The Iron Warrior plot really was a troll episode now, wasn't it? I was expecting that the episode (back then) would reveal who Janperson was. Unlike Robocop and Jiban, Janperson's past is never revealed immediately. We all know Jiban was a cyborg and his backstory as Naoto Tamura was revealed. Naoto becomes the Bioron-slaying Robocop. Jiban is loosely inspired by Robocop as there's hardly any other similarity after that. Not for the Janperson series - it seems the people behind the show had no idea on what to do (yet) then they revealed what he truly was!
Episode 15
One of the cast members of Exceedraft is here namely Mamoru Kawaii. One of the workers would later be a technical person in Megaranger. Personally, I wonder if Janperson was truly meant to be separate from the Rescue Police Trilogy. I really can't help but think of Janperson to be Rescue Police even if it was meant to be separated from Winspector up to Exceedraft. I heard Exceedraft was supposed to be self-contained but was retconned at the last minute. Yeah, I think it's quite a bummer (sort of) that Captain Masaki should make a guest appearance. Still, I wonder why Hiroshi Miyauchi never guest-starred in GoGoFive after the Metal Hero franchise was canceled by Toei Ltd.?
This episode features Angel a saboteur robot. We also get to see a glimpse of who Janperson was meant to be. Here, Boddicker ahem Tatewaki shows he can be manipulative. Like Boddicker, we know Tatewaki just doesn't like it when people refuse to sell them his properties. It also kind of reminds me of Robert G. Durant from Darkman who painfully cut off Eddie Black's fingers at the beginning of the film. Fortunately, there are limits to how much violence is allowed. Heck, 1993 was the year of Dairanger - the bloodiest Super Sentai to date!
This episode though ends on a good note. I think the producers of Janperson decided to give good note episodes to avoid the backlash that Metalder had. Metalder was enjoyed by older fans but did poorly with the younger fans. Angel does get his redemption and turns himself in. Meanwhile, Janperson faces a mysterious voice that will slowly explain itself.
Episode 16
This is one weird episode that somehow starts to make references to Jiban and even Robocop. Sure, we don't get a glimpse of a certain police officer getting massacred and becoming Janperson. No, this is a weird clip show that features Dr. Wily ahem, Dr. Tonda. I kinda called Dr. Tonda "Dr. Wily" because of the way he was presented - he practically was a live version of Dr. Wily. Dr. Wily from the Megaman series was said to have become a supervillain consultant taking different forms during the Megaman X series. Now, the actor of Dr. Tonda is also the late Chuko Ueda (who appeared in Jiban as Vulture Bionoid). I guess his guest-starring was purely intentional as Jiban and Janperson were both based on Robocop to a certain extent.
In this episode, we have Dr. Wily ahem Dr. Tonda make a willpower device. A robot called Robot R3 (acted by Kibaji Tankobo who was in Takeshi's Castle alongside the late Strong Kongo) is Neo-Guild's latest experiment. Robot R3 is given some willpower so he can defeat Janperson. The problem is the whole battery by Dr. Wily ahem Dr. Tonda creates different personalities. Heck, Robot R3 even mimics GAVAN of all people. Speaking of which - it's said that Gavan apparently did partly inspire Robocop. I think it was more coincidental that Robocop had similarities to the PURELY MECHANICAL Robot Detective K. I guess this is why Janperson (as revealed) has NO HUMAN PAST. I guess Toei Ltd. already heard of that rumor AND decided to make fun of it in this episode! Yet, Janperson's design was partly based on ROBOCOP of all characters. Funny, right?
Sidenote, I decided to watch The Movies That Made Us on Netflix. NOTHING about Gavan was ever mentioned. Instead, the design for Robocop was taken from a Japanese source but NOT from Gavan. Instead, it was revealed to be from the Sexy Robot Book by Hajime Soroyama. Talk about the weirdness! I wonder if Sexy Robot did inspire the creation of Dural for Virtua Fighter? I still laugh at how Gavan was mentioned in this episode. It seemed Toei was poking fun at the rumor!
What started out as a campy episode becomes sad. Yes, Robot R3 overloads and explodes. Janperson is about to break Isaac Asimov's three laws of robotics by nearly killing "Dr. Wily" in the process. This reminds me of how Megaman 7 (released on March 24, 1995) had Megaman nearly killing Dr. Wily. The Japanese version had a slightly different variation of the ending. Did Capcom take inspiration from this? I keep reading Hirohisa Soda's name in some Capcom productions. This episode was also written by SODA himself. SODA is the same person who was also the head writer of Bioman...
Episodes 17-18
This is one long arc that I think did bring up Robocop 3. Amazing that Robocop 3 was screened on April 18, 1993. Once again head writer Junichi Miyashita (and I personally think he did a good job with Hurricanger but not as good as this) wrote these episodes. This one has the guesting of Ryosuke Sakamoto as Jeff Gondo. I'm wondering what (or why) does the show keep giving us Japanese characters with Western first names for some episodes? GEORGE Makabe is one. We have JEFF Gondo who is another gangster member.
