[GoldenXtreme]

Return of Ultraman:
I'm famous for my stellar quality. A show excellent enough to be the best in the Showa era.
Kaiketsu Zubat:
I'm afraid you have it wrong. You are only the second best in the Showa era.
Return of Ultraman:
The second-best? What else could be better?!
Kaiketsu Zubat:


Lately I've been watching a lot of really questionable tokusatsu, so I thought I owed it to myself to pick out a show I was almost guaranteed to love. Kaiketsu Zubat delivered. Hiroshi Miyauchi as a suave vigilante private investigator cowboy superhero with a guitar? Check? Funny? Check. Dark? Check. I think if you condensed everything I love about the Showa era into a tokusatsu, you'd just get Zubat. I don't even really have any complaints. I mean, like any older show it has some dated writing in spots, but there isn't any point in complaining about the times. I guess they changed Hayakawa's outfit near the end to one with more white on it and it wasn't nearly as cool as his original one.

Hayakawa himself makes for quite the interesting hero. He's a merciless vigilante who is on a quest to avenge his dead friend, but he's nonetheless a hero who tries to help the people he encounters on his quest. He exemplified the lonely Shotaro Ishinomori hero to me, pushing onward through both physical injuries and mental strain. At the same time, he is a completely ridiculous character who is always the best at everything and saying completely surreal things. I think this split nature is reflected in many parts of the show. It effortlessly flips between stuff like Hayakawa defeating a golf assassin or an Uri Geller expy to stuff about human trafficking and a boy who contracts an extreme strain of rabies so his father nearly kills the kid with a shotgun. It's absolutely BUCK wild. The show is extremely formulaic, but I actually think it worked to the story's advantage most of the time because I got so excited every episode when it reached the point where the hired muscle of the villain of the week showed up, I just couldn't wait to see what nonsense was going to occur every time.

The setting is maybe my favorite part of the whole show though. A Neo-Western Japan overrun by organized crime, the people living in suffering and fear? Just fantastic, and super fresh for a tokusatsu show. Notably, none of the villains are monsters or aliens or even modified humans. Everyone is just... humans, even the worst villains. No blaming the vices of our species on some external force here! We regularly see corruption running through the police force and several other people that originally seem to be allies even. The setting really comes to life nicely, the action is very solid and the cinematography is quite stylish.

Great stuff, from the same head writer as Kikaider and Akumaizer. I really think this guy has vision, most of his shows are a cut above and very unique! I definitely want to try Akumaizer myself now...

[TokuKnight89]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenXtreme

Kaiketsu Zubat:


He's a merciless vigilante who is on a quest to avenge his dead friend, but he's nonetheless a hero who tries to help the people he encounters on his quest. He exemplified the lonely Shotaro Ishinomori hero to me, pushing onward through both physical injuries and mental strain. Notably, none of the villains are monsters or aliens or even modified humans. Everyone is just... humans, even the worst villains. No blaming the vices of our species on some external force here! We regularly see corruption running through the police force and several other people that originally seem to be allies even.

The notion of a hero willing and able to kill is on my mind heavily right now, and it leaves me a little weary when the protagonist has a desire to commit an extrajudicial murder (which if memory serves, is definitely on the table with Zubat, especially towards the end). It's to his credit if he's trying to help someone and understandable if he kills the villain of the week while trying to prevent the death of an innocent, but it still runs into anti-hero territory. Then again, Ishinomori always did kind of straddle that line (looking at you here, Skull Man).

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenXtreme

Great stuff, from the same head writer as Kikaider and Akumaizer. I really think this guy has vision, most of his shows are a cut above and very unique! I definitely want to try Akumaizer myself now...

The first few episodes of Akumaizer are different and leave you wanting more, but to my knowledge, the entire series has not been completely subbed yet.

[Switchblade]

Zubat is an incredibly fun show with absolutely no respect for any of the laws of physics.

