Uchuu Keiji Gavan Review.

Continuing on my Metal Hero streak, it's time to take a look at the first entry of the franchise.

These subs are done by MillionFold Curiosity Fansubs, with Raws from, of course, Bunnyhat. Almost every old toku comes from her and you should go thank them.

Characters/Story.

Gavan/Retsu Ichijouji.

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say this entire show works because of Gavan's actor; Kenji Ohba. He is one of the most noteworthy Tokusatsu performers and with good reason. Ohba is very much like Hiroshi Miyauchi in that they've both played many different roles and are an incredibly charismatic force of personality. If the script is mediocre, they can make it good, if it's good, they can make it great. Ohba is capable of elevating just about any material that's given to him and is simply an amazing performer. Gavan as a character is not deep, par the course for this point in time so I don't think that's an issue. But what would otherwise be just a fine enough character becomes something more because of Ohba's amazing screen presence. He sells every scene and the fact I've talked more about the actor than the character is a testament to his power.

In regards to Gavan as a character his backstory is fairly straightforward; His father, Voicer, was a space sheriff of the Galactic Union until he was betrayed by his partner. Gavan became a sheriff himself and was assigned to protect the earth- his monther's home planet- from the Makku Crime syndicate. On earth, he retains the guise of Retsu Ichijouji while caring for horses at the Avalon Riding and Youth Club, which he frequently leaves to do his real job of combating the Makku forces.

Commander Qom.
Head of the Galactic Union Patrol and Gavan's superior, often providing information or assistance to Gavan as needed. Essentially a logical in show way to give exposition without it being contrived.

Mimi
Mimi is Gavan's assistant, love interest and daughter of Commander Qom. She is able to project illusions and turn into a Parakeet to spy for Gavan. She often upbeat and shows a lot of concern for Gavan's dangerous job, but still provides as much help as possible. Here interactions with Gavan are quite frankly, adorable.
After 30 episodes she leaves to see her ailing mother before returning for the final few episodes.

Oddly enough the fact she is his commanding officer's daughter never really seems to be an issue, or even brought up. I guess Qom is just all right with Gavan.

Marin
She is Qom's personal assistant and replaces Mimi for the duration of her absence. She has decent chemistry with Gavan but it's a bit odd how she more or less fills every exact role Mimi did minus any love angle.

Kojiro Oyama.

Kojiro is our comic relief character of the show, a real goofball that has an obsession with the paranormal, especially UFOs. He frequently makes appearances getting in trouble with Makku when trying to catch some UFOs on film or investigating haunted buildings that are in fact Makku operations.

Gosuke Fuji, Wakaba and Yoichi.
Fuji is the owner of the Rider and Youth club, for which Gavan works while on earth. Fuji, along with his two grandchildren, round out a cast of supporting characters. Wakaba and Yoichi often find their selves tangled up with Makku plots as well, typically when accompanying Kojiro on his paranormal investigations.

Tsukiko Hoshino

Gavan's adopted sister who he learns about while searching for his father. Her parents were murdered by Makku forces for their energy research and subsequently, she was taken in by Voicer. She occasionally assists Gavan and later begins working at the riding club, although with little need as she's quite rich from her parents.

Don Horror.
The ruthless monolithic leader of Makku Crime Syndicate. He along with his entire fleet exist within their own dimension, the Makku space. Horror is able to control this for a limited amount of time by using his blood to power a machine that creates blackhole like sub-realms where logic is lost and his soldiers become more powerful.
As a side note, Horror is portrayed by two different actors. Hikaider actor Shōzō Iizuka for the first 10, then Takeshi Watabe for the remaining. Their voices are so similar you probably won't even notice. Funny enough, Watabe filled in for Iizuka later on as the Creation King in Kamen Rider Black.

Hunter Killer.
Killer was Voicer's partner before betraying him to the Makku crime syndicate. He serves as the commander in charge for the first 30 episodes until he attempts to sabotage a plot against Gavan, primarily out of anger at being replaced within the organization. Horror ejects him to the vacuum of space. However, Killer would eventually have the last laugh, as he knows Makku's secrets about Gavan's Father.

