Special Rescue Police Winspector

[Dr Kain]

It feels like it has been forever since I watched an episode of Winspector even though it has been just over a week.

Anyway, I watched 26-28 tonight and they were all solid episodes. It was nice to see Ryoma's sister get development (although, she has been given far more development than he has at this point) and the episode that dealt with a girl wanting revenge for her father's murder was nice. However, the star of this batch hands down goes to a crazy episode about a lady withh psychi abilities and is backed by dudes that look like members of the KKK. That episode was friggin awesome. Not to mention it was one of those times where Ryoma putting on the armor was actually warranted.

[Dr Kain]

I decided to take a break from playing Horizon today and watched episodes 29-38. Outside of maybe one episode, they were all pretty solid episodes. My favorites included one that dealt with Youkai, one that featued a dude who was put into cryo sleep for 9 years, and then a two parter with a scientist who went crazy. Oh, and the episode with Bikel's creator was great too. The only episode I'd say I didn't care for dealt with a child who saw a hit and run and then his shameful mother refused to let him tell the police about it. I do wish they had let the crazed scientist guy get a few more episodes before they put him away though. Oh, and the first parter that had Not Robocop (his name was freaking Robot Cop Brian) was hilarious at the digs they were making towards America's paranoia for massive security. Lastly, I found it quite amuzing that there was an episode with these Amazon ladies who hid themselves in coffee beans. I know people are obsessed with coffee, but that is excessive. :-p

[Dr Kain]

I watched episodes 39-45 tonight. There were some good episodes in this batch, but there were alot quite a few stinkers. I feel like the show is losing steam because they had 3 bomb plots in a row, and only one of them actually felt like it had heart to it (one that dealt with a kid strapping a bomb to himself). There was a really solid two parter than dealt with a clone army that was interesting, and then there was one that featured a terrorist mini nuclear bomb plot that was way too convoluted for its own good. I've also come to realize that there has not been a single episode dedicated to Walter. Bikel is the only one of the two to actually have a personality and interacts with others. Walter is just there because... well I don't know. I've got four episodes left, I really hope one of them is dedicated to Walter.

It would be nice if they had a criminal from a previous episode return too.

[Dr Kain]

Well I just finished the series and the last four episodes were kind of meh.

First, 46 was kind of funny to see Barza's actor trying to play a gangster that got his idea from the movie The Godfather.

47 was a pretty good episode, but the ending made it sound like they were going to go after this crime syndicate.

48 had nothing to do with the crime syndicate and half of the episode was a friggin clip show. A CLIP SHOW!!!! The only other series I've seen pull this kind of bullshit stunt has been Gundam SEED Destiny.

49 continued the story from 48, giving us a nice tie into the first episode, and the ending was fine.

Overall, I enjoyed the show, but there was a lot of wasted potential. Walter never had a single episode dedicated to himself and Ryoma was as generic as you can get.

I'll save the rest of my thoughts for when I review the show.

[Jinzo Ningen]

Yeah, I was pretty bummed that more than half of the wrap up to this series consisted of montage footage. Clip shows are usually a sign that writers are on strike (or are about to be), or one or more of the stars needs a break or is unavailable... so the producers, still needing to have something to shoot, write around them and cough up a "bottle" episode. Regardless of why, it was lame to close this how out that way. And I completely agree that the lack of anything focusing on Walter was a real shame. Sadly though, many of these kids' shows don't bother with much character development; it's just "monsters, explosions & heroes" to keep the tykes seated in front of the boobtube. Things have gotten better on a few series I've caught of late, but the problem has gotten even harder to overcome nowadays with the reduction of actual show runtime allotment, in order to pack in more friggin' commercials! Ugh.

