[GoldenXtreme]

I finished with Cutie Honey The Live! I think I saw someone on this forum recently call this Inoue's masterpiece due to its balance of farce and drama. I don't know if I would go quite that far, but it is definitely a show that felt like some sort of trick shot by Inoue that combined all his techniques into one absurd package.

Where do I even start with this thing? It's like the staff combined The Three Stooges, softcore pornography, and Garo (a show it actually shares a lot of staff with). It does that classic Inoue thing where it flips between being completely ridiculous and super dark at the drop of a hat, and sometimes just does both at once for good measure. A bunch of uncomfortable fetish stuff involving high-schooler characters! Kohei Murakami has 4 split personalities and one of them is gay! A fishmonger lady who can shoot missiles out of her flab! Miscommunications! The action is stupidly good? Honestly, by the end of the show I couldn't help but be impressed by the fact Inoue was even more of a freak than I was giving him credit for. There are lots of sub-par elements with the story though, you get the impression 25 episodes wasn't enough to fully explore all their ideas. The plot tends to introduce important elements in a weird order just to sustain a sense of mystery and some characters just don't really make sense. Yuki in particular stood out to me. I think the idea with her is she was driven to extremes by her desire to survive, but the change is extremely abrupt and by the end she's ranting about wanting to rule the world for no reason. What an experience, absolutely unquantifiable.

[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenXtreme

I finished with Cutie Honey The Live! I think I saw someone on this forum recently call this Inoue's masterpiece due to its balance of farce and drama. I don't know if I would go quite that far, but it is definitely a show that felt like some sort of trick shot by Inoue that combined all his techniques into one absurd package.

Where do I even start with this thing? It's like the staff combined The Three Stooges, softcore pornography, and Garo (a show it actually shares a lot of staff with). It does that classic Inoue thing where it flips between being completely ridiculous and super dark at the drop of a hat, and sometimes just does both at once for good measure. A bunch of uncomfortable fetish stuff involving high-schooler characters! Kohei Murakami has 4 split personalities and one of them is gay! A fishmonger lady who can shoot missiles out of her flab! Miscommunications! The action is stupidly good? Honestly, by the end of the show I couldn't help but be impressed by the fact Inoue was even more of a freak than I was giving him credit for. There are lots of sub-par elements with the story though, you get the impression 25 episodes wasn't enough to fully explore all their ideas. The plot tends to introduce important elements in a weird order just to sustain a sense of mystery and some characters just don't really make sense. Yuki in particular stood out to me. I think the idea with her is she was driven to extremes by her desire to survive, but the change is extremely abrupt and by the end she's ranting about wanting to rule the world for no reason. What an experience, absolutely unquantifiable.

I remember when this aired I was surprised to see a GARO alumni appear in a comedic role. I was later surprised once again when the same person went on to appear in the Kiva movie and then the show as a totally different character. TL: DR Shoma Yamamoto is awesome.
And I believe this was where Mikie Hara who played Honey and Ayame Misaki who played Miki made their major tokusatsu debut later going on to appear in Kamen Rider Fourze and Go-Busters respectively. I also remember Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi who played Tadogoro in Kamen Rider Kabuto and Hiroshi Yoshioka who played Gamu in Ultraman Gaia were guest stars in one episode.

Of course, who could forget Mark freakin Musashi in this, also a GARO alumni and suit actor of Nigo in the Kamen Rider: First and Next movies, playing a villain whose catchphrase was simply the expression, "Shit!".

[Mesnick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenXtreme

Honestly, by the end of the show I couldn't help but be impressed by the fact Inoue was even more of a freak than I was giving him credit for.

Well, it should be noted here that the Cutie Honey franchise itself is very freaky, combining children's humor, light porn, outright violence and deep drama since its inception. After all, this is the creation of Go Nagai, the author of Devilman. And Inoue is simply the best person to bring it to the screen.

[GoldenXtreme]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunred

Of course, who could forget Mark freakin Musashi in this, also a GARO alumni and suit actor of Nigo in the Kamen Rider: First and Next movies, playing a villain whose catchphrase was simply the expression, "Shit!".

The first time that happened I laughed so uncontrollably hard. And also the second time, and the time after that, and so on...

[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenXtreme

The first time that happened I laughed so uncontrollably hard. And also the second time, and the time after that, and so on...

Rightfully so.
I do wanna point out an error that I made, Mark Musashi did suit acting as a Shocker Rider and Tomohiko Akiyama took his place in Kamen Rider The NEXT. And seeing how both were released around the same time back in 2007, I can only assume Mark Musashi probably prioritized Cutie Honey over The NEXT based on what's been made public.

[Sh Ranger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunred

I remember when this aired I was surprised to see a GARO alumni appear in a comedic role. I was later surprised once again when the same person went on to appear in the Kiva movie and then the show as a totally different character. TL: DR Shoma Yamamoto is awesome.

Then he comes back as the voice of mysterious space mercenary Brave Kyoryu Gold, making him one of the actors to portray both a Rider and Ranger. I should watch Cutie Honey The Live sometime.

[GuardianAngel87]

Watched and finished another pair of episodes of Janperson and am currently trying to figure out which Metal Heroes series I should start on next once I am done with the series. I am considering either Blue SWAT or B-Fighter.

[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Then he comes back as the voice of mysterious space mercenary Brave Kyoryu Gold, making him one of the actors to portray both a Rider and Ranger. I should watch Cutie Honey The Live sometime.

Mark Musashi really made it fun.

[GuardianAngel87]

I have managed to finish Janperson today and I am very happy to say that this show is now officially my second favorite Metal Heroes series overall and it is also among my top favorite Toku series of all time list. Janperson just really hit all of the right notes for me and it is a Toku series, Metal Heroes or otherwise, everyone should check out at least once. Also, I decided to start on Blue SWAT as my next series to watch from that franchise.

[GoldenXtreme]

This time I've finished... Message from Space: Galactic Wars.

I should probably lead with the fact that I'm not much of a Star Wars fan. It's *fine*, but it has never really excited me, even when I was a kid. But this blatant Star Wars rip-off? Loved it! I think a lot of factors contributed to my enjoyment. First of all, this is a true space opera TV show, Earth is only a background detail, with the story almost entirely focuses on a different solar system and it's struggles against the evil emperor who tries to conquer it. The budget seems quite high for a tokusatsu TV show from this time period too. Not only that, but the show is almost abnormally overarching and character driven for a tokusatsu show of the time period (while still having a nice dose of the amusing story jank that makes Showa tokusatsu so fun). Plot elements and recurring characters come up many times, while the main characters are consistently fun to follow. Hayato grows a lot as the show progresses, from a very inexperienced pilot and ninja to someone who is a truly reliable protagonist due to his mentoring from Ryu and numerous real battles that he experiences. Ryu himself is just a charming guy who acts as an interesting counterpoint to Hayato. Plus Ryu and Hayato's brotherly relationship is very nice. Balu and Tonto more act as side, comic-relief characters, but are both pretty fun. All in all, it was a really cool show that balanced silly 70s nonsense with legitimate drama and tragedy. Peak stuff, I feel like I've really been on a roll with the older tokusatsu I've been watching lately.