Also, I'd be remised if I didn't mention his actor, Michiro Iida, was the voice of Metalder.

San Dorva and Witch Kiba.
Dorva, Don Horror's son, replaces Killer as a commander and is aided frequently by his mother Kiba. Dorva tends to be hotheaded and rash, brutish and short-sighted, while his mother restrains him and gives guidance to take a more methodical approach and to apply the use of trickery.
Their schemes generally focus more on Kiba using various mind tricks on Gavan or rituals to weaken him, sometimes with the addition of her son Dorva making use of his strength against a weakened Gavan. Their dynamics results in a lot more of a personal touch than Killer's plans did.

When you get down to it, Gavan has a very simple premise in terms of plot. It's very episodic with only about 6 or so episodes actually dedicated to a story and you know what? It works. Gavan knows exactly what it wants to do and it does so at a consistent quality level. There are maybe only two or three episodes that were a drag, I certainly remember far more good episodes despite the first few being a bit rocky for my liking.
The day to day stuff ranges anywhere from absolute goofball occurrences like non-makku pocket dimensions where literally anything can happen; like Gavan fighting instrument playing mascots.

To incredibly dark plots. Episode 26 in particular sticks out as one of the darker and memorable ones, involving a man who is working for Makku to pay for his sister's medical treatment. Usually, episodes like this involve thieves with a heart of gold. This one goes for a guy that's part of a death squad.
They even have a scene where he's watching over his sister and he has PTSD flashbacks to taking part in killing people with poison gas, with implications that one of them was a child very much like his sister.

Gavan makes great use of having a kitchen sink approach with its episodes, nothing is off the table and it keeps things interesting despite so few story-driven episodes, it's a formula that I feel would be more focused and perfected in the later Metal Hero series, Winspector.
Gavan does feature changes or milestones that show progression and the passage of time. Kojiro, Gosuke, Wakaba and Yoichi are the initial supporting cast for the show (and honestly the only reason I think Gavan works at the rider club is to have a supporting cast) but their roles are eventually reduced over time as new characters are introduced, one-offs are made of use and we focus more on the schemes of Makku and the like. They still make appearances, particularly Kojiro, but it becomes more scarce. Of course, Mimi takes her leave shortly after episode 30 and we have Marin in her place. Gavan even upgrades his suit to combat newer stronger Makku forces. The show does just enough to shake up the status quo to keep things interesting.

As for the story-centric episodes, they're very good! They all concern Gavan's father Voicer and the mystery of what happened to him, what he was doing before he went missing and the possibility that he is still alive and is being held by Makku because he has something they want. Although these episodes are sparse, they'll usually allude to something about Voicer now and then even if it isn't the focus of that episode. That said, they sorta stop doing it for a while and it feels like they just forgot about the father subplot until the last three episodes. Despite that being an issue, the reunion itself is genuinely heartwarming and I'd argue a highlight of the show.

About 3 minutes is dedicated to just them breaking down and crying at being reunited, at which both actors do a really good job at selling.
Sonny Chiba was also a great get for Voicer, as he does share a lot of physical characteristics to Kenji Ohba and they work off each other really well despite how brief their time together is on the show.

The penultimate revelation with Voicer is that he is in the knowledge of what is basically plans that could create a Death Star or a nearly infinite source of energy.

The caveat and irony being that Makku could not kill him because he was their only lead, yet the information could only be revealed with his death. In the end, the torture from Makku took it's toll and Voicer, having finally reunited with his son and escaped the criminal's grasp, succumbed to the atrocities inflicted upon him.

With the plans secure, Horror becomes livid, disowning Dorva and sending him along with Kiba on what is little more than a suicide mission to kill Gavan.
Ultimately, Gavan is not defeated and takes on Don Horror himself and ending the Makku.

But before the series is completely over, Gavan is promoted to Captain and will no longer be stationed on earth. That role is handed over to another Sheriff, Sharivan.

Visuals/SFX

This is really Gavan's bread and butter. Much like my review for Juspion, Gavan's most outstanding aspect is the stunts. They are some of the best I've seen and surprisingly daring in some instances.

