So my original plan was to watch one episode from three different Toku shows. Gavan, Juspion, and Zubat. With the idea of doing one review on each first episode and possibly following it up with ep. 2, 3, and so forth. That fell through because reviewing three shows simultaneously is utter madness.
In any case the series I've chosen to instead review Juspion in 5 episode batches. I mainly decided on Juspion because I loved the OST.... and because I couldn't find English subs for Spielvan.
I'm hoping to do this on a weekly basis (No promises) I've never done anything like it before, but we'll see. I'm also trying a new review style here, attempting to be as direct as possible with the overall plot synopsis and goings on of the episode and then breaking down my thoughts on the story/characterization, the SFX, and sometimes music. Before, I used to talk about them as if I was watching the episode while reviewing. But suddenly stopping to talk about designs or music extensively seemed...sloppy. So I'm gonna try out something new.
Assuming I haven't lost you by this point, let's begin.
Okay, first thing's first, the title of this series is awesome. I mean most Toku shows are usually just the title character or a somewhat descriptive title. Which there is something to said about those as well, there are certainly series titles I would point out as being stand out. But this is really stand out. MegaBeast Investigator is just freaking cool. It is not a title I would at all expect to be used today. Not to piss on titles today or anything, but...yeah, they're not normally as cool as this.
The opening starts off with a huge demon like monster roaring and shooting flames out, and then the opening theme and title kick in. We get quick cuts of Juspion in suit skidding around, an introduction to the character out of suit, Blueprints of both the suit itself and the Giant robo of the series.
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| I want copies of this. |
We properly start off with Juspion and an old man, Ejin.
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| Professional Gandalf. |
Ejin is reading a prophecy from the "Galactic Bible" about a being called Satan Goth, who causes giant monsters called megabeasts to rampage and destroy the universe. The Bible, of course, ends right at the part on how to destroy Satan.
Juspion laughs off this bleak foretelling, just as the big bad immediately shows up at their doorstep.
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| Looking like the love child of Darth Vader and Megatron |
Ejin summons Juspion's suit. Following the title of the episode we suddenly time skipped however long and Jupsion is on a spaceship (the Daileon) with an android built by Ejin, named Anri.
After some antics between Arni and Juspion (and nearly crashing into a star) they land on a planet called Beezee. Anri reminds Juspion their mission is to look into Megabeasts, though Juspion is more into looking for cute girls. While exploring they encounter hostiles, they run away, get caught up by some man eating plants, but are helped out by two weird/ugly yet cute Furby Ewok things called Miya. One gets shot and killed in the process as the two make their escape.
The combatants break off their chase when Juspion and Anri get close to Megabeast territory. One monster is a turtle/rock like creature called Marigos, and another is a Dragon like one named Hanedar.
The two monsters fight, allowing Juspion and Anri to escape towards a nearby city.
The main focus point here is a seedy bar full of aliens creatures. The two that were chasing our protagonists show up with the surviving Miya, tied up and blind folded. They put it on stage and start using it to shoot apples off of it's head. Juspion intervenes causing a bar fight.
The two escape. Again. This time with Miya. While running away, Juspion and Anri are captured in some boxes in a quarry. Juspion transforms and breaks free.
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| Eyecatch! |
Just as he and Anri are prepared to leave, Miya insists on tagging along, and despite Anri's protests against pets, Juspion gladly brings her with as the three travel outward to the next adventure.
Thoughts.
So the episode has some pacing issues. It's in so much of a rush to get us from one point to the next, hurriedly rushing Ejin, our title character and the main bad in less than two minutes before we're off to space on a ship with yet another character and no frame of reference for how much time has passed. There is being efficient with your time and then running head first hoping the audience will retain what the hell just flew by. Now to be fair this isn't the worst I've seen, not by a loooooong shot.
Well get to that first episode some day.
But there is still a pace issue none the less. As well as some repetition in how often the two escape from one situation into another, it's very tiresome. But at the very least things are fairly cohesive.
