Special REVIEW: Forticus: Stream! The Heirs to Their Favourite Hero

Between the likes of Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger, Tokusatsu Gagagaga, The High School Heroes and Wingman, shows that celebrate the medium of tokusatsu and act as a love letter to all things henshin heroes come in many different shapes and sizes. However, rarely to they also celebrate the way in which they are released. To mark the tenth anniversary of the Toei Tokusatsu Fan Club streaming service, Toei produced Forticus: Stream! The Heirs to Their Favourite Hero - a one-off hour-long special debuting a brand new hero. Directed by Koichi Sakamoto and written by Junichiro Ashiki (a veteran writer for the Ultraman franchise, most notably working on Trigger, Decker, Omega and the Ultra Galaxy Fight specials), Forticus pays homage to Toei's decades of tokusatsu production in its own unique way.

Tsuyoshi Honjo, Naoto Soda and Koharu Umishiro are all employees working for the TV production company SLOPPY DOGS, as well as diehard tokusatsu fans. When their boss tasks them with investigating the mysterious disappearance of multiple VIPs, they uncover a sinister plot by the Biotech M corporation that's straight out of one of their favourite shows!

Just as Biotech M reveal themselves as the evil organisation Wicked, the trio are saved by a mysterious figure. Taken to the TTFC headquarters, they discover the streaming app is actually just a front for the Tactical Task Force Consultancy - an organisation secretly battling against evil. Not only that, but it turns out that their favourite hero Forticus is actually real! In order to fight Wicked, Forticus needs viable candidates to inhabit - and this unlikely trio are exactly who the TTFC have been looking for.

Celebrating the anniversary of your streaming service with something that isn't one of your main franchises might seem like an odd choice at first, but as well as attempting to create something wholly unique with Forticus Toei have filled this special with plenty of familiar faces from various (and not just limited to their own) tokusatsu series. Right off the bat Toei were extremely clever with their choice of leads for the special - Fuku Suzuki (Ziin/Kamen Rider Ziin in Kamen Rider Geats), Tatsuomi Hamada (Riku Asakura/Ultraman Geed in Ultraman Geed) and Rena Takeda (Yuki Shirahama in Tokusatsu Gagaga) all already known for roles where being a fan is a core part of the character - with Suzuki even taking it one step further by also playing Shotaro Ishinomori himself in Super Hero Senki. Those three names alone are enough to generate interest, but even the supporting cast is stacked with tokusatsu veterans - including Daisuke Ono (Teddy in the Cho Kamen Rider Den-O movies), Yuki Kobota (Taketora Kureshima/Kamen Rider Zangetsu in Kamen Rider Gaim), Ayaka Imoto (Sakura Igarashi/Kamen Rider Jeanne in Kamen Rider Revice), Yu Miyazawa (Sakito Homura/Bun Violet in Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger), Kazusa Okuyama (Tsukasa Myojin/PatRen 3gou in Lupinranger vs Patranger) and Mitsutoshi Shundo (Shinya Mizorogi/Dark Mephisto in Ultraman Nexus). No matter how big of a tokusatsu fan you are, chances are you'll have come across at least one of these actors somewhere. That alone makes Forticus feel special, bringing together all these familiar faces - many of whom may not have crossed paths before.

But what's equally interesting about Forticus is the world it builds, paying homage to the various tokusatsu shows fans have fallen in love with over the years but never directly referencing them. It would have been so easy for Toei to just make the characters fans of Kamen Rider, Super Sentai or any of the other multitude of superhero shows out there, but instead Forticus builds up a whole universe of "shows within a show" to draw from. The titular Forticus being the most obvious one and current favourite of our heroes, but there's also the likes of "JustiGuy", "Extraordinary Guardian Wonder Knights" and "Champion Star Brothers" - each accompanied by clips of these non-existent shows that so far as to emulate the look and feel of the eras they're supposed to have come from. But as well as paying homage to Toei's homegrown solo and team superhero franchises, Forticus even shows reverence to the kyodai hero subgenre as well - something Toei themselves are less known for than their competitors. There's also of plenty of gags playing on the various tropes and conventions of these shows, many of which the special willingly follows itself. While it may be celebrating the tenth anniversary of their streaming service, Forticus goes beyond just celebrating Toei tokusatsu - instead being an earnest love letter to the medium as a whole.