From diving out of a moving car off a cliff.

Crashing through a building.

And by far my favorite, swinging under a bridge with an explosion in mid-air.

Not to mention that Kenji Ohba also performed a lot of stunts himself. Obviously nothing too dangerous like the primary stuntmen (Jun Murakami and 
Hitoshi Yamaguchi, respectively) They're the ones diving out of cars and into glass. Toei learned their lesson after that incident back in '71. But Ohba is a trained stunt performer and sometimes gets surprisingly close to explosions and is even dragged by a horse a few times.

I'd go as far as to say the stunts in Gavan are equally impressive to the ones in Juspion, although perhaps not as unique as there, given the lack of a mecha suit, yet certainly daring and entertaining.

Outside of stunts, there's a decent amount of model work, custom vehicles and paintings. The most commonly used is the Electronic Starbeast Dol, a section of Gavan's ship that detaches and becomes a mechanical dragon that he rides upon. That sentence alone should make you watch this show.

The presentation of this is freaking amazing. I particularly love the use of smoke/fog with lights to create a stormy atmosphere, giving the ship a very dramatic entrance for Gavan's transformation.
After a short while, this is usually followed up with Dol being called upon and detaching as a brilliant light passes through.

Some of the action is a bit awkward with it. As much as I do love the design and seeing it appear frequently, it's not really intended to move around a lot aside from the articulated neck, head and tail. For the most part, they work this well by giving Dol ranged attacks like lasers and a good old flamethrower.

Did...did Samus learn from Gavan like she did with GetterRobo?

But when they try to have Dol attack with its hands, it's literally just enemy combatants flying directly into them.

Thankfully they stick to the range stuff mostly.

Outside of Dol, Gavan also has the Gavion Tank and a twin drill machine called Scooper. They are surprisingly not utilized as much as you would expect. I don't think they're quite as interesting as a mechanical space Dragon and frankly, it's hard to say anything about them at this point. I've covered Metal Hero Tanks and Drills before and they're pretty much all the same.

Finally, there's the Cyberian. I love the design of it, it looks like something out of a 60s sci-fi magazine.
This is also shockingly underutilized...sort of. It does appear in the show almost every episode but that's often the model version and it's simply stock footage of Gavan using it to enter Makku space.
The full sized version is seldom used and I think that's because whenever it does appear it looks like it's about to flip due to how unstable it is. While it is a shame such a unique design is seldom used, it does make the appearances all the more special.




Moving on, we have paintings. Back in the 80s, it was common to show illustrative works to depict things that simply weren't in the budget. I love seeing those and Gavan features quite a few.

You may recall this one being reused in Juspion.

I really love these and wish there was a big book of them you could buy.


What is less common is using painted backgrounds on a show like this. Sure, skylines and the like would be used in Sentai, maybe a painted building for an establishing shot or a fantastical background. But shows like this didn't really have the budget for proper backdrops or matte paintings of mountains or down to earth terrain...and it shows.

The quality of those is on par with what you would see in a School or printed on those town play mats in a doctor's office.
However, even those two are not the worst in Gavan, that belongs to the superimposing of various ships.

This looks atrocious and it's even worse in motion because they remain static in such a way that the environment seems to move around them.
I still can't get over the fact of how smart Tsuburaya's investment was for Ultraman. Freaking show from '66 has better composite shots than one from '82.

But let's swing things back into the positive. When Gavan enters Makku space to fight a monster, they usually get really crazy with a mixture of sets, various tints and superimposed backgrounds of better paintings. While they might not be the best, they're incredibly creative and sometimes just delightfully weird.

  Anyone else remember Nick Arcade?

This is a personal favorite.

Now, let's talk about the Laser Blade, Gavan's primary weapon. To be honest, I wanna talk more about the prop itself rather than the weapon because it's just a sword that can charge, it's cool but you know that.
Gavan seems to use multiple Laser Blade designs in the show, with the hilt drastically changing depending upon the scene. Sometimes it looks like an ornate Chinese Jian, other times it has a wrapped katana style hilt, usually when charged, with exception to the finisher scenes.

