[DreamSword]

Or "Tekkouki Mikazuki" if you want its more well known title.

Man, first Changerion, then Kamen Rider Kiva, and now this. I just can't seem to get enough Inoue lately, huh?

This thread is going to be a bit different in a couple of ways, given how this time I'll watching a mini-series rather than a full blown season of a television show. But before I get into that, just what is this show anyway? To quote Bereke Scrubs:

Quote:

How do we even describe the appeal of Tekkouki Mikazuki? So Mikazuki is the result of a series being directed by Keita Amemiya (of Garo, Kamen Rider ZO, Kamen Rider J, and Mechanical Violator Hakaider directing fame) and written by... Toshiki Inoue. Now, we're fans of Inoue here (relatively speaking compared to the fandom as a whole), and the duo of them were behind Mechanical Violator Hakaider before, so on a good day with some restraint (and we cannot believe we're calling Hakaider restrained), they turn out some pretty great work!

This is not a restrained series.

This six-episode (at 45 minutes+ each) miniseries from the year 2000 about a young boy finding himself in command of a mysterious voice-activated robot possibly linked to his father fighting fantastical beasts born from the human psyche has absolutely no restraint. This shows in every aspect from:

• Constantly bring in new concepts and plot threads at an absurd rate for the amount of show they have.
• Budget. This has so much budget and it shows.
• Basically every single thing Keita Amemiya likes is in this series. Especially goth women showing up for no reason.
• There's an in-universe tokusatsu show one of the characters watches briefly in like two scenes. Naturally they shot an entire episode of it as a DVD bonus feature.
• The DVD set has a separate disc for every episode (including Wonder Seven), a separate case for every disc, and a half-hour long making of for every main series episode. They were really sure TV was never going to be the same again, huh?
• Hiring Don Dokken from 80's Hair Metal band Dokken to do the opening theme. Yes. Really.
• There's some more absurd stuff if Google Translate on the Japanese Wikipedia page is to be believed, but that's not exactly a reliable source and there isn't much information on this show in English.

Naturally, the show did well enough that... actually it only got a DVD set ten years later in 2010. Oof. Wonder Seven spent a long time on the shelf, apparently.

I don't think I could come up with a better way to advertise this project than that, honestly. And incase that didn't make things clear for you, yes, I will be using Bereke Scrubs' translation when watching this very interesting sounding mini-series.

As each episode is 45 minutes or longer though, I'll only be watching and covering each part on my days off. So this thread is going to last about a month rather than just a week(there are six episodes in total). Might be a bit shorter or longer depending on how much free time I manage to nab, but we'll see. By the way, I have zero idea of what this show is even like!

With all that out of the way, if this doesn't sound like the type of show for you, then my good buddy GrandComplete is currently doing his own thread now on Ultraman Gaia. Be sure to check it out, as he does good work, if his wonderful Legend Heroes thread of the past is any indication. I myself won't be keeping up, as I have too much stuff I'm juggling right now, unfortunately. But perhaps I'll circle back to it in the future.

Now then, let's see what the makers of GARO and Kamen Rider Faiz have in store for us with Tekkouki Mikazuki...

[DreamSword]

Episode 1: The Prologue Night

Just when I think Inoue had bottomed out on the crazy with Changerion, this show appears in my life.

Man, where to even start with what goes on with this one?

Well, the best way I can think of to sum it all up as quickly as possible is that, if were ever curious as to what it'd like if Inoue wrote an Ultraman show, Tekkouki Mikazuki is here to answer your inquiry.

The long version is that our story follows 10 year old Kazeo. Your average introverted nerd who's an outcast to everyone around him, to the point that literally everyone bullies him and his only source of happiness is this girl in his class that he has a crush on.

Unfortunately for Kazeo, his world arguably gets even worse when he starts experiencing strange nightmares about his sculptures coming to life and haunting him, as well as the sudden appearance of creatures known as Idea Monsters, or IDOMs for short. Which are actually monsters born from the subconscious thoughts of humans.

...And the very first one is a giant watermelon, born from Kazeo's' memories of his disappeared dad.

Yeah, this show goes pretty nuts pretty fast. Featuring things like the giant watermelon turning into a Godzilla-esque Kaiju with scythe tits, a reborn explorer eating a ball of sand, and the sort of set design that wouldn't be out of place in an entry of Macross. All played extremely straight to the point of hilarity, and I think it's all intentional too, especially given the character drama inherent with Kazeo and the awakening of his giant robot.

Despite the description most likely making the episode sound like a total mess, the atmosphere was such that, while I was blown back by all the crazy happening, I also couldn't help but be enthralled and really curious as to where everything was headed. It's the same sensation that I got while watching Kamen Rider Blade, and believe me that's a compliment. The atmosphere for the most part is actually rather well put together all throughout the episode, and I dug it!

In terms of story content, it's of course all setup for the world and the characters who inhabit it of course, but thankfully, with this being a mini-series, the pacing, I think, was pretty much the best handled it could be. Sure, certain details might fly past you if you're not intently focused on what's going on, but I was never lost on the general idea of all that was happening. It's a delicate balance that I've seen longer shows manage to mess up, let alone short runners like this one. And yes, you can definitely see as much Amemiya in this as you can Inoue. It's a weirdly fitting combo, surprisingly.

So, yeah. I'm definitely looking forward to where all of this goes. But, that'll have to wait until this coming Saturday.

[GuardianAngel87]

Speaking of Inoue, there is another Toku series that he wrote while Keita Amemiya directed and it is called Shougeki Gouraigan. I wasn't sure if you have heard of it or not and that show is only 12 episodes long.

[DreamSword]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuardianAngel87

Speaking of Inoue, there is another Toku series that he wrote while Keita Amemiya directed and it is called Shougeki Gouraigan. I wasn't sure if you have heard of it or not and that show is only 12 episodes long.

I had not heard of it actually! I'll add it to my list.

[joedragon72]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

I had not heard of it actually! I'll add it to my list.

It's a sentai parody of sorts i think... oh and if i am not wrong there is like one scene of nudity in like the first or second episode? probably irrelevant though, but just a heads up in case you don't like nudity? it's a bit crude too if i recall.

[DreamSword]

Quote:

Originally Posted by joedragon72

It's a sentai parody of sorts i think... oh and if i am not wrong there is like one scene of nudity in like the first or second episode? probably irrelevant though, but just a heads up in case you don't like nudity? it's a bit crude too if i recall.

Thanks for the heads up!

[Sunred]

Oh wow, this.
I dabbled a bit with the show but I mostly remember seeing pictures about it on Japanese Newtype, and I don't mean Newtype The Live. I remember the AIT field agents giving me huge Exceedraft vibes while the robot felt like a nice tribute to Yokoyama's works.

[DreamSword]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunred

while the robot felt like a nice tribute to Yokoyama's works.

Uhh, who?

[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

Uhh, who?

Sorry I should've been specific. I meant to say Mitsuteru Yokoyama aka the creator of Gigantor/Tetsujin 28 and Giant Robo.

[DreamSword]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunred

Sorry I should've been specific. I meant to say Mitsuteru Yokoyama aka the creator of Gigantor/Tetsujin 28 and Giant Robo.

Ahhh. Yeah, yeah. Mikazuki very clearly takes inspiration from Giant Robo for its title mech.