Sunday 24 May 2020

Toei Tokusatsu World Official - First Episode Reviews

Toei Tokusatsu World Official

Over the past two months I've been working on a collaboration piece with the good people over at Toku Toy Store, in which myself and group of other writers challenged ourselves to first episode reviews for every one (or at least all the ones available in our region) of the shows uploaded to Toei's own Toei Tokusatsu World Official YouTube channel. This is a recent undertaking by Toei to make their shows that little bit more available worldwide, with the first two episodes of each series available with subtitles in a range of different languages. Further episodes are being uploaded without subtitles, however Toei have said they're making a "public call" for fans to develop and upload subtitles themselves. The specifics of this aren't very clear and have been a subject of debate, but at the very least we currently have an official outlet with episodes of around 70 different anime and Tokusatsu series. While that does include some of the more well-known franchises like Kamen Rider, Super Sentai and Metal Heroes (where available), there's also a wealth of obscurer content which many fans probably haven't even heard of! If you ever wanted a primer on the Toei Fushigi Comedy Series or Shotaro Ishinomori's love of mascot-esque robots, then you've come to the right place.

Below are links to all 22 reviews I contributed to the project, one of which you'll also recognise as a show that got a full series review on this very blog. Please give them a read if you have the chance, they're a little shorter than my regular reviews if that helps! Also bear in mind that these are reviews of the first episodes only, so opinions are solely based on the content provided in those.

National Kid

Suki! Suki!! Majo Sensei

Henshin Ninja Arashi

Inazuman

Inazuman Flash

Ganbare!! Robocon

Akumaizer 3

Chojin Bibyun

Space Ironman Kyodain

Chōdenji Robo Combattler V

Daitetsujin 17

Robot 110-Ban

Message From Space: Galactic Wars

Batten Robomaru

Lightspeed Electroid Albegas

Dochinko! Nemurin

Marin Gumi

Magical Girl Chukana Ipanema!

La Belle Fille Masquée Poitrine

Utau! Dairyugujou

Choukou Senshi Changéríon


Even if nothing else comes of the Toei Tokusatsu World Official channel and future uploads remain without subtitles, at the very least it's been both fun and formative to check out so many of these shows and get a better sense of Japan's superhero boom in the 70s and 80s. That said, there are a couple of the shows available on there that do have full sets of subtitles (whether it's through fansubs or official releases), so if you think any of them are deserving of a full review then please let me know!

4 comments:

M said...

Nice work Alex! If you can,do watch and do a Review of Changérion. In my opinion, it's one of the best Tokusatsu of the 90s!

M said...

P.S. - Bignovasubs subbed it!

Max said...

Man, I would pay good money to see all of Inazuman Flash subbed someday.

Alex said...

Same :( it's one of the Tokusatsu shows I want to see the most!