Jukou B-Fighter & Choriki Sentai Ohranger Movies Reviewed!

We are living in the future.

It has been 20 years since my favorite year of Tokusatsu movies. In 1995 we were treated to the third straight Toei Hero Fair triple-header with new Sentai (Ohranger), Metal Hero (B-Fighter) and Kamen Rider (Hakaider) movies! Now that sufficient time has passed, it is time for me to take matters into my own hands and write brief reviews of two of the three movies. Why two? I wrote a brief review of Hakaider a couple years back in the second half of my blog about the travesty known as Forte Music Entertainment.

How about we start with Jukou B-Fighter The Movie.

-----------------------------

Jukou B-Fighter The Movie

The film opens with Takuya (Blue Beet), Daisaku (G-Stag), and Rei (Reddle) shopping. Almost immediately Rei is abducted by a driverless black BMW. Takuya and Daisaku give chase on their motorcycles and attempt to stop the vehicle as it rapidly approaches a man dressed in all black on the street. The three are suddenly transported to a far away wasteland where they are all seperated. Rei is attacked by the same mysterious man from before but is saved by Daisaku. Both end up getting captured and having their B Commanders stolen.

Takuya is confronted by the mysterious man, now revealed to be Drago, an insect warrior, who has no recollection of his past. The two have a brief fight as Jamahl sends their monster Hellsgyra to attack the already trapped Daisaku and Rei.

Drago. Not THAT Drago...

Hellsgyra. The most generic name/costume we had laying around.

After fighting for a little while, Drago regains his memory and decides to help. Now as a team, the B-Fighters are ready to take on Hellsgyra, but not before they are forced to fight off a wave of Jamahl Fighters. They summon their Beet Machines for a brief fight against the Jamahl Fighters.

Enjoy four whole minutes of stock footage.

Once they defeat the Jamahl Fighters, they take on Hellsgyra as a team and are able to defeat him after a pretty intense battle.

If B-Fighter did one thing right, it was looking awesome.

After defeating Hellsgyra, Drago thanks the B-Fighters for all that they've done before flying off into the sunset.

What is it with the B-Fighters always ending up on tall buildings/cliffs/hills/etc.?

One of us will be written off in a few episodes after a on-set mishap.

------------------------------

Before I get into the movie itself, I should probably talk a little bit about B-Fighter.

The show itself isn't all that spectacular. In fact, Metal Hero shows in general have this certain deadness to them that doesn't really exist in their Super Sentai counterparts from the same year. While they certainly played with the Metal Hero formula in later years, they never seemed to get the shows on the same wavelength as Super Sentai. B-Fighter, which is probably the closest the genre got to being a full blown Sentai Series, is no exception.

That said, B-Fighter has some amazing suits, music (even if a lot of it is recycled from previous Eiji Kawamura composed shows), and gadgets. This has always made it one of my favorite soundtracks and toylines...but the series itself is...meh. 

So how does the movie stack up?

In all honestly, the movie is fantastic. It didn't have much in the way of B-Fighter specific plot which totally works in its favor. The generic plot lead to them relying heavily on strong visuals and action. I imagine this movie would give a viewer reason to check out the series if they saw it during the Toei Hero Fair '95. It's really nothing more than extremely well-done action with some great editing.

Highly recommended. Just don't expect the series to live up the movie. It's alright, but the movie is honestly my favorite part of the series.

------------------------------

Choriki Sentai Ohranger The Movie

1975-1995. Not this idiotic series counting that they do these days.

The movie begins with Buldont and Acha scouting the location for his film studio (Buldont Studio) and the film The Century of Baranoia that he is preparing to make. Camera Trick is dispatched to kidnap unwilling participants in the film.

Buldont Quarry Studio

Camera Jack. Baranoia had a drone before it was cool.

After a string of disappearances, Goro (Ohred) and Juri (Ohyellow) are sent to investigate. They discover that Acha is distributing flyers from a plane to recruit cast for the film. They also encounter Camera Trick after it kidnaps a girl reading the flyer. The two give chase, but are intercepted by a malfunctioning Barlo Soldier. 

The group of kidnapped kids are greeted by Locker Knight then led into Buldont Studio and shown around the bizarre soundstage where Acha introduces himself as Producer. They are given "Artificial Reality" goggles and are lead on a virtual train ride where they meet with Neko Signal.

Locker Knight on his soon-to-be-jacked horse

The now-familiar Toei soundstage

Neko Signal. What the hell were they smoking to come up with this?

Goro and Juri meet up with Shohei (Ohgreen), Yuji (Ohblue), and Momo (Ohpink) who are waiting for them just outside of Buldont Studio. They break into the studio in their groups just as the kidnapped kids are lead away on a bus. Once on the soundstage Shohei, Yuji, and Momo are attacked by Kabochumpkin while Goro and Juri fight Neko Signal and Jagchuck. After their brief seperate fights, all three monsters vanish forcing the now rejoined Ohrangers to travel through a mysterious portal to a battlefield.

Kabochumpkin. Note the horse's ass. Yes, he came out of that.

Jagchuck...

Jagchuck has a problem...

Once on the field they chase after the runaway bus with the kids, on horseback, after their driver is accidently shot. They manage to save the kids just in time before the bus explodes. They then try to escape, but are trapped on a suspension bridge which predictably breaks, causing the Ohrangers to fall and the kids to get kidnapped by Baranoia once again.

Honestly they probably do have more horsepower than that bus.

Bus goes boom following a fender bender.

