Top 5: Most Wanted Shokugan Modeling Project (SMP) Releases

Whether you've accepted Shokugan Modeling Project into your hearts or still go about calling it by its original Super Mini-Pla name, there's no denying that Bandai's premium super robot model kit line has been doing some incredible things over the past few years. From its various Super Sentai and tokusatsu releases to a plethora of anime bots, SMP has become a key place for collectors to get their robot fix. But even with everything they've covered so far that's just a fraction of what Japan has to offer, and that's without counting the 30+ years of Super Sentai still untouched by them. So for this month's top five I'm looking at the things I'd most like to see join the Shokugan Modeling Project line, most of which would probably be released as overpriced Premium Bandai exclusives but I'd happily buy regardless.

Top 5: Tokusatsu Toei Should Subtitle For Youtube

It's been over two years since Toei launched their Toei Tokusatsu World Official Youtube channel and it's fair to say it's been a mixed bag at best. As far as English-speaking fans are concerned these days it's mainly used for dumping odd episodes (or movies) of Kamen Rider and calling it "worldwide distribution", but upon its initial launch Toei dumped a whole host of interesting titles from their rather extensive back catalogue. Sadly only the first two episodes were subbed, but the remaining episodes continued to be uploaded to the channel – making many of them the most accessible they've ever been outside of Japan. So for this month's top five I'm counting down the five shows I'd most like to see fully subbed on the channel. Don't get me wrong the channel is the perfect place for Kamen Rider to be shared with the world, but it would be amazing for these great shows to get some more exposure too.

Toei Tokusatsu World Official - First Episode Reviews

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.