Hey boy! Uchu Keiji Sharivan, a.k.a. Space Sheriff Sharivan, is the 1983 sequel to Space Sheriff Gavan and second installment in the metal heroes series. It follows Den Iga and Lily on their mission to protect earth from the evil Space Crime Syndicate Madou.
To do this they travel to Den’s home world of earth after training on Planet Bird to become a Space Sheriff having been taken there to treat his injuries by Gavan in the previous series. Like Gavan he has an enormous ship (the Grand Birth) apparently only staffed by himself and Lily that can transform rather underwhelmingly into a robot with a skirt rather than a space dragon.
While you’d expect some similarities between Sharivan and Gavan, considering they’re part of the same series, Sharivan opts to just do the same thing but slightly worse. It’s the same premise with minor differences and lower stakes since Makuu wreaks more destruction and is further along with their conquest of Earth than Madou.
The characters as well are less engaging initially despite being introduced much sooner than their counterparts in Gavan and Den comes across as a much less dynamic character as he just stumbles across Madou’s forces rather than actively tracking them down.
While I may seem like I’m ragging on the series I don’t hate it. If this was the first Metal Heroes show I’d seen I’d probably love it. However, I’ve been spoiled by Spielban.
The special effects are good, though again Gavan’s were more impressive (it’s hard to top a skyscraper flying around a nightmare dimension). Unfortunately any praise I give the show will end up with the caveat of “x did it better though.”
The cameos of the cast of Gavan, however, are very nice and give a rather rare connected universe for a Showa Toei series (aside from the first two rider shows and their team up movies).
Sharivan’s greatest sin is just being mediocre, nothing much stands out initially for good or bad. Unlike Gavan, Spielban fails to put it’s best foot forward. You could do a hell of a lot worse but you could always do better too.
If you’re a die hard Metal Heroes fan then this is for you. If not though then I’d recommend coming back to this after watching more stand out shows first.
The first two episodes of Uchu Keiji Sharivan, as well as a great number of Metal Hero Series, is available from the Toei Tokusatsu World Official YouTube channel.
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