'The bridge is out!' in this never before seen Tokusatsu trope.

The Ohrangers make it back to the battlefield where they discover that the masked grunts that the Barlo Soldiers have been fighting are really kidnapped people. The kidnapped kids are set up for execution but are saved by the Ohrangers just in time. After fighting off the Barlo Soldiers, they stun Locker Knight, Neko Signal, Kabochumpkin, and Jagchuck with a shot from the Big Bang Buster.

BARANOIA! -Goro [He has a special way of saying it]

Ohle! 

 Alright, this pose is pretty awesome.

All four monster combine into the gigantic Steampunk, which once again kidnaps the kids. Ohrangerrobo is summoned and the two begin fighting. Ohred enters Steampunk and retrieves the kids for the final time. Steampunk now transforms into a locomotive form to attempt to evade Ohrangerrobo. Ohrangerrobo does the Crown Final Crash while Steampunk is crossing a bridge which destroys the bridge and causes Steampunk to fall to his explosive death. Buldont, Acha, and Kocha abandon the studio and flee Earth.

 Floating over the trees.

 Kids recovered for the 987th and final time this movie.

Screw you, taxpayer! 

Ohrangerrobo let gravity take care of this one...

------------------------------

A little bit about Ohranger before I talk about the movie...

Ohranger is a series I never fully got into. It's an alright show in retrospect, and I like many of the elements, but at the time I think I was just riding a Dairanger and Kakuranger high that left me kinda unimpressed with a show that is a little bit all over the place not long after it started. I have always said, however, that the first episode of Ohranger is one of the finest debut episodes for any Super Sentai Series. Even if you have no intention on watching the entire series of Ohranger, I highly recommend checking out the first episode. It's incredibly solid. The series as a whole, though...it's alright I suppose.

The movie, on the other hand, is a completely different animal.

The Ohranger Movie is possibly the most crazy bananas Tokusatsu feature ever made. I know that's a pretty bold statement, but this movie is just on a whole 'nother level of crazy. I mean even with the really long summary I typed, I left quite a bit out. There are just some really super-absurd moments peppered throughout the film. One of which I took a screencap of...

Those dolls......*shudder*

As the guitar carrying kidnapped human removes the legs from the creepy doll, you can see various props of Sentai series past discarded in the background. Chief of which is the Kiryoku Bazooka from Dairanger. You can also see some weapons from Zyuranger monsters laying around. Why are they there? Well, since this movie takes place at a studio they just filmed outside of their own studio. If you've ever watched that 2-hour Youtube video made during the first half of Dairanger, the setting will be familiar. Toei's lot is littered with discarded props as small as helmets and going all the way up to motorcycles. It's a sad sight to see a lot of awesome props laid to waste, but I guess it was nice seeing some of them one last time during the Ohranger movie.

Whoops, I sure did get off topic...

On top of being straight up weird, it is delightfully entertaining. There are plenty of little skirmishes throughout and, despite it's extended runtime, never a dull moment. Like the B-Fighter movie, this is just a solid feature that doesn't really reflect on the series itself. It has a pretty self-contained plot that relies on being a little more tongue-in-cheek over being super generic. After all, this is the Sentai 20th Anniversary movie. The little bits of pulling back of the curtain were certainly intentional. The behind-the-scenes bits were meant to be a love letter to longtime fans.

The flyer that Acha was dropping from the plane. 

Ohranger dialogue was so predictable it was probably also in the script. 

He even did up some storyboards. 

The movie within the movie was even shot silently. So they had to go back and dub their lines?

I should also mention that the end credits sequence is a rollcall inside Camera Jack's lens of every character that appeared in the film shown during a lively performance of "When The Saints Go Marching In". Why? Who knows, it just adds to the wackiness. 

This movie is a totally recommended watch even if you have no intention on check out Ohranger. It is definitely a dedicated film rather than a slightly longer episode that was too weak to show on TV like the usual Sentai movie. It's also easily a better film than Ohranger vs Kakuranger. So be sure to check this one out and try to make sense of it for yourself.

------------------------------

Toei really outdid themselves this year with three solid movies. We had the flashy concept film (Hakaider), the pure action film (B-Fighter) and the outlandish fun movie (Ohranger). For the first time we had an awesome year at the Toei Hero Fair...and how did they top it? They didn't. This was the last one. After this the Sentai movies were relegated to V-Cinema, J's stink killed off Rider until Kuuga came along and Metal Hero's decline sealed it's fate. 

Toei Hero Fair '95 will go down in history as my favorite batch of Tokusatsu films and the ones I can't recommend enough. Seriously, you should check these movies out if you haven't already.

-CC

The Megaranger Secret Message Challenge...Decoded!

Two years ago I posted a secret message to Youtube over the course of two videos. I pretty much forgot about it until I got a note from Youtube that one of the videos has gotten a substantial bump in views recently. When I first posted those videos, I made a blog post about what I was doing and why I was doing it. I recommend reading it since it would save us all some time.

Now...I will reveal the secret message...

