It's no surprise that Kidou Keiji Jiban is followed by Tokosou Janperson. Janperson is getting an official DVD release. Is it surprising that the second Robocop-inspired Tokusatsu is getting an official DVD release? I missed this and realized that man -- I'm getting old! Shout! Factory has been handling DVD releases. Meanwhile, this classic Janperson is what I'd call, "That BADLY-NEEDED release!"
What makes a Janperson DVD release exciting? Who can remember the Robocop (1994) TV series that came after it? I'd like to quote Shogo B'Stard's statement on the said series:
So, the whole humanity of Murphy being what interests me about the character, I read that the show delves deeper into that, so that basically decided for me. But...the show tries, but just doesn't quite go to the levels that I feel it should, and it doesn't try to say as much as that first movie. For example: an early episode has religious zealots protesting the police because they think RoboCop is an "unholy abomination." With references here and there to Murphy's Catholic background, both in the films and the series, I thought that would be an interesting look at the character, but the show just takes the idea and...has RoboCop sitting silently in a church for most of the episode, the writers not really saying anything. The episode also shoots itself in the foot by having the religious zealots represented by cartoonish parodies of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, which highlights the show's biggest problem -- the antagonists are ripped from a completely different show. Eden and the other cop actors are pretty good (especially Yvette Nipar as Robo's partner, Lisa Madigan, although she's severely underused), and they take things seriously, but pretty much every single antagonist thinks they're in the 1960s Batman series -- the worst being recurring villain "Pudface." Ugh. The villains are foolish and hardly threatening. Hard to believe characters like this are supposed to exist in the same world as Clarence Boddicker!
It's not like Janperson doesn't have those crazy villains. It's because Janperson has a younger target audience than its inspiration Robocop. Sure, Janperson has Robocop's visuals BUT he's fully mechanical. The show has some depressing moments thanks to the villains. One good example is the recurring villain Ryuzaburo Tatewaki. The guy's a Breakout Villain especially he's practically WHAT Boddicker could've been. Boddicker had a toned-down version in the 1988 Robocop cartoon series. It's a strange move considering that Robocop isn't a child's show. Tatewaki is the biggest crime boss in Japan while he contends against two more antagonistic groups -- Super Science Network and the Neo Guild.
The villains come up with some typical Bond Villain schemes. What's a superhero show without absurd plans and For the Evulz? Tatewaki's bio-cyborg alter ego Bill Goldy goes with "Bill Goldy for evil!". Bill Goldy is often called the Lord of Evil in the show. However, the other villains such as George Makebe of the Neo Guild and Reiko Ayanokouji of Super Science Network have tragic backstories. The two side villains create some drama every now and then.
Hopefully, the Rescue Police Trilogy will be next. It's because those three series namely Tokkei Winspector, Tokyuu Solbrain, and Tokosou Exceedraft have stories that Kyukyu Sentai GoGoFive wasn't able to really do. GoGoFive is a fun series but lacks the maturity factor of the Rescue Police Trilogy and Janperson.
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