But that's not to say there aren't good parts. Juspion is quirky with Anri plays the straight-laced woman, making for a fun contrasting pair. Almost anything going on between the two is very slapstick. From Anri dunking water all over Juspion's face, to Anri bluescreening at times. (which will become a running gag)
The fight in the bar was pretty funny too. Juspion at one point uses a serving tray as a weapon and then throws it right into the mouth of a mob guy.
The scene in the caves was also good (Aside from a weird bit when Juspion jumps to one side of a cliff and then back, nearly falling) it's small, but it's nice seeing how Megabeasts live and are very much like animals, and world building in important in the first episode.
Juspion reflecting was also well done. I like that the killing of the Megabast is an unfortunate necessity. After all, they're only going berserk because of something out of their control. Small character moments like that are also greatly appreciated.
Visuals/SFX
The Daileon ship from an outward appearance is fine. It doesn't exactly stick out, I've seen plenty of carrier mech in Sentai and in general other vehicles that look like this. The inside is something also familiar though a bit better. I can't help but love ludicrous amounts of switches and buttons lighting up all over the place.
I'm bringing the bar up again, it really is a highlight. It's just a great scene establishing the sort of area they're in. There's the big mob boss looking guy, some roller waitresses, a potato headed singer that looks like Janice from the muppets, an alien with an afro. There's gambling, smoking, drinking. Good stuff.
The suits are varied and most are pretty damn good. Nothing is overly designed.
Not so great was the the escape afterwards. The random boxes that Juspion and Anri get caught in? Well The mooks throw a bunch of spears at the boxes, and while the entry shots are fine, for some reason the director thought getting a shot of the spears exiting would be good too. The problem is this of course pushes the materiel outward and we get to see that these boxes on an alien planet are made of plywood. Oops.
In contrast we have a rather impressive sequence of Juspion's box fucking exploding and he's fully transformed as the theme kicks in. (Anri is gone *shrug*) Juspion zips up and past the mooks, landing on a cliff and of course it doesn't go anywhere because they cut to an eye catch and they're back on the ship afterwards. Yeah don't do that, it ruins the mood. I think they just wanted to show off the suit again.
The monsters looked fine, if albeit a dragon is a little on the generic side. But two monsters in one episode it a-okay with me. The baby Marigos in their eggs were also really adorable and I appreciate the trouble of creating them just to use in one scene.
Probably the strangest effect was a bunch of animated bats flying out of the cave. Kinda reminded me of something you'd see in a Meet the Monsters Universal movie.
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| Weird as it is, they are animated well and quite detailed. |
The battle between the monsters and Juspion is pretty damn good for first episode material. Juspion dodges some fireballs from Marigos before being picked up by the flying Hanedar(this is actually used in the opening) Juspion falls, transforms, and starts fighting the monsters on foot! The actual execution is a super imposing nightmare, but I still admire the ambition.
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| Punch Rockgroin |
Obviously being on foot or flying around doesn't do much and the beasts soon attack the city. Guess it's a good thing everyone there was a criminal. Very fun pyrotechnics I might add.
Juspion summons the Garbin Jet before finally summoning the Daileon for the big mech battle.
I don't have much to say about the jet, it's fine just fine. As for Daileon's robot mode, I like the design, it's simple but still detailed enough at capturing the look of a transformed ship. Though I must say the silhouette and even the visual appearance isn't that much different from the usual Sentai mech of the time.
I also have to point out the fists, they're HUGE. They do the Daizyujin thing where they switch between the prop hands and gloved hands. However I find the opposite issue occurs here. While the Prop fists look absolutely ludicrous, the silver gloved hands look far better because they're more proportional to the suit.
Anyway, back to the fight. Daileon picks up Hanedar and slings him around like Bowser, which leads to the one hiccup in the scene; a very obvious cut in the film. (I've slowed it down and seen that Hanedar's left wing gets torn off) Everything after that is pretty smooth, though. Marigos shoots fire, Hanedar flings rocks, and Daileon shoots lasers out of his chest, things explode everywhere.