If you watched the videos in order, the super sleuth would have noticed that the CC Lemon card at the end features Megaranger Eyecatch B on the Cyberslider video, which was the first to be uploaded. I made it clear that the secret message was in two parts and to throw a curve ball I put the second half of the message up first, in the Cyberslider video. The numbers are as follows...

| 9-0-1-8-0 |

| 0-0-1-2-2 | 5-5-1-8-0 | 0-2-1-9-5 |1-8-5-0-0 | 2-2-5-4-7 | 0-5-0-1-9 | 2-5-3-5-4 | 3-9-4-9-0 | 7-1-3-5-0 | 5-2-5-8-0 |

The next week my video of the Popynica Degitank was uploaded, which contained the first half of the message after the review and Eyecatch A played. The numbers from that video are...

| 1-2-0-1-2 |

| 0-0-0-1-1 | 2-1-2-1-0 | 0-0-0-1-0 | 0-1-0-0-0 | 0-1-1-1-0 | 2-1-0-2-1 | 1-0-1-1-1 | 2-0-1-1-0 | 0-0-1-0-0 | 1-2-0-1-0 |

Combine the two messages and it will look something like this...

| 19-20-01-18-20 |

| 00-00-01-12-12 | 25-15-21-18-00| 00-02-01-19-05 | 01-18-05-00-00 | 02-12-15-14-07 | 20-15-00-21-19 | 12-05-13-15-14 | 23-09-14-19-00 |07-01-13-05-00 | 15-22-05-18-00 |

If you give each letter from the alphabet a number based on their order (01 = A, 02 = B, etc.) and put them in order, you'll be able to decode my message.

S-T-A-R-T

| _-_-A-L-L | Y-O-U-R-_ | _-B-A-S-E | A-R-E-_-_ | B-L-O-N-G | T-O-_-U-S | L-E-M-O-N | W-I-N-S-_ | G-A-M-E-_ | O-V-E-R-_ |

That's right! The message is...

START

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US. LEMON WINS. GAME OVER.

It's a pretty stupid joke, yes, but I think numbers stations are endlessly fascinating and something about the Degitaizer with it's creepy robot voice inspired me to be a little creative even though I was only really entertaining myself. I did cheat a tiny bit, however, since the Megaranger theme song comes from the Keitaizer and not the Degitaizer.

------------------------

So did anyone solve the code? After many, many hints this guy did.

Thousands of views later and all but one realize how dire the situation is...

You have no chance to survive make your time.

-CC

The CD Collection -- Superhero Chronicle Tokusatsu Hero 1970s & 1980s

Welcome to the latest installment of my ongoing series of blogs about my absurdly large Tokusatsu CD collection. This time I will be talking about, for the first time I believe, some CDs from the Superhero Chronicle series of CDs. In short, Columbia released all of the songs they could find from Sentai, Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and Metal Hero 3-discs at a time. Those ones didn't really interest me since I have all of those songs from various other CDs. These 70s and 80s Hero sets that they put out, however, had some genuine gems.

Since there are NINE CDs to talk about covering several shows...I might as well get into this as quickly as possible. Just remember, each show is represented by the full sized theme songs as well as any insert/image songs that were created.

Let's Go!!

-------------------------------

COCX-32788-90 Superhero Chronicle Tokusatsu Hero Shudaika Sonyuuka Daizenshuu I 1970s

DISC 1

Uchuenjin Gori [1~2] We kick things off with one of the most lyrically barebones opening themes ever. It really sets the framework for future theme songs from Godman and Greenman. Heh. Atleast the ending song is a little more absurd and memorable.

Spectreman [3~4] The Spectreman theme song proper is better than the opening from Uchuenjin Gori. The ending song also contains a fair bit of sound effects and weirdness, but kinda feels like the first of many ripoffs of the Ultraman theme song.

Suki! Suki! Majo Sensei [5~6] I'm all about the theme song to this show. It's incredbly sweet and done by a very young Mitsuko Horie in her first of many Tokusatsu theme song appearances. She also sings the ending song...which is a bit sleepy to be honest.

Mirrorman [7~10] Here comes the Ultraman sound alikes. Not entirely surprising, though, since Tsuburaya also produced Mirrorman. The SGM song is shockingly similar to many Ultraman songs. Yeah...kinda worn out here since this show is from 1971...and Ultraman and his music had been around for five years at this point.

Kaiketsu Lionmaru [11~16] This show has the first solid song collection on this set. The theme songs are very tight with some excellent instrumentals. In addition to Mitsuko Horie singing a song, Masato Shimon makes his first of many appearances in this collection.

Chojin Barom 1 [17~19] Ichiro Mizuki's first appearance in this collection and one of his finest. When it comes to classic 70s Tokusatsu themes this one is way up there. The ending song is almost as good, but a little more on the generic side with some similarities with the Kamen Rider V3 theme of all things (Barom 1 was first, BTW). Oh yeah, there is also a Christmas song. Why not?

Redman [20~21] The opening theme is a little dull. The ending theme is a lot dull. Have I ever mentioned that I'm not much of a fan of Masato Shimon?

Henshin Ninja Arashi [22~23] Another excellent and memorable theme song by Ichiro Mizuki. The ending song is a bit more generic.

DISC 2

Triple Fighter [1~3] Disc two begins with three very bland songs headed up by a bland theme song by the bland Masato Shimon.

Kinkyu Shirei 10-4 10-10 [4~5] These songs are pretty good. There isn't much to say about them outside of them being a little bit on the generic side. Atleast they're kinda upbeat-mellow.

Jinzoningen Kikaider [6~19] Not a fan. I don't really like Kikaider or the songs from it...and there are a lot of them. Now, because I DO have a soul...I have to admit that Hakaider's theme is pretty awesome.

Ike! Godman [20~21] As I mentioned before on the theme song from Uchuenjin Gori, this theme song is incredibly repetative. It is 85% "Oi! Godman!" and "S.O.S.!". Seriously...it's woefully bad. Atleast Ichiro Mizuki sings these themes. He does his best to save both of them, but they're both pretty bad. How did Toho let this happen?

