Today is the 25th anniversary of Janperson and I wanted to do a bit of tribute in writing this post. Janperson happens to be my favorite Metal Hero show. The Rescue Police Trilogy ended yet it didn't feel like it ended with Janperson. Sure, Janperson just starts out with one hero (and a midseason change with Gun Gibson kicked in in contrast to Winspector, Solbrain and Exceedraft are all teams) and he had a mysterious origin. Just who was he? It wasn't until episode 18 when we realized who he was.
In some undetermined past, a new robot known as MX-A1 was created. Sometimes, I feel like that people never learn from their mistakes. I guess the scientists behind Janperson didn't watch the Robocop films too closely in their attempt to create a Robocop without a human past. Unlike Robocop, Janperson is completely mechanical yet he was programmed to do three things. Serve the public trust. Protect the innocent. Uphold the law. Unfortunately, that's not how it was turning out.
MX-A1 was one to just destroy bad guys without considering the three directives that Robocop had. He was only a mindless machine without concern for anything as long as the bad guys are defeated. This led to him getting shut down. But that wasn't the mind. One of the scientists (not specified from what group they came from and no, they're not from OCP) -- decided to recreate MX-A1 as the newest robot known as Janperson.
The new challenge was to recreate the killer machine MX-A1 to fulfill the three directives -- serve the public trust, protect the innocent and uphold the law. After some time, Janperson starts showing up in the first episode as the new guy in town -- and his name is Janperson! He battles through some Terminator-like droids in the beginning and he continues to oppose any enemy in Tokyo's crime infested society. It's not just one, not two but three major criminal organizations that are bidding for world domination that he must defeat.
Here's my thoughts on Janperson with him getting blended into B-Fighter and Blue SWAT. I felt like that wasn't the place for him. IMO, I really wanted a bit of continuity retcon with Janperson in another way with the Rescue Police Series -- turning it from the Rescue Police Trilogy into the Rescue Police Tetralogy.
Here's what I wanted to happen since Janperson's three directives are similar to Robocop's. Janperson could have made some references towards Winspector, Solbrain, and Exceedraft. These four shows may not feel like they were made for children even if they were made for children. I think a good way to blend things in might be having some episodes where an upgraded Solbrain, some characters from Winspector and Exceedraft would appear in some of the episodes of Janperson.
I remembered Solbrain having a three-part crossover with Winspector. Later, Ryoma Kagawa returns as the "sixth ranger" Knight Fire. Exceedraft would later include Captain Masaki in the finale arc. I even want to consider that Janperson having a crossover with them would be better than the B-Fighter finale. B-Fighter fighting alongside Janperson seems very out of place for me. Janperson would have probably worked better with the Rescue Police Trilogy before him than B-Fighter since they all had one thing in common -- they are designed to be Rescue Police and not the monster of the week fighters.
Janperson's origins revealed arc could have been a perfect opportunity to put Captain Masaki, Daiki and Ryoma into the story. They are after criminal Jeff Gondo (who is acted by Ryosuke Sakamoto and it'd be fun if Daiki mistook him for the same crook in Solbrain when he isn't). Captain Masaki himself also discovers the origins of Janperson. To elaborate further, I think it would have been nice of Captain Masaki to assist Kaoru in helping Janperson fight off his former personality as MX-A1. It could be nice to see Daiki and Ryoma arrest Jeff Gondo while Janperson does his job. This could give Tatewaki some headaches since we know he's Janperson's counterpart to Robocop's Clarence Boddicker.
Maybe the Neo-Guild reformatting arc could also put Exceedraft. Exceedraft has been conned by George Makabe and they realize they've been tricked. It could be cool to have the three guys team up with Janperson and talk Gun Gibson out of his mission for revenge. They could also be involved in scenes where they not only rescue civilians from Super Science Network's scrap metal rampage (shades of Black RX) but also in stopping Gun Gibson's insane rampage against former Neo-Guild androids before they leave the series.
What are your thoughts on Janperson on the show's 25th anniversary?
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