Finally, Juspion finishes things off by flying into the monsters with the Cosmic Crash. It's okay looking, not the best finisher. The charge up to it cool but the end result is just the Daileon flying towards the screen with the fists extended. I mean yeah, flying robot, but it's the same effect used when Juspion is zipping about.
Moving on to Juspion's suit. I love it. The shiny (but not chrome) silver looks fantastic on the black bodysuit. This could have easily looked a little too similar to Gavan, but it stands out thanks to the shade used, red accents, and technological patterns with a bit of blue and green thrown in. Not to mention the white helmet. Granted it does still bare strong similarities to the Space Sheriffs, but that makes sense as this was the first series to branch out, so it's not going to stray too far.
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| Look at this, even the back is fully detailed. |
Oh and his normal clothing is funky as hell. I kinda dig the boots, though.
Anri I don't have much to say aside from her hair is amazing and she's dressed like one of the aliens from Flock of Seagulls' I ran video, only red. Still, I dig it. Anything with leggings is cool by me.
Miya...Eh. This is something made more apparent is later episodes I admit, but I might as well bring it up here so I don't have to later. Even ignoring the fact Miya looks like a dyed Fozzie bear Halloween costume with a different head, it's pretty hokey. But the head is certainly the worst part. I think there is animatronics in it, but they don't work right or they broke. Miya is almost always wincing with her right eye and it looks pretty bad.
Just to be clear, it looks fine here, even cute in a way.
But most of the time it looks like this:
Music.
The music is pretty damn good and varied. There's not that many tracks used here not counting the opening and ending, but Juspion is one of those series where several different sounding tunes are on one track, so it's really like getting 4. Not sure why that was a thing for 80s Toku. Anyway, my favorite bit was in the bar scene, which is part of "Keesen" a really energetic piece that really gets you fired up for action.
Opening and Ending.
As for the opening and ending, well... I actually first saw the opening as part of compilation. At the time I wasn't sure what to make of it. The visuals were super goofy and the music wasn't really catching me aside from the opening riff. But overtime I've come to appreciate it. I didn't see the ending until I began watching the series, and it is glorious. The lyrics are nonsensical, mostly likely something that doesn't translate well. But I love the last three lines. "Juspion! My Soul is... Juspion! It's howling out! Space Wolf!" I mean Goddamn. That's on the line of 80s cheese and awesome. I'm not even kidding, I made it my ringtone, it is glorious.
Unlike the opening, I can actually show a YT video so I don't have to describe it.
Last thoughts.
Sorry if it feels like I'm harping on the first ep. The episode isn't bad, just sort of okay.Honestly while there is some establishing, so little is elaborated here plot wise you could probably just skip to episode 2 and not miss much. Seriously, they do a recap informing you what's going on, who's who and all that jazz.
Episode 2.
Anri, Juspion and Miya discover corpses floating around in space in addition to a Ghost ship. After the 3 investigate, Juspion is convinced it's just a regular ghost ship, though Anri isn't sure it's quite that simple. Things become more mysterious when the ships engines kick on and it begins moving. They head after it but are soon pulled by some great force, eventually being drawn by the gravity of the planet Peace. After a brief and humorous recovery from the crash, the 3 head out to explore the cold planet.
Humanoid hostiles attack and kidnap both Miya and Anri, dragging them underground. Juspion makes his way to a tunnel and is pulled deep into the expansive underground, where he finds himself overwhelmed and must run and hide in a music room with an old man until all the foot soldiers clear out.
The old man is native to the planet, and he explains to Juspion this place is full of great despair. He and his people once killed off the Megabeasts of the planet and lived peacefully, until one day when they were invaded and the entire planet was covered in snow.
Juspion asks about the ones in robes, but even the old man doesn't know. Though he speculates Satan Gorth(sic) was behind them. He further elaborates that Gorth revived the MegaBests as well as a crashed ship.
However, before the man can explain the use of said ship, he is killed. His last words being that the planet will live on for all eternity.
Juspion makes his way though the sea of soldiers, but is cornered and dragged into the very ghost ship from before(now situated underground). There, he is confronted by- of all things, a Japanese satellite dubbed Sakura.
