Special Rescue Police Winspector

[Jinzo Ningen]

Anyone else here caught this series? I was doubtful and just DL'd the 1st episode... and was instantly hooked! So far I've binge watched a couple of chunks and am currently in the teens, episode-wise. Gotta say, this is a freaking awesome tokusatsu series. It's like ADAM-12, mixed with a family-friendly (i.e. no blood) ROBOCOP, and just a dash of X-FILES in some of the more odd cases. It has interesting (but not too complex) crime plots, a restrained (for the most part) sense of humor, a kickass main theme, and V3 himself as the Winspector commander! If you haven't seen it, I highly, highly recommend checking it out.

[Dr Kain]

I have not, but I have downloaded the fansubs to both it and its sequels eries Solbrain.

I'm a huge fan of Sugimura's work, so I really want to watch these two plus Jiban (if it ever gets subbed).

[Jinzo Ningen]

Up to ep30 so far. (Sailor Otaku's subs are, for the most part, excellent. Even so, I'd kill for a legit Blu-ray English dubbed set.) Very cool show. Didn't care much for the 'power ranger'-ish' upgrades that occurred beginning w/ep13 but they've stuck close to the core concept and haven't gone too far out on a limb - yet. Most shows are very fun & engaging, with only really two that I'd call sub-par. There are some really standout episodes sprinkled throughout, including a couple that actually got me choked up. It will be hard to see it end. Hopefully the sequel series (SolBrain) will be as good.

I cannot believe that someone didn't dub this show and release it during early 90's, while the Robocop craze (3 films & the TV series) was at its height. WINSPECTOR could've been a big hit. I'm pretty sure kids & young adults would've gobbled it up. It strikes a near-perfect balance of contemporary light crime & intense toku action. So glad someone went to the all the trouble of adapting it for us poor English-speaking/reading fans. Sure hope that Exceedraft will eventually get done, too. (Although I know even less about it than Winspector & SolBrain.)

[Dr Kain]

Watched the first two episodes just a few moments ago. They were certainly different from what I was expecting.

[Dr Kain]

I just watched episodes 3-6 and I'm still not feeling this show. I don't hate it or anything, I'm entertained, it has the Sugimura feel, but nothing has truly blown me away thus far. Although, I really don't care for the original Buddyroids. Do they ever acquire any personalities in this thing or are they just as one dimensional later on as they are now? Also, I know I'm only 6 episodes in, but I do hope it starts to have some sort of plot development in the next few episodes or at least a central syndicate or something. I'm already feeling a little fatigued from the episodes just being some random criminal nobodies that don't even have super strength or anything. It feels unneccessary to have robots AND a super suit when there isn't anything special about these episodic villains.

To be fair though, it could also be that I'm just not used to a Toku show like this yet.

[Jinzo Ningen]

This is the ONLY show like it that I've even seen out of all the various Toku shows I've encountered in the last 40+ years. It does NOT follow the traditional plots of most of these shows, and perhaps that's what caught me off guard. This is essentially a police drama, with touches of Toku here & there. Only three actual "monsters" appear over the course of the 49 episodes. Frankly, I found that quite refreshing.

There is no central villain or organization, etc. Every sentai & other hero show has some sort of evil world-wide domination-bent bad guy syndicate. This one doesn't, and that's one of the things I love so much about it... breaking the mold. Closest I've seen to Winspector format is Janperson, and even that has themed criminal organizations w/over-the-top villains. I hear BLUESWAT is also more of a police procedural show, but I haven't actually seen any episodes for comparison.

The droids (Bikel & Walter) are more or less combinations of C3PO & Chappie, personality-wise. Both are pretty much consistent throughout, although Bikel has a couple of nice episodes that center around him and flesh him out - so to speak. Walter remains pretty much a by-the-book guy from beginning to end.

WINSPECTOR is 60% ADAM-12, 20% SWAT, 10% sentai-ish and 10% IronMan. SOLBRAIN is kinda similar to WINSPECTOR, as it is a roundabout sequel series, but it's also quite different, hewing closer to the traditional sentai "feel" by featuring giant super vehicles and whatnot.

[Dr Kain]

See, that is a problem for me. I couldn't get into Dekaranger because it didn't have a main villain.

[Jinzo Ningen]

[Dr Kain]

Well it's not like they can just suddenly come up with a new genre that doesn't exist to pull villains from.

[Reaper G]

[Jinzo Ningen]

[Dr Kain]

[Dr Kain]

I just finished episodes 7-10. The first two were all right, but episode 9 was really great. Probably the best episode thus far. I liked that they actually developed the bomber and made him seem bigger than he was. Not to mention we got some backstory for the sister (whose name I can't remember despite just watching the show). Then all of that was followed by what is probably the worst episode of the series thus far. It dealt with a group of kids playing cop, so I think that is all I need to say. UGH!

[Jinzo Ningen]

Yeah, WINSPECTOR's biggest weakness are the flat characters. The lead actor was quite young and whether because of his acting style or the direction he was given, he comes across very one-dimensional. The same can be said for most of the characters here (and in a LOT of toku, sadly). Bikel is interesting as his Nagoya dialect makes him the 'guy from the Bronx' oddball of the 2 droids. He gets a couple of excellent episodes later on, so stick with it. Junko regrettably only really has one episode that focuses on her, which is a waste. She has potential, but they relegate her to the side as spunky back-up/eye candy. But any gal who packs a .44 Automag get the thumbs up in my book. LOL.

Keep your eyes out for guest starring parts by Ultraman's "Ito" and Jiro himself, Daisuke Ban.

