Has anybody here even seen JAKQ? Or ULTRAMAN? I bought all of the R2s of JAKQ and the series isn't "dark", per se. In the first half of the series JAKQ has very little hero action -- they can't jump in the air and henshin (like other heroes of the time) -- they have to call in their airship or tank and go into those transformation chambers to henshin. So, they only suit up in the last couple of minutes of each show. If you're looking for typical Henshin Hero action of the period, JAKQ is not as exciting as GORANGER or BATTLE FEVER J. The emphasis is on the plot-of-the-week (like narcotics trafficking) or the human characters -- you don't even get to see much of the Crime Robots, either. So, non-Japanese speakers may be turned off by JAKQ.
Everything changes when Hiroshi Miyauchi shows up as Shokichi Banba and the show becomes more colorful and action-oriented (that's because the show was bombing up until that point -- kids were tuning out). But, I wouldn't say that the first-half of JAKQ was particularly "dark" either -- rather it was played as a straight-faced crime drama, except with robots, in place of the yakuza.
Meanwhile, on the contrary, ULTRAMAN, which was also played straight, had its moments of darkness and humor -- aspects that are a part of all Toku shows. In fact, I think that the original ULTRAMAN was far more straight-faced than series like ULTRAMAN MAX and ULTRAMAN MEBIUS. If I had to compare the two, I would say that ULTRAMAN is more action-oriented than JAKQ in the long run.
Your mileage may very.