Totsugeki Hyuman [22~23] I've always been a fan of the theme song. The ending song is pretty weak, though.

DISC 3

Iron King [1~2] The themes are pretty decent. Masato Shimon sings both.

Fireman [3~6] Now we're talking. The opening theme is definitely one of my favorites from the 70s. The horns are amazing and Masato Shimon does a great job. The rest of the songs are kinda forgettable...but the opening theme built up enough goodwill for the series.

Majin Hunter Mitsurugi [7~8] I dig these songs, but they're more on the forgettable side.

Jumborg Ace [9~12] Another Tsuburaya show with more rejected Ultraman songs. They were really getting desperate with the PAT theme.

Ryusei Ningen Zone [13~16] Or as it is more commonly known...Zone Fighter. Zone Fighter is Toho throwing their hat into the ring in this whole Henshin Hero business. In order to ensure it would be memorable they threw Godzilla into the mix. Anyway...the songs. They're pretty good. Toho definitely put some money into the production of these songs. They could have gotten some better singers, though.

Shirojishi Kamen [17~18] Not even Ichiro Mizuki could save the opening. The ending song is borderline irritating.

Robot Keiji [19~22] Again, not even Ichiro Mizuki could save the songs from this series. They aren't bad or anything, just bland.

..........

SET SUMMARY: Well, there are quite a few memorable songs from some big name series on this set. When half of the content can be called "forgettable", that can be a problem. One could argue that everything sounds the same on this set, and I wouldn't hold it against them. Believe it or not but all of the shows represented on these three CDs aired between 1971 and 1973. All of these in two years. Should you give it a listen? Yes. It is essential listening if you think you'll enjoy travelling through the formative decade of Tokusatsu on television.

-------------------------------

COCX-32854-56 Superhero Chronicle Tokusatsu Hero Shudaika Sonyuuka Daizenshuu II 1970s

DISC 1

Fuun Lionmaru [1~4] More like Feeh Lionmaru. The Kaiketsu Lionmaru songs are much better. That said, there is a decent IN song by Mitsuko Horie and the ending song is pretty catchy.

Kikaider 01 [5~6] Again, not a fan of Kikaider or it's sequel...or reboot...(I liked the anime series from 2000 though. Being animated really lent to the story IMO). Yeah, two lame theme songs by Masato Shimon is all we got this time instead of the 823 songs the original series had.

Super Robot Red Baron [7~12] I've always liked the Red Baron theme which, unfortunitely, ended up completely overshadowed by the theme from it's sequel. More on that later. Anyway, the rest of the songs are pretty good and upbeat.

Inazuman [13~14] Masato Shimon sings the opening theme. As I mentioned on the previous set, I'm not really a fan of him...though he did put out a good song every once in awhile. This isn't one of them. For having such an cool suit AND name, you should have a killer theme song too. The ending song by Ichiro Mizuki is decent atleast.

Tetsujin Tiger Seven [15~16] Boring...and similar.

Ike! Greenman [17~19] On the last set I mentioned that there were some songs with some alarming repetativeness. This is the pinnacle. "Green Green Green Green Green Green Green Green Greenman! (Yeah!)". Actual lyrics. There are two other songs...but who cares about them when you have a so-bad-its-good opening theme song like that.

Denjin Zaborger [20~21] A rather generic set of theme songs by Masato Shimon.

DISC 2

Inazuman Flash [1~11] The sequel to Inazuman certainly got a much more memorable theme song than the original. The rest of the songs are pretty much done by Ichiro Mizuki and Koorogi '73. It's a pretty decent song collection which I would say has a similar sound to the Goranger song collection. Also worth noting that this is probably the closest release to '73 as Koorogi '73 got as these songs were done in early/mid 1974.

Inazuman [12] Another version of the original Inazuman theme song. This version is definitely better.

Saru no Gundan [13~14] I like the opening because it manages to be groovy and creepy. The ending is just sleepy, though.

Super Robot Mach Baron [15~16] The Mach Baron theme is up there as one of my all time favorite Tokusatsu theme songs. The guitar is nonstop and the beat is just catchy as hell. Even the ending song is great in all it's mellowness.

Ike! Ushiwaka Kotaro [17~18] Not bad. I prefer the groovy ending song, though.

Bouken Rockbat [19~20] Ehhh, these songs are a mix of goofy and bland.

Seigi no Symbol Condorman [21~22] Great way to end this disc. The Condorman theme song is excellent and incredibly catchy while managing to stand out quite well for it's time. The ending song is just...weird, though.

DISC 3

Shonen Tanteidan [1~4] These songs don't really leave much of an impression on my ears. They're all by Ichiro Mizuki.

Akumaizer 3 [5~11] You've probably heard the opening song to this one so I'll skip the part where I talk about how great it is. This is a short song collection featuring mostly songs by Ichiro Mizuki. It fits in well with the mid 70s.

Uchuu Tetsujin Kyodain [12~18] Finally...Finally! At long last we have Isao Sasaki on this collection! He sings all but two of the songs in this short song collection. Mitsuko Horie also sings a song here. All of the songs are pretty good.

The Kagestar [19~22] Three songs by Ichiro Mizuki. The opening theme, ending theme and first IN song are pretty upbeat while the second IN song is nice and mellow.

..........

