 80s of the twentieth century and there are many veiled references to the Cold War. Considering that all of Mary's abilities in that film come down to illusions and hypnosis, there is a funny theory that this is actually a story about a spy. So, the situation with the yokai from “Alone with the Ghosts” is approximately the same, but it’s impossible to come up with an interesting theory.
To summarize, I would say that this is the better film in the trilogy in terms of plot, but the worst as a yokai film. But it's worth watching, at least I wasn't disappointed.