[Dr Kain]

I'm planning to review the series for my channel, so I'm all in. Plus, it's a Sugimura series, so I'm going to watch the whole thing even if I wasn't.

BTW, I love that Bikel is voiced by Kaoru Shinoda, who does Tattopat in Zyuranger.

[Jinzo Ningen]

Shinoda plays Bikel's 'father' in a latter ep (one of the 2 to focus on BIkel) that really is fun - and a little touching.

I just started SOLBRAIN and I gotta say that so far I CANNOT STAND IT. It jettisons everything that was unique about WINSPECTOR and goes for the safe & familiar tropes that I am so sick of. (Dipstick comedy relief idiot with neon green ball cap on sideways who overacts to the Nth degree, giant flying firetruck that is somehow required for the final confrontation in every episode so far (a huge fire always seemes to break out, even when story doesn't revolve around firebugs or arson or takes place in a location where a fire could even happen, etc., main hero is a poser pretty boy with even less personality that Ryoma from WSP, etc., etc.) Just not even remotely feeling this one. I'll DL the eps where the Winspector trio makes a guest starring reappearance, but boy, don't know if I want to spend the time trying to see if this gets any better. Honestly, best thing about SOLBRAIN for me is the slick gull-wing Toyota (SolGallop) that they drive.

I'm concurrently sampling the first few eps of JANPERSON and it - while very traditional toku-y feeling - is far more fun & interesting. Wish someone would sub JIBAN. That looks kinda cool.

[Dr Kain]

I just watched episodes 11-16 of Winspector. There were some really good episodes there, especially a two parter that featured the actor from Godzilla vs Biollante as the crime boss (named Reaper Moss).

Then it was followed by the generic and overdone main character gets hit so hard he loses his memory until it is conveniently returned at the right time when everything is on the line at the end of the episode. UGH!! I hate these stupid amnesia episodes because they are all the same. The worst part is, this was the perfect opportunity to actually develop Ryoma and give us some backstory as to why he was chosen to be Fire and they squandered it.

Even the next episode, which figured a girl who had a crush on Walter, was no where near as bad as that one.

[Jinzo Ningen]

LOL. Yeah... amnesia-themed stories are almost always kind the same - regardless of what country or series they're featured in. But hey, at least WINSPECTOR doesn't stoop to using the "evil twin(s)" shtick!

FWIW... I am slowly / begrudgingly starting to like SOLBRAIN. No where near as much fun as WINSPECTOR, but the further into I get I've hit some pretty good, (and violent, holy moly!) stories.

[Dr Kain]

Well Kamen Rider Ryuki did an amnesia episode, but they used the plot device to develop Knight since we only knew a little bit about his character at that point. They could have easily done that with Ryoma and had this story be a few episodes long.

Anyway, I watched another batch of Winspector episodes today (17-22). They were good, especially an episode that actually develoed Junko a bit. On the other hand, there was an episode where Royma's actor looked like he was falling asleep while filming, which makes it hard to root for him when he looks like he isn't putting his all into the show.

With that said, do we get any more alien creatures like the living Gak? I'm getting a little tired of the villains just being normal criminals. It seems excessive that they need two robots and an armored suit to handle regular dudes. I get it when they are up against a cyborg or needing to rescue someone in a burning box, but for something as simple as stopping a guy with hostages? o_O

Well whatever. I'll have to wait until next week to watch another batch of them.

BTW, one of my subscribers gave me the Fire Figuarts for my birthday.

[Jinzo Ningen]

Ooooh. The Figuarts are very nice, indeed! I became so enamored of the series that I bought Fire (thank you, Amazon!), and was also able to track down Bikel at a fairly decent price. Walter, however, was some sort of limited availability figure (mail order or cereal boxtops or something. LOL), and you can't get him unless you want to pay highway robbery prices. ($220+ on eBay right now. YIKES!!!) No way I'm paying that, but I sure would LOVE to own the complete trio. *SIGH*

Sorry to pee in your popcorn Kain, but I don't believe there's much more in the way of 'out there' villains for them to go up against. Susumu Kurobe returns for the last two episodes with more cyborg trouble, but that's about it really. The cool news, for me, is that all three WIN guys return for a 3 episode crossover in the middle of the run of SOLBRAIN, so I'm looking forward to that!

[Dr Kain]

http://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/deta ... 0&ref=list

[Dr Kain]

I managed to squeeze in 3 more episodes so I could end at the halfway point of the show. They were good, but again, excessive. I liked the episode with the killer plants. The only thing I was disappointed with was not having the plant sing "Feed Me." The sniper one was also enjoyable while the one with Bikel falling in love was kind of creepy.

[Jinzo Ningen]

"The Robot Who Cried In The Rain" I thought was kind of a cool episode. What really got to me was at the very end where Bikel is crying and doesn't know why/how and he cannot stop, and that makes him even sadder and more scared/hysterical.

BTW, Kain...
A major 'domo arigato gozaimashita' to you for posting a link for an S.H.Figuarts for Walter!!! There was literally one place left that had them. Ended up paying about the same as I did for Bikel. Cool! Thanks again! (I see they offer a 'lab/maintenance' set up that also includes the GigaStreamer and other bits & pieces, but it's over $100. Besides, it really wouldn't be complete without the proper scale WinSquad/FireSquad.)

[Dr Kain]

[Jinzo Ningen]

Yes, I got it. Thanks! Musta been the last one!! They seem pretty rare/limited compared to the other two figures. Just hope nothin' goes wrong with the transit here. <fingers crossed>

Only neg is that the S.H. Figuarts stuff - while excellent in detail & casting/color quality - is so f-r-a-g-i-l-e !!