Sakura explains it was destroyed in space and granted a form of intelligence and new life by Satan Gorth, their new God. Sakura seeks revenge on Humanity...because.
Of course Juspion isn't going to let this happen, but Sakura has some powerful beams and Anri under his control. This fight doesn't last too long regardless, as Juspion ends up transforming and shooting Sakura, which also causes Anri to lock up. The ground splits apart and the ship flies high. Juspion grabs Anri and frees the nearby chained up Miya, then flies them out, just as Satan Gorth arrives causing the local Megabeast 'Tetsugos'(seen in the opening) to go berserk.
Juspion puts an end to the creature in the snowy waste land and escapes with Miya and Anri. Sakura bearing one last message before causing the plant to explode.
Thoughts.
This episode was pretty all right. The ghost ship was a really strong start to the episode, but it's also the strongest the episode gets. As for everything else, I get the impression that the writers might have thought what they were doing was deeper than it actually is. Ultimately I get what they were trying to do here, a warning to humanity type story of some sort, like the Outer Limits. But it's unfortunately under written to have any emotional weight for the audience. The old man native to the planet dies really quickly and it doesn't really have any impact because we spend only 2 minutes with him, 26 seconds of which is him playing the piano. Yes, I clocked it.
But it is interesting seeing a planet that Satan Gorth toyed with heavily, as well as establishing that he can revive dead monsters. Not to mention some hints that Satan Gorth is worshiped in some capacity as a dark God.
We also learn Anri can be mind controlled due to her robotic nature, and a few other tidbits that I'll get into with the visuals.
The ending with Sakura repeating "A warning to the Human Race." is ominous and an indication Satan Gorth may do the same to earth.
The planet blowing right the hell up was also pretty messed up(and very Metroid) especially in contrast with the old man's words. But this episode was more interesting for it's visuals than it's story. However I still give credit for establishing what they did, it was much better than the first episode in that department.
The humor of the series remains fine. At the beginning of the episode Juspion and Miya toss a ball around in zero gravity before Anri turns the gravity off on them. Another has her freaking the fuck out after the crash and slapping Juspion to make sure he's alive, its pretty great.
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| It's kind of adorable how flustered she gets. |
Visuals/SFX.
The visuals in the episode are certainly good and full of nice touches. For example; when exploring the Ghost ship, Miya wears an oxygen mask, while Juspion is in the tech suit showing that it is capable of providing air, and Anri, being an android, doesn't need equipment. Good visual story telling, fully self explanatory.
The whole atmosphere on the ship is quite good too. Everything is covered in ice, it's dead silent, not even music is playing. Foot steps, creaking metal and falling ice is all there is to hear when no one is talking. It has a great horror vibe and very clever camera work as well. For a while I was actually confused how they were doing some of the shots so well without wire work, then I realized a lot of it is just the actor coming in through a window as the camera is turned on it's side. It's something that's obviously been done before, but what's great about it here in that the actor stays centered. You would assume they would lean towards or even touch the window sill, but they don't. They also have set pieces nailed down to the wall so it sells the effect even more.
This is all pretty clever and it looks surprisingly good.
The only two critiques I'll make about this entire sequence is one bit involving a hilariously bad rubber bug that almost ruins the mood. Actually all the animals featured in the episode are pretty cheesy, and while that is fun for the wrong reasons, it still looks like ass. They're all stiff and really just look like oversized toys. The alien variety also look kinda thrown together with Octopus bats, and shark stingrays.
Speaking of thrown together, we have the mooks in this episode. Which, okay, these are clearly one offs so there's no point in going through a lot of trouble and money. That said, they're bloody hilarious. Their outfits are bodysuits of various patterns; Zebra, Leopard, Crazy Quilt. At least until later on when they suddenly all have black body suits. They all wear black robes and have golden masks, the latter of which is what makes them so damn funny, because their masks look like a colander crossed with a Vagina.
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| Look, they even added a clitoris. |
The underground areas were okay, though pretty bland for the most part. It's the same location used a few years later in Maskman and it honestly doesn't look any different aside from some Christmas trees and a few lights.
