If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like if Robocop was a tokusatsu show, the answer is Jiban. Mobile Cop Jiban (機動刑事ジバン) is the eighth Metal Hero Series, coming after Jiraiya chronologically but tells a completely different story to it’s predecessor, as Toei’s programming often does. Despite coming out in 1989, this show is […]
Monthly Archives: April 2020
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Apr
Apr
Batten Robomaru (バッテンロボ丸) is the second entry in the Toei Fushigi Comedy Series, and another entry that continues Tokusatsu’s long obsession with mascot robot characters. But then, when Japan is so obsessed with mascots in general a show like this seems like an easy sell. The series begins with the boys and girls baseball tournament […]
27
Apr
Apr
Ganbare! Red Vickies (がんばれ!レッドビッキーズ), or misspelled as Gambare! Red Vickies on the Toei Tokusatsu World YouTube channel, is a youth baseball show that doesn’t have explosions, rubber monsters, or any kind of panache or flair. In short, this was boring! Have you ever seen a sports movie? Literally any of them? Mighty Ducks, Cool Runnings, […]
26
Apr
Apr
Suki! Suki!! Majo Sensei (好き! すき!! 魔女先生 – also known as Love! Love!! Witch Teacher or We Love You! Witch Teacher) is a 1971 series by Shotaro Ishinomori, and finding any significant information about it online in English proves nearly impossible. From the little I’ve managed to parse it’s based on Ishinomori’s manga Sennome Sensei […]
24
Apr
Apr
German Detective Squad Marin Gumi (じゃあまん探偵団 魔隣組) or simply Marin Gumi is the eighth entry in the Toei Fushigi Comedy Series, and doesn’t take the format one might immediately assume a show on the Toei Tokusatsu World Official channel. Rather than feature a masked superhero, this series sees a group of child detective challenge the […]
24
Apr
Apr
Inspired by the success of KRTV’s Moonlight Mask (a series largely held up as one of the earliest tokusatsu superhero shows), the NET Network – now known as TV-Asahi – turned to Toei to create their own version. Sponsored by Matsushita Electric (now Panasonic) to promote their “National” brand of appliances, Toei came up with […]
23
Apr
Apr
The more of these mecha anime series I watch on Toei Tokusatsu World Official, the more I realise how they’re pretty much all the same. That said, it doesn’t make me want to watch them all any less… Space Emperor God Sigma (宇宙大帝ゴッドシグマ), or just God Sigma, is a 1980 Saburou Yatsude production. Saburou Yatsude […]
22
Apr
Apr
Blue SWAT (ブルースワット) is the 1994 Metal Hero Series immediately preceeding Juukou B-Fighter, one of the last Metal Hero Series adapted by Haim Saban. With this in mind, I’m keen to know what it is about this show that made it unadaptable in the eyes of the Saban brass and, obviously, is this a series […]
22
Apr
Apr
Tokkyuu Shirei Solbrain (特救指令ソルブレイン), or simply Solbrain, is exactly the kind of Metal Hero show I was expecting and I enjoyed the heck out of it. It’s the kind of show I expected Winspector to be but didn’t get but it still defied some of my expectations. We kick off with a seeming alien invasion […]
20
Apr
Apr
Chojin Bibyun (超神ビビューン) is an odd series. Though it’s a direct sequel to Akumaizer 3 in which the heroes gain brand new powers as well as human identities, there is a HUGE disconnect between the two. The relation to Akumaizer 3 isn’t even mentioned until the very end of the episode, and even then it […]
20
Apr
Apr
Robot 8-Chan (ロボットはっちゃん) is the very first of the Toei Fushigi Comedy Series and was aired between 1981 and 1982. It shows. I really need to stop randomly picking these shows because I feel I’ve been hoodwinked into reviewing too many of these bizarre anarchic Toei shows and the only person I can blame is […]
19
Apr
Apr
Hello, tokusatsu community! It’s Joshua Perry here to talk about SODO figures on my fortnightly series, SODO Sundays. Today Zero-One’s AI-07 begins! Kamen Rider Zero-One To kick off AI-07 is one of the more recent suits to appear in the series Kamen Rider Jin Burning Falcon! Bandai stated that they tested twelve different shades of […]
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Apr
Apr
Lightspeed Electroid Albegas (光速電神アルベガス) has a pretty interesting history for a series a lot of people have probably never heard of. A 1983 anime series that found audiences in Latin America, Spain and Italy as well as Japan, Albegas was intended to be the third instalment in the original Voltron: Defender of the Universe series. […]
18
Apr
Apr
The Kagestar (ザ・カゲスター), or simply Kagestar, is a 1976 circus of bizarre ideas and the tropeiest of toku tropes and I actually kind of dig it for that. There’s some interesting stuff here but let me start with the costumes. Kagestar and Bellestar’s costumes are whack. Those big googley anime eyes? Whack. The Evel Knievel […]
18
Apr
Apr
Azumaizer 3 (アクマイザー3) is another Shotaro Ishinomori classic that modern Kamen Rider fans may already be a little familiar with. Though the trio were eventually reimagined as villains for 2012’s Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Wizard & Fourze: Movie War Ultimatum (which also featured Poitrine), in the original 1975 version they were of course heroes. […]
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