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
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]