SET SUMMARY: I would say that this set is where things get a little better for Tokusatsu songs. There are less shows and more mini song collections. There are also a lot more memorable themes and songs in general. The timespan for these series goes from 1973-1976 and there is noticeable growth throughout the set.

-------------------------------

COCX-32887-89 Superhero Chronicle Tokusatsu Hero Shudaika Sonyuuka Daizenshuu III 1970s & 1980s

DISC 1

-Ninja Captor [1~6] I hate Ninja Captor. It is not the forgotten Sentai. It never was a Sentai series. It never will be a Sentai series. Just stop. I hate the OP. I don't like any of the other songs. I didn't care for the two episodes I saw. Let it go.

-Chojin Bibyun [7~8] Pretty solid theme songs. Isao Sasaki has the rare distinction of never really phoning it in.

-Kyoryu Tankentai Born Free [9~10] Nothing much to say about these. If you like name-checking dinosaurs, you might like these. *shrug*

-Enban Senso Bankid [11~16] Now we're talking! I love the songs from this series. The OP is pretty awesome. I would say that the songs from this show match the costumes pretty accurately.

-ProWrestle Hoshi Astekaiser [17~18] Don't let the.....awesome name fool you, these songs are pretty average compared to a lot of upbeat theme songs of the era. Actually, I take that back. Masato Shimon wasn't really the right choice for this one. It would've been alright in pretty much anyone else's hands. I do like that the theme song is called "C'mon! Astekaiser".

-Battle Hawk [19~20] Alright I guess. Meh. More average. I will say that the folksy-vibed ending song is definitely the better of the two.

-Kaiketsu Zubat [21~23] Just when you think this disc was going to end without any memorable shows...bam! Zubat! I love the Zubat theme songs. I can kinda do without the IN song, but I know this is a favorite of a lot of people. I've never been a huge fan of Hiroshi Miyauchi's singing...oh well. Atleast we got that rockin' Zubat theme one more time! Really, I would even say that the Zubat OP song is a strong contender for the best Tokusatsu theme song of the 70s. Future Top 7...?

DISC 2

-Kyoryu Daisenso Aizenborg [1~2] More Dinosaurs. More dinosaur name-checking...this time a little more obvious. Eh, nothing great here.

-Daitetsujin 17 [3~12] Remember how I said the Zubat theme was a strong contender for the top 70s theme song? Daitetsujin 17 is another strong contender. Right from the beginning, this song wins. The rest of the songs are pretty decent, it has a structure similar to Sentai and Rider song collections from the 70s. It's entirely Ichiro Mizuki and Koorogi '73 back when '73 wasn't that long ago.

Expect more on Daitetsujin 17 later when I review the 2-Disc Music Collection.

-Star Wolf [13~14] I looooove the Star Wolf OP. It's like a bigger sounding versions of "Let's Go!! Rider Kick!". The Ending song is also pretty damn cool, but the OP is where it's at.

-UFO Daisenso Tatakae! Red Tiger [15~17] I have to say, once this CD got over those damn Dinosaur songs that it started off with, it really got rolling. These songs are done by Isao Sasaki, so ofcourse they're tight.

-Spider-Man [18~19] I reaaaaaally don't like the theme song from this show. In terms of memorable theme songs from the 70s, this one IS, but for all the wrong reasons. It's as sloppy as the awful Ninja Captor OP, but has the stink of being the theme for your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Why couldn't they give Spider-Man the Zubat theme and let Hiroshi Miyauchi just belt out a V3 soundalike? Maybe it wouldn't scare off the average nerd who is curious about the one time the hottest Marvel property landed in Toei's lap. Oh well. I know some people actually like the songs from this adaptation, so I better can it.

Like with Daitetsujin 17 I have the seperate Music CD for Spider-man...so expect me to talk about this some more.

-Kyoryu Sentai Koseidon [20~21] Koseidon! Koseidon! Densetsu no senshi-tachi yo! Alright alright, that didn't happen... Despite these two songs being by Ichiro Mizuki, they aren't all that great. The ending is average and the OP is decent.

DISC 3

-Uchuu kara no Message [1~2] Ah yes, the glorious Ishinomori Star Wars ripoff. These songs are alright. Isao Sasaki on the first, so it isn't much of a surprise. The instrumental song is a nice groove.

-Gunbaron [3~4] "Gunbaron '77" is one of the funkiest theme songs ever. I love it. It was a very brave choice going with it when a lot of the other songs were all kinda similar. The ending is a bit more down to Earth, but makes good use of the "Gunbaron!" chants.

-Megaloman [5~6] Again, another friggin awesome opening song here with Megaloman. It starts off like it's going to be a knockoff of the Spider-Man OP, but it's so much more. That crazy guitar, the frantic bass...I love this OP. The ending song is a bit of a funk ballad, but not bad. Ichiro Mizuki on both songs.

-Bokura Yakyuu Tanteidan [7~8] Of the two songs the ending song, "I'm DANDY", is a little bit stronger but they're both pretty damn awesome. They're both pretty catchy. If you walk around saying "I am DANDY!" with the same conviction as the singer of Novela...you might find yourself under a giant net being dragged away by two guys dressed in white.

-Seiun Kamen Machineman [9~17] I've long been a fan of MoJo and the Machineman songs...and it was a long time in the making for us to finally get them all in good quality. In fact, this is the first CD release of ALL of the Machineman songs. A handful of them were released on a 4-Disc Compilation (more on that later), but for several years all we had was vinyl. Oh yes, there is even a song from Machiko Soga as Ballboy on here. I like the actress, but her songs tend to be...ugh. I almost prefer these songs over the Bioman songs. They're just a tad more slick...think of this really as the second Dynaman song collection.