Of course that isn't to say Forticus isn't above celebrating Toei's own personal milestone here, with the special so steeped in TTFC branding that it can almost feel a bit too self-congratulatory at times. The whole idea of the TTFC being a secret organisation measuring candidates' potency through how well they exhibit the values of their favourite shows is extremely tongue in cheek, yet somehow works as a legitimate set-up for the story without drowning completely in parody. Whilst the same can't really be said about the app itself being used for Forticus' transformation sequence or the trio being upgraded to "Super Premium Gold Member" status after saving the day, at the very least you have to admire Toei going all-in on the concept. 

As charming as all this may be however, it wouldn't work without a great cast to lead it. The lead trio's previous roles already make them the ideal candidates for the special, with the characters themselves also the kind of people any tokusatsu fan could relate to. Once again even the characters are steeped in love for their medium - with the trio not only representing different virtues Forticus is looking for, but also those three pillars of tokusatsu. Tsuyoshi (Suzuki) is justice, Naoto (Hamada) is courage and Koharu (Takeda) compassion. Even the kanji for their names are puns on the iconic first heroes from Kamen Rider, Ultraman and Super Sentai respectively. While it's fun to see them fawn over their love of tokusatsu and live the dream of becoming the very heroes they idolise, they're relatable because there's also a sense of realism to them as well. Koharu initially hides her love of tokusatsu in her professional life, while Naoto has doubts about becoming a superhero after nearly facing death. There might not be enough time here to explore their backstories more, but their personalities shine through enough to compensate for that.

Forticus keeps it relatively simply when it comes to the villains however, which while making sense for a potentially one-off story like this doesn't give the characters a whole lot to work with. Soichiro Mono (Kabota) is your generic evil organisation CEO, who plans to take over the world using a trio of "Transcendents" - super-powered humans who he has further augmented through his own scientific means. Even the Transcendents powers and backstory are fairly derivative, with brother and sister Lily (Imoto) and Seiji (Kota Miyagi) drawn into Mono's evil schemes after being outcast for being different. Kusou (Miyzawa) however is Mono's loyal servant, acting as his chief enforcer alongside Seiji. Though its all fairly straightforward, the ideas here do have potential should Toei ever look to do further Forticus adventures - with a post-credits sting thrown in at the very end just to keep that as a possibility.

Although the majority of the story focuses more on the characters' investigation of Biotech M and stumbling upon their true identity of Wicked, there's still plenty of time allotted to the titular hero during the special's climax. This is where Toei really show that love for those three pillars of tokusatsu superheroes, with Forticus' three different forms paying tribute to the their distinct format. Forticus Kanon is a melee-based lone fighter mirroring Kamen Rider (complete with a TTFC-branded Rider Kick finishing attack), whereas Forticus Stratos clones himself to fight as a unit ala Super Sentai. Finally Forticus Gigas grows to Ultraman-size, defeating his opponents with an all too familiar beam attack. With Sakamoto having worked on each of these franchises he's the perfect choice to direct a hero representing all three, and brings his usual explosive style to the table. Although Toei have seemingly kept the budget low for the villain costumes (the Transcendents simply wearing helmets reflecting their individual powers), Forticus however looks fantastic - the suit itself is quite distinct and feels like a "new" (or at the very least more Metal Heroes-esque) hero, rather than an amalgamation of elements from the things it references. The Forticus Gigas section of the fight is a particular highlight as it shows off Toei's own prowess when it comes to miniature cityscapes - something that feels less prevalent now given the loss of Super Sentai.

Though it can perhaps be a little too on the nose with its self-referencing at times, Forticus: Stream! The Heirs to Their Favourite Hero is a fun special that's both a celebration of tokusatsu and has the potential to grow into something bigger. Through both its rebranding of the TTFC and the shows within shows its created, Toei have created quite a rich world here as well as filling it with plenty of likeable characters. Whilst it might not quite have the legs to grow into a fully-fledged series, there's definitely enough here for Forticus to be rolled out once more the next time the TTFC reaches a milestone year. But even if we never hear from the three-in-one hero again, this was certainly a unique and memorable way for the streaming service to celebrate its tenth anniversary.