[Mesnick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TokuKnight89

The notion of a hero willing and able to kill is on my mind heavily right now, and it leaves me a little weary when the protagonist has a desire to commit an extrajudicial murder (which if memory serves, is definitely on the table with Zubat, especially towards the end). It's to his credit if he's trying to help someone and understandable if he kills the villain of the week while trying to prevent the death of an innocent, but it still runs into anti-hero territory. Then again, Ishinomori always did kind of straddle that line (looking at you here, Skull Man).

Well, in heroic tokusatsu, when putting a ban on killing people, the question invariably arises: ?Who should be considered people?? ?Why is it possible to kill a kaijin, but not a human?? Of course, W, Fourze and some Sentai avoid killing, but still these are rather exceptions. In fact, in my subjective opinion, Janperson handled this best. He destroyed robots because they can be restored if the memory chip is not damaged. And he fought with human criminals much more delicately.

[TokuKnight89]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesnick

Well, in heroic tokusatsu, when putting a ban on killing people, the question invariably arises: ?Who should be considered people?? ?Why is it possible to kill a kaijin, but not a human?? Of course, W, Fourze and some Sentai avoid killing, but still these are rather exceptions. In fact, in my subjective opinion, Janperson handled this best. He destroyed robots because they can be restored if the memory chip is not damaged. And he fought with human criminals much more delicately.

If you watch the "Let's Talk Toku" docu-series by TokuSHOUTsu, you see them briefly touch on the idea of Sentai being partially symptomatic of Japanese xenophobia.

To be honest, the Tokusatsu approach to villainy is not unlike "Buffy, The Vampire Slayer": Humans and Demons are initially treated as both potentially threatening, but humans are subject to pre-existing laws while Demons and Vampires hide in the shadows and are a supernatural threat that aren't well understood by most humans and the protagonists tend to draw a clear delineation between killing a demon/vamp and killing a human. In later seasons and the spin-off "Angel", the line becomes more and more blurred and the arbitrary elimination of demons and vamps is treated as a moral conundrum especially when they aren't threatening anyone's life.

Honestly, the best answer comes from Page 17 of Saban's Power Rangers: Ultimate Visual History by Insight Editions: "One person who had no doubts was Fox Kids Network president Margaret Loesch, who ordered a large number of episodes that would air in late summer 1993. But Fox executives were still worried about the action-packed sequences, which involved the Power Rangers using martial arts to fight the bad guys. Nervous Fox affiliates asked about Loesch's plans for damage control if the high-kicking action led to a backlash from concerned parents. But the savvy executive stuck to her guns: "This is an action-adventure show, and these kids are karate experts," she says, "but we always tried to get across that this show is a fantasy, and in real life, you've got to solve your problems with means other than fisticuffs."

[Mesnick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TokuKnight89

If you watch the "Let's Talk Toku" docu-series by TokuSHOUTsu, you see them briefly touch on the idea of Sentai being partially symptomatic of Japanese xenophobia.

I'm surprised that Attack on Titan wasn't criticized for its xenophobia. This is right on the surface: people live in a limited protected space, into which huge, bestial monsters burst in from the outside.

[TokuKnight89]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesnick

I'm surprised that Attack on Titan wasn't criticized for its xenophobia. This is right on the surface: people live in a limited protected space, into which huge, bestial monsters burst in from the outside.

It was. I remember seeing an article that tried to examine the various sociopolitical theories that surrounded the franchise (prior to the Marley and Eldian revelation and the overall climax).

[GuardianAngel87]

I have decided to get back to the swing of things for the Metal Heroes franchise. This time it's for Kidou Keiji Jiban.

[TokuKnight89]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuardianAngel87

I have decided to get back to the swing of things for the Metal Heroes franchise. This time it's for Kidou Keiji Jiban.

First episode is pretty strong, but light on explanation. Things aren't well explained from the onset. A little easier to extrapolate than Janperson though.

[EpsilonX]

I can't find the questions thread for "other toku," but it seems like you're on a similar topic, so I'll ask it here - I'm interested in watching some older, non-big-3 toku. How does Winspector hold up? I absolutely adore the aesthetic and costumes, so it has my interest. Also, what are some other shows from the 70s and 80s that are worth watching? Your discussion about Zubat seems interesting, would you recommend it?