The action scenes are also pretty great, in particular the battle with Tetsugos, who look pretty cool in it's own right being a giant bull. The fight has some really good pyrotechnics. They're so extravagant that I would be very surprised if the suit didn't get a huge chunk blown out of it, because they do not cut away or anything. This suit had some huge ass squib explosions.
Music.
The only track here that stood out to me was the music used during the Megabeast battle, which sadly I can't find the name of but appears to be a variation of the opening theme. Also, the Megabeast this week sounded like Godzilla crossed with a cow.
Final Thoughts.
This was a step up from the first episode. Significantly less repetitive, better pacing and much more focus. Part of me does wish Anri wasn't kidnapped so we could have have more interaction with her, but this was still a fun watch.
Also yes, the subs are calling him Gorth now instead of Goth.
Episode 3.
The main three are sucked into a worm hole of some sort by Satan Gorth and land on the Planet Dodo. They meet a young child named Koko who's friends with a Megabeast named Namagerath, who took in the orphaned child when he was five.
However, the Megabeast is feared by the people in the city and they've poisoned him. Despite Anri's surprisingly cold insistence that they leave, Juspion remains firm and wishes to help the poor kid. An antidote is out of the question due to the size of the creature, but the planet just so happens to have miracle fruit that will cure anything, but it's located in an area called the windy plains.
The fruit is acquired rather fast, despite some hindrance from the strong winds, boulders, and guards from the city. The fruit is given to the megabeast who despite eating it, still will not budge. Juspion encourages the child to let the beast rest and regain it's strength overnight, as Juspion reflects on his past.
Thoughts.
This was really good heartfelt episode and I'm really surprised at how effective it was at being that in such a short amount of time. We learn a bit about Juspion as a child in this ep. How he was also an orphan, with his parents dying in a crash and him the only survivor. He was taken in by Ejin and raised around Megabeasts.
He also shows some good integrity in this episode by standing up for the kid against the people of the city and to some extent even Anri. Obviously he has some personal feelings relating to this. The actor who plays Juspion, Seiki Kurosaki (credited as Hikaru Kurosaki), gets a chance to emote beyond the usual slap stick faces, which is both a nice change of pace and another contrast to the prior episodes. Beforehand, Juspion is only shown as being serious when the suit it on. But here, things are more nuanced.
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| Or at least more constipated. |
Anri, as I've mentioned, was quite cold in this episode. Seems like all she wanted to do was get off the planet. Yet when the megabeast does awake, she's quite joyful. Once again she is also something a source of comic relief due to her android status, she ends up getting blown over by strong winds and locks up again.
Its pretty good all around. Despite being far more simple and straight forward than ep. 2's plot, it features decent development for Juspion, and an interesting dilemma with him wanting to avoid killing the Megabeast. I gotta admit I wasn't sure if Juspion actually killed the Megabeast and it was going to be one of those episode with a hard depressing choice. But no, it's fine and the people in the city learn a lesson too.
Visuals/SFX
Speaking of, the fight itself was enjoyable and made clever use of Juspion's arsenal outside of the obvious giant robot, such as using the Garbin Tank to drill under the beast and hitting its foot, distracting it with the jet and using various less than lethal means. They also introduce the Iron Wolf, Juspion's motorcycle with flight capabilities.
They even have a new finisher, the Daileon Kick. So far this has been the only usage of it, but I kinda like it better than the Cosmic Crash.
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| Mainly because it looks ridiculous. |
Visually the highlights are the giant Namagerath head and the matte paintings.
For the Megabeast, it's clearly designed to make you feel sorry for the poor adorable looking creature, and I'm certain it was very intentional that it resembles Falcor from The Never Ending Story(which came out two years prior).
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| Also horrified. |
As for the paintings, Juspion has featured several so far, but I think the ones here are particularly well done and worth mention. They have a story book feel to them and it works well as an illustration of looking to the past.
I have to point out that Satan Gorth's arrival is really well done. Just as things are happy you get the thundering foots steps and fog and he walks through to ruin the day.
