It's no secret that Winspector is about to turn 30 years old in the same year with Fiveman. Strangely, Lightspeed Rescue will go 20 too. I decided to revisit a highly ambitious show when the Kamen Rider franchise had no new series except the 1992-1994 movie series. So, let's get started with a bit of the rather unique series itself. It makes the heroes a little less powerful. While Super Sentai and Kamen Rider show the heroes aren't invincible - the vulnerability of the heroes in Winspector makes them a little more relatable, right?
It's no secret that before this show - there was the Robocop-inspired Jiban. This show was going to take a lot of stuff together to create a rather unique Tokusatsu. Does it feel like the typical Metal Hero shows before it? No monster to defeat, not-so-fancy mecha, and it's more of the case-of-the-week scenario. I'd probably wish Toei referred to it as the Rescue Hero series rather than the Metal Hero series. They operated very differently from most Metal Hero series in the past.
The main protagonist Ryoma Kagawa has all the vulnerabilities that other heroes don't have. Yet, somehow that makes him a badass for that reason. You can consider that Shinnosuke Tomari in Kamen Rider Drive isn't limited by a six-minute constraint. The heroes of GoGoFive and Lightspeed Rescue have their big mecha that would easily rescue a runaway van or tanker before the episode ends. No, not these guys. The first episode shows Ryoma as Fire with both Biker and Walter trying to stop a runaway tanker. They really have to rely on their limited resources and yet they save the day at the end of the episode. He and his partner Junko (though I tend to ship them even if the show doesn't) are almost as vulnerable as everyday heroes.
I would say the show seems to make it like, "What if the daily police dealt with really absurd situations?" Sure, you've got Dekaranger handling that in 2004. Though, Winspector aired in 1990 while taking place in 1999. There's no real central villain. Instead, each episode has a different criminal or in rare cases - a different scenario. There are some magic and science fiction episodes which can be pretty entertaining. I just love how episodes like the wicked centuries-old witch (acted by Atsuko Takahata) or the obvious throwback to the sci-fi movie The Blob are done. All these progress to different parts. The plot progresses with the heroes developing nearly like real rescue workers. They would move forward from one point to the next as the show slowly progresses towards the year 2000 - even when it's only 1991 when Solbrain would be aired.
The series has me quite upset later on. I really felt that cast members of Winspector should've been in GoGoFive.
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