resident:alien
Member
Two off the top of my head:
Kamen Rider Black and Chojin Sentai Jetman. . .
Kamen Rider Black and Chojin Sentai Jetman. . .
Darkest Series in a Tokusatsu Show
- Thread starter RiderKing
- Start date
lazycoconut
I liked him when he wasn't a god
Jetman would be a good candidate for darkest Sentai series. I also agree with the person who said Nexus for Ultraman.
Wraithstrike
Resident Precureologist
Faiz, even if being a teen drama, is incredibly dark. Look at it this way: As Inui starts to regain his humanity, Kiba starts to lose his.
Garo is also pretty damn dark.
Garo is also pretty damn dark.
Igadevil
Mr. Kamen Rider
Inazuman/Inazuman Flash. Here's a good example of a show doing a total 180. It starts out as near over-the-top fantasy. Inazuman can seemingly do anything. He pals around with a super-duper kids' club and has comedy sidekicks. His car has a big grin on it. Banba is awesome, but even I can admit his scare factor only goes so far.
And check out this upbeat opening! I kid you not, it is actually one of my all-time favorites in terms of how it's put together. I love how Inazuman just drives up and kicks the guy while getting out of his car.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fh_kUhT5fU[/ame]
Pretty standard superhero fare, right? Then you get to episode 11, directed and co-written by Ishinomori, and to be honest, he completely changes the course of the show. Suddenly the kiddies are dropped, Inazuman becomes a bit more down-to-earth in his powers, and he suffers a very personal tragedy that affects him for the rest of the series.
In some ways, by becoming darker, the show becomes less interesting. Every episode is basically the same thing; Inazuman drives around and kicks ass (I didn't say it was a bad thing!) The monsters, which rule early on, become a parade of identical goons. And it's too bad because they look cool, but personality/motivation-wise, they're mostly the same. Also, for some reason, they decided to change the henchmen's outfits a bit, which kind of bummed me out. Because in the early episodes, they are awesome.
Flash brings back some of the wackiness with Inazuman's new weapon thingy which can do, well, anything the plot requires. There's one early episode where it teleports him right next to a guy who patiently waits like 5 seconds to get punched out, I think it's my favorite moment in the show. But otherwise, that show is even bleaker. Death and destruction run rampant. There is some pretty graphic gore, even for the 70's (when you base a monster on a guillotine, you better have gore!) The villains are about as loathsome as it gets. I mean I actually started to hate those guys, they're so evil. Udespar is a creep, Sadespar is... well, a sadist. Geisel had me backing away from the TV. And Flash is also one of the only Tokusatsu I've ever seen where
[HIDE]none of the regulars are humans. Everybody is a mutant, cyborg, robot, mutant robot, mutant cyborg, robot cyborg- whatever. But no actual regular old humans.
I don't know why, but that always struck me as a kind of dark idea. Everybody's an oddball in some way.[/HIDE]
Again, there's some problems with the plotting; it seems like every other episode has Inazuman tackling a female assassin with a heart of gold who dies tragically. On the other hand though, the continuing saga of Udespar is pretty funny: it reminds me a lot of the Cassisworm hijinks in Kabuto, except done out of order (he starts out as one guy, becomes two guys, then a third guy appears who has his voice yet isn't him, and the two guys combine and... oh, just watch the show.)
I actually have read that the original ending was much darker than what ultimately went out on TV, though I gotta say, it's still pretty bittersweet. It's a perfect example of my "characters have life only while the series is going" theory, because really, what the heck do they do after that last shot?
Besides go to Disney Land.
And check out this upbeat opening! I kid you not, it is actually one of my all-time favorites in terms of how it's put together. I love how Inazuman just drives up and kicks the guy while getting out of his car.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fh_kUhT5fU[/ame]
Pretty standard superhero fare, right? Then you get to episode 11, directed and co-written by Ishinomori, and to be honest, he completely changes the course of the show. Suddenly the kiddies are dropped, Inazuman becomes a bit more down-to-earth in his powers, and he suffers a very personal tragedy that affects him for the rest of the series.
In some ways, by becoming darker, the show becomes less interesting. Every episode is basically the same thing; Inazuman drives around and kicks ass (I didn't say it was a bad thing!) The monsters, which rule early on, become a parade of identical goons. And it's too bad because they look cool, but personality/motivation-wise, they're mostly the same. Also, for some reason, they decided to change the henchmen's outfits a bit, which kind of bummed me out. Because in the early episodes, they are awesome.
Flash brings back some of the wackiness with Inazuman's new weapon thingy which can do, well, anything the plot requires. There's one early episode where it teleports him right next to a guy who patiently waits like 5 seconds to get punched out, I think it's my favorite moment in the show. But otherwise, that show is even bleaker. Death and destruction run rampant. There is some pretty graphic gore, even for the 70's (when you base a monster on a guillotine, you better have gore!) The villains are about as loathsome as it gets. I mean I actually started to hate those guys, they're so evil. Udespar is a creep, Sadespar is... well, a sadist. Geisel had me backing away from the TV. And Flash is also one of the only Tokusatsu I've ever seen where
[HIDE]none of the regulars are humans. Everybody is a mutant, cyborg, robot, mutant robot, mutant cyborg, robot cyborg- whatever. But no actual regular old humans.
I don't know why, but that always struck me as a kind of dark idea. Everybody's an oddball in some way.[/HIDE]
Again, there's some problems with the plotting; it seems like every other episode has Inazuman tackling a female assassin with a heart of gold who dies tragically. On the other hand though, the continuing saga of Udespar is pretty funny: it reminds me a lot of the Cassisworm hijinks in Kabuto, except done out of order (he starts out as one guy, becomes two guys, then a third guy appears who has his voice yet isn't him, and the two guys combine and... oh, just watch the show.)
I actually have read that the original ending was much darker than what ultimately went out on TV, though I gotta say, it's still pretty bittersweet. It's a perfect example of my "characters have life only while the series is going" theory, because really, what the heck do they do after that last shot?
Besides go to Disney Land.
Last edited:
lazycoconut
I liked him when he wasn't a god
The ultimate outcome of Kiba's character was definitely :O_O:, teen drama or no teen drama.
Garo was marketed to an older audience than KR, so it's allowed to be dark ...
Jacky392000
Active Member
what he said. not to mention my fave Ultra series other than Ultraman Great.
as well as Chojin Sentai Jetman for Super Sentai.
as for Kamen Rider, other than Den-O, that's pretty much your answer.
Forever Knight
Eye See You
I might have to check them out now.
kyoot
Onigiri Rider
Aoi Kurenai
Mad Skillz
Because boobies make kiddies hot and bothered?
I'm gonna toss my hat in for Ultraman Nexus and Leo. Sorta wanna say Kamen Rider Stronger, but that had a lot of overtones of hope I think, as do most tokusatsu series, soooo... Sh15uya?
I'm gonna toss my hat in for Ultraman Nexus and Leo. Sorta wanna say Kamen Rider Stronger, but that had a lot of overtones of hope I think, as do most tokusatsu series, soooo... Sh15uya?
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