Music/Audio.
Musically thing are still good. The most stand out part in this ep is a lovely bit with a violin as Juspion remembers his childhood. It's from the track 'Mirai', and another part of the same track is used at the end of the episode which is much more upbeat and cheerful.
Final Thoughts.
Personal favorite episode so far. It's simple and to the point and is generally heartwarming.
Ep. 4
Wanting the missing portion of the Galactic Bible found, Ejin instructs the crew of the Daileon to head towards the third planet from the sun, "The Planet of the Megabeasts"
However, Satan Gorth and many of his devoted minions are already on Earth, awaiting the time to strike Juspion. Among them is a new metal clad character by the name of Mad Gallant.
In the meantime, Juspion and Anri explore earth and end up in hijinks such as jay walking, and Anri freaking out over the pollution in the air and wanting to leave the city all together, though Juspion maintains doing their job.
After learning about some sudden earthquakes in a part of town, the two use the Garbin Tank to drill into the earth and investigate the possibility of a megabeast in the nearby underground area. They discover the monster Gaios, but also Mad Gallant and a bunch of cronies.
Thoughts.
So this one was a bit of a mixed bag. This wasn't bad, though I will admit there is a slight disappointment with the transitioning the setting to earth. I knew this was going to happen, pretty soon too. There's no way a toku show was going to get by with a new alien location each week the budget simply wouldn't allow it. But that's just a minor thing, and I do hope that perhaps future episodes will see them traveling off the planet once more.
The story it was pretty bare, not a lot happens in terms of development. Sure, there is the introduction of a new villain, Mad Gallant. Though they don't do a whole lot with him here. He just sort of shows up and fights Juspion and not much else.
This overall this felt like filler and an episode to help you catch up. In fact the first 3 and a half minutes is a recap of the previous 3 episodes. All the characters and vehicles are reintroduced with on screen titles as well.
It's rather baffling that it plays out this way since they introduce a new character. On the other hand I can see the merit of doing a recap and reintroduction to everything as the series shifts settings, but this is only the fourth episode. Were they worried people wouldn't tune in or miss an episode? You could honestly skip this episode and not lose anything.
Visuals/SFX.
Oh boy. The effects here are about on par with the story. There's nothing here that I call outright horrible, but most of the stuff here is just plain funny. For one thing during the earthquake they use stock footage of cars crashing from what I assume to be one of the Space Sheriff shows, or it could be sentai for all I know. It's a really good crash, but Toei has used that particular footage a lot. In fact I remember seeing it used about two or three times in Winspector(although to be fair the usage here is less ridiculous). Not to get off track, but Metal Heroes shows tend to reuse stuff a lot. A lot of Winspector's BGM was from Metalder, MH was like the budget franchise in some areas. Speaking of reuse, footage of the Garbin Tank in episode 3. But they do have some new footage of it exploring an underground chasm, which for the most part looks okay, I love seeing the models...but I don't so much care for the hilariously noticeable string that's pulling the Garbin Tank along.
Other unfortunate visuals are with the inconsistency with shots of the Iron Wolf. When Juspion pursues Mad Gallant, they have a shot of Juspion on the cycle, followed by the model with the fins opening outward to form flight mode, then a shot of the actual cycle with the fins folded inward, and then the model again in flight with them outward again. This really could have easily been fixed in editing by just cutting the scene of him driving and immediately cutting to the flight scene after the fins open.
The monster battle is also great for all the wrong reasons. Okay there are some legit good bits like some of the low angle panning shots around the model houses. But for the most part the fight is clumsy. At one point they just string up the suit and start swinging it back and fourth. Sometimes it's even flying backwards. Also the Monster's shell detaches and really serves no purpose other than to detach once to destroy a building.
On a more serious note, Juspion confronts Satan Gorth after defeating the monster. It's surprising how well he holds up, I was expecting him to just be tossed about. But Daileon is only knocked down once and holds up fairly well, even landing a hit on Satan Gorth before he disappears.