These episodes were on May 16 and May 23 - sometime after the screening of the FAILED Robocop 3. Yet, Janperson decided to finally import one character from the movie. I guess you can guess it already, right? Marie Lazarus was introduced in Robocop 3. It seems that Makabe's personality was sooner altered to fit in with Paul MacDaggett. Heck, spoilers, it seems that the end of Neo-Guild copied some elements from Robocop 3. Kaoru herself is the chief scientist who was involved in Janperson's origins. I guess the Iron Soldier plot didn't work so this happened. Even more amazingly, Kaoru went to America for some time before returning. Isn't that an obvious reference to Robocop?
Tatewaki, like Boddicker, tends to move around a lot. I guess Dick Jones was too unpopular for Toei Ltd. It still reminds me of how Darkman 2 decided to bring Durant back no matter how illogical it was. The unofficial Darkman sequel in 1993 (by Marvel, no doubt) featured Durant as a cyborg. Later, Tatewaki becomes a bio-cyborg known as Bill Goldy. I think it's a weird circle of events. Tatewaki is also manipulating Jeff from behind the scenes. Jeff was later apprehended at the end of this two-parter.
What we learn is all about who Janperson was. The MX-A1 project was meant to fight criminals. Who can remember how the Robocop films did feature defective crime-fighting machines? The first movie had Jones comment it was just a "minor accident" at the OCP headquarters. Robocop 2 featured a second Robocop model which was later renamed Robocain. Kaoru Saegusa was a chief robotics expert. MX-A1 went berserk without a conscience and violated Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. The result was to get rid of the defective robot. However, Kaoru decided to revive MX-A1 into a new robot known as Janperson.
I really wonder if there was an inside joke. Kaoru is practically Marie from the third film. Janperson's design is blatantly a recolored Robocop. I wonder if Kaoru was secretly a fan of the Robocop franchise. It would be funny if ever we saw glimpses of the Robocop films dubbed in Japanese in these episodes. Toei Ltd. would be confirming that they did get inspired by Robocop and not just Robot Detective K. It's no use hiding that Janperson's design was based on Robocop. I guess Kaoru must've decided to remodel MX-A1 to look like a recolored Robocop because she was a fan of the show. Later, Kaoru manages to fake her death to protect Janperson. Yeah, Kaoru does create robotic duplicates of herself. Later, her robotics expertise came in handy during the finale as well.
I also developed some wishful thinking. I wish that Akira Ishihama (who appeared in Jiban and before that as the kooky scientist in Flashman) could've made a guest appearance. Maybe, it would be cool (theoretically) if Janperson were somewhat linked to the Rescue Police Trilogy. Would be nice to see either the Solbrain team or the Exceedraft team arrest Jeff. I kinda also wanted Captain Masaki from Solbrain to show up talking about Jeff as a wanted crook. I guess Toei Ltd. never wanted to do that. Why Toei Ltd. decided to link Janperson to B-Fighter for a crossover finale just feels weird. Yeah, I'll always criticize and praise Toei Ltd. so get used to it.
That interesting tidbit from Megabeast Empire...
I was thinking about the rumor (if ever it was true) that Janperson was supposed to be formerly human. If so, that would be making a reference to Jiban and the inspiration Robocop. Here's what I found from the fansub group...
Like okay yeah much like any Metal Hero show it just throws stuff at you from the get-go. First episode introduces you to the mysterious Janperson and the evil Guild syndicate. Next episode is the demise of the previously introduced Guild. There’s the cast of characters you’d Think would be recurring, but after one of them making a last appearance in episode 13 they never show up again. Hell I remember at one point the Japanese wikipedia page had a lengthy section up for a year saying that Kou Domon (Kamen Rider ZO) was to play an unmasked Janperson who was to be human. Obviously that’s bullshit since the section has been since taken down, but frankly with some of the choice made with this show I Would’ve Believed It. Show was very much throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks for a while.
So I guess the rumor that Kou Domon was to be an Alex Murphy was SHOT DOWN. Domon was previously the main hero of Kamen Rider ZO which was just a short. Domon later played a "monster of the week" created by Super Science Network to defeat Janperson. I guess the rumor is well... JUST A RUMOR like how many rumors I fell into when the digital age was just new. Who can remember the now disproven rumor that Lost Galaxy was supposedly more popular than Gingaman in Japan? That was disproven and more unrealistic rumors came out after that. The rumor is just a rumor though I still respect people who think Lost Galaxy is better than Gingaman - as long as they don't defend the rumor!
I think it was for the best NOT to give Janperson a human identity. Sure, we've got Robocop references left and right. We have Tatewaki as the show's Boddicker except he was toned down to avoid too much censorship. We have references to the Terminator units at the beginning. We have George Makabe becoming more or less McDaggett towards the series' end. Not giving Janperson a human identity (at all) felt something new. It's pretty much unlike how Metalder blended in as Ryusei Tsurugi (to hide his true form) or how Jiban used his former identity (Naoto) to blend in. Heck, how in the world does Jiban even eat human food after going through ALL THAT ROBOTIC OVERHAUL?
Just made me wonder why Shouhei Kusaka never showed up? Kusaka could've shown up as a guest villain or as a guest cop. I mean Kusaka was also a Robocop in his role as Jiban. I guess Toei probably wasn't able to secure him for a guest role. Would be funnier though if there was a rumor that was supposed to make Kusaka the former identity of Janperson. That would be redundant and hilarious at the same time.
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See you again!
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