Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

It's time for another rush review, right? I was looking at the next few Janperson episodes before the arc which involves two brothers trying to end all robotkind. I decided to write this one. Yeah, it was the time when Toei decided to focus on Metal Hero before finally ending it. I still assume that the revival of Kamen Rider caused Toei to finally end Metal Hero while still making references to it. I've accepted there wouldn't be any Metal Hero series. I guess it's for the best - that's until Toei Ltd. may decide to either let Super Sentai go on hiatus or not. Personally, I still feel Super Sentai should've had a few years off. Then again, Metal Hero has no unifying theme unlike Super Sentai and Kamen Rider . Speaking of which... Episode 24  Kou Domon of Kamen Rider ZO fame (not Zi-O) guest stars here. ZO was a movie-only Kamen Rider in 1993. This episode is also written by Nobuo Ogizawa who's had a contribution in Metalder, Jiraiya , Jiban , and the Rescue...

Janperson doesn't shy away from the hodgepodge of ideas, right? I guess one can already dismiss Gavan as an inspiration for Robocop . One can say that the character of Jiban is not only based on Robocop but also on Robot Detective K. Janperson, though is closer to Robot Detective K, for being fully mechanical while sharing Robocop's designs in part. We had Marie Lazarus brought into the show as Kaoru Saeugusa. Well, except Marie never had a younger brother and Shuhei ends up as a recurring kid of the week after many kids of the week in some episodes. Now, it would also visit the idea from the cult-classic Metalder - a show that only for freaking 39 episodes (presumably due to how serious it was) and it's rather rushed. Yup, I still will always love to point how  Metalder was rushed and how JAKQ was rushed (only 35 episodes presumably due to lower ratings) to even as I point out that Disney Power Rangers seasons tend to rush things a lot.  Now, we're introduced to Gun Gi...

Normally, after one villain faction, another moves forward except in two-parters or an important plot arc. Such is not the case of this new post. Yes, Janperson managed to create two different Super Science Network episodes which one episode was quickly followed by ANOTHER Super Science Network episode. Now, it's time to think of these two episodes. Episode 19  This episode made me recall the news where a child shot someone and the Robocop cartoon was blamed. That was in the 1990s and the Philippines did air Janperson (on TV-5) on 1998. I was 13 years old at that time and used TV as a form of escapism. This episode seems to rip off from Batman (as we have Panther Lady) as a guest star. This plot also has a very violent flashback hwere a star detective accidentally shot a young teenage lady. Rikia Koyama guest stars as a rookie cop Takase working with star detective Sekimichi. Sekimichi was a guy who accidentally shot someone (the dub somehow added a relation as uncle and niece). Th...

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 sel...

Here are a couple of episodes before we reach the Janperson Origins arc. These contain some teasers of what's to come next. Meanwhile, there are some lighter episodes as well as darker episodes. I still think that Janperson managed to balance itself without becoming as Darker and Edgier as Metalder became. Yeah, Metalder only had 39 episodes and it got so rushed. Thankfully, not for Janperson which also had more than 26 episodes in contrast to Robot Detective K - which some people sya has stronger influence on the show than Robocop did.  Now for the next set of episodes to do a rundown... Episode 11 This is one episode where it says, "LEARN TO MOVE ON!" This episode has Misato hunting down one robot after the other. Misato wants to find the best AI chip to bring to life a robot DUPLICATE of her brother who died of disease. This also features guest characters named DennisTakegami and Johnny. Johnny is some assassin robot for the Takegami family. This is almost like taken f...

Not much is explored in Janperson yet during episodes 7-15. Instead, we simply get one teaser (and a Subverted Trope IMHO) and some standard operations. Oh yeah, prepare for some incredibly weird stuff while there are some rather depressing episodes too. That's all before we cover the Janperson identity arc. Episode 7 Enter Boddicker ahem Tatewaki with another scheme. TBH, I kinda wished we saw Tatewaki throw away one of his gang members in his first appearance... LITERALLY! Just imagine if we had Tatewaki stage a bank robbery, finding out the money was burned, and he throws away that member the same way Boddicker did with one of his gang members early on in the Robocop (1987) movie. In this episode, we get Professor Phenomenus ahem Shoichirou Akaboshi who guest stars as the villain of the week. Like Boddicker ,we know Tatewaki is an insane man after power. I simply love how Shoichirou as Mr. Bald Guy With A Mustache and even dared to compare him to the late Jack Banning. Yes, Jack...

The format of the Rescue Police Trilogy hardly had a main villain. Winspector never gave us a main villain. Instead, the villain from the very first episode had Susume Kurobe (the first Ultraman) appear as a demented scientist and was the final villain of the show. Later, Solbrain still had no central villain but we had the overarching villain Takaoka acted by Masanori Jisen. Exceedraft gave a big stretch that after several episodes of no central villain - Satan himself in the form of Iwao Daimon becomes the overarching antagonist. Janperson put a very different approach as there's the Evil vs. Evil group - all bidding for the control of Japan and then the world.  Episode 5 The first villain after Tatewaki to be introduced is George Makabe. Both George and Ben have the same father but different mothers. What happened to Makebe's mother anyway? We have legendary actor Kazuoki Takahashi. Back then, I called him "Robin Padilla" who is currently a senator in the Philippin...