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| Just in case he wasn't Vader enough. |
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| Of course for Rider it'd be in like two episodes and that's it. |
They also break two of the legs off during the chase.
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| I wonder what the Glue gun budget is on toku? |
As for Mad Gallant himself...eh? It's weird, it's not a bad design and I like what they're going for, but I can't say it's particularly interesting. While I do like the lights on the eyes, the chest, and silver on the helmet, there is simply too much black and any other details the suit has are usually lost because of that. Rather than the yellow dotting of the suit, gold/yellow highlights would have been much better, specifically around the torso and mouth. Perhaps even a grey under suit would help, sort of reversal of Juspion. I think the only time it looks really good in when you can barely see it and the eyes & torso light bright shine.
Finally there are two changes to some reoccurring visuals. A new Eye catch which features the shows logo and a jingle
Music/Audio.
Well I can say the music here is good. Kinda funky in some areas, sort of a yuji ohno vibe. Otherwise there's nothing new or noteworthy.
Final Thoughts.
Yeah, I don't have much more to say about this one, just sort of there.
Ep. 5
In this episode it's revealed that Satan Gorth and Mad Gallant plan to make earth the central location of their empire, the MegaBeast Empire. Mad Gallant also takes advantage of the abilities of Satomi, a girl that can see into another dimension where a Megabeast lies. Satomi is bullied because everyone around her just assumes she's lying about the monster, in addition to the fact she also lies about the death of her father.
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| Mom of the year right here folks. |
Eventually Mad Gallant finds out about her and offers sympathy, or at least so it seems. He tells her the monster is a reincarnation of her father. He gives her a panflute like device that can open up a portal, allowing the monster to cross over. He encourages her to use it crush her enemies.
Eventually Satomi can't take the bullying anymore and summons the monster, causing it to go on a rampage. Juspion has to stop both the monster and Satomi.
Thoughts.
Goddamn, the kids in this episode are massive assholes. I mean really. They make fun of Satomi in class(Teacher doesn't do shit so she's a bitch too) They bully her after class, they attack her and destroy her groceries after she goes shopping for her mom, they rush rush into the classroom the next day to bully her again and chase her out of the school. Keep in mind, every single other child in this episode is from her class and every single one of them bullies her. What the fuck is wrong with these kids?
For fuck sake she disrupted the class for like two minutes. And did no one see the turtle monster destroying a building last week? Seems like a Giant manta ray turtle, Darth Vader and a Robot would've made the news. Then again, these kids see this weeks monster, run, then come back again. UGH. No wonder she wants to summon a monster.
Which, I'm not exactly complaining about the kids attitudes persay. The kids are fucking obnoxious, that's the intent and it freaking works, you feel sympathy for Satomi. But I do think it's a little thick.
Thankfully there is some humor to help balance things out. Juspion is still adjusting to earth's culture, as well as being puzzled by the scent of a Megabeast....which leads to a ladies room. It goes about as well as you'd expect.
There is so much to unpack from that gag, also the subs have a bit of a flub here.
Later, Miya and Anri to try and help detect the Beast. Juspion actually sees it briefly, but he's the only one. Anri runs a scan with predictable results.
There are two questions I'm a bit puzzled by. It's not clear why Juspion and Satomi can see the Megabest pop in and out. With Juspion I can make the assumption it may have to do with with his time spent with Ejin. Samtomi remains a mystery. Maybe it's like a sixth sense?
As for why Satomi had to summon the monster and not someone else...Satan Gorth is a petty asshole. That's pretty much the explanation when Anri asks that very same question.
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| Dark Lord, destroyer of worlds, deceiver of random earth children. |
This...was a bit of mixed bag, though still better than 4. I liked some things, I like the intent of the villains corrupting good people. But this was a little too goofy. I do like Satomi and we do feel for her, if in the cheapest way possible. But I personally think it would have been better if she and Juspion had more interaction, it would have made the final scene where Juspion tells her that her father became a star have a bit more touching impact.
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| Wait, wouldn't the implication here be that her dad died again? |
Visuals/SFX.
