Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

  After watching Kaiju No Kami's Janperson review , I noticed that the reviewer gave Janperson a 3/5 rating and a higher score for Jiban . Jiban was one show I grew up watching. However, I didn't really find my Jiban rewatch all too entertaining. I watched both Janperson (as a teenager) and Jiban (as a child). Rewatching Janperson doesn't appeal to my inner child either. Janperson is actually MORE VIOLENT than the Robocop TV series ! The Metal Hero franchise even created four shows that were actually MORE MATURE than one thinks -- even if they were AIMED AT CHILDREN ! Janperson started with an air of mystery. Just who is Janperson? The show opens with something that may no longer make it in today's Super Sentai  shows. Just think how Super Sentai, since 2001, began a Lighter and Softer direction. Not even Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters in 2012 could match the depressing vibes of Mirai Sentai Timeranger . I had a guilty pleasure of liking Timeranger that much for its depres...

What I didn't bother to write about (at first) was Discotek's release of other Toei-created media. I got too focused on Shout! Factory releases such as when Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger had its licensed release. Now, Shout! Factory Super Sentai DVD releases are currently with Tokosou Sentai Dekaranger . Kidou Keiji Jiban is getting its June 2024 release and turned 35 this year.  Sure, I didn't find myself a huge fan of this series. I may enjoy the theme song but I'm not a big fan of it. It can be attributed to my incredible favoritism for Tokosou Robo Janperson . Toei doesn't shy away from American pop culture references despite cultural differences. 1978 became the year when Toei dared to create its own Spider-Man with a Marvel license. However, Toei may have decided they were better off creating Japanese superheroes inspired by American superheroes than adapting them. IMHO, I still think Saban Entertainment adapted Spider-Man better than the strange concoction Toei cam...

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 ...

It's no secret that both Jiban and later Janperson were obviously inspired by Robocop. Jiban as a show had Space Sheriff Gavan references (and some of the themes were used such as the battle theme and the laser blade). It's also said that Gavan's design inspired Robocop too. I guess it comes full circle when Jiban makes references to both Gavan and Robocop. Later, Janperson would keep the Robocop spirit alive even when he has no human past (unlike Jiban and Robocop) to speak of. Aside from having the obvious handgun (and Janperson's design appeals to me more) -- both of them have some kind of blade. Jiban used his sword to destroy Bioron monsters. Janperson would seldom use the Jan Blader to defeat some android minions sent against him by Neo Guild. Janperson would even use his Jan Blader to finally give Bill Goldy a rather gory finish too!  Jiban had his dual cannon called the Daidaros. Janperson had a robotic assistant named Zic who would later become t...

Like it or not -- some 90s children may have remembered the late 80s show Jiban on its re-runs. Okay, I don't like IBC-13 for being such a douche with replaying shows all over again -- though I still cherish these shows in part. Now, there may be some stuff you never noticed in Jiban while growing up! I remembered how I never noticed Dr. Giba's actor was actually a white man voiced over by Shozo Iizuka. I never noticed the lips didn't really match either. I wonder why Toei decided to get a white man to act as Dr. Giba when they could still get a Japanese actor to do the job. Then maybe, another one you may have missed is this one... Yes, Scorpina (that's Lami in Zyuranger) herself was in Jiban as one of Dr. Giba's secretaries namely Karsha (the one in red). I guess back then children just cheered at Mighty Morphin' without thinking much. They may have never noticed that Rita Repulsa was a guest star in Maskman (as Baraba's mother) or Gavan (as Honey M...

JIBAN JIBAN! I remembered the cool theme song though I just feel like this is another low-tier show for me. Okay, it did come after the ninja-themed Toku called Jiraiya (who also guest-starred in Nininger) in the 90s then the next show to follow it was Winspector. Robocop was a popular R-18 film which had the story of a slain police officer revived into a cyborg law enforcer. The concept was carried into Jiban but only in that aspect. Other than that, Jiban seems to derive inspiration from other popular American movies about genetic engineering. I even have the Species vibes too. So what makes Jiban different from Robocop aside from him performing capital punishment on Bioron mutants for murders that the monsters commit PER EPISODE? It's the fact that the main character Naoto Tamura doesn't have a wife and son like Alex Murphy does in the Robocop continuity. He's a rookie cop who got killed in action by a Bioron monster. Naoto becomes Jiban when he needs to and wears his...

The popularity of the Robocop films ended up creating Japan's first Robocop-inspired hero in Jiban which would later be followed by the more Robocop-like series Janperson (except the hero was purely mechanical) and Signalman as a Robocop parody in Carranger. Considering that I'm not really a huge fan of Jiban compared to Janperson, it'd still be wrong not to give tribute to Jiban, the very first Robocop tribute by Toei! Jiban's story is more typical to Tokusatsu, in short it's a hybrid of Robocop and your average Toku hero. The story is where Naoto Tamura a rookie detective gets killed in an incident with the Bioron Syndicate. Dr. Igarashi revives Naoto Tamura who was supposedly killed into the heroic Robocop-type character known as Jiban. It was because the accident in Dr. Igarashi's laboratory ended up creating Dr. Giba and the Bionoids as a result. He wanted to clean the mess he made so he created Jiban to destroy that mess.

I do acknowledge that Robocop came first before Jiban and Janperson, one can still think of how Robocop's spirit was kept in both shows. I'd discuss about Jiban which came in 1989 and Janperson which came in 1994. First, let's discuss Mobile Cop Jiban. I remembered how IBC-13 called him as the "Japanese Robocop" which it was partially right. The story of Jiban had its hero Naoto Tamura a rookie cop who got killed by the Biorons. Naoto Tamura like Alex Murphy gets revived as a cyborg by Dr. Kenzo Igarashi known as Mobile Cop Jiban. Unlike Robocop, he could actually revert back to his original identity and only a few people know the truth that he's really the cyborg hero known as Jiban. Unlike Robocop, the sci-fi element was taken to a whole new level. Jiban only fought one organization known as the Biorons, which misused biotechnology for their selfish means. Its leader Dr. Giba was planning to take over Japan with his Bioron monsters. However there was ...