I Just Finished Jiban

Well, I finally finished Jiban and I'm thankful I gave it a chance. I wasn't really such a fan and sometimes -- rewatching something can be good. It's like how I decided to rewatch ToQGer to finally give me the, "Well, it's got its own charm like the way I can appreciate Fiveman." I think Jiban is probably one of those shows that get eclipsed. After Jiban -- Winspector finally came which was a totally different type of Metal Hero series. Jiban was loosely based on Robocop. Then in 1993, we would have Janperson who, unlike Jiban, is a fully mechanical version of Robocop.

So what's with Jiban? I thought that the show would be the first time the late Noboru Sugimura would work with Tokusatsu. Only that, I think I'd probably still watch Zyuranger any day over Jiban. But on its own -- Jiban still has its charm as a little bit more child-friendly Robocop despite the later tragedies that the show would have. The loss of both Harry Boy and Seiichi Yanagida really saddened me. The destruction of the base was just so tragic!

Bioron shows how dangerous they can be despite executing some silly plans to keep the show going. Dr. Giba is dead serious about taking down Jiban and goes as far as to create the female warrior Mad Garbo. They would even ally with the dangerous alien known as Queen Cosmo just to get ends meet. Mad Garbo and Queen Cosmo eventually succeeded in getting rid of Jiban (for a while). Jiban was later revived as "Perfect" Jiban to defeat the newer set of characters. Somehow, you gotta love the cliche of heroes having a back-up plan, right?

However, I just thought Jiban was really not high enough in my books. I've stated that Janperson actually overshadowed Jiban for me. Why I even lost interest in Jiban because Janperson felt like a more mature show. Janperson does more cop drama, less Toku monsters, and is more focused on rescue missions like the Rescue Police Trilogy. I feel Janperson as a fully mechanical Robocop has that huge degree of maturity. Winspector up to Janperson felt less of a kiddie show and more of a primetime show for older audiences. Just that it doesn't matter that Robocop or even Jiban came first because I think Janperson somewhat perfected the concept for me.

For me, I'd suggest you still try watching Jiban. You may like it or you may not like it. Remember that my opinions may be backed up by facts but that doesn't make them absolute. I can always respect people who like the shows I don't like and vice-versa. Jiban itself can be considered quite entertaining, a nice trip for some back to their childhood -- although there's the generation gap that one needs to address with watching 1980s Toku shows, right?