One of the big reasons I decided to write this blog as my first blog of February is that, well, my pleading has finally been acknowledged! After years of wondering aloud why Columbia skipped Machineman in their ANIMEX1200 series of digitally remastered reissues, they did us one better. We are getting a 2-Disc Song & Music Collection for Machineman! They even got MoJo back to record a new version of the OP! I preordered it immediately. Expect a review soon!

-Kyodai Ken Bycrosser [18~21] Similar to the Machineman songs, the Bycrosser songs are truly forgotten gems of the 80s. I love all four songs, but the theme songs are definitely the more memorable of the four. My pleading for a CD of Machineman music usually included a plea for Bycrosser...hopefully that's next on the list after the Machineman set comes out.

..........

SET SUMMARY: Of the three sets...hands down this is my favorite. It has the most variety. It has a longer timeframe with shows from 1976-1985. It has the widest range of musical styles. Most importantly it has the most amount of memorable songs. You have Ninja Captor, Bankid, Zubat, Spider-man, Daitetsujin 17, Megaloman, Machineman, and Bycrosser all on one set. This is when Tokusatsu songs started ditching those lousy march anthem songs and legit started getting good.

My only complaint about this set is that it is kinda missing some stuff. A year before this set came out, there was a four disc set of songs from various Tokusatsu shows. That set was a little more liberal in it's content since it didn't stick with just the 70s and 80s and didn't limit itself to Henshin/Giant Heroes as the sets I've reviewed here have. The previous set included songs from shows such as X Bomber, Tanzer 5, and the Japanese dub of Terrahawks. Those shows haven't had their themes released on CD since and this set was very limited. Not only that...all of those songs are excellent (I especially like the Terrahawks themes)! It sucks that they didn't fit the guidelines for the Superhero Chronicle sets, but atleast a friend of mine was able to supply these songs to me since there was no way I was tracking down that set. Yes, I have limits.

-------------------------------

Well, there you have it. Nine CDs...reviewed. I plan on doing a review of the Heroine & Fantasy Superhero Chronicle along with the Robot Comedy set in the near future (took pictures already, so I guess it's next-ish if I don't review that Machineman set). Be sure to check out my CD/Music Page for more reading on other CDs that I've written about.

See ya!

-CC

Gunhed...

I am currently on an extended vacation right now...yay! I've been doing nonstop work pretty much the entire first week, but I have been keeping my word about watching a movie a day from a pre-selected stack of Blurays and DVDs.

So far I've watched movies like Rocky Horror Picture Show (Janet! Dr. Scott! Janet! Brad! Rocky! ...), Shock Treatment (Goddamn I love the music in this movie, especially the title song), Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie (I still need to go through the insane amount of extras), Blade Runner, Deadfall (I genuinely feel bad for any actor that is opposite Nicolas Cage when he goes off the rails...this is probably the Cagiest he ever got. HI-FUCKING-YA!!), and a little movie called Gunhed.

Gunhed is a 1989 Toho film based off of an idea for the sequel to the 1984 Godzilla reboot. The original idea was Godilla fighting a computer...meh. Luckily Godzilla was removed entirely, the script was heavily reworked in a way that allowed a new world to be created--and Gunhed was born.

So why am I spotlighting this movie on my blog? Why am I not talking about Lady Battle Cop or Kamen Rider The First or any of the other movies I threatened to review a little while back? Let's find out.

------------------------------

The film begins with some helpful backstory...

After this, the narration kicks in with the introduction of an island called 8JO. In 2005 Cybortech Corporation created a 400-floor self contained robotics complex powered by a supercomputer called Kyron 5. Kyron 5 deems humanity unnecessary and declares war on the 4th of July in 2025. Kyron 5 created and used Aerobots to fight the humans, who in turn used Gunheds to fight back. After a yearlong battle, the Gunhed Battalion was able to defeat the Aerobots and effectively shut down Kyron 5, with 8JO becoming an abandoned restricted zone.

The story begins in 2039 with a band of scavengers descending on 8JO looking for materials. After they land, they notice the burning remains of an empty Texas Air Ranger ship. They decide to proceed anyway, even though they know the island is riddled with traps and other security features.

As they enter the tower, the group of scavengers is killed off one by one until only Bebe and Brooklyn, the crew's mechanic with a deep fear of piloting, remain. They encounter Nim, who is the only surviving Texas Air Ranger. They eventually make it into the Kyron Dome on Level 390 in their search for Texmexium. Bebe is held prisoner inside a Biodroid while Brooklyn and Nim make off with the Texmexium, narrowly escaping an Aerobot attack.

Bebe trapped inside the Biodroid

During their run from the Biodroid, Nim and Brooklyn stumble upon two children named Eleven and Seven who are the only survivors among the custodians of the island. Together, they find a badly damaged Gunhed in a wasteland of scrap parts. Brooklyn is confident that he can get the Gunhed operational while Nim decides to proceed taking Eleven and the Texmexium with her. Naturally, she has become a target of the Biodroid, who is now aware of their location thanks to the awakening of the Gunhed.

As it also turns out, they discover that in it's dormancy, Kyron 5 has been working on a way to manufacture Texmexium which would make it even more powerful than before. This gives Brooklyn motive to not only escape, but to defeat Kyron in the process.

