Mechanical Violator Hakaider: Hyper Destroyer Edition. (Blu-Ray)

 

Well now, this is quite the odd beast. I’ve reviewed Super Sentai, Ultraman, Kamen Rider, anime, and cartoons. But not really anything like this. Hakaider was a one shot film directed by Keita Amemiya and written by Toshiki Inoue for Toei's '95 Superhero fair, where it was shown alongside the movies for Ohranger and B-fighter. What a strange but fun time that must've been.

The film isn't connected narratively to Kikaider and is more of a reboot or original story that simply uses a character from the series, with the assumption that you already know the basic premise of Kikaider. Although outside of Hakider being an android antagonist, there isn’t much one needs to know going in.


Hakaider was notable on several fronts, the most prominent of which was gaining something of a cult status overseas when it was released in dub form on VHS in 2000 by Tokyo Shock. That version along with the DVD counterpart has long since been out of print and is ridiculously expensive. Thankfully MediaBlasters (which owns Tokyo Shock) managed to get a new transfer and release back in March of this year, which is what I’ll be taking a look at today.

Ultraman Ace Bluray review

1972's Ultraman Ace is a series that is simply full of surprises. Of all of the Ultra series I've covered, Ace is perhaps the one with the most divergences from what came before. The series introduced a lot of then new concepts that are common place today. But while Ace starts off unique for the Ultra series by taking the franchise into uncharted territory, where it heads is ultimately all familiar.

Fittingly, the most immediate of these changes are the protagonists and Ace's hosts. That's right, plural, Ace has two, one a man and the other a woman.