I really like the design of the monster, it's like a cross between a woolly mammoth and an armadillo.
The scale models look to be reused from the previous episode, which honestly weren't seen as clear as they are here, and they're pretty good for toei standards.
They have new stuff too, like how Juspion gets into the Daileon by flying through a tunnel.
The only negatives I have are two scenes with a very noticeable wires, and the defeat of the monster, which is a really lame and badly done super imposed explosion.
Aside from that, things looked pretty good with load of explosions (which might explain why they couldn't do a proper one at the end).
Music/Audio.
This episode introduces the Theme of Daileon 'Chou Wakusei Sentou Boukan Daileon'. While this has been used in prior episodes, they were the instrumental version. This one finally has the lyrics. It's enjoyable, not my favorite track but still fun. It's performed by Akira Kushida, so at the very least you're getting that.Also might as well mention the instrument used by Satomi. It's painful and sounds like a dying Simon Says. Fuck that noise.
Final Thoughts.
So yeah, that's pretty much it. I know these are usually a bit longer, but the majority of this episode is mainly Satomi getting bullied and that's pretty much the jest of it. The only other thing maybe worth mentioning is a very, very brief (30 sec) confrontation between Mad Gallant and Juspion. So the overall all experience with these episodes was okay.
Juspion is a bit arrogant, though in a playful way rather than being full of himself. Competently goofy. He knows when a situation is not appropriate for goofing off. He is a caring person, especially when it comes to kids befriending megabeasts or the creatures being unjustly feared.
Furthermore, while Juspion occasionally needs to be set right by Anri, his personality completely changes upon transformation. I don't consider this a flaw, but I look at it as more a visual depiction of the character knowing when he needs to be serious. He has an important job to do and he has to be completely focused for it. You can even see part of that as early as episode 2, where Juspion is completely serious on board the Ghost Ship, but a little goofy before and after. In contrast the following episode features Juspion being more serous out of suit, possibly to due to his personal feelings on the matter.
Arni is a great counter balance to Juspion, and while she certainly does have her own humorous moments(usually in regards to being an android and needing to be rebooted) she is more often the straight woman to Juspion, adding a nice edge to her. There are some inconsistencies(?), such as how in ep 1 and 3 she was very adamant on doing their job and not getting sidetracked, while in ep 4 she seems to want to leave all together. To be fair it is still early on so it need not be set in stone that Anri is one or the other. Both her and Juspion have their own outlooks on how to handle a current situation, after all.
The weakest part so far is the villains. Satan Gorth has about as much personality as a Popsicle. He isn't much different that the guys that make monsters grow in 80s Sentai, mainly because he serves the same function. He doesn't talk, he doesn't even scheme. Just shows up and makes monsters go crazy, and maybe listens to Mad Gallant give exposition.
Granted he did get some background in episode 2, showing how he can corrupt worlds and is worshiped in some capacity. I really want to hear more about that sort of thing.
Then there's Mad Gallant. I honestly don't know if he's much better than Gorth. I mean, Gallant at least has plans to an extent, though they've been kinda lame. Gallant also doesn't have much more going on. No backstory so far. Although to be fair he's only be in two episodes, and not given much to do in either. That said, I think Juspion might be introducing too much stuff in too short of a amount of time. Need to step back and expand on the characters and not the cast. Which hopefully we'll get more of.
Of the episodes I watched I'd say 3 is the best and 4 the weakest.
Still, I was entertained and I am certainly interested in watching more Juspion. I've already started on episodes 6 and 7 and plan to see this through as much as possible. (I'd really love if someone batched all the episodes, though.)
Also one more thing I want to bring up. I've recently become affiliated with Amazon, so if you want to purchase anything off Amazon(especially with it being the holidays), I'd really appreciate if you went through this link:
http://amzn.to/2gAogG0
It would really help me out a little and I'd really appreciate it, thank you. :)
And thanks for reading!
...You know, it occurs to me Juspion could have transformed and fought the two guys with Bows and Arrows, and then Miya's parent or whatever wouldn't have died. Hrm.
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