After a lot of work, Brooklyn is able to get Gunhed operational but only at partial capacity. The Texmexium is recovered by the Biodroid from Nim, which gives Brooklyn the courage to pilot Gunhed after listening to the attack over the radio.

On his way to the dome, Brooklyn faces many obstacles which force him to have to make repairs to Gunhed on the fly. Seven, Eleven, and Nim all make it to the Dome. Eventually Brooklyn faces off against the Aerobot, which Gunhed knows is a suicide mission. Gunhed fights off Aerobot in Standing Mode (as he requested) and is able to destroy two of the three eyes of Aerobot before telling Brooklyn to abandon ship. Brooklyn hops out just before Gunhed storms Aerobot leading to both getting badly damaged. Brooklyn then uses Gunhed's detached arm to destroy Aerobot's remaining eye causing it to explode.

Tank Mode

Standing Mode

Aerobot

Brooklyn enters the dome in time to save Nim from the Biodroid. Bebe, who is still trapped inside the Biodroid, helps out by detonating a grenade which blows up herself along with the Biodroid. Nim reveals to have saved the Texmexium, which she gives to Brooklyn as they are reunited with Seven and Eleven. Just as Seven asks what happened to Gunhed, the self-destruct countdown begins. The remaining core of Gunhed launches his boosters to propel himself into the Kyron core, which is able to postpone the self-destruction of the core long enough to escape to the plane. Gunhed's last words to Brooklyn are "OK, Brooklyn. Let's Rock.".

As they escape the exploding 8JO, they receive a final message from Gunhed saying that the Gunhed Battalion has completed it's mission. Nim turns to Brooklyn and asks "Wanna drive?" to which he smiles.

---------------------------------

On paper, that movie might not sound too spectacular or even original. I mean, even after watching it...the story feels like Tron meets Terminator. You have the machine apocalypse-hellscape vision of the future while being trapped inside said machine. So yes...the plot, at a glance, was a bit worn out by the time 1989 rolled around.

So it sucks, right?

You must see this movie. You must see this movie NOW if you haven't already. If, like me, you haven't seen this movie in awhile...go back and rewatch it.

I said it was almost a cross of Terminator meets Tron, right? Well those are two movies that I absolutely love. I have been incredibly fond of Tron since I was a kid and Tron Legacy did not disappoint me even a little bit (OK, maybe the dude playing Sam could've been a tad more engaging). Terminator...well, we all know and love that movie along with T2. In fact, I would even say this was T2 *before* T2 in a way. They were in a pretty hopeless situation against the Aerobot and Biodroid until they had a robot protector (Gunhed) of their own. It's even been said that James Cameron is a fan of this film...hmm...

Toho really knocked it out of the park visual wise. I am verrrrrrry picky when it comes to Sci Fi and Fantasy movies. This might sound surprising, but I'm not a fan of the genre at all. I have a very hard time immersing myself in another world. Going back to Tron and its sequel, those are two movies I completely got lost in. Gunhed felt the same way. I found myself inside this world thanks to the incredible sets as well as probably the most convincing model work I think I've ever seen in my entire life. In fact, I can only really think of two bluescreen moments that stick out.

I also have to say this about the Gunhed design...it's amazing for all the right reasons. It is a little difficult to make out details, but I think that adds a bit of allure to it. If Gunhed were in broad daylight, it would look kind of weird I suppose. The dark environment is the finishing touch on the Gunhed design. Tank Mode is pretty cool, too...but I totally understand why Gunhed wanted to go on his suicide run in Standing Mode.

There is a little bit of weirdness attached to this film. I had to remove myself from myself to really notice this but if you watch the film in Japanese you're really getting the native audio track. What that means is that the half of the cast that speaks English, speaks English while the Japanese half speaks Japanese. As the cast gets whittled down to our four leads and Gunhed, that means that you have Brooklyn, Eleven, and Seven all communicating with Nim and Gunhed no problem even though they're speaking two different languages. Maybe Japan and America have become part of some kind of supernation in 2039 where we all understand each other but choose to speak in our own tongue to keep our identities? I don't know... This is something I encountered a lot back when I would search out uncut versions of Jackie Chan movies in the early days of DVD. If you REALLY want to see a mess of languages, check out the uncut version of his movie Thunderbolt.

I should mention that I did watch this film on DVD. The DVD I have is by ADV, which has since bit the dust since this DVD was printed. They did a nice job on this disc, as they always did including the English dub and Japanese version with optional subtitles. The English dub...isn't terrible, I admit. When I did my second run of the movie (for screencaps) I left the English dub on and only noticed that some of the music cues were changed for some reason as well as the end credit song being completely omitted. During the credits I noticed that the English dub was actually completed in 1989...which leads me to my next point.

What were the plans for this film? I always get curious when a studio breaks the norm and tries something wildly different. Toei has been in a rut so long that they've never done anything surprising (Changerion is probably the last concept they had......and that was 1996). Tsuburaya has tried various new and creative projects, but they either still seem to be tethered to Ultraman or thinly veiled Ultraman variants. Toho is really the only studio that tries new things. Gunhed might have had roots as a Godzilla sequel, but outside of the model work it is a pretty radical and fresh idea. They must have thought so too since the dub for it was ready for release. In time it was given an international release, but I think it has kind of been...not even a slow burn...maybe a 25-year warm glow.

