[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

Holy cow, really!? I didn't even recognize him! That's awesome.

It was possible because Odagiri is pals with Takatera, kinda like Scorsese and De Niro. After all, Takatera's vision was what made Odagiri accept the role of Godai and give us one helluva performance.

[SHINOBI03]

Started Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad. I liked Malcolm better than Takeshi with just one episode.

[GuardianAngel87]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SHINOBI03

Started Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad. I liked Malcolm better than Takeshi with just one episode.

Nice. How's Tim Curry as the voice of Kilokahn so far?

[SHINOBI03]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuardianAngel87

Nice. How's Tim Curry as the voice of Kilokahn so far?

It's the usual villain voice he uses in his other villain roles, but man is he making Khandigifer an ever flatter character than without the comparison. Kilkoahn and Malcolm are seriously a huge upgrade than Digifer and Takeshi.

[GoldenXtreme]

I wrapped up Inazuman pretty fast since it was short and, frankly, really good. This show is now one of my favorite Showa tokusatsu shows that I’ve seen. They actually managed to have a nice sense of progression, the Bamba Empire was a pretty good threat, and it had both cheesy nonsense and some actual drama. I really enjoyed it!

On the other hand, I am now upset because I am pretty sure absolutely no one had subbed Inazuman Flash, officially or otherwise.

[tomos]

I finished Metalder yesterday and it was one hell of a ride. The ending was very sad though which I had been kind of expecting in some form but I did still really, really enjoy the show. It did a good job making you feel for Top Gunder even though it is literally just a suit but I'd have liked if you could have had Ryusei and Mai as a couple when the show had finished, I suppose you can always make it up in your head what happened after!

[GuardianAngel87]

^ Metalder is the very first Showa era Toku series I’ve watched in its entirety and I find the show to be vastly underrated. I love Ryusei and Top Gunder. Easily my favorite Toku series that’s not related to Sentai, Kamen Rider, or even Power Rangers. I am considering watching Metalder again at some point next year. Also need to start watching my Gridman Blu-Ray set that I got from Amazon sometime ago plus the Guyver 2: Dark Hero DVD I just got from that same website.

[Switchblade]

Metalder is a fantastic show. I really loved how all of the monsters were recurring characters that might appear in the background for a dozen episodes before they got their moment in the spotlight. It was a really neat take on how to do the enemy forces.

[SHINOBI03]

Finally finished Super Human Samurai Syber-Squad. It doesn't differ that much from Gridman. They're both silly and goofy shows based on outdated technology, but Gridman took itself too seriously while SSSS was less by embracing its silliness.

I joked many times watching it how cheap this production is, but sadly that is its biggest flaw. They could not use the show's full potential because they had a seriously tight budget recycling the same indoor sets making the setting so isolated from the world and having extras or guests was very few and spaced out between episodes. For crying out loud one character was never seen and the only thing they used was her voice. And yet they thought extending the show for 16 more episodes was a great idea.

As a reminder, Gridman ran for 39 episodes, SSSS went past that number by reaching 53 episodes, and the only reason they finally decided to end it was running out of footage to use. And even then, they've been recycling battle footage way many times than it should be allowed. Episode order was also out even with the official order presented when they were introducing the new attack vehicles and weapons creating many plotholes. Maybe I could rearrange the order to make it more consistent.

The actors did their best with the material they've been handed to. The writing is not the deepest or the most serious, but you won't get any dull moment with them. Amp and Mrs. Starkey were my most favorites. And of course, Malcolm and Kilokahn are the best improvement over their Gridman counterparts and Glen Beaudin and Tim Curry brought enough personality they could carry the entire show with just them bickering like the odd couple.

The series reached its peak with episode 37 "Kilo Is Coming To Town" where it's agreed it should've ended there. The next 16 episodes were like an unnecessary bonus that regressed the show backwards like it hit a reset button. Amp got replaced with a cheap copy duplicating his random humor, Malcolm is back to his old self like he never went through any development, and more recycled fight scenes where one monster was used twice within these 16 episodes. It was clear they were running out of steam. And the finale was your average run of the mill event with the main actor absent and no finality ever on what happened to the main villains like they've disappeared unceremoniously. It was hastily put together like the crew no longer gave a damn to do anything.

Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad was an experience alright. I thoroughly enjoyed it even at its lowest points and it'd be interesting to rewatch SSSS Gridman now that I finally watched this and Gridman together.

[GuardianAngel87]

^ I'm really glad you enjoyed this series. I'm actually considering going back on watching Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad sometime next year. I'm even planning to re-watch a few certain episodes for my Thanksgiving and Christmas marathons like I did last year. And yeah, that two-parter really should've been the show's grand finale like it, more or less, seems to be in the original Gridman series. Also glad to see another Amp fan.