There's even one that's just a fluorescent bulb so they could save on chroma keying. It's a cheap effect that doesn't really work because there's obviously no pointed tip and the end is black, their attempts at hiding this with a black background doesn't really work because there's a freaking light source from the thing.
I also gotta wonder how many of those broke over some poor stuntman.

Finally, for the last piece of the SFX, Gavan's suit, because that is the best and most visually noticeable aspect. It is a beautifully designed suit that stands apart from Sentai and Rider, it is distinctive and very 80s with its chrome appearance and lights. You really cannot get more late 70s early 80s Sci-fi than vacuum formed chrome and blinking lights. Although for the majority of the show you'll see the non-chrome version or the very flat (and eventually damaged) stunt version.

Yeah, it's rough sometimes.
But this is still a great design. Frankly, I have a love of late 60s-mid 80s sci-fi aesthetic and Gavan's suit is just an embodiment of that for the 1980s.
I also want to point out that I watched the Bluray release of Gavan, which means you can see a lot of things that clearly were not originally intended to be seen on an old CRT TV, such as holes in the helmet, zippers, damage to the suit etc.

To me this doesn't take anything away, it's just a fun aspect of the higher image quality and I love details like that.
This is a good and proper transfer, I only noticed a few jaggy bits that looked out of place and that could have been an encoding problem.

Music.

So before I get into how great the soundtrack is I need to explain how fascinatingly unique it is to me, because it involves something I don't really think happened anywhere else and might confuse any international readers.

Decades usually go through grace periods after they end. In the early 90s we had an awkward area after the 80s where we weren't really sure what the style and sounds of the new decade were going to be, so you have a really weird look to everything Saved by the Bell is a perfect capsule of that time, certain toy lines too, like GI Joe Eco force. Late '93-94 things transition over to Nirvana, denim and Daria. Most decades work like that, if you watch a film in the early 60s it's not that far removed from something in the late 50s, but skip to mid-60s and everyone has long hair, afros and moustaches.

The 70s to the 80s did not work that way in America. There's a lot of social-political details concerning black and gay culture being responsible for a lot of the stylings of the 70s that had a weird massive push back by the latter part of the decade which I'm not going to get into here. But simply put the 70s had a hard end. So, where am I going with this? Well, as I said this seems to have been a uniquely American occurrence. Gavan came out in 1982 in Japan. So the result of that is something that is mostly 70s but also just a bit 80s in the music department. Even without being born in the time period, my ears have become accustomed to what certain things should sound like from what decade. I'm not going to mistake something in Halloween as something from Escape from New York.

With that in mind, if you like late 70s music you're probably going to love Gavan's soundtrack.
The majority of the tracks are sung by Akira Kushida who doesn't really get as much recognition as others but absolutely should because he is great in everything I've heard from him.
Also, I'm going to link the tracks to other sites so you can listen for yourself.

Uchuu Keiji Gavan.
The opening title, like most openings it gets us started. Also, I swear the 1:05 mark sounds like the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman opening.


Hashire! Gavan

This is okay but far weaker than the other action tracks. This is one of the earliest ones produced for the show, however.

Chichi yo.
This is the one track sung by Ohba and...it's not that great. Which is a shame because it's about Gavan reminiscing about his dad and it just doesn't work that well because Ohba isn't a singer. Its also a slow ballad so he can't even just go for pure gusto.

Chase! Gavan!
I freaking love this track, this is absolutely one of my favourites, it's good on its own and fantastic in fight scenes. I adore the horns and rather oddly Hispanic vibe the song has. Very upbeat and what I look for in a Toku track.


Denkou Sekka Disco Gavan.
Surprise, it's very disco. If I had to compare this to something it reminds me of, it would be Lupin the 3rd, specifically the second series. This track is very heavy on the sax and I'm a complete sucker for that. Hell, there's even a Jazz flute. I'm not sure if it's the best Toku disco track, that probably still belongs to Ultra Seven.

Also worth mentioning that they actually translate Gavan's title in this track, outright calling him Space Police Gavan. Keiji (刑事) is actually a bit of a loose term and Space Sheriff is probably just alliteration on our part since Space Police Detective Gavan doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.