Admittedly I have seen this movie in the past. This is very rare, but I have no recollection of when I saw it or really what my impression was at the time. I can usually pinpoint the date (and what I was wearing at the time) that I saw any movie for the first time, but Gunhed has just escaped me as I think it has with an audience that would casually appreciate it versus anyone who has willingly sought this movie out after hearing that "Toho did this other thing once...". In all fairness, the trailer didn't really inspire much of anything. I had a really hard time telling what was going on in it until I watched the movie again.

I guess the best thing to do is end this thing on some rapid fire thoughts...

-Gunhed has an awesome voice. Dude is smooth as hell.
-The acting isn't terrible in this movie, but maybe a little more urgency would've helped.
-They wisely left out what everyday life is like on Earth in the future. Take that, Back To The Future Part II! 8JO was probably way more interesting anyway! Maybe not the bleakness of Waterworld, but probably not a whole lot better...
-Why "Seven" and "Eleven" for the kids names? -_ -
-There are Famicom and PC Engine games for Gunhed, but they really look like they have nothing to do with the movie...especially the PC Engine version...
-Come to think of it, I think Cameron DID lift some ideas for T2!

...and finally...

S.H. Monsterarts Gunhed, Bandai. Get on it! I know you're reading this!

Seriously, give this movie a watch. It really does hold up. Very few Tokusatsu features truly deserve a second chance as much as Gunhed does.

Geronimo!!!

-CC

P.S. I deliberately didn't talk about the music. I ordered the soundtrack...which I will be reviewing soon.

 

P.P.S. Ugh... Own up to it, man!

The Mystery Surrounding My 250th Video...

If you would like to watch my 250th video, I'm sorry...you can't. Sure, I have gone on to bigger and better things with my 350th and 400th videos, but it kinda sucks that one of my milestone videos was silenced on Youtube.....and I have no idea why that was. Go and grab your conspiracy theory hat (or just go hatless if you're out of tin foil) and let's try to figure this one out.

A few years ago my very, very, VERY good friend Kingranger gave me a very generous gift of one of the rarest and most Tokusatsu Henshin toys ever. I was given a warning not to bid on anything on Yahoo Japan Auctions for awhile (since if I spotted this auction, I would have effectively been bidding against myself). Luckily I didn't spot it, because he bid on it and won! Wanna see what he got for me?

So what? It's an SP License...I mean, they're kinda rare, right? Well...look a little closer...

Wow! This was a very limited edition hand out from TV-kun Magazine of Dekagold's SP License! It was part of a contest to promote Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger The Movie: Full Blast. I can't say a whole lot about the magazine or Dekaranger in general, but I am eternally grateful to Kingranger for such an amazing gift since Henshin Items are my absolute favorite thing to collect.

Normal SP License on the left, Deka Gold's on the right.

An awesome gift such as this deserves to be not only a centerpiece of my collection, but also serve as a major milestone on my channel. So it became my 250th video. I took the photos on the fourth of February 2012 and uploaded the video that same night (sheesh, remember when I did that instead of doing like two months worth of videos in a weekend?). The video enjoyed some moderate views without incident for nearly two years.

I don't remember who it was (it might have been Kingranger himself) that initially pointed out that my video had vanished, but it was a shock for one very big reason... I had no idea that it was removed. If you've ever had the priviledge of getting a copyright strike from Youtube they let you know, OH do they let you know. Even on videos where there is an audio match, you will atleast get an email where it is explained what audio is infringing and the title of the track that is believed to have been used in your video. I'm no stranger to these notes...but as I always say, I don't care. I am not out to make money off of my videos, but I would welcome any label to put ads on my videos so long as I get to continue making the videos I like.

Here is where the plot thickens.

The video was not removed, it was merely blocked worldwide. It wasn't blocked by the label, but Bandai... Yes, Bandai blocked my video.

This is what the page looks like...

 

There are a few interesting things to point out here.

For one, there is no mention of title of the music infringed upon. This is the only notification I've ever gotten where this information is missing. Even so, the first thirty or so seconds of the video did contain music from Kamen Rider ZO, which was, in fact, a production of Bandai Visual/Toei with Apollon (and now Columbia) handling the music rights. The notice is for the music after the thirty-seven second mark, however, is from Dekaranger...which is administered by Toei and Columbia...with Bandai once again having nothing to do with music...which brings me to my next point.

Bandai is a toy manufacturer, or atleast it is in it's presented form. Bandai Visual would definitely be the only branch of Bandai to be interested in making claims. I've seen other videos get claimed by Bandai Visual, which is identified as such. This whole "BANDAI_Co_Ltd" is a tad nebulous...

The removal was also done very stealthily for some strange reason. I just double-checked my email from the 8th of December 2013 and sure enough, no email from Youtube mentioning a worldwide block on one of my videos.

As I tend to do with this type of blog, I did a little bit of research. SHOCK! There are a couple of posts that came up that sound pretty familiar to my situation. One in particular actually contained an email from an employee of Bandai in response to someone's inquiry over a claim...

Insteresting...

It seems that whenever someone counterclaims against "BANDAI_Co_Ltd" the video continues to be kept off of Youtube by Bandai.

The real mystery here is...what interest does Bandai have in keeping my video from being seen on Youtube? It's clearly not a music thing...so maybe the Deka Gold SP License is supposed to be for my eyes only? What gives?

I feel kinda bummed about this whole thing. A good friend went out of his way to get me something awesome for my collection and I can't share it with the world.

In the meantime...

See you guys next time...

-CC

P.S. Yes, this was overly dramatized in the style of my Abandoned Ohranger Themes blog. Speaking of which...an update to that blog is coming soon!