I am slowly coming around on Solbrain, but you'll probably be pretty indifferent again, Kain, because it's even more 'pedestrian' than Winspector. NO monsters/aliens/weirdness at all. At least none up to ep 23, which is where I'm at now. Also, the lack of character background/backstory continues on this show, too. The robot (Dozer) officer gets pushed even further into the background than Walter & Bikel. There's only been one episode focusing (somewhat) on him, but he's kind of boring really, so I haven't minded much. The draw with this show is the crimes, more than the heroes. And good lord is this show violent! (At least from the perspective of it being kids' entertainment.) There are people being shot point blank (multiple times!) with bloody bullet hits, hit & runs shown, and more! I was quite taken aback. I still plan to finish it out, but it's pretty uneven; stronger crime stories but even weaker protagonist development than its predecessor. Though as with all things, YMMV.

[Dr Kain]

[Dr Kain]

My review:

[Dr Kain]

I started Solbrain today and well, it kind of sucks. I'm bored. I want my Walter and Bikel back. lol I don't know why, but this feels no different than Winspector, just without the charm. Everyone is as wooden as Ryoma was. I did like the VR stuff, but ultimately, I don't see why this series needs to exist. Speaking of pointless existences, the giant firetruck needs to go. God is that thing dumb.

Although, the worst part was episode 3. Yes, I know it actually came first, but holy "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!", it was the exact same plot as Ohranger episode 4. Single father cop gets possessed by parasite that turns him into the original form of said parasite, he kidnaps children to replicate himself, and then when things go awry, cop father tries to commmit suicide to stop it, only for the heroes to use fire to remove the creature from the host body, killing it. I know Toei will repeatedly reuse episode scripts, but they at least change them up enough so they never feel like they are the exact same episode. Here, I knew exacty what event was going to happen before it even happened. Super annoying.

[Jinzo Ningen]

Stick with it. The series actually does get better as it rolls along. Yeah, you don't realize how good you really had it with Bikel & Walter - until you're stuck with Dozer. LOL

The scripts get better as the show progresses and, thankfully, the use of that flying ladder truck gets scaled back considerably. It's use feels forced from the get-go and then every show during the first third of the series ends up with some hairbrained explosion-cum-conflagration which naturally requires deployment of that ungainly red SOB. It does feature cleverly in a couple of episodes, not that that's much compensation for something blatantly created solely for the purpose of selling toys.

Truthfully, I haven't watched the remaining dozen or so episodes of SOLBRAIN, as I was getting rather burned out on it. And even though I understand that the same guy is also subbing the complete final entry in the Rescue Hero Trilogy, "EXCEEDRAFT" - unless the first few eps really knock my socks off, I can't see the point of forcing myself to sit through them all just because they're available. (Too many other great shows seeing the light of day now (Ironman Tiger Seven!) ) Hopefully EXCEEDRAFT will be better or somehow different enough to warrant a looksee. I'm currently getting my feet wet on JANPERSON, and I've gotta say that it is a really cool show. Only the first 25 eps are subbed, but this one looks to be worth waiting for the rest. Watching it makes me wish someone would get busy on JIBAN.

[Dr Kain]

To be honest, if Solbrain wasn't done by Sugimura and I wasn't planning to review it, I would drop it.

[Dr Kain]

So today I watched episodes 5-10 of Solbrain. They were not bad. In fact, some of them were really touching. My favorite episode of this batch is probably the one where the prototype Solbraver suit is stolen. Unfortunately the last few minutes were pretty bad though as after getting to watch a really kick ass fight sequence, some random girl just shows up in the middle of the burning factor. It was like they finished the episode but still needed 2 more minutes of episode and decided to throw in some random rescue bit to make up for it. The girl is never introduced at all before hand and then kind of just disappears after she is hugged by Soljeanne. It made no sense. The episode with the James Bond Wolfman was pretty awesome too though. Actually, maybe I like that one better...

The cast is still card board as far as personalities go, but at least they spent some time to develop them a bit. Except for Dozer. He serves no purpose right now. I also don't know what the point of this show is. It seems like they are just repeating the same stories they already covered with Winspector, just with new merchandise. Not to mention they had 3 bomb plots in those 6 episodes. Can we get some variety?