Jouchaku se yo! Gavan.
This is otherwise a forgettable piece that's saved by a very catchy "Daaadaaabababa Gavan"  by Akira. It's enjoyable enough but I wouldn't call it my favorite.


Kagayaku Ouja Dolgiran.
I sadly cannot find an upload of this one which is a great shame because this is one of my favourite tracks in the series, competing very closely with Chase Gavan as my absolute favourite. They use this almost every single time Dol is called upon and I never get tired of it. Something about that synth and the various weapon call outs is just so good.

Super Hero Bokura no Gavan.
This one has a freaking James Bond riff. That aside, I also dig the lyrics about Gavan being a shining sun, it's a very upbeat if not outstanding track.


Aoi Chikyuu wa Haha no Hoshi
Aoi is a nice slow track, but because of that, it has a very limited field in which it can be effectively utilized. However, it is the only other slow insert song and unlike Chichiyo it's performed quite well. Fittingly this one is about Earth and Gavan's desire to protect his mother's homeworld.

Hoshizora no Message.
This is the ending theme and honestly to make another Lupin comparison, it reminds me of Theme of Love, a lot.


There is also one more track and it's a very nice touch. At the end of the show,  an instrumental version of Uchu Keiji Sharivan is played softly in the background.

And for those wondering, MFC did sub the music, which I'm very thankful for. A lot of sub-teams don't do that because it's rather difficult with the timing.
The one instance I can think of needing some tweaking is episode 40. The subs for Chase Gavan lag behind. "Chase chase chase Gavan" stays on the screen even when "fight fight fight Gavan" is said and last part of the lyrics don't even appear. Every other time it's on point.
There's also a flub where the subs have Gavan says You're never give up Honeybee Doubler, but that's neither here nor there musically.

Final Thoughts.

Gavan like a lot of shows of this era isn't big on an overarching story so much as a framework to hang action scenes upon and smaller individual stories. If you're looking for a tokusatsu which has deeper themes such as the nature of humanity, friendship or are simply character development, then you should probably look elsewhere. I suggest Metalder or V3. However, I was never bored while watching Gavan and I do maintain that the show is overall a solid entry with great music and stunts. That along with Ohba's charm and occasional stand out episode prevent it from being anything close to forgettable.

EXTRA

Okay so there's some stuff I wanted to throw in but I couldn't really work into the review proper, so consider this as a fun bullshit section.


Episode 36 has Gavan trying to decide on a movie and we see a lot of posters from Rocky, ET Hanky Panky, and Toei's own Future War 198X.

I can't believe Gene Wilder technically appears in Gavan.



The other is the lead up to the final three episodes of the show. Episode 41 very well may be the most batshit insane overuse and misuse of stock footage and costumes I have ever seen. It goes from being so incredibly stupid to looping back around into amazing and hilarious. Again, everything below is from that episode.

What do you even say to that? There are Pirates, Japanese... Native Americans in Kindergarten construction paper, Sengoku armies, tanks, planes that are obviously only going to perform stunts.

Afterword.

So I might make a bigger proper post for this sort of thing down the road, but I just want to do a little update on upcoming reviews and the like. Frankly, I want to move onto something further out in terms of Toku reviews. I feel like with exception to Metalder a lot of what I've been reviewing as of late comes off as going in circles, it is a limitation on my part as well as 80s episodic toku just not having a lot that sticks out. A lot of them are good shows and deserve praise, but most of the praise is familiar and I personally like having more themes and story to talk about. Even if a show is episodic, thematics help convey and develop characters.

I do really want to review Winspector at some point so I might do that, hopefully in the near future. I also was working on one of Spielvan but I frankly got bored by episode 30 something and watched the entirety of Gavan instead. If I do get around to Spielvan, it will probably not be a glowing review, to say the least, that show went from really good to falling hard.
But I want to move away from Metal Heroes and 80s toku unless there is something really interesting about it be it good or bad(Spielvan) I even want to branch out into a bit more stuff, this is, after all, a showcase for a lot of different things.
With all that said and out of the way, my next post will be about my collection and my history of collections, as well as the things that interest me etc.